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ACTION for unsheltered: by Tues 4pm, write or sign up to testify at City Council Weds re $128M funding

Sean Green
 

Video of CARES Act vote. Final Vote: 3/1 (passes).

Highlights:
  • "We have [houseless] people that are in desperate need of resources and I don't believe we did the best job we could of making sure that people would benefit from these limited dollars we have. With sadness, I cast my vote as no." -Commissioner Hardesty
  • "There is a significant level of support going to the JOHS to make sure the most vulnerable people on our streets get the resources they need." -Mayor Wheeler
The Board of NECN met Tuesday night and voted to send the following to Council:

The Northeast Coalition of Neighborhoods (NECN) supports allocating more resources, including CARES Act funding, specifically towards helping those who are houseless by creating more alternative shelters and villages and resources to support those efforts (e.g. Homelessness and Urban Camping Impact Reduction Program).

On Mon, Jul 20, 2020 at 5:59 PM Tim McCormick <tmccormick@...> wrote:
A significant decision point and precedent-setting will occur Weds 9:30am-12pm, with a City Council 2nd hearing and vote: to "accept and appropriate $128M in [Federal CARES Act funds] and delegate authority to the Program Bureau Directors to execute contracts."

In the proposed plan, $19M is slated to go to the Joint Office of Homeless Services (city/county joint agency), without a clear plan for how they will spend it. We share the urgent concern of Commissionar JoAnn Hardesty who has announced her opposition to the plan:
"We continue to spend all of our resources on people who already have some kind of temporary shelter, and almost none on people who [do] not.”

We need to get people testifying and writing in steadily, to push City/County to fairly consider and expand cost-effective, empowering, alternative shelter and village options which the community widely supports. We need new villages soon, as existing C3PO camp permits end, and a mass eviction crisis looms. 

1) Send written testimony:  Email the Council Clerk at cctestimony@.... Say who you are, where you live, how you're involved, and briefly & specifically what you urge.


2) Sign up to testify and get meeting link:

https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_1liDKB38TsCccbZhaBN75A

Specify agenda item 596 as what you're testifying on, this will you called at the right time, which will be sometime after 9:30am Weds. 

Background: 

a) last week's 1st hearing on it:
https://www.portlandmercury.com/blogtown/2020/07/15/28642033/city-council-considers-a-114-million-covid-19-relief-proposal
b) the agenda item (No. 596): 

https://www.portlandoregon.gov/auditor/article/763917


onward and upward (from street and houselessness)..
Tim.

--
Tim McCormick
Editor at HousingWiki, Organizer at Village Collaborative
Portland, Oregon 



--
SEAN GREEN
Founder & COO, Aforma
Chair, NECN (Chair, LUTC)
Member, DRAC (Chair, PITC)

c 971.998.7376 | IG:
 
@AFORMACO
Tim McCormick
 

A significant decision point and precedent-setting will occur Weds 9:30am-12pm, with a City Council 2nd hearing and vote: to "accept and appropriate $128M in [Federal CARES Act funds] and delegate authority to the Program Bureau Directors to execute contracts."

In the proposed plan, $19M is slated to go to the Joint Office of Homeless Services (city/county joint agency), without a clear plan for how they will spend it. We share the urgent concern of Commissionar JoAnn Hardesty who has announced her opposition to the plan:
"We continue to spend all of our resources on people who already have some kind of temporary shelter, and almost none on people who [do] not.”

We need to get people testifying and writing in steadily, to push City/County to fairly consider and expand cost-effective, empowering, alternative shelter and village options which the community widely supports. We need new villages soon, as existing C3PO camp permits end, and a mass eviction crisis looms. 

1) Send written testimony:  Email the Council Clerk at cctestimony@.... Say who you are, where you live, how you're involved, and briefly & specifically what you urge.


2) Sign up to testify and get meeting link:

https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_1liDKB38TsCccbZhaBN75A

Specify agenda item 596 as what you're testifying on, this will you called at the right time, which will be sometime after 9:30am Weds. 

Background: 

a) last week's 1st hearing on it:
https://www.portlandmercury.com/blogtown/2020/07/15/28642033/city-council-considers-a-114-million-covid-19-relief-proposal
b) the agenda item (No. 596): 

https://www.portlandoregon.gov/auditor/article/763917


onward and upward (from street and houselessness)..
Tim.

--
Tim McCormick
Editor at HousingWiki, Organizer at Village Collaborative
Portland, Oregon 

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