Item B: Update on Homeless Initiative Action Plan

Home Browse Search

omments Submitted by Committee Members C Hugh Massengill: I cannot support this proposal. As indicated by the person presenting it to the Blue Ribbon Committee (John) , it deliberately will not help single people, and it will deliberately not be used to increase emergency shelter for the greatest mass of the chronically homeless; single male adults. The emergency shelter described is mostly for families. If my "bad old days" were to come back, there is very little in this that would be of help to me. There is very little in this that would have helped the hundreds of single men who lived with me at the Mission. This allows the Mission to be the de-Facto city shelter. It allows city police to cite/arrest homeless people for the "crime" of being homeless and sleeping on the street or in the park, even though they have no place to go. It allows the city/police to force homeless single people to live in the Mission or be arrested. It is, in effect, Lane County's 10 year plan to end chronic homelessness, and Lane County will be doing nothing to help the very poor single adults. I think it might be better to do nothing and stay frustrated than pretend to do something that really won't help the great mass of homeless. It hinges on waiting two years and getting the voters to go for a serial levy, and that is iffy at best. I really do see the problems in attacking the problem in a more substantive way. Still, this reads as if it will help those on the street corners or sleeping in parks, but in truth, it will do little if anything in that regard. So, with the greatest of respect for those who drew this up, and with the greatest of respect for the others around the table, I cannot support it. John VanLandingham I write to respond to Hugh regarding the issue of more shelter for homeless single adults (primarily men) in our Blue Ribbon Committee Report. I do this for the (hoped-for) benefit of those who were not able to attend our last meeting, on April 2. At that meeting, Hugh argued for more single adult shelter, and I argued against. A motion to amend the report to call for more shelter failed on a 5 to 5 vote. (To be specific, something lawyers are often loathe to do, the motion was to remove a statement in the report providing that the majority of the committee does not support more shelter.) Before I describe my reasons for opposing that amendment let me note that I very much appreciate Hugh's gentle persistence in advocating for more shelter. Here is why I oppose calling for more emergency shelter for singles in our report: 1. To be blunt, more shelter is not going to happen, and we would mislead readers and voters were we to suggest that it is. I don't say that because I think that shelter is a bad idea. I've advocated for increased shelter many times over my 30 years of doing this work. I say that 33 Blue Ribbon Committee on Homelessness, Recommendation April 2, 2008 -- Page