10-22-18 Council Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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REGULAR MEETING October 22, 2018 can do this. I'm looking at each one(1) of you. It is not going to go away. Let's come together and knock this out of the park. I'm for this temporarily but I would like to see something more dynamic and state-of-the-art to help these people who are less fortunate. I don't know how it is to be homeless but I sure know how it is to be hungry because when I was a little kid I stood in a food line once a month to get food for our family. That was very touching to me because when I got older I swore to God that my family would never stand in a food line. So get this taken care of. Ann Voll, 206 East Tutt Street, South Bend, IN, stated, The perspective you have of that building (referencing a slide in the presentation) I've seen for forty-five (45) years in this community because I've entered the doorway of the overhead building of Sibley Machine that provided jobs in this community over all of those years. I am not opposed to the timeline that has been presented to you this evening for November Pt to April 15th. But you, as the Administrators of this community, and the Mayor of this City need to decide. I've been in meetings now for four (4) years with David Vanderveen and Steve Camilleri because as a manufacturer in this community, we have made every attempt to employ the homeless. It is a very, very, very difficult issue. I say against for the reason that I want to hold you accountable. We have talked about this. There was a community organization early this year that addressed this issue, specifically with the Gateway discussion, and the City never showed up. The City never attended any of those meetings. So, Gavin Ferlic, I'm going to speak specifically to you. We talk about innovation in this community every day of the week. We should be creative enough to find solutions to this problem. I have a jacket I would love to show you that was designed and produced in the City of Detroit for the homeless. In cooperation they gained the attention of General Motors. It is a jacket and a sleeping bag by Empowerment Incorporated that has produced this jacket that is also a sleeping bag that protects them against the environment overnight that can endure temperatures of twenty(20)below zero (0). They were creative enough to try and solve this problem. Now, granted, Detroit has a huge problem. They have 20,000 homeless folks and we have no idea how many are on the street. You're asking for us to house forty (40) to seventy (70) people a night but, as someone else had said, where do they go during the day. I called the police on Saturday. They love the overhang on our Sibley building. It has a nice overhang and protects them from the wind but they defecate,they trash,use drugs and we have to address this issue. So I'm against for the reason I want to hold you accountable. I'm in favor for this short period of time but I really don't want to be here again next year. The City and this Council need to address this issue and come to the community to look for answers. We are willing to have this conversation. You guys haven't shown up and I apologize. This being the time heretofore for the Rebuttal on the above remarks,the petitioners and presenters were given an opportunity to rebut. Mr. Vanderveen stated, I just want to thank the people who have spoken for and against. We are one hundred percent (100%) onboard that this is not the answer to our community's problems. This is a stopgap and this is to keep people alive over the winter. We are one hundred percent (100%) committed to long-term solutions. We know there are plans in place and we want to make them happen. I appreciate the input and we echo the desire to bring long-term permanent solutions to this community. Councilmember Oliver Davis stated, We talked about this in Area Plan, the sun set around 5:00 p.m. or 5:30 p.m. during this time of year yet the place opens at 8:00 p.m. When I mentioned that you had talked about the eating and why 8:00 p.m. was still a decent time in your opinion. Could you share those thoughts again? Mr. Vanderveen replied,Yes, so most of the folks who use the Weather Amnesty services eat their meals at Hope Ministries,both lunch and dinner. So our plan is to have a check-in process at Hope Ministries.They can come,eat dinner,and then get a ticket or some sort of card. Our dinner service goes till about 7:30 p.m. and then at that point they can walk over from Hope to this location so they won't have to wait outside. Councilmember Oliver Davis then asked,And what time does dinner start? Mr. Vanderveen replied, It starts usually around 6:30 p.m. but they can come earlier and wait in the waiting room earlier, depending on how cold it is. 8