I testified at the Commissioner's meeting on March 16th-- the meeting where
Gail Dorfman offered the resoulution to fund the shelters through the summer.
Commissioners Opat, Johnson, Steinglen, McLaughlin, Dorfman were at that
meeting and all voted in favor of the resoulution at that meeting. To be
followed by the unanimous vote this past Tuesday.
At the March 16th meeting staff from People Serving People (the family
shelter) informed the Commissioners that, due to decreased occupancy of that
shelter, the money saved would fund keeping the shelter space for single men and
women open through the summer.
No additional money had to be used.
All of the commissioners were polite, and when two men who were homeless
addressed them...the commissioners were obvioulsy impacted.
*** BUT--- please do not assume that the issue of homelessness has been
resolved by this action. There remain hundreds of people with no shelter, who
survive as best they can on the streeets.
*** and-- from my work with families experiencing homelessnee, I would
caution people to not assume there is a decrease in homelessness among families**
People opt to not stay in shelters like PSP for many reasons. And when I
worked as a family housing advocate I had families where the restrictions,
buracratic requirments caused families to lose spots in the shelter or be put
out for less then appropriate reasons.***
The Commissioners and particularly Gail Dorfman deserve a sincere
thankyou for their vote to keep the shelters open through the summer months.
Margaret Hastings-Mpls-Kingfield
REMINDERS:
1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED]
before continuing it on the list.
2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait.
For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html
For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract
________________________________
Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy
Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
