Rainier Beach Public Safety Forum Provides Update on Community Passageways Safe Passage Program

At a recent public safety meeting in Rainier Beach, attendees learned that while several City of Seattle contracts with Community Passageways will sunset in several months, one centered on providing neighborhood safety services will run through the 2026–2027 school year. Attendees also received information on how parents and guardians can respond when schools ask students to shelter in place. 

The meeting, held on Sept. 30 in the Rainier Beach High School library, brought together parents, neighborhood residents, politicians, and representatives from the Seattle Police Department (SPD). It occurred a week after Mayor Katie Wilson introduced her first budget proposal for 2027–2028, including $45 million in funding for the Human Services Department (HSD), which contracts with community-based organizations like Community Passageways for both violence prevention and community-violence intervention (CVI) services.

Wilson's budget proposal doubled down on the end of direct funding for community-led CVI programs, stating the City's nine CVI contracts will be transferred to the Community Assisted Response and Engagement (CARE) department. "HSD will maintain contracts for violence prevention including supportive services and school-based safety services, including for safe passage to and from school," according to the proposed budget overview and Wilson's gun-violence plan. 

Community Passageways currently has five contracts with the City, four of which will end on Dec. 31. Those four contracts cover the CVI work that will be absorbed by the CARE department. 

The remaining contract, set to expire on June 30, 2027, addresses "school based safety services and safe passages." It represents $350,000 in one-time funding. The City's contracts with Community Passageways can be viewed on the City's contract search portal.

"We are in budget season right now," said District 2 Councilmember Eddie Lin, who spoke at the forum, "and you've probably heard the budget's tight, but that doesn't mean that we shouldn't be prioritizing safety [in Rainier Beach]. So I was very thankful that the mayor's office had money for teen programming and other public safety efforts down here. We're still going to need to fight to defend that as part of the budget process."

Lin also said that the community violence efforts by organizations like Community Passageways is "really hard work," and that "we will continue to fight to defend that and to fund it as much as we can." 

District 2 King County Councilmember Rhonda Lewis spoke about priorities during the budgeting season. "My mantra is 'A budget is a moral document.' A budget tells people what you care about," she said. 

With the funds from Wilson's office, Community Passageways will continue to facilitate supportive services for a safe-passage program alongside Rainier Beach Action Coalition (RBAC). Brandon Hill, Community Passageways Southeast co-director who oversees the safe passage and street teams, discussed shared coverage routes. He also presented a map of gun-violence "hot spots" in the Rainier Beach neighborhood and the groups' plans to canvass those areas.

"After school, you will see us right here at Rainier and Henderson, and you'll also see us at South Shore [PK-8 School]. We'll start at South Shore first because they let out earlier than the high school," Hill said, detailing information about plans to also address safety issues for RBHS students. Thomas Jackson, guardianship coordinator at RBAC, followed Hill's presentation and briefly went over RBAC's routes, which were similar to routes maintained by Community Passageways. 

SPD South Precinct Captain Heidi Tuttle shared data that showed shootings and shots fired from January to September 2026 were down 44% compared with January to September 2025. The total number of fatal shootings during both periods was one. 

Tuttle also provided data that from September 2025 to September 2026, five juveniles were suspected shooters (11.3% of total suspects), and seven juveniles were shooting victims (18.4% of total victims).

A public safety forum in July ended in a heated discussion regarding City funding for CVI programs after the City's contract with Community Passageways' work in Rainier Beach came to an end, with no plans to renew funding as the school year approached. The contract's end precipitated the laying off of 13 Community Passageways staff members.

After two months of organizing among concerned Rainier Beach residents, parents, and community organizations, Wilson announced on Aug. 29 that the city would provide $350,000 to fund Community Passageways' safe-passage efforts in the neighborhood.

At the most recent meeting, parents asked about shelter-in-place and lockdown drills, in the wake of a shooting on Sept. 24 that left a man wounded on 42nd Avenue South. One parent expressed concerns about reunification sites and the possibility of a shelter-in-place order occurring when children were outside while the shooter was inside. 

"I know that [with] shelter in place, if kids are on the playground at lunchtime, they do the drill there, but what happens if a bunch of kids are on the bus? And if the lockdown situation is happening because there's a call for a firearm inside the building, is it the best plan to go into the building?" the parent asked.

Jesse O'Quinn, emergency management specialist at Seattle Public Schools, said he would review the school's campus to provide an answer. "You can reach out to your staff at the school, and they will also help you know where, in case something happens, we are going to reunify. And we even have secondary reunification sites," said O'Quinn. 

At the start of the school year, every school must provide a site plan for reunification sites. According to Justin Hendrickson, executive director of K-8 schools at Seattle Public Schools, Rainier Beach has submitted its site plan.