City of Seattle, Washington

Recovery Plan Performance 

Report

State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds

Annual Report covering Award Date – July 31, 2021

Submitted on August 31, 2021
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Contents

Letter from Mayor Durkan .................................................................................................................2

Executive Summary............................................................................................................................3

Uses of Funds.....................................................................................................................................4

The CLFR Theory of Change ......................................................................................................................5

Investment areas and core strategies.......................................................................................................5

Goals and Outcomes...............................................................................................................................10

Alignment with County and State Investments and Initiatives ..............................................................11

Promoting Equitable Outcomes........................................................................................................12

Defining the Harms Caused by COVID-19...............................................................................................13

Awareness...............................................................................................................................................14

Access and Distribution...........................................................................................................................14

Outcomes................................................................................................................................................15

Seattle’s Commitment to Race and Social Justice ..................................................................................16

Strategies to Prioritize Economic and Racial Equity ...............................................................................16

Community Engagement..................................................................................................................18

Labor Practices ................................................................................................................................23

Use of Evidence ...............................................................................................................................24

Evidence-Based Strategies......................................................................................................................24

Seattle CLFR Performance Management Framework.............................................................................25

Ongoing Evaluation and Course Correction............................................................................................27

Additional Evaluation Strategies.............................................................................................................28

Table of Expenses by Expenditure Category ......................................................................................29

Project Inventory .............................................................................................................................31

Performance Report ...............................................................................................................................31

Required Performance Indicators and Programmatic Data ...................................................................31

Looking Forward ..............................................................................................................................32

Appendix A: Project Inventory..........................................................................................................33

Appendix B: Performance Report .....................................................................................................34
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Letter from Mayor Durkan

August 31, 2021

To Secretary Yellen,

Although Seattle was the epicenter of COVID-19, we have led in response to the pandemic with the 

lowest cases, hospitalizations, and deaths of every major city. With the support of the Biden 

Administration, we have one of the highest vaccination rates in the country, which is key to our 

economic recovery. To deliver on the unmet needs of our community, the City of Seattle strongly 

advocated and supported the American Rescue Plan proposed by President Biden.

Our plan described in this document is a roadmap for an equitable and just recovery from the greatest 

challenge Seattle has faced in my lifetime. Seattle is committed to creating real and measurable 

outcomes from the Coronavirus Local Fiscal Recovery funds, particularly for families who have been left 

behind. 

The Coronavirus Local Fiscal Recovery (CLFR) funds in our key investment areas of housing and 

homelessness, community and small business recovery, well-being for residents, and reopening City 

programs and services will allow Seattle to build back better. This infusion of Federal resources will 

enable Seattle to not only address urgent short-term needs, but will also set us up to create long-term 

impact for residents and small businesses. 

Seattle is using CLFR funds to address our most pressing needs through new, innovative programs. 

Utilizing both CLFR and HUD funding, we are investing $29 million in the acquisition of approximately 

300 housing units in 2021 and 2022 to address our homelessness crisis, which has been magnified by the 

pandemic. As we advance economic opportunity, we will expand our pipeline to higher education 

through our proven and successful Seattle Promise program, which offers free college to all Seattle 

Public School graduates. We created a new grant program to directly support every business district and 

neighborhood get back on their feet in addition to continuing to the first in the nation COVID-19 Small 

Business Stabilization grant program. And we are immediately deploying $3 million into the hands of 

childcare workers as they allow our residents – particularly mothers – to participate in Seattle’s 

economic and social recovery. 

Accountability to our residents is paramount, and this report reflects the City’s commitment to a culture 

of evaluation. I am proud of the steps the City of Seattle is taking to ensure equitable and effective 

evaluation and accountability of CLFR funds and believe it will have a meaningful impact on our 

community as we recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sincerely,

Mayor Jenny Durkan
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Executive Summary

COVID-19 caused widespread economic, social, health-related loss, and deepened existing disparities. In 

Seattle, our most vulnerable communities – those with higher social and economic risk – had higher per

capita cases of COVID-19, higher rates of hospitalization, and more deaths than Census tracts with lower 

social and economic risk. Black communities had the highest proportion of job losses and 

unemployment claims during the pandemic. An increase in hate crimes and bias aimed towards the 

Asian American and Pacific Islander community has threatened the community’s safety and wellbeing. 

Our Latinx communities have the highest rates of food insecurity, while our Native Hawaiian and Pacific 

Islander communities have the worst health outcomes in terms of cases, hospitalizations, and deaths

per capita. 

The Coronavirus Local Fiscal Recovery (CLFR) funding presents a once-in-a-generation opportunity for 

the City of Seattle to respond to the disparities caused by the COVID-19 pandemic across different 

demographic groups and improve the lives of Seattle residents. We intend to recover from the social, 

public health, and economic impacts of COVID-19 and emerge from this pandemic a more just and 

equitable city. 

Seattle has developed a bold vision for how these CLFR resources can help our city not only recover, but 

transform to become a more just and equitable city. We have developed a five-pronged plan that 

centers on equitable recovery, prioritizing resources for those communities who were hardest-hit by this 

pandemic.

We are investing in building housing infrastructure and protecting the health and safety of those in our 

homeless shelters by investing in strategies to both prevent homelessness and move people into 

housing. We are connecting communities to job training and employment programs and providing for 

their basic needs so they can stabilize and recover. We are investing in small businesses and activating 

public spaces with arts and community events. Finally, we are restoring City services that had been shut 

down by COVID, including bringing back library hours.

To ensure greater transparency and public accountability, we have developed a performance 

management framework that centers on continuous improvement and builds in strategies for more 

systemic and scientific program evaluation. This framework looks at both individual program-level data 

and system-wide performance over the course of the funding cycle. Our approach leverages both 

quantitative administrative data and qualitative data to bring in resident voice and more fully tell the 

story of these investments.

Clear and concrete program targets will help give program managers across the city the tools and data 

to recommend program improvements in real-time, as well as the key information for policy and 

decision makers to improve policy and strategize for funding opportunities in the future. 
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Uses of Funds

The negative impacts of COVID-19 were widespread in Seattle and across the world. However, the 

COVID-19 harms were not equally distributed across all populations. Here in King County, the COVID-19 

pandemic deepened and highlighted existing disparities. As Figure 1 below illustrates, our most 

vulnerable communities – those with higher social and economic risk – had higher per capita cases of 

COVID-19, higher rates of hospitalization, and more deaths per capita than Census tracts with lower 

social and economic risk. Furthermore, those areas with lower risk (and fewer positive cases) actually 

had more tests on average, demonstrating the unequal distribution of resources and access of supports 

to combat COVID-19.

Figure 1. A snapshot of Public Health – Seattle & King County’s Social and Economic Risk Index (SERI) 

dashboard

Social and economic challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, including unemployment and wage 

losses, increases in homelessness, and food insecurity, were also disproportionately felt by communities 

with higher social and economic risk as well as Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) 

communities across Seattle. For these communities, the impacts have been devastating and recovery 

has been too slow.

The Coronavirus Local Fiscal Recovery (CLFR) funding presents a once-in-a-generation opportunity for 

the City of Seattle to respond to the disparities caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and improve the lives 

of Seattle residents. We intend to recover from the social, public health, and economic impacts of 

COVID-19 and emerge from this pandemic a more just and equitable city. Our Theory of Change 

provides an overall framework of how and why change will occur because of these investments across 

the city.
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The CLFR Theory of Change

If we...

Prioritize community input and align with the County and State to address both the short 

and long-term health, economic, and social impacts of COVID-19

By...

Providing services and funding in partnership with culturally relevant organizations to

directly support the individuals, businesses, and communities most impacted by COVID-19

Then...

Seattle can be transformed, and we will become a more just and equitable city

Investment areas and core strategies

The City of Seattle and Seattle City Council engaged in community outreach to inform and guide the 

investment areas for the CLFR resources. The spending priorities are guided by the principles of equity

(prioritizing investments for those most impacted by COVID); coordination (ensuring that investments 

are coordinated with other entities to address gaps in service provision); flexibility (being nimble and 

prepared to respond as needed); and resilience (guarding against future uncertainty and positioning the

City to make new investments). The final CLFR plan invests in five areas across government services: 

1. Housing & Homelessness: The pandemic intensified Seattle's preexisting housing affordability 

and homelessness crisis, but recovery and CLFR funding is our chance to turn the corner. The 

CLFR Plan will focus on two elements of homelessness. First, providing enhanced, 24/7 shelter 

with a higher level of services to ensure that individuals are prepared to move out of 

homelessness. Second, providing new programs to transition individuals out of emergency 

shelter such as extended rapid rehousing, diversion funding, and especially permanent 

affordable housing. 

2. Community & Small Business Recovery: Our communities know best what they need to recover 

and the CLFR Plan will give them that support. We are providing help for small businesses, 

investments in job training, and targeted grants.

3. Community Wellbeing: The CLFR plan will directly provide support services to those hit hardest 

by the pandemic. This includes increasing digital equity, increasing college supports and 

expanding access to summer school, providing food access and diapers to families, and offering 

mental health services. 

4. Community Assistance & Programming: Childcare is essential to reopening. Childcare workers, 

predominantly women, were hit hard during the pandemic and many childcare centers

remained open in the face of uncertainty and declining enrollment. Seattle is investing in our 

children’s future by creating more childcare facilities and providing premium pay to our 

essential childcare workers. Additionally, we are investing in improving our physical spaces by 
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making Stay Healthy Streets permanent, enhancing services at parks and facilities, and 

continuing the availability of free outdoor dining and retail permits for another year.

5. Supporting City Services & Workers: As Seattle reopens, the CLFR Plan will help restart paused 

city programs so that everyone can go out enjoy all our great City has to offer – from art 

activations and childcare services to public pools and epic events.

These investment areas are cross-cutting and will be disbursed by nearly every single department across 

the city. Within investment areas, there are three core strategies for funding that unite these 

investment areas: 1) Meeting Individual Needs, 2) Enhancing Public Space, and 3) Building Back 

Businesses. Each core strategy, described below, contributes to the overarching goal of the Seattle CLFR 

Investments is to “Provide services and funding in partnership with culturally relevant organizations to 

advance economic mobility for all residents and close racial gaps.”

Meeting Individual Needs

Directing funds to individuals to help them best meet their unique 

needs. This can include premium pay, food supports, diapers all the way 

to housing supports and job training and placement services. These 

strategies center the individual.

Enhancing Public Space

Investing in neighborhoods and communities that have historically been 

the lowest priorities for government investment through public space 

activation, street enhancements, beautification, and public events. We 

know that these communities have rich relationships despite 

generations of inequitable government funding and investment. In this 

strategy, we are not building community, we are investing in the 

communities that have existed for generations.

Building Back Business

Supporting small businesses as they reopen will help them return 

stronger than ever, this includes technical assistance, direct support, and 

waiving city-required licensing fees.
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Table 1. CLFR Expenditure Categories 

Expenditure 

Category (EC) Sub-Total Summary of Programs

EC 1: Public Health $8,050,000 Seattle will be enhancing many public facilities to align with public 

health recommendations including enhanced cleaning, improved air 

filtration, and space reconfiguration. This funding will also support 

rent abatement and deferral to support City tenants. 

EC 2: Negative 

Economic Impacts

$27,515,000 Using CLFR resources, Seattle will

▪ Stabilize and assist small businesses with getting back on their 

feet

▪ Restore library hours to pre-pandemic levels

▪ Host community activations at Seattle Center to engage 

community members, as well as provide opportunities for 

artists to publicly perform

▪ Provide job training opportunities 

EC 3: Services to 

Disproportionately 

Impacted 

Communities

$50,575,000 Seattle is investing in long-term resources to support individuals and 

families and help them stabilize after the devastating impacts of 

COVID-19. These investments include:

▪ Housing supports: The acquisition of multifamily housing units 

to provide stable housing for low-income families; 

investments to provide enhanced, 24/7 shelter with a higher 

level of services to ensure that individuals are prepared to 

move out of homelessness; and new programs to transition 

individuals out of emergency shelter such as extended rapid 

rehousing, diversion funding, and especially permanent 

affordable housing.

▪ Health supports: Enhancing our outdoor spaces, particularly in 

neighborhoods with high rates of COVID-19, to ensure that 

people can exercise and experience nature in ways that are 

aligned with public health recommendations. 

▪ Education supports: Providing education for children from 

cradle to career to mitigate the learning loss experienced 

during COVID-19 through childcare stipends, enhanced 

childcare facilities, and college supports and access.

EC 4: Premium Pay $3,000,000 In recognition of the immense work and dedication to Seattle’s 

children, as well as supporting a group of workers who experienced 

significant job loss and uncertainty during the pandemic, Seattle will 

be providing additional premium pay to childcare workers across the 

city.

EC 5: Water, sewer, 

and broadband 

Infrastructure

$0 Seattle does not have any water, sewer, and broadband infrastructure 

investments in the CLFR package.
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Expenditure 

Category (EC) Sub-Total Summary of Programs

EC 6: Revenue 

Replacement

$25,900,000 Seattle will be using $25 million in revenue replacement to provide a 

new round of cash assistance through the Seattle Disaster Relief Fund. 

The intended recipients of the new round of cash assistance are lowincome families of Seattle, with an emphasis on communities 

disproportionately impacted by COVID-19, including immigrant and 

refugee families and by Black, Latinx, Indigenous, and other 

communities of color, and workers in the creative industry.

EC 7. Administrative $500,000 Seattle will conduct impact analysis and evaluation of the City's 

recovery investments, optimization of existing City affordability 

investments, and implementation of a unified application tool for 

those investments.
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Figure 2. Seattle CLFR Theory of Change
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Goals and Outcomes

The theory of change identifies one goal to unite the many investments through the CLFR funds. Each 

investment area also has specific goals and outcomes for individual-level, program-level, and systemlevel impacts, to more specifically understand how individuals’ lives and the community as a whole are 

changing as a result of these funds. 

Table 2. CLFR Goals and Outcomes

Investment Area Goal Outcomes

Housing & 

Homelessness

People have access to 

safe and stable housing

and increase available 

emergency housing

resources

▪ Building or acquiring affordable housing units

▪ People have access to emergency housing

▪ People transition into permanent housing

▪ People maintain permanent housing

Community & 

Small Business 

Recovery

People and businesses 

can access assistance to 

economically recover 

from the impacts of 

COVID-19 

▪ People enrolled in sectoral job training programs

▪ People graduate from sectoral job training 

programs

▪ Businesses see an increase in foot traffic and 

sales

▪ People see an increase in income

Community 

Well-Being

Communities with 

historic barriers to 

capital, digital services, 

and basic needs can 

access these resources

▪ Increase childcare opportunities in communities 

with historical barriers to capital

▪ Meet basic needs such as food and diaper access

▪ Increase digital equity

▪ Restore government services to pre-pandemic 

levels

▪ Students can access financial supports to help 

them graduate on time

Community 

Assistance & 

Programming

People make use of 

enhanced outdoor 

infrastructure and public 

spaces

▪ People can safely access parks, wading pools, 

and other City resources

▪ Communities reengage in public spaces through 

attendance at events and spending time outside

▪ Families access childcare

▪ Live events return

Reopening City 

Programs & 

Services

The City of Seattle is 

equipped to reopen 

equitably and ensure 

staff have resources and 

supports to engage in 

the new remote work 

opportunities

▪ Government programs are restored to prepandemic levels

▪ City staff are supported in their return to work
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Alignment with County and State Investments and Initiatives

Aligning with our government partners is a key strategy for the City of Seattle’s approach to CLFR

investments. As articulated in the Seattle City Council Resolution 31999 in March 2021,

The City will coordinate its efforts with county, regional, state, community, and institutional 

partners, and leverage shared resources to ensure that the City’s response is addressing gaps in 

service provision. The City shall continue to expand its financial partnership with King County to 

support County programs and services that primarily benefit households, workers, nonprofit 

organizations, and small businesses in Seattle. Further, the City should maximize all available 

strategies to finance the response (including grants and reimbursable expenditures) to scale the 

City’s response commensurate to the magnitude of the impacts of the pandemic.

This vision for coordination has already taken several tangible forms. City staff are in regular 

communication with King County’s CLFR Manager and are exploring opportunities for collaboration. 

Seattle’s Office of Housing is working with King County to align access and enrollment for rental 

assistance, making it easier for tenants to apply for assistance. The Office of Housing is also matching

State funding for Rapid Acquisition Loans that quickly create new low-income rental housing, as 

demonstrated in the Office of Housing Notice of Funding Availability for Rapid Acquisition Loans:

Project sponsors are encouraged to propose financing plans that leverage City of Seattle resources 

with funding from other sources, potentially including funds availed under the Washington State 

Department of Commerce’s State Rapid Housing Acquisition Program and the traditional State 

Housing Trust Fund. (Page 4)

Other examples include coordination with State, County, and Enterprise Community partners for 

childcare facility funding and coordination with King County’s Health Through Housing program and King 

County Regional Homelessness Authority for homelessness investments in housing solutions such as 

emergency housing and rapid rehousing, as well as shelter with pathways to permanency.
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Promoting Equitable Outcomes

Like other communities, Seattle has long-standing and historic economic, social, and health-related 

inequities and the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated these inequities. The City has an essential duty to 

use its resources and leadership to provide all residents with equitable services that address and 

respond to the harms caused by COVID-19. Seattle’s CLFR investments prioritize services and supports 

to the most impacted populations.

As stated in the theory of change, the overall goal for Seattle’s CLFR programming is to “Direct services 

and funding in partnership with culturally relevant organizations to address the harms caused by COVID19 and support the most impacted communities”.

This is the North Star that all programs will be evaluated against. Seattle is committed to looking at our 

progress towards mitigating the harms caused by COVID-19 by examining demographic, geographic, and 

other data disaggregation. We will be doing this evaluation for each individual program as well as by 

investment levels. In Seattle, we identified which communities were most impacted by COVID-19 to 

inform how funding will be distributed. As a result, many of our programs explicitly prioritize these 

communities for outreach, resources, and targeted supports. For example, we know that “people of 

color disproportionately make up the essential workforce, and are thus less likely to work from home. 

The lack of childcare availability across the King County region is likely creating an extra burden on 

communities of color.”1 As a result, the Seattle Childcare Facilities program will fund the expansion and 

development of childcare that is located in a Qualified Census Tract (as defined by the Federal 

Government).

To evaluate our progress towards our goals, Seattle will use all available spatial, demographic, and 

economic data to monitor program progress and inform investments and outreach. An example of such 

a data source is the Public Health – Seattle & King County (PHSKC) Social and Economic Risk Index (SERI), 

which identifies communities that may be placed at greater risk of COVID-19 due to social and economic 

factors in King County.2 The SERI score combines the following six factors comprising variables from the 

2015-2019 American Community Survey:

1. Race/ethnicity, language, and place of birth:

a. Percent of population who are people of color;

b. Percent of limited English-speaking households; and

c. Percent of population born outside the US;

2. Median number of occupants per household;

3. Percent of adults in essential healthcare-related occupations;

4. Percent of adults in essential non-healthcare occupations;

5. Percent of adults age 25+ with less than a college degree;

6. Percent of households with income less than 200% of federal poverty limit.

1

Seattle Foundation, Overview of COVID-19 Impacts on BIPOC Communities in King County, July 2020, link.

2 Public Health – Seattle & King County Social and Economic Risk Index (SERI): 

https://kingcounty.gov/depts/health/covid-19/data/inequities.aspx
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Defining the Harms Caused by COVID-19

To evaluate progress towards addressing the harms caused by COVID-19, Seattle underwent a 

comprehensive review of the negative impacts stemming from the pandemic. All too often BIPOC, lowincome, and other underserved communities experienced the greatest loss during the pandemic. The 

CLFR investments seek to explicitly address the harms caused by COVID-19 and as a result often 

prioritize or investments in these communities.

Economic Impact

In the King County region, people of color were more likely to be near poverty and unemployed before 

the pandemic; COVID-19 exacerbated that. Throughout the pandemic, most unemployment claims in 

King County were filed by people of color, with Black workers highly overrepresented. Early 

unemployment claims saw all minority groups file for unemployment at higher rates than white 

workers. According to a Seattle Foundation report from July 2020, “BIPOC communities have been 

particularly impacted by the COVID-19 economic crisis for three primary reasons (1) overrepresentation 

in vulnerable jobs, (2) inequitable hiring and firing practices, and (3) barriers to receiving small business 

aid.”3 Pandemic-related job losses were concentrated in lower income brackets. Although higher income 

brackets saw a quick and nearly complete recovery, many lower income jobs still have not returned a 

year later.

As of June 2021, the number of small businesses open in the Seattle metropolitan area was 38% lower 

than in January 2020, just prior to the initial economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Small 

business revenue was down 35%. In the same period, Washington State lost 27% of its low wage (<$27k) 

jobs, which typically concentrate in those industries dominated by small businesses, such as brick and 

mortar retail, food and drinking establishments, and the performing arts. Though all three of these 

measures – number of small businesses open, revenue, and low-wage jobs – have improved from their 

low points in April 2020, all have plateaued since mid- to -late 2020, suggesting the need for 

intervention.

The geographic impacts have been uneven. Opportunity Insights found that the highest revenue loss 

took place in affluent neighborhoods because of reduced spending by high-income earners, which led to 

higher jobs loss among low wage workers.4 On the other hand, relief to businesses in communities of 

color has come more slowly and been less accessible. The Brookings Institute found that “On average, it 

took 31 days for small businesses with paid employees in majority-Black ZIP codes to receive PPP loans –

seven days longer than those in majority-white communities”.

5

Housing Impact

The affordable housing crisis, homelessness emergency, and the COVID-19 pandemic and related 

economic and unemployment emergencies are deeply impacting the lives of people throughout Seattle 

and the region and disproportionately harming Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and other communities of 

color, immigrants, the LGBTQIA community, disabled community members, and women, who already 

struggle against entrenched inequality.

3

Seattle Foundation, Overview of COVID-19 Impacts on BIPOC Communities in King County, July 2020, link. 

4 Opportunity Insights, The Economic Impacts of COVID-19: Evidence from a New Public Database Built Using 

Private Sector Data, November 2020, link.

5 Brookings, New data shows small businesses in communities of color had unequal access to federal COVID-19 

relief, September 2020, link.
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The number of people in shelters, encampments, and hotels has grown due to investments in these 

interventions during the pandemic, but there is a need to provide permanent affordable housing into 

which these individuals can move to address the homelessness problem.

Educational Achievement

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, many services, workplaces, and schools were forced to shift to 

online learning. This transition created significant learning loss, particularly for low-income students 

who were unable to consistently access education online. Although we have been unable to quantify 

learning loss experienced from at home learning, early reports indicate that students have experienced 

a “summer slide” similar to the learning experienced during out-of-school time such as summer

vacation. This learning loss impacts all students but students of color are likely to experience greater 

learning loss compared to their peers.

6

Digital Access

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, many services, workplaces, and schools were forced to shift 

online, with stark consequences for Black, Latinx, and low-income households, who have 

disproportionately less access to the internet at home. Having internet service at home is essential so 

that people can work remotely, engage their children in distance learning, connect with health care 

services, and access government services, including financial assistance and other resources. 

Awareness

To ensure that people across the city are aware of CLFR programs, Seattle departments will be 

implementing different strategies. For many of the direct assistance grants, Seattle will contract with 

community-based organizations to do outreach to their communities and to assist with any necessary 

application processes. Some departments are planning resourced and comprehensive media campaigns

in multiple languages to increase awareness about available resources and encourage uptake. These 

campaigns will reach both mainstream and ethnic media. Additionally, departments will activate their 

networks to share information on upcoming opportunities and distribute outreach materials. Seattle’s 

recent efforts related to the 2020 Census and equitable distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine 

demonstrate our ability to conduct culturally relevant outreach in close coordination with trusted 

community messengers to meet desired results.

When we are providing opportunities to contract with the City, Seattle will prioritize working with small, 

community- and neighborhood-based organizations. These organizations have deep ties to the 

communities they serve and can often reach people faster and ensure they can have their needs met in 

a timely manner. These investments will also help increase the capacity of our partner organizations and 

strengthen their ability to serve communities in the long run. Seattle is committed to making funding 

applications as streamlined and as simple as possible so that small organizations have equitable 

opportunities to access funds.

Access and Distribution

The City of Seattle is intentionally reducing barriers to access in applications for funding both for 

organizations seeking grant funding and for individuals who are accessing direct assistance. Previous 

applications for cash assistance have been developed in consultation with community members to be as 

low-barrier as possible, and lessons learned from previous campaigns will inform outreach and 

6 UNC Charlotte Urban Institute, COVID-19 Closes Schools and Brings on Its own “Summer Slide”, April 2020, link.
15

application strategies. Additionally, when possible, departments and community-based organizations 

will reach out to past applicants and recipients to let them know that new funding or resources are 

available.

In the short-term to ensure that individuals are aware of and can access programs across the CLFR 

investments, Seattle will develop an eligibility crosswalk and an easy-to-understand summary of 

programs. These resources will be made publicly available and shared with partner organizations. This 

will allow case managers, community-based organizations, and individuals to easily determine which 

programs they may be eligible for and provide information on how to get connected. 

Although this is a positive step in increasing transparency and reducing barriers to access, Seattle 

intends to go further. Seattle is currently piloting a universal application tool for City-funded 

affordability programs, called CiviForm. CiviForm reduces barriers residents face when applying for city 

programs online by requiring residents to enter their information just once, enabling them to apply to 

multiple programs across multiple city departments without re-entering their data. 

Our staff is in the process of comparing eligibility requirements across programs and streamlining where 

possible to reduce artificial barriers to access. This coordination will expand beyond CLFR-funded 

programs and ensure that Seattleites are aware of all available programs to build the suite of supports 

that best meet their specific needs. These materials will be available in multiple languages. Seattle’s goal 

with CiviForm is to create the most customer-centric government services application in the nation.

Outcomes

Although many of the CLFR investment goals strive to achieve population-level outcomes (i.e., advancing 

economic mobility for all residents), the City of Seattle is committed to disaggregating the data we 

collect. This will help us better understand who is being served, how well, and with what results.

When outcomes are presented merely in aggregate, race-based inequities are hidden and enabled to 

persist. We will disaggregate data by age, race, ethnicity, languages spoken, socioeconomic status, 

income, and geography to the extent possible to promote equity in our investments. This information 

will be standardized to ensure that we are not only looking at how individual programs are contributing 

to responding to the impact of COVID019, but that we can also evaluate if and to what extent the entire 

CLFR-funded programming increases equity and economic mobility in Seattle. The CiviForm pilot 

referenced above is helping the City improve how we gather and disaggregate data at program 

enrollment.

For those programs that do not serve individual people or businesses (e.g., community programming, 

infrastructure, or restoration of government programs), Seattle will map out investments by Census 

tract to calculate what neighborhoods are receiving the majority of funding. In instances where we are 

not address the needs of neighborhood most impacted by COVID-19, we will use this information to 

reevaluate our strategies.

Ensuring equitable access to resources is a key priority for the City of Seattle. We will be monitoring the 

number and demographics of applicants and compare those to our best estimates of eligible 

populations. One program evaluation metric will be how successfully the program, department, or 

community-based organization is able to connect eligible people to these resources. Additionally, we 

will be mapping the distribution of funding to ensure that the places that receive the highest levels of 

funding are aligned with the areas hardest hit by COVID-19.
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Seattle’s Commitment to Race and Social Justice

The City of Seattle launched the Race and Social Justice Initiative (RSJI) in 2004 to eliminate racial 

disparities and achieve racial equity in Seattle. The goals and strategies of RSJI are to:

1. End racial and social disparities internal to the City by improving workforce equity, increasing 

City employees’ RJSI knowledge and tools, and increasing contracting equity; 

2. Strengthen the way the City engages its community and provides services by improving existing 

services using RSJI best practices and enhancing immigrants’ and refugees’ access to City 

services; and,

3. Eliminate race-based disparities in our communities.

CLFR investments demonstrate alignment to the RSJI through commitment to directing resources to 

those who were most impacted by COVID-19 and directing funding to those communities, including

BIPOC and low-income communities in Seattle. Each of our programs will be evaluated with a race and 

social justice lens and we will monitor program enrollment and outreach to ensure that these 

investments are serving our intended populations and resulting in improved outcomes for these 

communities. 

Strategies to Prioritize Economic and Racial Equity 

Building on the commitment to RSJI, the CLFR investments prioritize equity. As described earlier, the

investments seek to explicitly address the harms caused by COVID-19 – as a result, services will be 

distributed to underserved communities. To ensure that this priority is actively measured and 

monitored, CLFR programs identify specific targets intended to produce meaningful equity results at 

scale. For example, investments aiming to stabilize small businesses will have an intentional focus on 

reaching businesses who are more likely to hire people who experienced unemployment during the 

COVID-19 pandemic.

7 CLFR programs articulate actionable strategies to achieve those targets – in the 

previous example, investing in culturally relevant outreach and translation services – and active contract 

management enables adjustments to be made to achieve targets. The following examples in two 

Expenditure Categories illustrate how the commitment to equity has translated into CLFR programs.

Negative Economic Impacts (EC2)

Seattle’s investment in food assistance aims to both address the food insecurity faced by BIPOC and 

other community members as a result of COVID-19 and provide safe employment opportunities. This 

investment provides funding to restaurants that are community-oriented in neighborhoods that 

experienced significant negative impacts during the pandemic. This program supports them in providing 

meals to in need community members. The program will create equitable outcomes by increasing 

supports for 1) individuals facing food insecurity, which disproportionately impacts BIPOC communities; 

2) supporting local small businesses in neighborhoods with higher rates of COVID-19 and farmers that 

provide culturally appropriate food and have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic, and 3) 

workers by providing consistent employment opportunities in these neighborhoods. 

To support people with barriers to employment who faced negative economic impacts from the 

pandemic, the City of Seattle is making a strategic investment in partnership with the Port of Seattle to 

provide employment opportunities for youth who are most underserved in our region between the ages 

of 16-24 years old. The CLFR investment will help to increase capacity to support youth in paid, shortterm internships in Port-related industries with appropriate COVID-19 safety measures in place. 

7 Brookings, To expand the economy, invest in Black businesses, December 2020, link.
17

These employment opportunities must be part of a career trajectory and achieve substantial completion 

and/or progress via the training provided.

Services to Disproportionately Impacted Communities (EC 3)

CLFR-funded programming provides additional support to increase educational equity in the Seattle 

Promise program model through targeted investments and key enhancements in the post-secondary 

transition experience for Promise scholars. These investments build on existing Promise program 

elements to further promote academic preparedness, improve post-secondary persistence, and expand 

pathways to completion. The CLFR funding creates a more robust academic bridge component to the 

program to deliver individualized student supports to enable a more seamless transition from high 

school to college. In addition, Promise scholars will have access to more personalized pathways to 4-

year institutions through the CLFR-funded partnerships with University of Washington and the 

Washington State Opportunity Scholarship. 

Seattle’s five-pronged plan for an equitable recovery starts with housing and homelessness. The City’s

investment in affordable housing will support approximately 400 new units disproportionately 

benefitting people of color and people from historically disadvantaged communities. In addition, 

property may be acquired by historically underrepresented communities harmed by racially 

discriminatory policies such as redlining. As an example of an actionable strategy to ensure alignment 

with the commitment to economic and racial equity, the City will continue to prioritize our work with 

BIPOC housing operators and community representatives, as well as people well-versed in services to 

those disproportionately affected by inadequate housing.

Efforts to Date

To date, Seattle has not expended any of the CLFR funding. Future reports will include detailed 

information on equity-related outcomes and the geographic distribution of funding.
18

Community Engagement

The Seattle CLFR investments were informed by direct engagement with residents conducted by City 

Departments and the Mayor’s Office (MO) External team, as well as through more public-facing 

channels such as the City Council Public Hearing on May 4, 2021, and public comment committee 

meetings in April and May. Direct, targeted engagement included listening sessions, which were 

conducted in Spring 2021 with constituents, advocacy and public interest groups, community-based 

organizations, and community leaders/trusted messengers. These included but were not limited to 

discussions with: 

▪ Small businesses and neighborhood business districts, supported by the Office of Economic 

Development (OED)

▪ Service providers for those experiencing gender-based violence and survivors of gender-based 

violence, supported by the Human Services Department (HSD)

▪ Workforce-driven organizations and leadership, such as the Workforce Development Council of 

Seattle-King County (WCD)

▪ Youth, young adults, and youth behavioral agencies, supported by HSD

The following themes arose from the listening sessions and helped inform the CLFR investment plan.

1. Prioritize funding to most negatively impacted communities, organizations, and small businesses

▪ Support repair and recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, understanding the most 

disparities have occurred within our Latinx, BIPOC, and immigrant and refugee communities.

▪ Invest in the advancement of BIPOC workforce and communities to continue and expand 

their ability to provide critical needs to the people they serve – through funding, technical 

assistance, and training.

2. Leverage systems thinking and coordination to address systemic barriers

▪ There is an opportunity to address systemic inequities by strengthening multi-agency 

coordinated efforts, taking advantage of already existing data or resources across local,

regional, and state programs.

▪ Consider the existing systems and conditions that allow for inequity and work to address 

them by understanding and investigating who has benefited and who has been harmed. 

3. Invest in capacity building of community-based organizations and service providers

▪ There is a community desire for funds to invest heavily in capacity building for communitybased organizations and community service providers, and quickly.

▪ The City can help to make connections to either expand existing services or create new 

service opportunities for CBOs through community-led Request For Proposal (RFP) (or 

similar) processes. 

4. Activate public spaces for public safety and well-being

▪ Community is eager to rethink how public spaces are utilized and activate them in a way 

that promotes community connection and growth. 

▪ Co-design how to rebuild public spaces with community and neighborhood members in a 

way that activates and promotes community safety and well-being, especially in 

neighborhoods that don't have existing or accessible public spaces.
19

5. “Nothing about us without us”

▪ The voices of those with lived experience should be brought into the discussion of 

investments, policies, and programs; decision-making should be based on the needs, 

challenges, and experiences shared by those most impacted. 

▪ Think of who is currently in the room, who has not been invited historically, and who 

currently has access to positions of power. 

In addition, the CLFR plan was also informed by the Seattle City Council’s passing of Resolution 31999, 

which outlines a set of principles to help guide decisions by the Council when appropriating the funds 

that the City will receive from the federal government to support COVID-19 relief and recovery efforts:

EQUITY: The City has an essential duty to use its resources and leadership to address 

racial disparities - brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on economic 

recovery - in Latinx, Black, Indigenous, and other people of color (BIPOC) communities; 

providing all residents with equitable services.

COORDINATION: The City should coordinate its efforts with county, regional, state, 

community, and institutional partners, and leverage shared resources to ensure that the 

City’s response is addressing gaps in service provision.

FLEXIBILITY: The City should be flexible and responsive in its approach as it learns and 

actively prioritizes resources as needed to maximize impact.

RESILIENCE: Federal funding should be appropriated so that the City can continue to 

deliver critical services to communities most impacted by COVID-19 and is wellprepared to weather future economic uncertainty as the economy recovers.

The culmination of targeted community outreach and engagement, and more open public conversation, 

helped to inform and guide decisions around what investment areas are most crucial for residents at 

this time. As aforementioned in this report, those five investment areas are: 

These investments (and their associated programs and services) will afford the opportunity for extended 

and iterative community engagement as some funds are being appropriated to the creation of new 

programs and/or services, which will need continuous input as they are developed. The City’s approach 

to extended community engagement to augment evaluation is a twofold strategy, focused on creating 

 

 
20

engagement opportunities for residents to participate at both the programmatic (micro) and citywide 

(macro) levels. In addition, each strategy will be supported by specific methods, which are described in 

Table 3 below. The City’s goals for taking this approach are to (1) be transparent with community and (2)

increase access and opportunities for community members to be involved in funding decisions. 

The City’s Innovation & Performance (IP) team will develop and deploy program-level engagement 

where they’ll be taking a mixed-methods approach, including getting resident feedback on the design of 

specific programs and investments (in addition to measuring and reporting quantitative performance 

metrics). In parallel with program-level efforts, citywide engagement will build public awareness of how 

funds are being allocated and outcomes are being achieved, through direct and indirect methods of 

outreach/engagement.

To better understand evaluation plans across the CLFR programs, IP met with City department 

leadership, identifying opportunities for IP to provide technical and/or strategic assistance for 

program-level evaluation – with a focus on both qualitative methods and quantitative data. As an 

outcome of those discussions, specific programs were identified as opportunity areas for extended 

program-level community engagement with IP to build an understanding of how CLFR investments 

have a non-quantifiable impact on residents, businesses, and organizations. Examples of specific 

programs and strategies can be seen at each of the following Program-level tiers of support below. 

Table 3. Community engagement approach

Program-level Engagement (IP) Citywide Engagement

Tier 1 - Planning Support

IP will help departments with qualitative 

evaluation planning, such as how to build-in 

complementary qualitative metrics to more 

quantitative-heavy evaluations and creating 

strategies for community involvement, if not 

already included in evaluation processes or 

reporting. This is more geared towards 

department programs that may only need oneoff strategy assistance.

An example of what this looks like in practice is 

working with Seattle Center on their Summer 

Campus Activation, supporting them in defining

performance metrics that speak to event 

success (in addition to revenue or sales 

generation), such as attendee satisfaction or 

suggestions for new activation events.

Tier 1 – Inform (indirect)

To provide the public with balanced and 

objective information to assist them in 

understanding the problem, alternatives, 

opportunities and/or solutions.

Methods could include online forums, 

interactive dashboards, or dynamic data 

visualizations.
21

Program-level Engagement (IP) Citywide Engagement

Tier 2 – User Research/Discovery

Help departments understand the current state 

of a particular problem to help inform the 

design of planned programs, products, or 

services. This could be in the form of discovery 

sprints - a method to quickly build a common 

understanding of the status of a complex 

organization, system, or service.

An example of what this looks like in practice is 

working with Seattle Parks and Recreation (SPR)

on their Activation programs to learn how 

residents would like to community parks to be 

activated and the type(s) of activations they 

would like to co-create.

Tier 2 – Inform (direct)

To provide the public with balanced and 

objective information to assist them in 

understanding the problem, alternatives, 

opportunities, and/or solutions.

Methods could include in-person or virtual 

town halls, on-site community meetings. 

These should be ongoing, cadence to be 

determined. 

Tier 3 - Program/Product/Service Design

IP will help departments in gathering continuous 

feedback through the form of co-design and 

testing, specifically when the team has reached 

certain milestones that either need community 

input on spending decisions, design direction, or 

policy implementation. The goal being to allow 

community to have multiple opportunities to 

engage throughout the design process. This 

could be in the form of design sprints - a fivephase process for answering critical questions 

through design, prototyping, and testing ideas 

with those most impacted by a program or

service.

An example of what this looks like in practice is 

working with Seattle Department of 

Transportation (SDOT) on expanding the Stay 

Healthy Streets program by helping to design 

and test ideas with BIPOC-led community 

groups and neighborhood members. This could 

also provide capacity building opportunities for 

CBOs through educating stakeholders on the 

design and testing processes. 

Tier 3 – Consult & Involve (direct)

To keep communities informed to any 

decisions that have been made, listen to, and 

acknowledge concerns and aspirations, and 

provide feedback on how public input has or 

is influencing decision-making. The goal is to 

be less informative and more practical, 

working through feedback and interrogating 

outstanding questions. 

Methods could include on-site or virtual 

listening sessions, specific community 

meetings in relation to the problem or 

project space. This level of engagement may 

be tied to one specific program or problem 

space as opposed to the community at large. 

To best serve the people of Seattle, specific programs will fund the capacity of supporting communitybased organizations and service providers in a variety of ways, including capacity building in the form 

of financial assistance to address negative impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic, ensure service 

stability over time, and sustain equitable access throughout lifecycle of program and/or service. Below 
22

are three specific program examples with strategies for direct investments to CBOs for capacity 

building:

1. Seattle Office of Housing (OH): Capacity Building for Housing Providers

This program will provide financial assistance to non-profit affordable housing organizations that 

have been negatively impacted by the pandemic. Funds will be distributed via an annual RFP 

process, with a focus on capacity building and stabilization efforts to ensure that organizations 

can continue to operate effectively through the COVID-19 recovery. The pandemic impacted 

non-profit affordable housing providers through a combination of decreased fundraising 

revenue, decreased rental income, and increased expenses related to COVID prevention. The 

program will directly benefit these agencies, and financially stabilizing these agencies will in turn 

benefit the people they serve. Tenants served by recipient organizations are low-income and 

represent a population that has been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic. This 

program addresses the impact by stabilizing housing providers to ensure they can continue 

serving low-income tenants, who are disproportionately people of color and people 

representing disadvantaged communities. Strengthening these agencies will improve service to 

their tenants, who need housing stability to get back on their feet.

2. Human Services Department Homeless Strategy and Investment (HSI) Capacity Building

This item provides funding for homelessness service providers to build capacity in their 

programs to ensure support of high-acuity clients, long-term stability of organizations and 

higher achievement of performance outcomes. A primary root cause of inequity within the 

homeless response system is lack of high-quality homeless response programs that fully meet 

the needs of BIPOC individuals and families. The primary strategy to reach maximum impact is 

to ensure BIPOC-led and serving agencies have access to capacity building funds, and there is 

flexibility built-in to operate the programs in a manner that best meets the needs of the people 

they serve. Through this capacity building, agencies will have the opportunity to expand their 

organizational infrastructure through investments in technology, training, and staff retention 

programming. 

3. Seattle Information Technology (IT): Digital Equity 

This item will fund digital equity programs such as the Technology Matching Fund, increasing 

affordable internet connectivity in high needs areas, or providing technical assistance to 

residents needing help with basic use of computers, internet, and online services and 

applications. Digital access and fluency are critical to participate in modern economy and are 

disproportionately scarce in BIPOC communities. Grants will fund ideas coming 

from those living in and serving impacted neighborhoods. Additionally, these programs will 

center work in BIPOC communities and direct investments to CBOs for capacity building, 

community involvement, and leadership.
23

Labor Practices 

Not applicable - the City of Seattle is not pursing infrastructure projects (EC 5) with State and Local Fiscal 

Recovery Funds (SLFRF) to report on labor practices.
24

Use of Evidence

Evidence-Based Strategies

The CLFR funds are an opportunity for Seattle to continue some of our existing evidence-based 

programs, support and expand these programs (through the acquisition of capital and investment in 

technical assistance to support community-based programs administering these programs), and develop 

a robust citywide culture of evaluation and continuous improvement.

Our evidence-based programs include:

▪ Rapid Rehousing ($6,700,000): A comprehensive review of rapid rehousing found that it is a 

strategy that helps families exit from shelter quickly and has a low rate of return to 

homelessness. This strategy is found to positively increase income and reduce rates of return to 

homelessness.

8

▪ Green Space Improvements and Increased Access ($3,525,000): There is a significant body of 

evidence that reinforces the positive outcomes of access to well-maintained and inviting green 

space. “Studies have repeatedly shown that the aesthetic appeal of places enhances the 

desirability of those places for walking among both children and adults. They also show higher 

levels of physical activity among children and adults in places perceived as pleasant.”9Seattle is 

investing in green space improvements through enhanced maintenance and activation in public 

parks. These enhancements will encourage more people to use the green space infrastructure,

which in turn increases physical activity which has long-term positive health impacts.

Furthermore, Seattle is continuing investments in the Stay Healthy Streets program. Perceived 

safety from traffic is associated with the presence of sidewalks, footpaths, and pedestrian 

infrastructure. Young children are less likely to walk, and parents are less likely to have their 

children walk, in areas they perceive as exposed to, or unsafe from, vehicular traffic. 10 The Stay 

Healthy Streets program enhancements will likely have a positive impact on children activity 

levels.

▪ Diversion Assistance ($1,300,000): Diversion support provides resources to help families who 

are at risk of homelessness find housing options as an alternative to entering a homeless 

shelter. Building Changes conducted a Diversion pilot in Washington in found that over half of 

the families that participated were able to avoid entering a homeless shelter, and of those 

housed, over 80% did not return to homelessness after one year. This is a proven strategy to 

reduce the number of families who experience homelessness.11

In addition to the evidence-based programs listed above, Seattle is investing in the required 

infrastructure to support and expand existing evidence-based programs. While these strategies are not, 

themselves, evidence-based, they are necessary to implement evidence-based programs. 

Some of these programs include:

8 The Urban Institute, “Rapid Re-Housing – What the Research Says”, June 2015, link.

9 Active Living Research, “Creating places that promote physical activity: Perceiving is believing”, August 2015, link.

10 Active Living Research, “Creating places that promote physical activity: Perceiving is believing”, August 2015, 

link.

11 Building Changes, “Homelessness to Housed in a Hurry”, April 2018, link.
25

▪ Multifamily Housing Acquisition Capital ($16,300,000): These funds will allow the City to 

acquire 300 new units of affordable family housing. These units are necessary to implement our 

evidence-based housing strategies to prevent families from becoming homeless.

▪ Childcare Facilities ($5,000,000): These funds will support the expansion or development of 

childcare facilities in qualified Census tracts. Although the physical space is not “evidencebased,” it will allow for the implementation of evidence-based childcare facilities in these 

neighborhoods. Evidence-based childcare programs are demonstrated to have lifelong positive 

impacts for children starting with increased reading ability in kindergarten up through a higher 

likelihood of graduating from high school and improved economic mobility. 

Seattle CLFR Performance Management Framework

Seattle is implementing a comprehensive and 

multi-tiered performance management framework 

to understand if and how we are making progress 

to advance economic mobility for residents and 

close race-based gaps. This framework centers 

continuous improvement and examines individual 

program-level and system-wide performance over 

the course of the funding cycle. 

This will give our program managers across the city 

the tools and data to recommend program 

improvements in real-time as well as the key 

information for policy and decision makers to 

improve policy and strategize for funding 

opportunities in the future. 

Th performance management framework is datadriven and responsive to community needs and 

feedback. It builds accountability and oversight into 

our investments at all levels. Program staff will 

quickly know if programs are on track to meet 

outcomes, and if not, they can intervene and support programs and community-based organizations 

drive to better outcomes. Policy and decision makers can use this data to guide future investments and 

advocate for the continuation of evidence-based programs. The public will be able to access 

performance and spending data to help them better understand how the funds were expended, who 

benefitted, and increase city-wide accountability.

The thread of evaluation and responsive course corrections spans most of the funding cycle. This 

continuous improvement cycle allows both Seattle staff and contracted community-based organizations 

to make ongoing course corrections and efficiently manage investments to achieve desired outcomes.
26

1. Programs and Outcomes Development

Policymakers including Seattle’s Mayor and City Council developed the 

initial CLFR proposal after engagement with community and examination 

of harms caused by COVID-19. Departments worked with the City of 

Seattle’s Innovation and Performance team to define specific metrics and 

outcomes for each program. These metrics and outcomes roll up into 

system-wide and population-level outcomes that will assess if and how 

the City is making progress towards our overall goals.

In subsequent iterations of funding, program decisions will be informed by 

evaluation findings, ongoing community engagement, and in 

consideration of the lessons learned during implementation of this first 

phase of funding.

2. Partners Selection 

Through equitable funding processes, such as competitive RFPs, Seattle 

departments will identify the partners best suited to meet desired 

outcomes and support target populations. Selection criteria to identify the 

“best-suited” partners can include previous performance, commitment 

and demonstrated success and achieving equitable outcomes, staff with 

lived experience, outreach capacity, and/or other criteria set by program 

managers to achieve the intended results of the program.

3. Active Contract Management

Seattle will be partnering with providers to implement Active Contract 

Management (ACM). ACM moves contract management and procurement 

from a back-office function to the front and center of performance 

management. Under Seattle’s ACM framework, program managers in 

each department will be reviewing program data on a regular cadence in 

partnership with community-based organizations and other stakeholders. 

This collaborative data review and meeting helps ensure that both 

government and service providers better understand the fidelity of

program implementation, progress towards equitable outcomes, and 

program. Essentially, they will be interrogating the question: are we 

meeting the needs of vulnerable Seattleites, and if not, what can we do to 

change things?

This strategy means that issues with program implementation can be identified and solved quickly. If the 

target population is unable to access services, or if that process is slow, both City staff and program staff 

know, trouble shoot, and can take actions to improve the program’s referral and outreach system. This 

strategy will allow for incremental improvements to see if programs are improving over time and 

refining program strategies and improving processes. Finally, ACM can result in significant systems reengineering by revising protocols and improving partnerships between government agencies, 

community-based organizations, and reducing silos across departments.
27

Ongoing Evaluation and Course Correction

The CLFR evaluation strategy consists of a three-pronged evaluation approach 

consisting of: (1) monitoring and performance management, (2) process 

evaluations to identify opportunities for improvement and course correction, and 

(3) outcome evaluation to assess whether CLFR investments have improved 

outcomes for Seattle residents, closed racial gaps, and reduced the impacts of 

COVID-19 on our community. This approach aims to provide evidence which will 

allow the improvement of the City’s programs and actions and increase 

accountability to the general population. 

Monitoring and performance management evaluation activities will monitor progress toward 

performance indicators. All investment areas are required to collect specific numeric performance data 

for each funded strategy. Performance indicators for each program are defined in Appendix B. Tracking 

performance measures allows staff to monitor the quantity and quality of services provided to 

individuals and the community at large as well as the results achieved by providers. This information is 

the foundation of the active contract management process.

The structure of Active Contract Management involves 1) high frequency-reviews of real-time 

performance data; 2) Regular, collaborative meetings between service providers and agencies; and 3) 

forward-looking performance management road maps.

Process evaluations help determine how to improve practice, planning, and design. Information gleaned 

enables partners to inform, manage, improve, or adjust programs, services, and practices. These types 

of evaluations provide possible early warnings for implementation challenges. Potential evaluation 

questions under this design can include whether activities were delivered as intended. Furthermore, 

process evaluation can provide specific stakeholders with information on if the services provided were 

effective, how they were effective or ineffective, and what can be done to improve outcomes. In most 

cases, these types of evaluations would be considered descriptive. 

Outcome evaluations assess to what extent a program, service, or strategy was successful in achieving 

its intended outcomes. Outcome evaluations occur after several years of implementation and seek to

Monitoring and Active Contract Management (Ongoing)

Tracking and reporting on 

key progress outcomes and 

indicators to support 

ongoing collaboration and 

continuous improvement

Process Evaluation (Beginning 2022)

Evaluates implementation 

success and progress 

towards short-term 

outcomes and improvements 

in practice, planning, and 

design.

Outcome Evaluation (When 

appropriate)

Determines return on 

investment by scientifically 

(or quasai-scientifically) 

evaluating progress of longterm outcomes.
28

determine the effectiveness in producing change after fidelity has been established. The CLFR outcome 

evaluations will assess three levels of impact (community, program, and individual) when analyzing 

CLFR’s overall effectiveness. The schedule for assessing levels of impact will vary based on how quickly 

results are expected, whether the investment is new, etc. For example, some changes in individual-level 

data may be expected and therefore evaluated in the first year of CLFR implementation, whereas larger

systems-level changes may not be affected and evaluated until the final years of implementation. In 

most cases, outcome evaluations are often considered causal. Causal evaluation designs aim to establish 

a direct link between an intervention and outcome(s). 

Seattle is exploring opportunities for outcome evaluations in many of the CLFR investments and future 

reports will discuss specific programs that are undergoing formal evaluations. 

Additional Evaluation Strategies

Linking Systems

Many of these programs collect data in disparate systems, ranging in sophistication from Microsoft Excel 

spreadsheets to multi-jurisdictional databases. We commit to linking and connecting data when possible 

to further understand how individuals are engaging with our services and determining ways to improve 

services. We believe that having a better understanding of how individuals are using programs across 

departments (which are frequently artificially siloed) will help us improve customer service and drive to 

better outcomes. Furthermore, the development of CiviForm, our common application portal for City of 

Seattle programs, will help us better understand how residents engage with the City across programs 

and support departmental coordination to best support people and communities. 

Communities of Practice

The CLFR investments are an opportunity for Seattle to break down government silos and foster 

collaboration across the City. Many of these CLFR investments seek to achieve the same goals (e.g.,

helping individuals find employment or increasing foot traffic in a neighborhood) but are housed in 

different departments. Our Communities of Practice will bring together department staff each month to 

discuss joint strategies and ensure that funds are being used in a collaborative and additive way. The 

Communities of Practice will also be an opportunity to highlight new and innovative programs, share 

lessons learned across departments, coordinate and increase technical expertise available for 

monitoring and evaluation (M&E), and improve the quality of M&E activities and knowledge of 

methodologies and standards. The first cohort will include Communities of Practice for: 1) Departments 

providing technical assistance to partners; 2) Departments managing job training or job placement 

programs; and, 3) Departments working community space improvements.

Frequency of Reporting

Seattle is in the process of finalizing our reporting cadence. Reporting will extend beyond the required 

annual reporting to Treasury and include quarterly reports to the Mayor’s Office and Seattle City 

Council, monthly programmatic reports for program management, and regular highlights and deep dives

into specific programs. When possible, reports will be made publicly available and in multiple languages. 

Staff Capacity

The City of Seattle recognizes the importance of having a strong evaluation team to monitor the 

outcomes of this once-in-a-lifetime investment in equity. The Innovation and Performance team is 

standing up an evaluation team includes data scientists, civic designers, and overall project management 

to ensure that we have the capacity and expertise to implement evaluations across Seattle.
29

Table of Expenses by Expenditure Category

EC# Expenditure Category Description Planned 

Spending

Total 

Expenditures to 

Date

1.1 COVID-19 Vaccination $ -

1.2 COVID-19 Testing $ -

1.3 COVID-19 Contact Tracing $ -

1.4 Prevention in Congregate Settings (Nursing Homes, 

Prisons/Jails, Dense Work Sites, Schools, etc.)

$ -

1.5 Personal Protective Equipment $ -

1.6 Medical Expenses (including Alternative Care Facilities) $ -

1.7 Capital Investments or Physical Plant Changes to Public 

Facilities that respond to the COVID-19 public health 

emergency

$1,600,000 $ -

1.8 Other COVID-19 Public Health Expenses (including 

Communications, Enforcement, Isolation/Quarantine)

$6,450,000 $ -

1.9 Payroll Costs for Public Health, Safety, and Other Public 

Sector Staff Responding to COVID-19

$ -

1.10 Mental Health Services $ -

1.11 Substance Use Services $ -

1.12 Other Public Health Services $ -

2.1 Household Assistance: Food Programs $690,000 $ -

2.2 Household Assistance: Rent, Mortgage, and Utility Aid $ -

2.3 Household Assistance: Cash Transfers $ -

2.4 Household Assistance: Internet Access Programs $500,000 $ -

2.5 Household Assistance: Eviction Prevention $ -

2.6 Unemployment Benefits or Cash Assistance to 

Unemployed Workers

$ -

2.7 Job Training Assistance (e.g., Sectoral job-training, 

Subsidized Employment, Employment Supports or 

Incentives)

$2,445,000 $ -

2.8 Contributions to UI Trust Funds $ -

2.9 Small Business Economic Assistance (General) $17,380,000 $ -

2.10 Aid to Nonprofit Organizations $100,000 $ -

2.11 Aid to Tourism, Travel, or Hospitality $100,000 $ -

2.12 Aid to Other Impacted Industries $3,700,000 $ -

2.13 Other Economic Support $ -

2.14 Rehiring Public Sector Staff $2,600,000 $ -

3.1 Education Assistance: Early Learning $ -

3.2 Education Assistance: Aid to High-Poverty Districts $ -

3.3 Education Assistance: Academic Services $ -

3.4 Education Assistance: Social, Emotional, and Mental 

Health Services

$ -

3.5 Education Assistance: Other $4,000,000 $ -

3.6 Healthy Childhood Environments: Childcare $6,000,000 $ -
30

EC# Expenditure Category Description Planned 

Spending

Total 

Expenditures to 

Date

3.7 Healthy Childhood Environments: Home Visiting $ -

3.8 Healthy Childhood Environments: Services to Foster 

Youth or Families Involved in Child Welfare System

$ -

3.9 Healthy Childhood Environments: Other $225,000 $ -

3.10 Housing Support: Affordable Housing $18,300,000 $ -

3.11 Housing Support: Services for Unhoused Persons $8,000,000 $ -

3.12 Housing Support: Other Housing Assistance $10,700,000 $ -

3.13 Social Determinants of Health: Other $2,750,000 $ -

3.14 Social Determinants of Health: Community Health 

Workers or Benefits Navigators

$ -

3.15 Social Determinants of Health: Lead Remediation $ -

3.16 Social Determinants of Health: Community Violence 

Interventions

$600,000 $ -

4.1 Public Sector Employees $ -

4.2 Private Sector: Grants to Other Employers $3,000,000 $ -

5.1 Clean Water: Centralized Wastewater Treatment $ -

5.2 Clean Water: Centralized Wastewater Collection and 

Conveyance

$ -

5.3 Clean Water: Decentralized Wastewater $ -

5.4 Clean Water: Combined Sewer Overflows $ -

5.5 Clean Water: Other Sewer Infrastructure $ -

5.6 Clean Water: Stormwater $ -

5.7 Clean Water: Energy Conservation $ -

5.8 Clean Water: Water Conservation $ -

5.9 Clean Water: Nonpoint Source $ -

5.10 Drinking water: Treatment $ -

5.11 Drinking water: Transmission & Distribution $ -

5.12 Drinking water: Transmission & Distribution: Lead 

Remediation

$ -

5.13 Drinking water: Source $ -

5.14 Drinking water: Storage $ -

5.15 Drinking water: Other water infrastructure $ -

5.16 Broadband: “Last Mile” projects $ -

5.17 Broadband: Other projects $ -

6.1 Provision of Government Services $25,900,000 $ -

7.1 Administrative Expenses $ -

7.2 Evaluation and Data Analysis $500,000 $ -

7.3 Transfers to Other Units of Government $ -

TOTALS $ 115,540,000 $ - 
31

Project Inventory

The comprehensive project inventory, including name, a brief description, and specifications of evidence 

base for individual SLFRF programs, can be found in Appendix A. 

Performance Report

Key performance indicators have been defined for the major SLFRF funded projects, with a recognition 

that indicators may be refined as the City moves forward with implementation. Seattle’s approach to 

performance indicators builds on the culture of Results-Based Accountability (RBA), which many City 

departments use to evaluate performance. We have provided short- and medium-term outcomes for 

these programs in Appendix B.

Multiple CLFR programs work together to drive long-term outcomes such as an increase in public safety, 

advancing economic mobility in specific neighborhoods, and closing racial opportunity gaps. These longterm outcomes will be evaluated at a systems-level. Where possible, we will conduct quasi-experimental 

analysis (e.g., comparing specific outcomes in Census tracts where we did and did not fund 

interventions) to estimate the impact of the package of CLFR funding on communities.

Required Performance Indicators and Programmatic Data

This section provides an overview of the mandatory performance indicators and programmatic data, as 

defined in the Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds Compliance and Reporting Guidance. In 

each annual report moving forward, the City of Seattle will include updated data for the performance 

period as well as prior period data, and a brief narrative to provide context.

Metric Completed to Date

Household Assistance (EC 2.2 & 2.5) and Housing Support (EC 3.10-3.12)

Number of people or households receiving eviction prevention services 

(including legal representation)

0

Number of affordable housing units preserved or developed 0

Negative Economic Impacts (EC 2)

Number of workers enrolled in sectoral job training programs 0

Number of workers completing sectoral job training programs 0

Number of people participating in summer youth employment programs 0

Education Assistance (EC 3.1-3.5)

Number of students participating in evidence-based tutoring programs 0

Healthy Childhood Environments (EC 3.6-3.9)

Number of children served by childcare and early learning (pre-school/preK/ages 3- 5)0

Number of families served by home visiting 0
32

Looking Forward

Seattle is eager to learn from other jurisdictions and share our lessons through the CLFR investments. 

We support opportunities for peer learning related to the monitoring and evaluation of Coronavirus 

State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds. We are eager to understand how information submitted through 

Recovery Plan Performance Reports will be disseminated to jurisdictions, and we look forward to 

learning about how and when the U.S. Department of the Treasury will select participants in national 

evaluation opportunities. 
33

Appendix A: Project Inventory

Please see Attachment A document.
34

Appendix B: Performance Report

Seattle CLFR Project Metrics

Project 1: Summer Campus Activation

Activities

▪ Number of programs offered

Indicators

▪ Levels of activation

▪ Attendance estimates 

▪ Surrogate revenue measures (parking 

receipts, food sale receipts)

Project 2: CLFR Measurement & Evaluation

Activities

▪ # of evaluation engagements with 

departments

▪ Development of communities of 

practice

Indicators

▪ # program evaluations executed

▪ Departments engaging in communities of 

practice

▪ Departments implementing Active Contract 

Management

Project 3: Affordable Seattle Product Management

Activities

▪ # programs available through 

Affordable Seattle 

▪ # of community-based organizations 

(CBOs) and staff onboarded

Indicators

▪ # monthly users (disaggregated by race, 

ethnicity, zip code)

▪ Length of time to complete an application

▪ # of users applying to multiple programs in 

one session (avg. # of programs applied)

▪ Users rate experience positively

Project 4: Library Open Hours Restoration

Activities

▪ Restore library hours to pre-pandemic 

hours

▪ Rehire staff positions for those 

eliminated due to the pandemic

▪ Increase library hours to proposal in 

2019 levy

Indicators

▪ # of hours libraries are open

▪ # of staff

▪ # of visitors to library during new hours

Project 5: Affordable Seattle Digital Service Development

Activities

▪ # of programs available through 

Affordable Seattle with seamless 

functionality

▪ # of functionality enhancements

▪ Development of enhanced functionality

Indicators

▪ # monthly users

▪ % of incidents resolved within service level 

targets

▪ % of application enhancement requests 

fulfilled within service level targets
35

Seattle CLFR Project Metrics

Project 6: Digital Equity

Activities

▪ # Service hours provided by Digital 

Navigators

Indicators

▪ # Residents served by Digital Navigators

▪ # Devices distributed

▪ # Residents receiving digital literacy 

training

▪ # Residents connected via free Wi-Fi

▪ # Free Wi-Fi connections

Project 7: Critical IT Needs – Telework Capacity 

Activities

▪ TBD

Indicators

▪ TBD

Project 8: Critical IT Needs – Staffing 

Activities

▪ TBD

Indicators

▪ TBD

Project 9: Security Funding

Activities

▪ TBD

Indicators

▪ TBD

Project 10: Support Facility Safety and Provide Tennant Assistance

Activities

▪ TBD

Indicators

▪ TBD

Project 11: Priority Hire

Activities

▪ # of job readiness training students

▪ # of pre-apprenticeship students

Indicators

▪ # of new BIPOC workers, women, and 

residents of economically areas into 

construction pre-apprenticeship, 

apprenticeship and jobs, and their 

retention in the industry

Project 12: Seattle Promise

Activities

▪ Students counts

▪ Tuition support

▪ Equity scholarships disbursed

▪ Student-staff ratios

Indicators

▪ Enrollment levels including re-entry and 

extended support beyond 2 years

▪ College preparation

▪ College persistence

Project 13: Childcare Wage Allotment

Activities

▪

Indicators

▪ # people who apply for and receive 

assistance

▪ % of eligible people who apply for 

assistance
36

Seattle CLFR Project Metrics

Project 14: Enhanced Maintenance

Activities

▪ Labor hours and work orders for SPR 

maintenance activities

▪ Number of filled vacant maintenance 

positions and supplemental temporary 

employees for peak season 

maintenance

Indicators

▪ # of people using park facilities

▪ # of people attending activation events

Project 15: Community Activation

Activities

▪ Types of activations

▪ Park activation hours

▪ Leveraged resources

Indicators

▪ Participation

▪ Number of permits reduced (number of 

permits with a reduced fee)

▪ Amount of reduction

Project 16: Community Programming: Wading Pools, Childcare, Outdoor Recreation

Activities

▪ Wading pools metrics: Days of 

operation

Indicators

▪ Childcare Scholarships metrics: total 

childcare participation and scholarship 

utilization

▪ Wading pools metrics: Days of operation; 

participation 

▪ Outdoor Recreation (Rec N’ the Streets) 

metrics: participation and customer 

satisfaction

Project 17: Cultural District Recovery Grants 

Activities

▪ Number of grants distributed

Indicators

▪ Cultural square footage by district 

stabilizes or increases year over year

▪ Artists stabilize and/or grow their ability to 

present work to the public

▪ # of BIPOC artists and cultural orgs 

stabilizes/increases 
37

Seattle CLFR Project Metrics

Project 18: Cultural Organizations Reopening Grants 

Activities

▪ Cultural organizations that have not 

had access to funding are able to 

receive grants that allow them to rehire staff, pay rent and utilities, cover 

the additional costs for COVID-19 safe 

protocols

Indicators

▪ Cultural organizations that have not had 

access to funding restart their in-person 

programming

▪ #/% of new and returning employees 

rehired

▪ Perceived optimism in the future

▪ Foot traffic in downtown corridors

▪ Surrogate revenue measures (parking 

receipts, food sale receipts)

Project 19: Technical Assistance Supporting Rehiring Cultural Workers

Activities

▪ # of webinars, emails, social media, and 

web content

Indicators

▪ Increase in representation of BIPOC artists 

and cultural workers

▪ 80-100% of community advisors, contract 

staff implementing program represent the 

communities most impacted by COVID

▪ # and positive response of people who 

attend/view the webinar

▪ # of unique web downloads and/or 

reshares

▪ Higher % of BIPOC artists and cultural 

workers hired

Project 20: Hope Corps: beloved

Activities

▪ Number of programs offered

Indicators

▪ # of creative workers employed

▪ # of hours of gainful employment

▪ Reported administrative capacity increase 

by media partners

▪ Reported confidence by participants in 

increased workforce participation

▪ # of employees segmented by race, 

gender, geography

▪ Employee’s self-report of skills/knowledge 

gained or advanced

▪ Increased take home pay

▪ Growth in employee job networks
38

Seattle CLFR Project Metrics

Project 21: Created Commons

Activities

▪ Number of programs offered

Indicators

▪ # of artists employed, disaggregated by 

race

▪ # of community partners engaged

▪ # of participants from the public

▪ Qualitative feedback from attendees

▪ Attendance estimates per site

▪ Surrogate revenue measures (parking 

receipts, food sale receipts)

Project 22: Port of Seattle

Activities

▪ TBD

Indicators

▪ TBD

Project 23: Digital Bridge

Activities

▪ TBD

Indicators

▪ TBD

Project 24: Small Business Stabilization Fund

Activities

▪ # of businesses served

▪ Demographics of businesses served

▪ # of businesses that access in-language 

services

▪ # of businesses per council district

▪ # of businesses per industry

Indicators

▪ # jobs retained

▪ # of people hired

▪ Direction of income

Project 25: Small Business Recovery Fund

Activities

▪ # of businesses served

▪ Demographics of businesses served

▪ # of businesses that access in-language 

services

▪ # of businesses per council district

▪ # of businesses per industry

Indicators

▪ # of businesses that remain open

▪ # of businesses that increase revenue

▪ # of businesses that increase number of 

FTE jobs

Project 26: Technology Access

Activities

▪ # of businesses that begin each 

program

▪ % of businesses that complete the 

program

Indicators

▪ # of businesses still using the product 

delivered six months later
39

Seattle CLFR Project Metrics

Project 27: Financial Health – Accounting

Activities

▪ # of businesses served

▪ Demographics of businesses

▪ # of businesses who respond that they 

implemented recommendations and 

feel more confident about their 

financial wellbeing

Indicators

▪

Project 28: Small Business Technical Assistance – Small Business Navigation/Recovery Navigation

Activities

▪ # of businesses served

▪ Demographics of businesses served

Indicators

▪ # of businesses obtaining a permit

▪ # of businesses reporting an increase in 

revenue

▪ # of businesses reporting an increase in FTE 

jobs

Project 29: Small Business and Creatives Relief Program 

Activities

▪ # of pairings of artists and businesses

▪ # of performances completed

▪ # of artists paid and amounts

Indicators

▪ Satisfaction of businesses and artists

▪ Perceived or actual increased sales 

numbers/foot traffic numbers as reported 

by the business

Project 30: Legal Technical Assistance

Activities

▪ TBD

Indicators

▪ TBD

Project 31: Empty Storefronts Activation

Activities

▪ TBD 

Indicators

▪ TBD

Project 32: Commercial Affordability

Activities

▪ # of businesses receiving financing

▪ Demographics of businesses

Indicators

▪ # of businesses expressing satisfaction with 

financing

▪ # of businesses reporting an increase in 

revenue

▪ # of businesses reporting an increase in FTE 

jobs
40

Seattle CLFR Project Metrics

Project 33: Neighborhood Economic Recovery Grants

Activities

▪ # and $ of grans

▪ # of neighborhoods supported

▪ # of activations

▪ # of public space improvement projects

▪ # cleaning hours

▪ # of businesses touched 

Indicators

▪ # of businesses that stay open

▪ # of businesses that reopen with support

Project 34: Downtown Activation

Activities

▪ # of events held

▪ # businesses participating in Welcome 

Back Weeks

Indicators

▪ Increase in downtown foot traffic

▪ # businesses opening back up or returning 

to normal hours

▪ # of out of work creatives employed to 

participate in Welcome Back Weeks

Project 35: Downtown Workforce Development

Activities

▪ TBD

Indicators

▪ TBD

Project 36: Enhanced Diaper Distribution

Activities

▪ # of diapers distributed

Indicators

▪ Families who need diapers will receive 

diapers

▪ Families are able to engage with other 

resources

▪ Client demographics including 

race/ethnicity, zip code, homeless status, # 

of children in diapers, and how many 

diapers received

Project 37: Good Food Kitchens

Activities

▪ Types of meals served and why that 

meal was selected

▪ What farms restaurants received food 

from

▪ How are people accessing the meals

▪ # of meals distributed

Indicators

▪ Demographics of people served

▪ Zip codes where meals are served

Project 38: Childcare facilities

Activities

▪ # of applications for assistance

Indicators

▪ # of new spaces created

▪ # of jobs generated by ability of people to 

go back to work 
41

Seattle CLFR Project Metrics

Project 39: Behavioral Health for Youth and Families

Activities

▪ # of Youth, young adults and their 

families enrolling in and receiving 

individual mental health counseling 

services including telehealth services

▪ # of Seattle youth receiving Suicide 

Prevention for Students Training and 

Education, etc.

▪ Behavioral health providers meet share 

best practices, learnings, or efficiencies 

through monthly status report

Indicators

▪ # of Youth achieving one or more 

treatment objective

▪ Disaggregation by demographics

Project 40: Gender-Based Violence Response Services 

Activities

▪ # of people receiving services

Indicators

▪ Quantitative and qualitative metrics to be 

collected through monthly/quarterly 

grantee reports.

Project 41: HSI Capacity Building

Activities

▪ TBD

Indicators

▪ TBD

Project 42: Additional Diversion

Activities

▪ $ of diversion funding distributed

▪ # of families/individuals who receive 

diversion assistance

▪ Length of time between request and 

receipt of assistance

Indicators

▪ Individuals and families do not enter into 

homelessness

▪ Individuals and families maintain housing 

for a year

Project 43: Increased Rapid Rehousing

Activities

▪ # households served by the program

Indicators

▪ # households exiting the program into 

permanent housing

▪ # households maintaining housing

▪ # households who do not return to 

homelessness within six months of exit
42

Seattle CLFR Project Metrics

Project 44: Enhanced Shelter and Outreach

Activities

▪ # households served by the program

Indicators

▪ # households exiting the program into 

permanent housing

▪ # households maintaining housing

▪ # households who do not return to 

homelessness within six months of exit

Project 45: Safe Lots (RV/Vehicles)

Activities

▪ # households served by the program

Indicators

▪ # households exiting the program into 

permanent housing

▪ # households maintaining housing

▪ # households who do not return to 

homelessness within six months of exit

Project 46: Tiny Home Villages

Activities

▪ Number of temporary units created

Indicators

▪ % of households enrolled exit to 

permanent housing

▪ % of shelter units occupied

▪ % of homeless households that exit to 

permanent housing and do not return to 

homelessness within six months

▪ Disaggregation by demographics

Project 47: Multifamily Housing Acquisition Capital

Activities

▪ Contracts are executed

Indicators

▪ # of new units acquired

▪ # of families that move into units

Project 48: Capacity Building for Housing Providers 

Activities

▪ The scope of work established in each 

contract is achieved

Indicators

▪ Housing stability for tenants who are 

disproportionately people of color, as 

demonstrated by occupancy rates holding 

steady at recipient agencies

▪ Increase in capacity
43

Seattle CLFR Project Metrics

Project 49: Stay Health Streets – Capital 

Activities

▪ # of city blocks/miles transitions to Stay 

Health Streets

Indicators

▪ # of daily users

▪ # of Stay Health Streets by neighborhood

▪ % of Seattle residents who live within one 

mile of Stay Healthy Street

▪ % of Seattle land area that is public space

Project 50: Safe Starts

Activities

▪ TBD

Indicators

▪ TBD

Project 51: Stay Healthy Streets -- Operations

Activities

▪ # of city blocks/miles transitions to Stay 

Health Streets

Indicators

▪ # of daily users

▪ # of Stay Health Streets by neighborhood

▪ % of Seattle residents who live within one 

mile of Stay Healthy Street

▪ % of Seattle land area that is public space
1

Attachment A. Project Inventory

Contents

Attachment A. Project Inventory ..................................................................................................................1

Project 1: Summer Campus Activation .........................................................................................................3

Project 2: Seattle Rescue Plan (SRP) Measurement & Evaluation................................................................4

Project 3: Affordable Seattle Product Management ....................................................................................4

Project 4: Library Open Hours Restoration...................................................................................................5

Project 5: Affordable Seattle Digital Service Development..........................................................................6

Project 6: Digital Equity.................................................................................................................................6

Project 7: Critical IT Needs – Telework Capability ........................................................................................7

Project 8: Critical IT Needs – Staffing............................................................................................................7

Project 9: Security Funding ...........................................................................................................................8

Project 10: Support Facility Safety and Provide Tenant Assistance..............................................................8

Project 11: Priority Hire ................................................................................................................................9

Project 12: Seattle Promise.........................................................................................................................10

Project 13: Childcare Wage Allotment........................................................................................................10

Project 14: Enhanced Maintenance............................................................................................................11

Project 15: Community Activation..............................................................................................................12

Project 16: Community Programming: Wading Pools, Childcare, Outdoor Recreation .............................12

Project 17: Cultural Districts Recovery Grants............................................................................................14

Project 18: Cultural Organization Reopening Grants..................................................................................14

Project 19: Technical Assistance Supporting Rehiring Cultural Workers....................................................15

Project 20: Hope Corps: beLOVED ..............................................................................................................15

Project 21: Created Commons....................................................................................................................16

Project 22: Port of Seattle...........................................................................................................................16

Project 23: Digital Bridge ............................................................................................................................17

Project 24: Small Business Stabilization Fund.............................................................................................17

Project 25: Small Business Recovery Fund..................................................................................................20

Project 26: Technology Access....................................................................................................................22

Project 27: Financial Health - Accounting...................................................................................................22

Project 28: Small Business Technical Assistance – Small Business Navigation/Recovery Navigation........23

Project 29: Small Business and Creatives Relief Program...........................................................................23
2

Project 30: Legal Technical Assistance........................................................................................................24

Project 31: Empty Storefronts Activation ...................................................................................................24

Project 32: Commercial Affordability..........................................................................................................25

Project 33: Neighborhood Economic Recovery Grants ..............................................................................25

Project 34: Downtown Activation...............................................................................................................27

Project 35: Downtown Workforce Development .......................................................................................28

Project 36: Enhanced Diaper Distribution ..................................................................................................28

Project 37: Good Food Kitchens..................................................................................................................29

Project 38: Childcare Facilities....................................................................................................................29

Project 39: Behavioral Health for Youth and Families................................................................................30

Project 40: Gender Based Violence Response Services..............................................................................30

Project 41: HSI Capacity Building ................................................................................................................31

Project 42: Additional Diversion .................................................................................................................31

Project 43: Increase Rapid Rehousing (RRH) ..............................................................................................32

Project 44: Enhanced Shelter and Outreach...............................................................................................32

Project 45: Safe Lots (RV/ Vehicles)............................................................................................................33

Project 46: Tiny Home Villages ...................................................................................................................33

Project 47: Multifamily Housing Acquisition Capital ..................................................................................34

Project 48: Capacity Building for Housing Providers ..................................................................................35

Project 49: Stay Healthy Streets (SHS) – Capital.........................................................................................36

Project 50: Safe Starts.................................................................................................................................36

Project 51: Stay Healthy Streets (SHS) – Operations..................................................................................37

Project 52: Revenue Replacement..............................................................................................................38
3

Project 1: Summer Campus Activation 

Funding amount: $200,000

Project Expenditure Category: 

2.10 Aid to Nonprofit Organizations

2.11 Aid to Tourism, Travel, or Hospitality

Project overview

• Program Description: This item will support summer and fall activation at the Seattle Center 

campus, including outdoor movies and other public events.

• Funding Disbursement: Seattle Center will utilize a mix of RFPs and existing contracts with our 

partners to spend these funds

• Disbursement Timeline: Seattle Center anticipates spending the funds throughout the Summer. 

Anticipating some delay in billing, we expect all funds will be spent by November 2021.

Use of Evidence

• This is not an evidence-based program. 

Additional Information 

What is the pandemic impact/harm that the program addresses? Whom does the program benefit? 

Were they disproportionately impacted by the pandemic?

The tourism and hospitality industries lost significant business opportunity and revenue from the 

pandemic, typically derived from attendance at events, travel, foot traffic, etc. Public health orders 

made most of the work in this industry nearly impossible to continue. In particular, the Governor’s Stay 

Home, Stay Healthy order prohibited they most live events as a measure to keep residents safe from a 

contagious virus. Hesitancy remains among the community to re-engage in tourism and hospitality 

activities, even after vaccination. Thus, business activity in the tourism and hospitality industries remains 

slow to return.

This program would benefit a variety of groups of color. According to the National Women’s Law 

Center, 23% of the leisure and hospitality workforce is Latina while 13% are black women. This is much 

higher than their representation in the overall workforce (8% and 7% respectively). Additionally, 

according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Hispanics/Latinos of all genders make up 24.1% of the labor 

workforce in this industry compared to just 17.6% of the overall workforce. These groups have been 

especially adversely impacted because of the nature of their businesses and the effect of the public 

health orders, as mentioned above.

How does the program address the identified impact?

This program will help to return business opportunity and revenue to small businesses in the tourism 

and hospitality industries by:

• Providing a venue for hosting live events

• Partnering with local nonprofit organizations to produce a series of events which will provide 

employment opportunities for their event staff

• Bringing back tourists, event attendees, and visitors—in other words, customers for tourism and 

hospitality businesses—to a major tourism and hospitality industry hub, Seattle Center
4

• Providing aid to businesses in the tourism and hospitality industries by contracting for their 

services for a series of live events aimed at attracting and spurring economic activity in those 

industries.

Project 2: Seattle Rescue Plan (SRP) Measurement & Evaluation 

Funding amount: $175,000

Project Expenditure Category: 

7.2 Evaluation and Data Analysis 

Project overview

• Program Description: The Performance and Impact Evaluation and Affordable Seattle 

program will improve efficacy of City aid programs addressing negative economic impacts 

through use of data analysis, performance tracking, evaluation, targeted outreach,

and streamlining access to City benefit programs via a unified application portal. Innovation and 

Performance Team will be executing this program, which includes hiring two data scientists to 

conduct performance and evaluation of City programs addressing negative economic 

impacts of the pandemic.

• Funding Disbursement: We intend to allocate funds by hiring for these positions.

• Disbursement Timeline: PDQ and hiring process in September, onboarding in 

October/November.

Use of Evidence

• Although this is itself not an evidence-based program, this will support our ability to conduct 

evaluations on our existing programs.

Project 3: Affordable Seattle Product Management 

Funding amount: $100,000

Project Expenditure Category: 

7.2 Evaluation and Data Analysis

Project overview

• Program Description: The Performance and Impact Evaluation and Affordable Seattle 

program will improve efficacy of City aid programs addressing negative economic impacts 

through use of data analysis, performance tracking, evaluation, targeted outreach, 

and streamlining access to City benefit programs via a unified application portal. Innovation and 

Performance Team will be executing this program, which includes hiring a product manager to 

lead the Affordable Seattle program, which will convene and lead an inter-departmental team to 

ensure coordination across City benefit programs and create and run a unified application portal 

for the City’s various economic support programs, as well as some program costs

• Funding Disbursement: We intend to allocate funds by hiring for this position.

• Disbursement Timeline: TBD 
5

Use of Evidence

• Although this is itself not an evidence-based program, this will support our ability to conduct 

evaluations on our existing programs.

Additional Information

What is the pandemic impact/harm that the program addresses? Whom does the program benefit? 

Were they disproportionately impacted by the pandemic?

This program helps to address the wide array of pandemic harms mentioned above by improving the 

efficacy of our aid programs and making it easier for participants to find and apply to all relevant 

programs. This will benefit Seattle residents and businesses who participate in the City’s aid programs.

How does the program address the identified impact?

This program helps to address the wide array of pandemic harms mentioned above by improving the 

efficacy of our aid programs and making it easier for participants to find and apply to all relevant 

programs

Project 4: Library Open Hours Restoration 

Funding amount: $1,100,000

Project Expenditure Category: 

2.14 Rehiring Public Sector Staff

Project overview

• Program Description: This item will restore Library operating hours to pre-pandemic levels. 

General Fund support for operating hours was reduced in the 2021 Adopted Budget to alleviate 

the revenue shortfall anticipated as a result of the COVID-19 public health emergency.

• Funding Disbursement: Personnel costs and staffing Library operations and public services with

traditional recruitments for positions.

• Disbursement Timeline: Recruitment of 43 positions is underway. Staff expected to begin work 

September 2021.

Use of Evidence

• This is not an evidence-based project

 
6

Project 5: Affordable Seattle Digital Service Development 

Funding amount: $225,000

Project Expenditure Category: 

7.2 Evaluation and Data Analysis

Project overview

• Program Description: Seattle IT in partnership with the City Budget Office (CBO) will implement 

the Affordable Seattle program. This program will improve efficacy of City aid programs 

addressing negative economic impacts by streamlining access to City benefit programs via a 

unified application portal. Innovation and Performance Team will be executing this program by 

hiring a product manager to lead the Affordable Seattle program, which will create and run a 

unified application portal for the City’s various economic support programs, as well as some 

program costs. As part of the Affordable Seattle program, Seattle IT will provide 3.0 FTE to 

provide development, QA/QC, and technical assistance to the product manager and end-users.

• Funding Disbursement: We intend to allocate funds by hiring for these positions.

• Disbursement Timeline: PDQ and hiring process in September, onboarding in 

October/November.

Use of Evidence

• Although this is itself not an evidence-based program, this will support our ability to conduct 

evaluations on our existing programs.

Project 6: Digital Equity 

Funding amount: $500,000

Project Expenditure Category:

2.4 Household Assistance: Internet Access Programs

Project overview

• Program Description: This item will fund digital equity programs such as the Technology 

Matching Fund, increasing affordable internet connectivity in high needs areas, or providing 

assistance to residents needing help with basic use of computers, internet, and online services 

and applications.

• Funding Disbursement: Distribution of grants to community-based organizations. 

• Disbursement Timeline: Grants will be available in 2021. Funds expected to be spent by 2022.

Use of Evidence

• This is not an evidence-based program.
7

Project 7: Critical IT Needs – Telework Capability 

Funding amount: $2,450,000

Project Expenditure Category: 

1.8 Other COVID-19 Public Health Expenses (including Communications, Enforcement, 

Isolation/Quarantine)

Project overview

• Program Description: This program enables Seattle IT to make investments in equipment, tools, 

and technology to enable City employees to telework remotely in response to the effects of the 

COVID-19 pandemic.

• Funding Disbursement: 

o Equipment: This funding will be used to support employees by upgrading devices needed to 

support remote and hybrid work models.

o Labor: Funding will be spent on IT staff to help support critical IT infrastructure and support

needs.

o Software: Funding will be spent to improve the security and performance of the City’s VPN 

infrastructure. This will take the form of multiple tools and solutions, as there are few 

options in the marketplace that meet all of the City’s needs.

• Disbursement Timeline: We anticipate that spending will begin in 2021 and continue into 2022

Use of Evidence

• This is not an evidenced-based program

 

Project 8: Critical IT Needs – Staffing 

Funding amount: $1,500,000

Project Expenditure Category: 

2.14 Rehiring Public Sector Staff

Project overview

• Program Description: This program enables Seattle IT to make investments in staffing to enable 

City employees to telework remotely in response to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

• Funding Disbursement: Funding will be spent on IT staff to help support critical IT infrastructure 

and support needs.

• Disbursement Timeline: Staff will be hired in 2021 and continue into 2022.

Use of Evidence

• This is not an evidenced-based program.
8

Project 9: Security Funding 

Funding amount: $1,500,000

Project Expenditure Category: 

1.8 Other COVID-19 Public Health Expenses (including Communications, Enforcement, 

Isolation/Quarantine)

Project overview

• Program Description: This program enables Seattle IT to make investments in equipment, tools, 

and technology to enable City employees to telework remotely in response to the effects of the 

COVID-19 pandemic.

• Funding Disbursement: This funding will be disbursed through a combination of increased

government staffing and direct contracts with vendors.

• Disbursement Timeline: Expenditures will be complete by 2022. 

Use of Evidence

• This is not an evidenced-based program.

Project 10: Support Facility Safety and Provide Tenant Assistance 

Funding amount: $1,600,000

Project Expenditure Category:

1.7 Capital Investments or Physical Plant Changes to Public Facilities that respond to the COVID19 public health emergency

Project overview

• Program Description: This item provides support for enhanced cleaning of City buildings which 

will be needed when service centers and offices reopen. This item provides funding for updated 

signage, air filtration, space reconfiguration, and other supplies in City offices.

• Funding Disbursement: Seattle anticipates allocating funds by utilizing contracts, direct service, 

purchase of supplies and service, and to recover loss parking revenue.

• Disbursement Timeline: Primary use of the funds would be in Fall 2021 in preparation for 

reopening. Space reconfiguration would likely take more time to collaborate with departments.

Use of Evidence

• This is not an evidenced-based program
9

Project 11: Priority Hire 

Funding amount: $450,000

Project Expenditure Category:

2.7 Job Training Assistance (e.g., Sectoral job-training, Subsidized Employment, Employment 

Supports or Incentives)

Project overview

• Program Description: This item provides additional funding to existing pre-apprenticeship 

programs, including wrap-around services and retention programs. Priority Hire puts people 

living in economically distressed communities to work on the City’s construction projects, and 

provides worker supports to build construction careers. This funding supports some of the 

following services: pre-apprenticeship training, wrap-around services, childcare and worker 

retention support. The purpose of the services is to create equitable outcomes for BIPOC, 

women and those living in economically distressed ZIP codes in the construction industry.

• Funding Disbursement: Funding disbursed via consultant contracts to support outreach, training 

and/or worker retention services. Funding supporting government staff positions will be 

administrative to help implement outreach, training and/or worker retention services. Funding

will be competitively disbursed through RFPs, expanding the scope of existing contracts, and 

contracting directly for contracts.

• Disbursement Timeline: Scope to be developed in 2021-2022 with funding disbursed in in 2023-

2024.

Use of Evidence

• This is not an evidenced-based program

Additional Information 

What is the pandemic impact/harm that the program addresses? Whom does the program benefit? 

Were they disproportionately impacted by the pandemic?

The Priority Hire investments would address the following pandemic

impacts: 1) unemployment, 2) negative economic impacts due to a worker’s occupation or level 

of training and 3) a lack of access to support once placed in family wage careers for those most harmed 

by the pandemic, including BIPOC, women and those living in economically distressed 

areas. The COVID pandemic has disproportionally harmed these groups, and especially 

harmed communities of color in terms of health outcomes, employment, access to childcare, etc. BIPOC 

respondents, especially Black and Hispanic respondents.

Priority Hire benefits people who are unemployed, under employed or are working in low wage 

jobs during the pandemic. Priority Hire investments are targeted at individuals living in low-income 

communities (priority ZIP codes), BIPOC and women to prepare and support them in family wage 

construction careers.

How does the program address the identified impact?  

This program will help provide immediate support to put BIPOC workers, women and residents of 

economically distressed areas to work in construction, and provides worker supports to build 

construction careers. 
10

Project 12: Seattle Promise 

Funding amount: $4,000,000

Project Expenditure Category: 

3.5 Education Assistance: Other

Project overview

• Program Description: This item provides support for equity-focused and data-driven 

enhancements to the Seattle Promise program, Seattle’s program that offers two years of free 

community college to all Seattle public high school students. This funding also allows students to 

access Sumer school, to ensure that they can stay on track towards graduation.

• Funding Disbursement: Amending existing contract with Seattle Colleges. Establish new

contracts with University of Washington and Washington State Opportunity Scholarship.

• Disbursement Timeline: Contracts are expected to be amended or entered into fall 2021 and will

support students taking summer courses during 2021. A portion of funding supporting Seattle 

Colleges in the 2022-23 school year may not be committed until July 2022

Use of Evidence

• The Seattle Promise is an evidence-based program. Access to community college, particularly 

when coupled with supports has demonstrated to improve wages in adulthood and increase 

economic mobility. These additional supports will help students stay enrolled in school.

Project 13: Childcare Wage Allotment 

Funding amount: $3,000,000

Project Expenditure Category: 

4.2 Private Sector: Grants to Other Employers

Project overview

• Program Description: This item provides funding to supplement the wages of childcare workers 

and other childcare provider staff in recognition of the essential service they have provided 

during the pandemic. Childcare workers and provider staff typically earn low wages, yet they 

have continued to put themselves at risk during the pandemic by providing in-person care to 

children and families, including care for children attending school online, thereby enabling 

parents and caregivers to participate in the workforce.

• Funding Disbursement: Direct contract.

• Disbursement Timeline: Fund disbursement will be completed by the end of 2021.

Use of Evidence

• This is not an evidenced-based program
11

Project 14: Enhanced Maintenance 

Funding amount: $1,050,000

Project Expenditure Category:

3.13 Social Determinants of Health: Other

Project overview

• Program Description: This proposal provides resources to safely support community use of 

public parks and open space including enhanced maintenance and custodial cleaning efforts 

(e.g., litter collection, comfort station cleaning visits, etc.) as these parks, community centers 

and other facilities are expected to see heavy use in spring, summer and early fall. Funds also 

support summer nighttime closures at Alki and Golden Gardens Beaches.

• Funding Disbursement: Seattle is utilizing temp and non-labor funding to augment park 

maintenance efforts.

• Disbursement Timeline: Funds to be spent by end of 2021

Use of Evidence

• There is a significant body of evidence that reinforces the positive outcomes of access to wellmaintained and inviting green space. “Studies have repeatedly shown that the aesthetic appeal 

of places enhances the desirability of those places for walking among both children and adults. 

They also show higher levels of physical activity among children and adults in places perceived 

as pleasant.”1Seattle is investing in green space improvements through enhanced maintenance 

and activation in public parks. These enhancements will encourage more people to use the 

green space infrastructure which in turn increases physical activity which has long-term positive 

health impacts. Furthermore, Seattle is continuing investments in the Stay Healthy Streets 

program. Perceived safety from traffic is associated with the presence of sidewalks, footpaths, 

and pedestrian infrastructure. Young children are less likely to walk, and parents are less likely 

to have their children walk, in areas they perceive as exposed to, or unsafe from, vehicular 

traffic. 2 The Stay Healthy Streets program enhancements will likely have a positive impact on 

children activity levels.

Additional Information 

What is the pandemic impact/harm that the program addresses? Whom does the program benefit? 

Were they disproportionately impacted by the pandemic?

BIPOC and other underserved communities are most impacted by this pandemic. Public health 

officials continue to highlight the increased safety of being outdoors in reducing the spread of COVID-19. 

Our public parks and open spaces provide a critical role in supporting safe places for BIPOC and other 

underserved communities to exercise, gather with friends and family and take respite.

How does the program address the identified impact?  

Proximity to nature and access to open space is shown to positively impact many aspects of life and yet

access to private open space (yards, balconies, patios) is disproportionate. Therefore, equitable access

to safe and well-maintained public parks is critical to mitigate the burden to underserved

communities. In addition to contributing to physical and emotional health, at this point in the pandemic

1 Active Living Research, “Creating places that promote physical activity: Perceiving is believing”, August 2015, link.

2 Active Living Research, “Creating places that promote physical activity: Perceiving is believing”, August 2015, link.
12

recovery being outdoors also reduces the risk of COVID-19 transmission and equitable access should be

a principal focus for when evaluating needs and dedicating resources for the community.

Project 15: Community Activation 

Funding amount: $500,000

Project Expenditure Category: 

3.13 Social Determinants of Health: Other

Project overview

• Program Description: This item will support expanded activation at parks that builds community 

by providing cultural and recreational activities in collaboration with community 

organizations, artists and small businesses as they rebuild after the pandemic.

• Funding Disbursement: All funding will go towards hiring temporary and non-labor government 

staff.

• Disbursement Timeline: Mostly in 2021 with some proportion of these funds carrying forward

into 2022.

Use of Evidence

• This is not an evidenced-based program

Additional Information 

What is the pandemic impact/harm that the program addresses? Whom does the program benefit? 

Were they disproportionately impacted by the pandemic?

This focus of this program is on those most impacted by the pandemic. The program will expand 

concierge services and increase buskers and other activations in parks most significantly impacted by the 

pandemic.

Project 16: Community Programming: Wading Pools, Childcare, Outdoor Recreation 

Funding amount: $1,600,000

Project Expenditure Category: 

3.6 Healthy Childhood Environments: Childcare

3.13 Social Determinants of Health: Other

Project overview

• Program Description: This proposal provides resources to invest in community programming 

including scholarships for summer childcare, community center operations/programming, 

wading pools, and the Outdoor Mobile Recreation program.

• Funding Disbursement: All funding will go towards hiring temporary and non-labor government 

staff.
13

• Disbursement Timeline: Seattle plans to fully spend the budget by the end of 2021.

Use of Evidence

• There is a significant body of evidence that reinforces the positive outcomes of access to wellmaintained and inviting green space. “Studies have repeatedly shown that the aesthetic appeal 

of places enhances the desirability of those places for walking among both children and adults. 

They also show higher levels of physical activity among children and adults in places perceived 

as pleasant.”3Seattle is investing in green space improvements through enhanced maintenance 

and activation in public parks. These enhancements will encourage more people to use the 

green space infrastructure which in turn increases physical activity which has long-term positive 

health impacts. Furthermore, Seattle is continuing investments in the Stay Healthy Streets 

program. Perceived safety from traffic is associated with the presence of sidewalks, footpaths,

and pedestrian infrastructure. Young children are less likely to walk, and parents are less likely 

to have their children walk, in areas they perceive as exposed to, or unsafe from, vehicular 

traffic. 4 The Stay Healthy Streets program enhancements will likely have a positive impact on 

children activity levels.

Additional Information 

What is the pandemic impact/harm that the program addresses? Whom does the program benefit? 

Were they disproportionately impacted by the pandemic?

BIPOC and other underserved communities are most impacted by this pandemic. Public health officials 

are highlighting the increased safety of being outdoors in reducing the spread of COVID-19.

Nationwide, 2020 saw a 2.2 percent jump in outdoor participation translating to millions of additional 

participants who discovered the outdoors last year. Our public parks and open spaces provide a critical 

role in supporting safe places for BIPOC and other underserved communities to exercise, gather with 

friends and family and take respite. SPR’s focus for community programming also supports safe play, 

safe water access and access to licensed childcare regardless of income.

How does the program address the identified impact?  

Seattle Parks and Recreation is a leader in delivering vital services that advance physical and mental 

health for community members. Together these programs will provide a variety of recreation services 

beneficial to all communities, specifically low-income neighborhoods and neighborhoods hit hardest by 

the pandemic. This funding provides additional resources for SPR to expand participation in recreation 

services beyond what SPR’s 2021 budget can sustain (including licensed childcare, outdoor 

recreation programming and wading pool services). Access to these safe public services is critical 

to marginalized minority groups, such as low-income, immigrant and new American, physical and 

cognitive disability, and LGBTQ+ communities, leaving them to feel safe and welcome in public parks and 

recreation spaces.

Community programming priorities are also intended to reduce the burden on BIPOC and other 

underserved communities. With federal funds, the Department will re-open recreation facilities more 

broadly and prioritize equity in the distribution of operations hours. Federal resources are allowing 

the department to plan and implement, accessible (free or low-cost) outdoor recreational programs, 

3 Active Living Research, “Creating places that promote physical activity: Perceiving is believing”, August 2015, link.

4 Active Living Research, “Creating places that promote physical activity: Perceiving is believing”, August 2015, link.
14

which would not be possible absent additional resources including allowing SPR to 11 operate wading 

pools in 2021. Site selection was made with equity at the forefront of the criteria. Please note that SPR 

will also operate spray parks, which were also installed with equity as a major criterion. This will mean 

that some areas of the city (primarily non-equity zones) will see less wading pool operating days than in 

previous years, but we felt it was important to channel limited resources toward equity zones.

Finally, the high cost of Covid-compliant childcare and economic impacts of this pandemic compounding 

longstanding systemic racism means scholarship spending is at a much faster rate than previous years. 

Using federal funds to supplement overburdened scholarship funds will allow the department to extend 

support (and provide support at higher levels) to additional families for critical services like licensed 

childcare, as well as other fee-based recreational programs.

Project 17: Cultural Districts Recovery Grants 

Funding amount: $270,000

Project Expenditure Category: 

2.12 Aid to Other Impacted Industries 

Project overview

• Program Description: This item provides funding for direct financial assistance for arts and 

cultural organizations and businesses, other community organizations to provide COVID-related 

relief and facilities support.

• Funding Disbursement: Each designated Cultural District in Seattle would receive up to 

$100,000 in direct funding, depending on their stated need. 

• Disbursement Timeline: All funding will be disbursed by 2021.

Use of Evidence

• This is not an evidenced-based program

Project 18: Cultural Organization Reopening Grants 

Funding amount: $2,435,000

Project Expenditure Category:

2.12 Aid to Other Impacted Industries

Project overview

• Program Description: This program seeks to provide reopening funding for cultural organizations 

that have not had access to funding. Organizations will receive grants that allow them to re-hire 

staff, pay rent and utilities, cover the additional costs for COVID-19 safe protocols, and restart 

their in-person programming. 

• Funding Disbursement: Direct grants to cultural organizations, administrative overhead to 

support grant disbursement. 

• Disbursement Timeline: Contracts to be executed in 2021 with full spend down by 2022. 
15

Use of Evidence

• This is not an evidenced-based program

Project 19: Technical Assistance Supporting Rehiring Cultural Workers 

Funding amount: $25,000

Project Expenditure Category:

2.7 Job Training Assistance (e.g., Sectoral job-training, Subsidized Employment, Employment

Supports or Incentives)

Project overview

• Program Description: This program centers the technical assistance requested by the arts and 

cultural sector to rehire artists and cultural workers, especially those who are representative of 

the communities who have been most impacted by COVID-19 (based on race, class, and 

industry), using a racial equity lens. This program would share-out via email, social media, webcontent and webinar best practice guidance for the rehiring of artists and cultural workers, that 

centers their well-being, to arts and cultural organizations and creative businesses throughout 

the region. The majority of positions held by BIPOC artists and cultural workers were contract 

and seasonal positions that were the first to be cut and will be the last to be rehired due to 

COVID. This program addresses some of the systemic changes needed to ensure greater access 

and anti-racist work practices so that the cultural workers and artists, from communities most 

impacted by COVID-19, are prioritized in hiring as the arts and cultural sector starts to re-open.

• Funding Disbursement: Hiring additional government staff, direct contract with consultants and 

vendors, stipends for webinar panelists.

• Disbursement Timeline: Funding disbursed through 2022.

Use of Evidence

• This is not an evidenced-based program

Project 20: Hope Corps: beLOVED 

Funding amount: $270,000

Project Expenditure Category: 

2.7 Job Training Assistance (e.g., Sectoral job-training, Subsidized Employment, Employment 

Supports or Incentives)

Project overview

• Program Description: This program seeks to connect under and unemployed workers in the 

creative industries with career opportunities, specifically in areas that support and meet the 

public and civic needs of our times. 
16

• Funding Disbursement: 

Direct contracts with community-based organizations and vendors.

• Disbursement Timeline: Contracting to begin in Fall 2021. 

Use of Evidence

• This is not an evidenced-based program

Project 21: Created Commons 

Funding amount: $375,000 

Project Expenditure Category:

2.12 Aid to Other Impacted Industries 

Project overview

• Program Description: This item provides support for the Created Commons program which will 

employ artists to provide cultural performances and activate public spaces Downtown and in 

other neighborhoods.

• Funding Disbursement: Funding disbursed through direct contracts with community-based 

organizations and support and administration from government staff. 

• Disbursement Timeline: Funding to be disbursed by the end of 2021. 

Use of Evidence

• This is not an evidenced-based program

Project 22: Port of Seattle 

Funding amount: $1,000,000

Project Expenditure Category: 

2.7 Job Training Assistance (e.g., Sectoral job-training, Subsidized Employment, Employment 

Supports or Incentives)

Project overview

• Program Description: This item provides funding for a partnership with the Port of Seattle to 

provide youth employment and paid internship opportunities targeting BIPOC youth who are 

most underserved in our region between the ages of 16 to 24 years old. This funding will 

broaden the program to ensure that BIPOC organizations that provide culturally responsive preemployment programming and support services with an emphasis on BIPOC youth or 

organizations that work with BIPOC youth qualify.

• Funding Disbursement: Direct contract with a community-based organization. 

• Disbursement Timeline: Contracts executed early 2022. 
17

Use of Evidence

• This is not an evidenced-based program

Project 23: Digital Bridge 

Funding amount: $300,000

Project Expenditure Category:

2.7 Job Training Assistance (e.g., Sectoral job-training, Subsidized Employment, Employment 

Supports or Incentives)

Project overview

• Program Description: This appropriation focused on digital equity will provide computers and 

subsidized wi-fi to individuals disproportionately impacted by COVID-19. This plan includes 

distribution and digital literacy assistance that will enable them to access career services and 

training for reemployment.

• Funding Disbursement: Direct contract with a community-based organization. 

• Disbursement Timeline: Funds to be spent and/or committed by end of 2021

Use of Evidence

• This is not an evidenced-based program

Project 24: Small Business Stabilization Fund 

Funding amount: $4,300,000

Project Expenditure Category: 

2.9 Small Business Economic Assistance (General)

Project overview

• Program Description: This investment provides one-time immediate cash grants and is 

complimentary to the Small Business Recovery Fund that will provide low-cost, long-term 

financing to small businesses.

The Small Business Stabilization Fund was created to provide emergency capital to 

businesses impacted by COVID-19 and the economic downturn that resulted from the public health 

crisis. This fund prioritizes small businesses located in areas of the city that are at risk of highdisplacement, micro-enterprise businesses (5 employees or fewer), creative sector businesses, 

and other businesses that have experienced the greatest economic impact. To date, OED has 

provided $10k grants to 826 small businesses, in addition to special stabilization grants that were 

awarded exclusively to restaurants and bars, resulting in an additional 647 grantees receiving $3150 

each at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and business closures.
18

In this sixth round, OED will use a tiered granting approach to allocate funding, instead 

of only offering $10k grants to every selected small business. Granting options in this round will 

include:

• Micro Enterprise

o Size: 5 employees or less 

o Grant amount eligibility: $5,000 to $20,000

o Revenue threshold: Net less than $500k in 2019 and 2020 

• Small business

o Size: 5-50 employees

o Grant amount eligibility: $5,000 to $20,000

o Revenue threshold: Net less than $2M in 2019 and 2020 

• Funding Disbursement: Direct assistance in the form of grants to small businesses.

• Disbursement Timeline: Funds to be spent and/or committed by end of 2021

Use of Evidence

• This is not an evidenced-based program

Additional Information 

What is the pandemic impact/harm that the program addresses? Whom does the program benefit? 

Were they disproportionately impacted by the pandemic?

Nationally and locally small businesses were directly impacted by the COVID health emergency and the 

economic downturn that continues to impact their ability to stay open and operate, employ workers, as 

well as their overall financial health. The Governor’s Stay Home, Stay Healthy order prohibited business 

ability to operate at full capacity, and for some industries their ability to operate at all, to help contain 

the spread of the deadly virus. Several critical harms that have been experienced by small businesses as 

the result of the pandemic and the public response to the crisis include but are not limited to: 

• Reduced foot traffic: Storefront businesses such as small restaurants and retail depend heavily 

on foot traffic for their customer base and have been severely impacted by the extended 

closures and stay at home orders over the past 18 months. Additionally, the immediate pivot to 

remote working further eliminated customer bases and significantly reduced revenue for many 

restaurants, retail stores, food vendors and other small businesses, particularly those located in 

neighborhoods that rely on office workers. More than 18 months later, COVID-19 variants 

continue to delay return to office plans from major employers and have kept the public largely 

“at home”. For downtown neighborhoods like Pioneer Square, Chinatown-International District, 

Westlake/Pike Place, Belltown, and South Lake Union, the decline in tourism, 

travel, convention and special event cancellations in addition to the loss of office workers 

exacerbated the reduction of foot traffic and reliable customer base that support our 

hospitality, food service, and retail small businesses.

• Revenue loss: As of June 2021, small business revenue in the Seattle metropolitan area was 35 

percent lower than in January 2020, just prior to the initial economic impacts of the COVID-19 

pandemic.1 According to an analysis of business operating expense data provided by small 

businesses in their applications to a city-led COVID relief program, the Office of Economic 

Development found that business-owners of color reported larger revenue losses than white 
19

business owners, and Latinx business owners reported larger losses than non-Latinx business 

owners.

• Inequitable access to resources and technical assistance: Nationally, small businesses in 

communities of color have had inequitable access to federal COVID-19 relief, according to 

analysis from Brookings. For example, “The PPP initially relied on traditional banks to deliver 

loans, which favored existing customers at large banks and disfavored microbusinesses 

(businesses with fewer than 10 employees), non-employer businesses, and Black- and Latino- or 

Hispanic-owned businesses (which all tend to be unbanked or underbanked).” Brookings 

research also found that racial and ethnic composition of neighborhoods is related to small 

businesses liquidity and profitability, and businesses in communities of color were already cashconstrained, unbanked or underbanked, the onset of the pandemic further delayed their ability 

to access necessary resources to survive. Treasury data shows that on average it took 31 days 

for small businesses in majority Black-zip codes to receive PPP loans—an average of seven days 

longer than small businesses in majority White neighborhoods. According to a sample analysis 

of OED’s past Small Business Stabilization grant applicants, OED found that business-owners of 

color reported receiving less COVID related financial support than white business owners. Here 

in Seattle, OED also recognized a significant gap for our micro-businesses (5 employees or less) 

and businesses owned by individuals whose primary language is not English, who had increased 

barriers to accessing the technical assistance necessary to stay open, pivot their operations, 

access resources like lease amendment supports, and access/apply /receive financial resources 

from the city, county, state, federal government and philanthropic partners.

• Accelerated shift to E-commerce: The pandemic resulted in a massive shift in consumer 

behavior, where convenience became a significant driver in behavior modifications in addition 

to local economy restrictions that reduced in person transaction opportunities. This behavior 

modification is expected to stay and will require small businesses to continue to adapt to an ecommerce driven economy. In Seattle, many small and BIPOC owned businesses were not able 

to quickly and easily adapt their businesses to respond to the immediate pivot to e-commerce 

operations. Challenges with ongoing impacts have included lack of websites and online 

commerce tools to fulfill online orders, disruption to supply chains, lack of technology, and lack 

in technological skillsets necessary for e-commerce and the new digital economy. Neighborhood 

efforts like Essential Southeast Seattle were a first step to get local businesses online and 

connected to customers that were unable to patron businesses in person due to stay at home 

orders, local restrictions, hesitancy to gather outside of personal residencies, and consumer 

behavior changes. Pivoting to e-commerce operations and acquiring the technological tools 

necessary to do so is an added expense for many businesses that have experienced significant 

revenue loss and rising debt. For example, point of sale systems like Square can cost over $800 

plus ongoing fees per transaction. Another example of the impacts of shifting to an e-commerce 

dominated economy can be seen in the increased demand for food delivery that our local 

restaurants have had to navigate in addition to multiple economy closures impacting the 

capacity level at which they could operate. In April of 2020, the City instituted a 15% cap for 

food delivery commissions on third-party delivery parties, to stop and prevent these companies 

from over-charging small businesses trying to operate in a new reality. In order to truly stabilize, 

some small businesses will require additional financial resources to acquire and maintain the 

technology needed to operate in the new digital economy.
20

• Extended economy closures: Stay at home orders and other public health requirements have had 

significant but unequal impacts on small businesses across industries, size, location and 

ownership demographics. According to a report from the Federal Reserve, 95% of employer 

firms reported that the pandemic affected their operations, and 55% reported government 

mandates were affecting their business. This report also found that midway through the 

pandemic, 57% of employer firms reported fair or poor financial health, with firms owned by 

people of color (Asian=79%, Black=77%, Hispanic=66%. White=54%), smaller firms (1-4 

employees=65%), and those in leisure and hospitality (80%) being in the worst condition. As 

Seattle’s economy re-opened under the State’s phased approach, certain small businesses—like 

our nightlife businesses—remained closed longer, qualified for nearly no local, state and federal 

emergency funding, and many had no alternative revenue streams nor the ability to pivot 

their operations (i.e., restaurants could utilize food delivery services to maintain a customer 

base) like other business models were able to do. As the economy has re-opened and consumer 

spending has begun to increase, data still shows spending on entertainment is down 10%, 

causing an ongoing financial impact to those businesses.

The SBSF aims to mitigate against these harms and support micro and small businesses with one-time 

funding that can help stabilize their cash flow in response to their unique needs and demonstrated 

financial losses. This fund will also benefit BIPOC business owners, businesses located in high 

displacement neighborhoods, and businesses that have had disproportionate financial loss as a result 

of the pandemic, consumer behavior changes, shift to and e-commerce dominated economy and public 

health mandated measures.

How does the program address the identified impact?

This program will help provide immediate support to small and micro businesses located in high 

displacement neighborhoods, owned by Black, Indigenous, and other People of color, and demonstrate 

disproportionate financial loss as a result of the pandemic. Eligible and selected businesses will receive 

cash grants in the amounts of $5k-$20k that can be used on operation expenses such as rent, wages, 

equipment, business services marketing, etc. Additionally, to provide holistic support, OED will connect 

businesses with other technical assistance support, assist businesses in becoming fully compliant if they 

are not compliant when selected, and connect businesses with neighborhood business organizations 

that can offer ongoing technical assistance support.

Project 25: Small Business Recovery Fund 

Funding amount: $3,200,000

Project Expenditure Category:

2.9 Small Business Economic Assistance (General)

Project overview

• Program Description: To help small businesses recover from the negative economic impacts of 

the pandemic, OED will use CLFR funds as grants to lower the cost of small business loans 

provided by Community Development Financial Institutions (“CDFIs”). City CLFR funds will make 

the CDFI loans partially forgivable and, in some cases, will be used to lower interest costs. City 
21

funding will help more small businesses qualify for loans, access a larger amount of financing 

than stand-alone grants, and lower loan payments which will provide small businesses with the 

type of patient capital needed for the long recovery period. No City CLFR funds will be used as 

loan capital. Instead, City CLFR funds will be used solely as companion grants to loans 

provided by CDFIs. To qualify for this Small Business Recovery Fund, small businesses will be 

required to meet certain size criteria (at least 2 of 3 factors: no more than 50 full-time 

equivalent employees; does not exceed $5 million annual gross revenue; and no more than 2 

locations. Funding will also be prioritized for small businesses that have inequitable access to 

capital, including businesses meeting any of the following criteria: 51% owned by 

a Black, Indigenous, other Person of Color (“BIPOC”) individual; 51% owned by a 

woman; or Located in a census tract that is either high displacement risk (based 

on the Displacement Risk Index in the Seattle 2035 Growth and Equity Analysis) or a census 

tract categorized as highest or second-highest disadvantage on the City’s Racial and Social 

Equity Index. Small businesses will submit an online application describing their financing 

needs. OED will contract with CDFIs to evaluate each business applicant’s financial condition, 

need for financing, and ability to borrow a loan. CLFR funds will be provided as grants to lower 

the cost of CDFI loans. Each business assisted will receive a CLFR grant in an amount 

covering 1/3 of the principal amount of the loan or $25,000, whichever is less.

• Funding Disbursement: 

o Funding will be disbursed through direct contracts with Community Development Financial 

Institutions (“CDFIs”) that provide loans to small businesses. 

o Outreach and language services will be increased through a combination of increasing 

existing contracts and RFP for new contracts

• Disbursement Timeline: Funds to be spent and/or committed by end of 2021

Use of Evidence

• This is not an evidenced-based program

Additional Information 

What is the pandemic impact/harm that the program addresses? Whom does the program benefit? 

Were they disproportionately impacted by the pandemic?

The Small Business Recovery Fund aims to mitigate against these harms and support small businesses 

with one-time grant funding that can help lower the costs of CDFI loans. Funding will help small 

businesses stabilize their cash flow in response to their unique needs and demonstrated financial losses. 

This fund will also benefit BIPOC business owners, businesses located in high displacement 

neighborhoods, and businesses that have had disproportionate financial loss as a result of the 

pandemic, consumer behavior changes, shift to and e-commerce dominated economy and public health 

mandated measures.

How does the program address the identified impact?  

This program will help provide funding support to small businesses located in high displacement 

neighborhoods, owned by Black, Indigenous, and other People of color, and demonstrate 

disproportionate financial loss as a result of the pandemic. Eligible and selected businesses will receive 

cash grants in the amount up to $25k that will lower the costs of loans provided by CDFIs. CDFIs under 

contract to OED will evaluate each business applicant’s financial condition, need for financing, and 

ability to borrow a loan. Financing can be used on operation expenses such as rent, wages, equipment, 

business services marketing, etc. Additionally, to provide holistic support, OED will connect businesses 
22

with other technical assistance support, assist businesses in becoming fully compliant if they are not 

compliant when selected, and connect businesses with neighborhood business organizations that can 

offer ongoing technical assistance support.

Project 26: Technology Access 

Funding amount: $580,000

Project Expenditure Category: 

2.9 Small Business Economic Assistance (General)

Project overview

• Program Description: This funding will provide computers and subsidized wi-fi to individuals

disproportionately impacted by COVID-19. This plan includes distribution and digital literacy 

assistance that will enable them to access career services and training for reemployment.

• Funding Disbursement: This funding will be disbursed through expansion of existing contracts as 

well as hiring new staff.

• Disbursement Timeline: Funds to be spent and/or committed by end of 2021.

Use of Evidence

• This is not an evidenced-based program

 

Project 27: Financial Health - Accounting 

Funding amount: $150,000

Project Expenditure Category:

2.9 Small Business Economic Assistance (General)

Project overview

• Program Description: The Financial Health – Accounting program will provide technical 

assistance to help small businesses manage and strengthen their financial systems. This is part 

of broader suite of resources that will help strengthen or establish businesses so they are better 

equipped to access capital and navigate a long and uncertain recovery ahead. The technical 

assistance will be provided through targeted contracts with consultants who will deliver general 

education/workshops and one on one consulting to small businesses. Subject matter includes 

but is not limited to the following areas of financial management expertise: 

- set up financial and accounting systems

- best practices on preparing for and filing taxes

- establishing and staying current on City and State licenses

- understanding tax implications of different business entities

- develop basic financial management plan

- understand and improve credit score
23

• Funding Disbursement: Contracted consultants to provide direct service and lead instructional 

workshops/courses – contract with Accounting for Taste. Extending current contract or seeking 

additional contractors depending on capacity through RFQ.

• Disbursement Timeline: Funds to be spent and/or committed by end of 2021

Use of Evidence

• This is not an evidenced-based program

Project 28: Small Business Technical Assistance – Small Business Navigation/Recovery Navigation

Funding amount: $ 150,000

Project Expenditure Category:

2.9 Small Business Economic Assistance (General)

Project overview

• Program Description: This program will provide technical assistance to small businesses to assist 

with business planning needs. When small businesses have detailed questions about their 

recovery needs, the Recovery Navigation program will offer a one-stop resource known as the 

Recovery Navigator (provided by the Office Economic Development staff) for small businesses to 

get high level support on a broad range of recovery needs. This includes general guidance in 

understanding the City's permit and regulatory processes; business plan assistance in pivoting to 

new ways of doing business (e.g., streamlining operations, and growing new markets); and 

matchmaking services regarding the identification of incubator/pop-up locations and financing 

tools. This would expand upon OED’s current support to food businesses on navigating 

permitting and regulatory issues to also include non-food businesses who need similar 

assistance in getting re-established.

• Funding Disbursement: Direct TA services provided by City staff using a web-based commercial 

property tracking tool to perform matchmaking services (identification of incubator, pop-up 

locations). Outreach and language services will be increased through a combination of 

expansion of existing contracts and RFP for new contracts

• Disbursement Timeline: Funds to be spent and/or committed by end of 2021

Use of Evidence

• This is not an evidenced-based program

Project 29: Small Business and Creatives Relief Program 

Funding amount: $120,000

Project Expenditure Category: 

2.12 Aid to Other Impacted Industries

Project overview
24

• Program Description: This item provides funding for direct financial assistance to individual small 

businesses and organizations impacted by COVID.

• Funding Disbursement: Direct contracts. 

• Disbursement Timeline: By August 30.- Businesses and musicians selected. Funds dispersed as 

payments through Gigs 4 U per performance.

Use of Evidence

• This is not an evidenced-based program

Project 30: Legal Technical Assistance 

Funding amount: $500,000

Project Expenditure Category: 

2.9 Small Business Economic Assistance (General)

Project overview: 

• Program Description: Program funds will be used to provide information and template 

documents to help small businesses and nonprofits navigate the complex and difficult legal 

challenges brought forth by the COVID-19 pandemic, including lost revenues that have led to 

difficulties paying rent under commercial leases and rental agreements.

• Funding Disbursement: TBD

• Disbursement Timeline: TBD

Use of Evidence

• This is not an evidenced-based program

Project 31: Empty Storefronts Activation 

Funding amount: $500,000

Project Expenditure Category:

2.12 Aid to Other Impacted Industries

Project overview: 

• Program Description: This program will contract with small businesses, artists, and creative to 

activate empty storefronts. Contracts will fund the transformation of underused spaces into 

retail and artists pop-ups. 

• Funding Disbursement: TBD

• Disbursement Timeline: TBD

Use of Evidence

• This is not an evidenced-based program
25

Project 32: Commercial Affordability 

Funding amount: $2,000,000

Project Expenditure Category: 

2.9 Small Business Economic Assistance (General)

Project overview

• Program Description: This item provides funding for commercial affordability support to small

and micro-businesses.

• Funding Disbursement: 

o Commercial affordability projects will be selected through an RFP process with input 

provided by neighborhood business district partners. 

o Outreach and language services will be increased through a combination of increasing 

existing contracts and RFP for new contracts.

• Disbursement Timeline: Funds to be spent and/or committed by end of 2021

Use of Evidence

• This is not an evidence-based program. 

Project 33: Neighborhood Economic Recovery Grants 

Funding amount: $5,500,000

Project Expenditure Category: 

2.9 Small Business Economic Assistance (General)

Project overview

• Program Description: This item will support community-led strategies to reignite the local 

economy and respond to the specific economic and community needs of neighborhoods across 

Seattle, with an intentional focus on racial equity. Grants will fund recovery strategies and 

activities such as:

o Public and commercial space activations, like, outdoor seating, retail/vendor markets, 

public art displays, music events, community events and commercial space popups  

o Digital equity projects, such as neighborhood digital marketplaces for local small 

businesses

o Communications infrastructure development, to create websites, social 

media platforms, and contact databases to circulate community news and resources, 

and share information about local businesses and events to spur economic and social 

activity within a neighborhood

o Physical Improvements in Neighborhoods, such as lighting, sidewalk cleaning, murals,

façade to improve the quality of a neighborhoods physical space for the benefit of 

businesses, residents, and visitors

o Community safety projects, such as business block watches, and community organizing
26

o Outreach to support businesses and connect them to technical assistance, 

support residents, and build partnerships between community organizations, service 

providers, etc., and

o Other economic recovery projects that are specific to a particular neighborhood’s needs

• Funding Disbursement: This investment will be distributed through direct grants to Business 

Improvement Area organizations (BIA) and other business district organization partners 

with existing relationships with the city. Additionally, a portion of this funding will be released 

through a public RFP to support community driven solutions from a broader range of eligible 

applicants that include business organizations, community organizations, cultural districts, 

cultural organizations, arts organizations, small businesses such as community event producers, 

artists, consultants, or a collection of individuals.

• Disbursement Timeline: RFP will be release in Fall 2021. Contracts for direct allocation expected 

to begin Fall 2021. All of the funding will be allocated by year end 2021.

Use of Evidence

• This is not an evidenced-based program

Additional Information 

What is the pandemic impact/harm that the program addresses? Whom does the program benefit? 

Were they disproportionately impacted by the pandemic?

The Neighborhood Economic Recovery investments will benefit small businesses, workers, and residents 

through holistic neighborhood revitalization strategies, proposed by the community and existing 

neighborhood business district organization and partners, that address neighborhood challenges such as 

the reduction in foot traffic, business closures and vacant storefronts, inequitable access and 

distribution of resources and technical assistance, rapid shift to e-commerce, and public space 

vandalism and deterioration. Analysis conducted by a cross-departmental data team found that most of 

the neighborhoods classified as highest disadvantages on the Race and Social Equity Index also 

experienced the highest health and business impacts from the COVID pandemic. While all 

neighborhoods have experienced impacts from the pandemic, this program will target the largest 

investments to these highest impacted neighborhoods, and prioritizes proposals that focus support for 

BIPOC businesses and communities that have experienced disproportionate impacts from the pandemic.

How does the program address the identified impact?  

Neighborhood business districts in Seattle are the heart of our neighborhoods and centers of 

community, commerce and culture. They are drivers of local economies, supporting local 

entrepreneurship, employment, and wealth creation and therefore a key driver of equitable economic 

recovery from the pandemic. OED has been in ongoing discussions with neighborhood partners about 

strategies for economic recovery in their neighborhoods. Neighborhood Economic Recovery projects will

be community-based solutions which address the impacts that the COVID-19 pandemic and related 

public health measures had on neighborhoods and our local economy. 

Applicants will be asked to describe COVID impacts in their neighborhood and how their proposal will 

address these impacts and help businesses and communities recover economically. Neighborhood 

Economic Recovery investments can support a variety of activities and projects that directly help 

businesses, communities and local economies recover from those impacts. For example:
27

1. Place-based investments to help restore foot traffic and support creative entrepreneurs would 

support strategies such as:

• Public and commercial space activations, including but not limited to outdoor seating, 

retail/vendor markets, public art and music events, community events and commercial 

space popups

• Neighborhood Physical Improvements, such as lighting, sidewalk cleaning, murals, façade, 

and other cleaning/beautification efforts 

• Community safety projects, such as business block watches, community organizing

2. Neighborhood-wide strategies and promotions to help businesses adapt and succeed in a digital 

economy, would support activities such as:

• Digital equity projects, like establishing and enhancing neighborhood digital marketplaces

• Communications infrastructure development, like websites, social media, and contact 

databases to promote community news and resources, and share stories of local businesses 

and events to the neighborhood at large (businesses, community groups, residents)

3. Connecting businesses to necessary resources through activities such as: 

o Outreach to support businesses and connect them with resources that meet their needs 

including technical assistance, federal, state, city and philanthropic resources

o Capacity building: to support and train district staff and volunteers (for business districts 

without full time staff) to assist business owners in navigating public and private sector 

resources and opportunities, in addition to serving as a partner to OED to highlight 

challenges and opportunities related to ongoing equitable economic recovery needs.

4. Other economic recovery projects that address specific neighborhood COVID impacts, i.e.,

community-based workforce projects, strategies to address vacant storefronts (incubators, popups) and affordable commercial space projects that support BIPOC business owners are all 

investment solutions.

Project 34: Downtown Activation 

Funding amount: $700,000

Project Expenditure Category:

2.9 Small Business Economic Assistance (General)

Project overview

• Program Description: 

o Empty Storefront Activation: A total of $200,000 will be used to contract with retail 

small businesses, artists and creatives to activate empty storefronts. Contracts will fund 

the transformation of underused spaces into retail and artist pop-ups. This funding will 

go toward the Empty Storefront Activation item described above.

o Downtown Neighborhood Granting: Grant amounts totaling $500,000 will be made via 

direct allocations to the Alliance for Pioneer Square, Belltown United, South Lake Union 

and the Uptown Alliance. These grants will be for the same purposes as the 

Neighborhood Economic Recovery Grants, but for the downtown neighborhood.

• Funding Disbursement: Combination of direct allocations and contracts.
28

• Disbursement Timeline: Funding will be disbursed by 2021.

Use of Evidence

• This is not an evidenced-based program

Project 35: Downtown Workforce Development 

Funding amount: $400,000

Project Expenditure Category: 

2.7 Job Training Assistance (e.g., Sectoral job-training, Subsidized Employment, Employment 

Supports or Incentives)

Project overview

• Program Description: This program seeks to both increase the quality of hospitality jobs 

downtown and create supports to help BIPOC and vulnerable individuals find and qualify for 

those jobs. It will also support hospitality workers finding new living wage careers in other 

industries like healthcare, IT or Maritime. 

• Funding Disbursement: Contracts with service providers. 

• Disbursement Timeline: Funding will be disbursed by 2022.

Use of Evidence

• This is not an evidenced-based program

Project 36: Enhanced Diaper Distribution 

Funding amount: $225,000 

Project Expenditure Category:

3.9 Healthy Childhood Environments: Other

Project overview

• Program Description: This item provides funding to diapers to families in need through a 

contract with an organization whose mission is to provide essential items to local children in 

need by collecting and distributing diapers, clothing, and equipment.

• Funding Disbursement: Direct contract with a community-based organization.

• Disbursement Timeline: Contract date to possibly start in Fall 2021 for immediate disbursement 

of resources with contract to end Spring 2022.

Use of Evidence

• This is not an evidenced-based program.
29

Project 37: Good Food Kitchens 

Funding amount: $690,000

Project Expenditure Category: 

2.1 Household Assistance: Food Programs

Project overview

• Program Description: This item provides funding to contract with an organization that directly 

funds restaurants to prepare free meals to those in need, while supporting local farms and 

producers and building long-term local supply chain relationships.

• Funding Disbursement: Direct contract with a community-based organization.

• Disbursement Timeline: Contract date to begin in Fall 2021. 

Use of Evidence

• This is not an evidenced-based program

Project 38: Childcare Facilities 

Funding amount: $5,000,000

Project Expenditure Category: 

3.6 Healthy Childhood Environments: Child Care

Project overview

• Program Description: This item provides funding to the City of Seattle’s Community 

Facilities/Childcare Bonus Programs which support development or expansion of childcare 

facilities. 

• Funding Disbursement: This support will be disbursed via a competitive RFP process.

• Disbursement Timeline: RFP process early 2022 with all funds encumbered 2022 and disbursed 

by 2026. 

Use of Evidence

• This provides the opportunity to increase the number of available childcare facilities, many of 

which are evidence-based programs.
30

Project 39: Behavioral Health for Youth and Families 

Funding amount: $600,000

Project Expenditure Category: 

3.13 Social Determinants of Health: Other 

Project overview

• Program Description: This investment provides mental health services for individuals, youth, 

families including mental health and behavioral services for individuals, youth and families. This 

includes services provided at emergency shelters and supportive housing.

• Funding Disbursement: Expansion of existing contracts. Funds will be allocated to current 

behavioral health contractors who have the capacity to administer additional services, reported 

increased service needs and/or will achieve performance commitment outcomes successfully.

• Disbursement Timeline: Funds will be contracted to agencies by the end of 2020.

Use of Evidence

• This is not an evidence-based program. 

Project 40: Gender Based Violence Response Services 

Funding amount: $600,000

Project Expenditure Category: 

3.16 Social Determinants of Health: Community Violence Interventions

Project overview

• Program Description: This item provides funding to support programs for survivors of genderbased violence, including at least $85,000 for organizations which provide legal assistance for 

immigrant and refugee survivors of gender-based violence

• Funding Disbursement: Expansion contracts with existing grantees.

• Disbursement Timeline: Fully disbursed by the end of 2021. 

Use of Evidence

• This is not an evidence-based program.

 
31

Project 41: HSI Capacity Building 

Funding amount: $2,300,000

Project Expenditure Category: 

3.12 Housing Support: Other Housing Assistance

Project overview

• Program Description: This item provides funding for homelessness service providers to build 

capacity in their programs to ensure support of high-acuity clients, long-term stability of 

organizations and higher achievement of performance outcomes.

• Funding Disbursement: Direct contract with community-based organizations. 

• Disbursement Timeline: Timing dependent on regional planning strategy. 

Use of Evidence

• This is not an evidence-based program. 

Project 42: Additional Diversion 

Funding amount: $1,300,000

Project Expenditure Category: 

3.11 Housing Support: Services for Unhoused Persons

Project overview

• Program Description: This item provides diversion funding for those persons experiencing 

homelessness. Diversion support is light-touch, individualized support and cash assistance to 

help individuals and families avoid entrance into shelter. Case managers work with individuals 

and families to identify immediate, alternative housing arrangements, and if necessary, connect 

them with services and financial assistance to obtain housing.

• Funding Disbursement: Funds will be contracted through a combination of direct allocation to 

existing providers and through a regional centralized diversion funding pool. 

• Disbursement Timeline: Fund distribution and implementation will need to align with regional 

implementation plan and community priorities. 

Use of Evidence

• This is an evidence-based program. Diversion has been demonstrated to be a successful method 

at preventing people from entering the homeless service system. A Building Changes pilot in 

Washington State found “about half of the 1,898 families that pursued Diversion found safe 

housing quickly, averting the need for costlier interventions. Among the families successfully 

housed through Diversion, the vast majority did not return to homelessness within a year.”

5

5 Building Changes, “Homelessness to Housed in a Hurry”, April 2018, link.
32

Project 43: Increase Rapid Rehousing (RRH) 

Funding amount: $6,700,000

Project Expenditure Category: 

3.11 Housing Support: Services for Unhoused Persons

Project overview

• Program Description: This item provides funding for rapid rehousing programs.

• Funding Disbursement: Funds will be contracted through a combination of direct allocation to 

existing providers and through a regional centralized diversion funding pool. 

• Disbursement Timeline: Fund distribution and implementation will need to align with regional 

implementation plan and community priorities. 

Use of Evidence

• This is an evidence-based program. A comprehensive review of rapid rehousing found that it is a 

strategy that helps families exit from shelter quickly and has a low rate of return to 

homelessness. This strategy is found to positively increase income.6

Project 44: Enhanced Shelter and Outreach 

Funding amount: $7,500,000

Project Expenditure Category:

3.12 Housing Support: Other Housing Assistance

Project overview

• Program Description: This item provides funding to support non-congregate shelter and 

intensive support services for chronically homeless individuals.

• Funding Disbursement: Funds will be contracted through direct allocation to existing providers 

and new contracts with community-based organizations. 

• Disbursement Timeline: Fund distribution and implementation will need to align with regional 

implementation plan and community priorities but expected to be disbursed by 2022. 

Use of Evidence

• This is not an evidence-based program.

 

6 The Urban Institute, “Rapid Re-Housing – What the Research Says”, June 2015, link.
33

Project 45: Safe Lots (RV/ Vehicles) 

Funding amount: $500,000

Project Expenditure Category

3.12 Housing Support: Other Housing Assistance

Project overview

• Program Description: This item provides funding to support a six-month pilot to serve people 

experiencing homelessness who are living in recreational vehicles (RVs), such as a staffed safe 

parking lot, case management to move those living in RVs into permanent housing, services to 

meet the basic needs of RV residents utilizing the safe lot, or RV storage for households that 

accept housing or shelter placements. At least a portion of the funds are intended to support 

storage of RVs for households experiencing homelessness who accept housing or shelter 

placements.

• Funding Disbursement: Funds will be contracted through a combination of direct allocation to 

existing providers and/or new contracts awarded via a competitive RFP. 

• Disbursement Timeline: Fund distribution and implementation will need to align with regional 

implementation plan and community priorities. 

Use of Evidence

This is not an evidence-based program.

Project 46: Tiny Home Villages 

Funding amount: $400,000

Project Expenditure Category: 

3.12 Housing Support: Other Housing Assistance

Project overview

• Program Description: This item provides funding to increase resources to support the operation, 

maintenance, and services for new tiny house villages. These funds will be provided in concert 

with $2 million for tiny home villages in the State 2021-2023 Capital Budget and unspent 

appropriations from Council Budget Actions HOM-008-B-002 and HOM-009-B-002 in the 2021 

Adopted Budget to ensure that initial operational funds are available to establish more than 

three tiny home villages supported by the State’s capital funding.

• Funding Disbursement: Funds will be contracted through a combination of direct allocation to 

existing providers and/or new contracts awarded via a competitive RFP. 

• Disbursement Timeline: Fund distribution and implementation will need to align with regional 

implementation plan and community priorities. 

Use of Evidence

• This is an emerging policy area. Although there have not been any rigorous evaluations of the 

tiny home program, there are some case studies that indicate tiny home villages can be 

opportunities to implement permanent supportive housing. 

• Seattle will explore this strategy for a possible program evaluation. 
34

Project 47: Multifamily Housing Acquisition Capital 

Funding amount: $16,300,000

Project Expenditure Category:

3.10 Housing Support: Affordable Housing

Project overview

• Program Description: These funds will support the acquisition of buildings and/or land to create 

new affordable housing units for those facing or at risk of homelessness. This investment will 

support approximately 400 new units disproportionately benefitting people of color and people 

from historically disadvantaged communities. In addition, property may be acquired by 

historically underrepresented communities harmed by racially discriminatory policies such 

as redlining.

• Funding Disbursement: We will allocate the funds via a Notice of Funding Availability, an award 

and a financial closing with loans, promissory notes, regulatory agreements, and deeds of trust 

in adherence with our existing funding policies.

• Disbursement Timeline: We hope to publish the NOFA in July with the first round of applications 

due July 28th, and then make awards on a rolling basis through the summer and fall until all 

funds are awarded. We anticipate full spend-down by the end of 2021.

Use of Evidence

• Although the acquisition of capital is not itself an evidence-based policy, it is a key piece in many 

of our evidence-based programs serving low-income people who are at risk of homelessness.

Additional Information 

What is the pandemic impact/harm that the program addresses? Whom does the program benefit? 

Were they disproportionately impacted by the pandemic?

The pandemic exacerbated the affordable housing crisis. It disproportionately impacted people of color 

and low-income residents, who are also disproportionately represented among the population facing or 

at risk of homelessness. This program will benefit low-income people who are at risk of homelessness, 

and who are predominately under 30% of the Area Median Income.

How does the program address the identified impact?  

The program addresses the impact by creating new affordable units to house the affected population.
35

Project 48: Capacity Building for Housing Providers 

Funding amount: $2,000,000

Project Expenditure Category: 

3.10 Housing Support: Affordable Housing

Project overview

• Program Description: This program will provide financial assistance to non-profit affordable 

housing organizations that have been negatively impacted by the pandemic. The pandemic 

impacted non-profit affordable housing providers through a combination of decreased 

fundraising revenue, decreased rental income, and increased expenses related to COVID 

prevention. The program will directly benefit these agencies, and financially stabilizing these 

agencies will in turn benefit the people they serve. Tenants served by recipient organizations 

are low-income and represent a population that has been disproportionately impacted by the 

pandemic. Funds will support capacity building and stabilization efforts to ensure that 

organizations can continue to operate effectively through the COVID-19 recovery. 

• Funding Disbursement: Allocation of funds through a contract with each selected agency. A 

unique scope of work will be established for each contract based on the data provided in the 

agency’s application for funds. Funds awarded through a competitive Request for Proposal (RFP) 

process.

• Disbursement Timeline: Seattle plans to issue the RFP in August and make award decisions in 

September. The disbursement schedule of funds will be determined based on each contract’s 

scope of work

Use of Evidence

• This is not an evidenced-based program.

Additional Information 

What is the pandemic impact/harm that the program addresses? Whom does the program benefit? 

Were they disproportionately impacted by the pandemic?

The pandemic impacted non-profit affordable housing providers through a combination of decreased 

fundraising revenue, decreased rental income, and increased expenses related to COVID 

prevention. The program will directly benefit these agencies, and financially stabilizing these agencies 

will in turn benefit the people they serve. Tenants served by recipient organizations are low-income and 

represent a population that has been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic.

How does the program address the identified impact?  

This program addresses the impact by stabilizing housing providers to ensure they can continue serving 

low-income tenants, who are disproportionately people of color and people representing disadvantaged 

communities. Strengthening these agencies will improve service to their tenants.
36

Project 49: Stay Healthy Streets (SHS) – Capital 

Funding amount: $1,875,000

Project Expenditure Category: 

1.8 Other COVID-19 Public Health Expenses (including Communications, Enforcement, 

Isolation/Quarantine)

Project overview

• Program Description: This proposal would fund the necessary work to make permanent the 

current temporary "Stay Healthy Streets" program. This work would include permanent signage 

and minor modifications to greenways.

• Funding Disbursement: TBD 

• Disbursement Timeline: TBD

Use of Evidence

• There is a significant body of evidence that reinforces the positive outcomes of access to 

well-maintained and inviting green space. “Studies have repeatedly shown that the 

aesthetic appeal of places enhances the desirability of those places for walking among both 

children and adults. They also show higher levels of physical activity among children and 

adults in places perceived as pleasant.”7Seattle is investing in green space improvements 

through enhanced maintenance and activation in public parks. These enhancements will 

encourage more people to use the green space infrastructure which in turn increases 

physical activity which has long-term positive health impacts. Furthermore, Seattle is 

continuing investments in the Stay Healthy Streets program. Perceived safety from traffic is 

associated with the presence of sidewalks, footpaths, and pedestrian infrastructure. Young 

children are less likely to walk, and parents are less likely to have their children walk, in 

areas they perceive as exposed to, or unsafe from, vehicular traffic. 8 The Stay Healthy 

Streets program enhancements will likely have a positive impact on children activity levels.

Project 50: Safe Starts 

Funding amount: $300,000

Project Expenditure Category: 

2.9 Small Business Economic Assistance (General)

Project overview

• Program Description: This item funds the costs associated with "Safe Starts" outdoor dining and 

retail permits and other public space permits to support recovery, allowing Seattle Department 

of Transportation (SDOT) to offer these permits at no cost to businesses for 2021.

• Funding Disbursement: TBD

• Disbursement Timeline: TBD

7 Active Living Research, “Creating places that promote physical activity: Perceiving is believing”, August 2015, link.

8 Active Living Research, “Creating places that promote physical activity: Perceiving is believing”, August 2015, link.
37

Use of Evidence:

• This is not an evidence-based program.

Project 51: Stay Healthy Streets (SHS) – Operations 

Funding amount: $625,000

Project Expenditure Category: 

1.8 Other COVID-19 Public Health Expenses (including Communications, Enforcement, 

Isolation/Quarantine)

Project overview

• Program Description: This proposal would fund the necessary work to make permanent the 

current temporary "Stay Healthy Streets" program. This work would include permanent signage 

and minor modifications to greenways. This represents the operational costs of Project #49 

(capital costs).

• Funding Disbursement: TBD

• Disbursement Timeline: TBD

Use of Evidence

• There is a significant body of evidence that reinforces the positive outcomes of access to 

well-maintained and inviting green space. “Studies have repeatedly shown that the 

aesthetic appeal of places enhances the desirability of those places for walking among both 

children and adults. They also show higher levels of physical activity among children and 

adults in places perceived as pleasant.”9Seattle is investing in green space improvements 

through enhanced maintenance and activation in public parks. These enhancements will 

encourage more people to use the green space infrastructure which in turn increases 

physical activity which has long-term positive health impacts. Furthermore, Seattle is 

continuing investments in the Stay Healthy Streets program. Perceived safety from traffic is 

associated with the presence of sidewalks, footpaths, and pedestrian infrastructure. Young 

children are less likely to walk, and parents are less likely to have their children walk, in 

areas they perceive as exposed to, or unsafe from, vehicular traffic. 10 The Stay Healthy 

Streets program enhancements will likely have a positive impact on children activity levels.

9 Active Living Research, “Creating places that promote physical activity: Perceiving is believing”, August 2015, link.

10 Active Living Research, “Creating places that promote physical activity: Perceiving is believing”, August 2015, 

link.
38

Project 52: Revenue Replacement 

Funding amount: $25,900,000

Project Expenditure Category: 

6.1 Revenue Replacement – Provision of Government Services 

Project overview

• Program Description: Seattle will be using $25 million in revenue replacement to provide a new 

round of cash assistance through the Seattle Disaster Relief Fund. The intended recipients of the 

new round of cash assistance are low-income families of Seattle, with an emphasis on 

communities disproportionately impacted by COVID-19, including immigrant and refugee 

families and by Black, Latinx, Indigenous, and other communities of color, and workers in the 

creative industry.

• Funding Disbursement: TBD

• Disbursement Timeline: TBD

Use of Evidence: 

• This is not an evidence-based program.