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REGULAR MEETING October 22, 2018
<br /> Councilmember Oliver Davis followed up, And this is the only Weather Amnesty in the whole
<br /> County, correct?
<br /> Mr. Vanderveen replied, The Center for the Homeless is also participating.
<br /> Councilmember Oliver Davis then asked, Yeah, but between the two (2) of you, you are the only
<br /> ones?
<br /> Mr. Vanderveen replied, That is correct.
<br /> Councilmember Oliver Davis asked,And then the closet one (1) is Goshen?
<br /> Mr. Vanderveen replied, To my knowledge, yes.
<br /> Councilmember Oliver Davis stated, Ok, I'm done.
<br /> Councilmember Gavin Ferlic stated, There was a question raised to security and I just want to
<br /> make sure that was answered as well.
<br /> Mr.Vanderveen stated, We will staff that building from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 a.m. So from 7:00 p.m.,
<br /> we will have staff monitoring what is going on around the building until everyone is in the building.
<br /> Once they are in the building, they stay in the building and we monitor them. They won't leave
<br /> and wander around the neighborhood. In the morning,we make sure they leave the area and once
<br /> they leave the area, we no longer know where they go or what they do. But, during the time and
<br /> between those hours they are in our care, we have eyes on them the whole time.
<br /> Councilmember Jo M. Broden asked, In Committee you had talked about this emergency
<br /> declaration, is there anything in the current petition or with your filings that would disallow this
<br /> being declared an emergency warming area? Can someone connect that for me?
<br /> Mr. Vanderveen replied, No. The current language of the lease which we have not finalized does
<br /> specify that we will only be in the building between 7:00 p.m. and 9:00 a.m. Again, our feeling is
<br /> if we need it to provide a warming place, we would prefer to do that at our building at 432 South
<br /> Lafayette Boulevard because we already have staff We would have to add additional paid staff to
<br /> be in this building during the day.
<br /> Councilmember Jo M. Broden followed up, So I hear a preference and certainly a staffing hurdle
<br /> in that case, but nothing specific in the lease.
<br /> Mr.Vanderveen replied,Currently it is in the lease that says we would not be in the building during
<br /> daytime hours.
<br /> Councilmember Oliver Davis stated, That leads to another question real quick. So the difference
<br /> of when we announce warming centers across the community,could you explain the key difference
<br /> between the warming centers and their hours of operation and the Weather Amnesty?
<br /> Mr. Vanderveen replied, Weather Amnesty is an 8:00 p.m. to 8:00 a.m. service. The warming
<br /> centers are, and you'll have to forgive me as I do not know all the details of the warming centers
<br /> but, when an Emergency Declaration is made, certain locations are open and made available to
<br /> folks. I believe it is as long as the declaration is in effect but I don't know for certain.
<br /> Councilmember Oliver Davis followed up, So when they talk about warming centers,that will not
<br /> be your location?
<br /> Mr. Vanderveen replied,No.
<br /> Mr. Camilleri stated,Typically that declaration is triggered when it is ten(10) degrees below zero
<br /> (0). I think we can agree that what happens at zero (0), ten (10), twenty (20),thirty (30) and forty
<br /> (40) degrees, it used to be contingent on temperature. Fourteen (14) years ago, when David and I
<br /> started, it was when the temperature was twenty-six(26)degrees. There were studies and research
<br /> out that being outside in a sustained amount of time at that temperature was the breaking point.
<br /> We thought that was kind of silly,right?Are we going to move it to thirty-two (32)?We just know
<br /> in this community, somewhere around November 1St to mid-April, it is going to be cold. Frankly,
<br /> again, we could have used it a couple weeks ago but the emergency warming and cooling centers
<br /> typically aren't triggered unless it is ten (10) degrees below zero (0) and I believe that is often
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