April 10, 2007 Minutes (City Commission Room, City Hall)
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MEMBERS PRESENT: |
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Hubbard Collinsworth, Katherine Dinsdale, Phil Hemphill, Loring Henderson, Rick Marquez, Shirley Martin-Smith, Mike Monroe, Robert Mosely |
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MEMBERS ABSENT: |
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Jane Faubion, Kim Gouge, Helen Hartnett |
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STAFF PRESENT: |
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Lesley Rigney and Margene Swarts |
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PUBLIC PRESENT: |
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Jeannette Collier, Wes Dalberg, Charlotte Knoche, Norm Scraper |
Martin-Smith called the meeting to order at 8:35 am.
Approval of the April 10, 2007 Minutes
Marquez moved to approve the March 27, 2007 minutes. Collinsworth seconded the motion, which passed.
Shelter and Housing Options Discussion
Martin-Smith thanked the work group – the vision is becoming clearer. There is a work group meeting tomorrow at noon in the NR Conference Room. She said that group members would be meeting with landlords, the faith community, businesses and individuals to garner support for the vision. The group had discussed at the retreat about the CCC being the outreach/PR arm of the CCH, but it is the CCH members who have worked so closely with details, that we need to work on the public input. We can go to commission with a plan and feedback from the community.
Hemphill said he is not involved in any landlord groups. James Dunn and Bob Ebey have rotated being President of one of the groups.
Knoche said the housing authority sends out a mailing to local landlords about the voucher programs, possibly the CCH could use that list.
Martin-Smith clarified that the goal is not to put everyone just in emergency shelter, but that this will run parallel to the temporary housing. We will want to offer people temporary housing first if possible. Landlords have issues from whose name will be on the lease, who will pay deposits, who will take care of damaged property. We need to get this input from the community formally. We need to say these are the right steps to take now to address homelessness when we go to the commission.
There was a discussion about what groups should be contacted for input.
Dinsdale said what bothers her at this point, is everything is enormously vague. If community members show up and she is supposed to present them with the vision, she has no idea what the group is asking her to do. Even if we were just doing this as a sketch, the idea is that public funding can’t fill our gaps. We need private funding, volunteers, etc. Is there any way as a draft, we could go forward and say we need funding for 100 people – 30 from the county, 30 from the faith community, etc. We don’t have anything concrete to give these people. How can they step up and say yes if they don’t know what they are getting into?
Martin-Smith said we will say - This is our plan. What can you fill it in with? What do you see that might not work? We need to say this is what the CCH says the community needs. We are not going to run this program but we are looking for someone in the community who will step up and make this happen, make sure we have each piece.
Knoche said we need to talk to the service providers to see who can work with these goals. By going through the process with these input meetings, what do we hope to come out of this with?
Martin-Smith said we need to let people know this is the direction we are heading; to get this idea out to the public so groups can start thinking about it.
Rigney said it seems that the group would hope for commitment and feedback.
Martin-Smith said we want to see what partnerships we can build, it may be new.
Knoche said we need to get the homeless community to the table. We need to know their input.
Collinsworth said the best way to get homeless input is through the Coalition on Homeless Concerns (CHC). We would have to get out there with a specific time and place they need to be out.
Linda Clark, a member of the public stated that the homeless have places to go, but there are no jobs. The gap is extreme, how can you get to these jobs?
Martin-Smith said the jobs piece has been addressed in previous discussions. She stated that as far as communication goes, Hank Booth is very interested in this topic. We could talk on his show. The more we get it out to the media, the more it will help us.
Marquez said that originally, our plan was to provide a plan for emergency shelter. We were not going to name specific groups helping, or specific funding. But, we were going to present the idea and have the commission decide on funding and direction. If we are soliciting feedback, do I need to contact them with my email list? Do we need to have meetings?
Martin-Smith said the idea is that we want to present it to the City Commission, but do not want them to have to take hours of public comment. We want to have a lot of that already gathered for the commission. We need to look at neighborhood associations and DLI.
Knoche said the group could invite members of different groups, such as business, etc. at different times throughout the day to ask questions, to learn, to give feedback.
Dinsdale said she does not understand the point of these meetings. Everyone knows this is what we need to do, that this is a need. Why have all of this?
Marquez disagreed – not everyone agrees with the plan. We don’t want to have people be surprised by this idea. We don’t want them to read something in the paper and come to the meeting Tuesday fired up to discuss. We want to have the idea out there first.
Martin-Smith agreed that the CCH needs to share their plan with the community.
Marquez said if the group is going to talk to one side of the equation, we need to have to talk to both sides. If we’re talking to providers, we need to talk to the public. What kind of information can I tell my association that would be helpful?
Martin-Smith said the emergency temporary housing can touch all neighborhoods, so they all need to know it. DLI and all downtown businesses, even if they are not in the association are involved and need to know.
Knoche summarized that the group would like to take this idea to these groups and get feedback: businesses, neighborhoods, faith based groups, government – city & county, homeless community, civic groups, service providers, and housing providers.
Martin-Smith said if the group is ok with that, we can find tune if necessary.
Adjourn
The meeting adjourned at 9:27 a.m.