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CITY OF SOUTH BEND I OFFICE OF THE CLERK the City and looking at how we can make sure we are reevaluating the process and the things we are doing. We want to make sure they are a benefit to community members. One(1) approach we are taking is gathering stories. We've posted forums over the last couple of years around housing and these are some of the issues that have come up. Some of the things that have risen out of that advocacy in partnership with people in the community and Council Members includes the Division of Economic Empowerment and Engagement. That is focused on creating equity in investment and giving greater access to the opportunities that already exist. She went on, With regards to education, last Christmas was our first (1st) opportunity to partner with the US Marines to try and get Toys for Tots. We tried to think about what kind of toys we were donating and we wondered why not donate toys that actually supported literacy. That was a really low key way,with a process already in place,to raise awareness of how these kinds of things could really help young people in this community that don't normally have access to those kinds of things and help those families get their children prepared for school. We also had an interest in the concept of reducing violence by building peace. In previous years, we've kind of brought peacemaking organizations together to talk. We had our first(1st)kind of official meeting and each of them talked about an interest in creating circles, restorative justice and all of that. So we had a meeting with the Neighborhood Resource Connection (NRC) and brought in a couple of the neighborhood associations to just kind of experience a circle to see if this was something they would be interested in doing next year. Again, the concept is building community across differences and building connections across generations, race, economic status or anything. We want to create more community so that we can engage our young people and provide alternatives to violence,just people we can talk to. That kind of thing. She continued, So, that happened and everybody engaged was interested so we look forward to doing some more of that next year. On those same four (4) points, one (1) of the big things we have all been talking about is the problem of renters living in deplorable conditions. We have some really bad landlords. Some are individuals and some are giant corporations such as Miami Hills. We had a resident come and share some things with us a few weeks ago about what is also happening at Beacon Heights. So there have also been initiatives in the community. Various organizations have had meetings about these issues. One (1) of the things that came up was the thought of landlord-tenant matching. We have some good landlords and we have bad landlords, and we have some good tenants and bad tenants. We want to know how to help them find each other so that maybe some people will be starved out if they aren't doing people right. Does that make sense? So that is an idea, a thought, and something we are hoping we can maybe do more of in partnership with the Real Estate Investors Association. I understand the Legal Department in the County deals a lot with eviction issues so they know people who are in need both on the renter side and the landlord side. Again, we want to reach out to those people to help try and solve some of those problems. She went on, If you remember when we had the problem with Miami Hills, we were wondering why the Health Department wasn't doing something. And they said they can't fail the place because if they did, there would be two hundred(200) families that would become homeless. We already know we have a problem with the homeless. So we are going to try and work with the community to address some of those issues. EXCELLENCE ACCOUNTABILITY INNOVATION INCLUSION EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 227W.Jefferson Bvld South Bend,Indiana 46601 p 574.235.9221 f574.235.9173 TTD574.235.5567 www.southbendin.gov 2