Disappeared News

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…without immediate and aggressive case management, as one would receive in a real Housing First Program, there is no incentive nor guarantee that the houseless placed on Sand Island will remain in the facility. This would result in a waste of tax-payer dollars on this initiative.—Kathryn Xian, ED, Pacific Alliance to Stop Slavery (PASS)
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by Larry Geller

Kathryn Xian attended today’s press conference on Mayor Caldwell’s latest iteration of his sand island camp for the homeless and then wrote up a statement, which is posted below. I don’t know if it will appear in its entirety anywhere else, so here it is.

This time, instead of tents, there are minute storage units, open at the top to the weather, in which he hopes to place the chronically homeless. The units will be plunked down on a black asphalt layer.

Good luck with that, especially in the summer heat on Sand Island. The units do not appear from the city’s images in the paper to have adequate ventilation, nor does it look like they could protect against wind-driven rain. And the size of the units is less even than the size of student quarters in 19th century Japan.

Let me say up front that I think something else is happening here—the Mayor wants to be able to say that there is an alternative place for people to go as the police enforce the city’s sit-lie bans—so that the ordinances would be better able to survive any potential legal challenges.

That’s my take on this.

It was announced at the press conference that two RFPs have or will be published, one for the housing units and one for support services. I haven’t obtained copies yet, but from the description, the city will not be providing the support services required for a successful Housing First program for this population. For example, the service provider is to provide intake services and a program office Monday-Friday during business hours only.

That alone suggests that the city hasn’t a clue about how to provide necessary services for this population.

So in essence, the city will be running an inadequate version of a homeless shelter but with little boxes instead of cots on the floor.

It will be interesting, in fact, to see if the IHS shelters empty out to some extent as residents move to better digs, such as they are.

Related: Nine Months In, How’s That Affordable Housing Plan Coming Along? (Civil Beat, 6/2/2015)

Over to Kathy:

Download Sand Island Media Statement - PASS from Disappeared News

Permalink posted by Larry @ 6/02/2015 01:24:00 PM