SEATTLE — The mayor of Seattle has suspended a homeless outreach group that was providing services to people living on the streets, marking what could also be the beginning of budget cuts for the police department.
Mayor Jenny Durkan made the decision Wednesday after the City Council voted last week to override a mayoral veto that would have kept the group, called the Navigation Team, KOMO-TV reported.
The group has 10 police officers and 14 outreach workers from the city government’s Human Services Department. City officials have said the group will continue its work until the end of the year, but that the suspension could become indefinite if the council does not restore funding for the team.
“The City must suspend its (Navigation Team) work and will no longer be deploying staff to conduct outreach or address unauthorized encampments until the Council restores funding for these positions,” Durkan said during a budget briefing meeting.
A line item in for the mayor’s 2021 budget includes restoration of several city outreach worker jobs but did not say if they will be members of a similar sort of team.
“Between now and the end of the year, (the) council has made its intention clear that it wants to eliminate the Navigation Team, but internally we are still assessing all the implications of that,” Durkan said.
The Seattle Police Department said officers will no longer go into homeless encampments with the intent of removing them, making it unclear who would eliminate the camps if they pose safety hazards.
Several council members argued that the Navigation Team was just a force to perform encampment sweeps, but Durkan suggested that there was a legal justification for its existence. She cited a concern that officers without trained personnel to back them up could face lawsuits if forced to clear out camps.
The city is also moving forward with the layoffs of 70 police officers, Durkan said, adding that the process is being discussed with the Seattle Police Officers Guild union. That process is not expected to be completed until Nov. 1.
“We can’t afford to lose 70 officers,” said Victoria Beach the chair of the SPD African American Community Advisory Council. “It’s going to be pretty bad. People think things are bad now, just wait till the layoffs come.”
Interim Chief Adrian Diaz sent out a letter Wednesday to the department saying that she does not anticipate any layoffs will happen by the council’s deadline because of the required labor and legal processes officials must follow when they plan to lay off officers.
It was unclear when the city and union officials were expected to meet.
