So, the twenty-eight people who are supposed to craft policies to make Seattle more affordable and livable for everyone held their first meeting this week. On Election Day! By mayoral and Seattle City Council decree! Cell phone use was verboten and the meeting went "extremely well," David Wertheimer, one of the co-chairs, says via e-mail. "Only one member of the HALA (the official name for the group now), was absent (excused for travel)—everyone else showed up."

HALA—pronounced "Holla!"—stands for Housing Affordability and Livability Agenda Advisory Committee. (The last A and C are silent. Or something.)

"The first meeting was spent largely on introductory activities," Wertheimer says. "The Mayor and Councilmembers Clark and O'Brien welcomed the Committee, and we went around the room, asking everyone to briefly share their backgrounds and interests with the group, explaining why they are part of the committee. That was a surprisingly rich activity." (I wrote about the makeup of the group, which some say doesn't include enough low-income and renter voices, over here.)

Then, Wertheimer says, the committee was shown the following presentation on Seattle's current housing situation. "Workers in some of the city's most common occupations are priced out of living in Seattle," it declares, citing survey data. A final graph breaks down the 70,000 total new housing units the city says it needs to keep up with population growth and maps it over income distribution, showing that, at a minimum, the city needs 27,000 of those units to be affordable for people making $49,440 or less.

The committee members were also provided with material demonstrating that housing is a race and social justice issue and that minorities in Seattle experience worse housing outcomes than their white counterparts, including information on the city's history of redlining. (I did not see, however, any reference in the materials provided to the committee to the ongoing process of gentrification and its racial consequences.)

"I think we all came away from the meeting with a deep awareness of the challenges we will face in the months ahead, (if this were easy, we wouldn’t need a committee!)," Wertheimer adds. The committee is charged with delivering recommendations to Mayor Ed Murray by May of 2015.

In the meantime, there's a website with more info and a full list of committee members here, plus three public meetings coming right up:

South Seattle: Ethiopian Community Center (Map)
Wednesday, November 19, 2014, 6 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.

Central District: Garfield Community Center (Map)
Thursday, November 20, 2014, 6 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.

Northgate: Olympic View Elementary (Map)
Thursday, December 04, 2014, 6 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.