Council: take the judge seriously

 


            Rogue Retreat is not ready to take on an urban campground.  Maybe the City should build a real solution for the homeless that will satisfy the federal judge that has put our city under an injunction to allow sleeping through the night in the parks because the city lacks low-barrier shelters that can handle all comers.  You don’t need a non-profit to do this.

            None of the solutions you have considered is adequate to cover the problem, helping too few people and having too high of a barrier for most.  Non-profits are not willing to do anything big, and they want to help only those who pass muster.  We have a homeless population that is around a thousand.  As long as we have too few shelter beds, or are too picky about who gets them, we will have people sleeping in our parks.  Tiny houses and urban campgrounds take too much land per person.  Warming and cooling shelters are nearly useless for those who need a place to sleep every night or day. 

            You can still buy that property near the hospital, build a hostel that will sleep hundreds and then find a property to build another, because we need two: one for adults only and one for families and children.  You can fund them by selling stock to the citizens of this county.  They would not be charities, but for-profit businesses, charging enough people five to ten dollars a night for them to have use of: cots; footlockers; showers; bathrooms; a laundromat; dog kennels; a parking lot; and access to services.  That much money is not a high barrier; these people often rent and share hotel and motel rooms.  Some know how to beg, and many of them work, but have no certain place to shower, sleep or keep their stuff.

            Start thinking about these people as customers, a market that can be served, and don’t insult them with searches.  Do hotels search their guests?  They can keep their guns and drugs as long as they keep them out of sight, just like any hotel.  One thing you would not be selling is privacy, apart from semi-private bathrooms and showers.   But you can serve the bottom of the housing market, so people can sleep out of the weather, stay clean, and have a footlocker to keep their stuff, so they can work.  Once these hostels are going concerns, you can sell them, with conditions that they remain hostels at a low-barrier price. 

 

Speech to the City Council, 9-7-2022, published at:

 Current-News-You-Can-Use-by-Rycke.blogspot.com

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 Rycke Brown, Natural Gardener          541-955-9040        rycke@gardener.com


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