Meet Tacoma City Council candidate Anne Artman
Editor’s note: This is one in a series of interviews with candidates running for Tacoma City Council. In each interview, The News Tribune asked every candidate two questions: what they pay in rent or mortgage, and if they could correctly state the median home sale price in Pierce County, which is around $500,000 as of April 2021.
Anne Artman is running for the Tacoma City Council District 5 seat, which serves the South Tacoma and South End neighborhoods.
The seat is currently held by Council member Chris Beale, who is not seeking re-election.
Artman, 60, has lived in Tacoma’s District 5 for 38 years and is the founder of the Tacoma Recovery Center, which supports individuals with behavioral health issues, homelessness and substance misuse and helps with employment services. She’s also on the board for the Hilltop Business Association.
Artman used to work for Microsoft, but said after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, decided to pursue a job that gave back to her community. She started working with her sister, who founded the Multicultural Child and Family Hope Center. Artman started the Tacoma Recovery Cafe in 2014, which became the Tacoma Recovery Center. Artman has a degree in psychology and a master’s degree in behavioral health.
Artman decided to run for City Council in large part because of her experience with people experiencing homelessness. In December 2019, Tacoma’s first tiny house village was set up across the street from Tacoma Recovery Center on Martin Luther King. Jr. Way. The center helped connect people to services and helped them stay housed, she said.
“It was successful because of social services that we provided,” she said. “It was directly across the street, within proximity to where they lived. There were no barriers there, and every one of them went into treatment or came over to our recovery center for treatment ... I believe that my lived experience of working with individuals is probably my most powerful tool or gift that I have to bring into the City Council.”
Homelessness is increasing in Tacoma, Artman said, and the response to address it needs to be taken seriously.
“It’s not going to work unless it’s through collaboration of providers and the community as well,” she said.
Artman supports continuing the tiny home villages while finding ways to make sure recovery centers are accessible nearby those shelters. She also supports exploring the “hotel model” in Tacoma, which uses hotels to give people a place to stay while they receive treatment, go to their jobs and find permanent housing. Artman said she flew to Arizona to see an example.
Artman also believes that when someone is having a behavioral health emergency, people who are equipped to deal with mental health crises should respond.
She mentioned the case of Manuel Ellis, who died after being restrained by police in March 2020. His death happened in District 5. Artman said that perhaps if the right people had responded to help him, rather than the police, the outcome could have been different.
Artman believes there needs to be police reform. She would like to see community liaison officers or an alternative response team responding to non-emergency calls. She also suggested more frequent psychological evaluations for police officers.
“Not so that they lose their jobs, but so that if you determine that there’s something going on, even if it says something about bias against people of color, then let’s address it,” she said.
When asked about how she would approach housing and rising rents in Tacoma, Artman said the city needs to increase required affordability. She spoke to the city’s Multifamily Tax Exemption options for builders that require 20 percent of units to be affordable. “Affordability” is determined by Pierce County median incomes.
“If we’re serious about affordable housing when we create these affordable apartments, let’s say, for example, why not 50 percent affordable housing and 50 percent market rate?” she said.
Artman said that she would like to spur small business development in her district and that there needs to be more of an effort to make people, especially in South Tacoma and South End neighborhoods, more aware of the programs available for helping small business owners. She also would like to see a farmer’s market started.
When asked about the city’s efforts in regulating use of fossil fuels in the Port of Tacoma, Artman said there should be tightened regulations, and she feels any expansion of fossil fuels will broaden health disparities that already exist in Tacoma. She said she will not accept endorsements or funding from fossil-fuel companies.
Artman has raised $28,570 for her campaign so far. Her biggest contributors are Tracy Whitley ($1,300), Adrian Johnson ($1,110), Anne Artman ($1,100) and SEIU Healthcare 1199 NW PAC/Service Employees International Union 1199 ($1,000).
What do you pay in rent/mortgage?
“My mortgage is $2,200.”
What is the median home sale price in Pierce County?
“I think the average cost of a home in Tacoma is about $400,000.”
This story was originally published June 21, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
