On Oct. 10, the Seattle Hotel Association hosted its fall membership meeting.
We were excited to welcome Seattle Police Chief Sue Rahr who led a discussion on the steps the Seattle Police Department (SPD) are taking to improve public safety under her leadership.
- After the issues of rising drug use and crime during the pandemic, Chief Rahr believes we are on a positive trajectory in Seattle thanks to the new efforts our city government has taken.
- While there have been major improvements to public safety in Seattle, Rahr believes that there are many investments the city still needs to make by hiring more police and CARE officers and funding more resources for drug treatment.
- Rahr sees an approach to public safety that addresses the needs of those who may be struggling with addiction or mental health, while still making sure pedestrians and visitors to the city are safe.
We were also joined by Jon Scholes, president and CEO of the Downtown Seattle Association (DSA) who spoke on upcoming updates to the organization.
Here are a few resources and highlights from the presentation:
- Jon is very happy with the progress made with public safety in Seattle and believes these improvements are due in large part to the partnership between the DSA and SPD.
- Jon sees that a large reason why Seattle’s downtown has been growing post-pandemic much faster than many other cities, is the balance of visitors, residents and workers that many places do not have.
- Seattle also has made investments in its downtown core and faces a growing reputation that helps bring visitors here from all over the world.
Mary Lagomarsino from Plymouth Housing gave an informative presentation about how Seattle hotels and Plymouth Housing can collaborate.
Here are a few resources and highlights from the presentation:
- Plymouth Housing’s mission is to eliminate homelessness and address its causes by preserving, developing and operating safe, quality and supportive housing and provide adults experiencing homelessness with opportunities to stabilize and improve their lives.
- Plymouth Housing residents have a 95% success rate in maintaining housing stability.
- Plymouth Housing houses large amounts of residents with pre-existing conditions and provides support to them through social services and medical offices in most of their sites.
- In addition to providing a compassionate source of support, the housing that Plymouth provides is much more cost effective than the health risks that come from being unhoused.
- To learn more about the work Plymouth Housing does, visit the link here.
For questions about how your hotel can help Plymouth Housing’s goal of ending homelessness, contact Mary Lagomarsino at mlagomarsino@plymouthhousing.org.
A special thanks to the Renaissance Seattle Hotel and General Manager Juergen Oswald, for hosting this event!
We will see you all at the next SHA membership meeting in the spring 2025.