Debbie Lacey, director of Eastside for All, urged the Bellevue City Council on Oct. 28 to increase human‑services grants in the city's mid‑biennial budget to support immigrant community "first responders" and culturally specific services. "We ask Bellevue to do the same through a mid biennium budget amendment to increase human services funding for immigrant community first responders," Lacey said during oral communications.

Lacey and Lalita Upala (who goes by Sheher), executive director of Indian American Community Services, told the council small immigrant‑led nonprofits are providing emergency help — including guardianship, food and language‑specific legal aid — for families affected by recent federal enforcement. Lacey said Bellevue's earlier one‑time allocation of nearly $2,800,000 included no additional mid‑biennium adjustment and that only about 6 percent of an earlier allocation went to organizations "best positioned to respond," despite more than 40 percent of Bellevue residents being first‑generation immigrants.

Upala described teams delivering "linguistically and culturally relevant immigration assistance, help desk education, [and] know your rights campaigns" and said community‑based organizations are already providing crisis services despite limited budgets. Both speakers pointed to nearby cities that have created emergency funds: Kirkland provided roughly $166,000 and Redmond $250,000 in local support earlier this year, the speakers said.

Council members asked staff at the mid‑biennial budget discussion to return options for council consideration at the Nov. 12 public hearing, including the possibility of using council contingency funds or other one‑time reserves to seed a rapid‑response fund or expand contracted legal and navigator services. No formal council action to allocate funds occurred at the Oct. 28 meeting; council directed staff to return legislation on several fee and rate updates (see related article).