Peoria Council Approves Anti-Camping Ordinance 5-4, Defers Implementation

you e e e please please bear with us for a couple more minutes and we'll get started with our meeting e e e good evening good evening everyone according to Verizon it is 6:06 p.m.

on Tuesday November 19th 2024 I'd like to call the meeting of the Poria city council to order this is a special meeting of the Peoria city council I'd like to call the meeting to order I'd also like to welcome everyone in our city council audience as well as our listening audience at wcbu and our audience watching on cable channel 22 open it Madam clerk the council mics are open please call the role present there we go okay can you start all over yes mayor Ali present council member Allen council member sear here council member Gordon young present council member graab council member Jackson here council member Kelly here council member Oiler here council member riggenbach council member velpula and council member vaspa here we have a quum present Madame mayor thank you madam clerk everyone please join me and stand for a moment of Silent prayer or silent reflection followed by the Pledge of Allegiance alates indivisible andice I'd like to point out that this is a policy session to discuss a potential ordinance related to the unhoused population within the city of Poria also like to point out that we will not have a regular city council meeting next Tuesday on November the 26th and our next meeting an actual final meeting for the year will be held on December 10th 2024 Madam clerk 24- 357 is is a communication from the city manager and Corporation Council with a requests for the following a approve a resolution authorizing the expenditure of City funds for the operating expenses for 301 Southwest Adam Street 304 Southwest Jefferson Avenue and 312 Southwest Jefferson Avenue in an amount not to exceed $10,000 per month commencing November 1 2024 through December 31st 2025 and Item B adopt an ordinance amending the city of Poria 2024 2025 by annual budget relating to the general fund for the expenditures for the operating expenses in the amount of $120,000 and Item B requires 2third vote of council members voting no less than six votes and we need separate votes on each please and also I would like to note on your desk there is a handout of a revised resolution thank you Mr manager uh thank you Madame mayor uh as you know we purchased the the uh properties called the tower on Adams or the PNC Bank building creef core club building and the parking lot uh as we've dug into the budget for the three properties based on the existing rents that are coming in we've got a shortfall of about $6,100 a month um we're just asking that that we set aside some of the warehouse District Tiff funds uh to cover that shortfall it's our plan uh this and we're asking for $10,000 a month of of cushion um it's our plan to get the RFP out on the street by the end of of the Year we're working on staff is working on that from the economic development team um and so we just request your approval of this item okay questions for the manager council member SE thank you Madame mayor Mr manager can you explain to us just the flow of money uh because you talk about the general fund and all sort of tips so can you explain to us please so so this is um the the revenues that are coming in from the rent that's paid by the tenants in the building uh and then there's operating expenses that would be going out and we're simply using the warehouse District to pay for the warehouse District Tiff to pay for that shortfall so that's where the dollars will come from so the warehouse District fund are deposited into the general fund no where are they deposited there's a there's a separate fund for the warehouse District Tiff proceeds thank you very much thank you madam mayor you're welcome council member Kelly uh thank you Madame mayor I hope I'm not out of order in uh urging the Council on these transactions on the PNC building or the uh whatever it is Tower uh building uh to consider before we uh finalize everything uh not tonight but in the future to consider that the city hang on to the parking deck which is a big loser and it needs a lot of work but it makes the purchase of the remaining properties much more attractive to a developer and can um I believe uh enhance our chances of uh a good bid on that and uh uh perhaps enhance our chances for a long-term uh fine fine building in our downtown if we pull the de out it's that would cost us money but i' I'd like everyone just to think about that uh thank you very much Madam you're welcome council member Oiler thank you madam chairwoman uh should we reach a break even or Surplus point on the sale would we replace These funds back in the warehouse Tiff yes thank you and just to Peggy back on John's point there councilman Kelly not that I have a preference either way it goes necessarily but we obviously would be looking for the most profitable solution to doing this and so we would look at it both this both ways thank you you're welcome any other questions if not can I get a motion to approve moved by council member Allan seconded by council member Oiler this is for item a please cast your ballots my vote didn't get in there in time but it's a yay uh may I have a motion for Item B moved by council member Allen seconded by council member Oiler please cast your ballots motion passes with one nay SE Madam clerk 24- 236 is a communication from the city manager Corporation Council and Community Development director with a request to adopt an ordinance prohibiting unauthorized camping on public property within the city of Poria uh who wants to start Mr manager uh thank you madam Mar as you know we had a conversation about um the anti-camping ordinance back in August uh this is a followup to that meeting and I'm going to turn the floor over um to our community development director uh Joe douan to walk through um the packet of material that the council has uh and then leave up kind of the four questions we want Council to consider as we go forward with this discussion this evening okay is somebody going to go through the two options that were presented who will do that uh we'll we'll have our Corporation Council talk through the two uh ordinance options that we have as well okay thank you director douan down here oh okay I'm not used to you being there I I yes me NE there so it's uh I think I the mic's on so uh thank you mayor thank you manager um tonight I'm going to walk through uh the information and the packet that we put together for you for tonight um and and as we go through I think the direction that staff is looking through for Council um the the main four questions are should the city of porori adopt a camp camping ordinance if the city of porori adopts a camping ordinance should option one or option two uh be adopted if the city of porori adopts a count camping ordinance how should the ordinance be implemented meaning what sort of timeline should we uh do for before implementation and does the council have any changes or Direction related to the attached process that's in the report back of what we would follow if a campaing ordinance was adopted uh so I I I appreciate um your time going through this uh appreciate my staff who's worked uh to put this whole packet together appreciate Kate green with the continu of care and the multiple data requests we've asked to try to provide you with as much information as possible uh the main thing I'm going to go through with you tonight is uh in your agenda packet and it's the staff report back specifically uh so that is what the item that I'll be I'll be walking through and then mentioning the attachments as we go if Council remembers as the manager mentioned uh a campaign ordinance was brought back in in August uh and since then we've been trying to gather additional information um see what data that we can to present you uh and and really it create a process that would be used if a campaign ordinance was put in place uh and we've talked to the nonprofit service providers to try to get some feedback on that process to see if it was implemented uh how we can work together uh to implement that going forward so kind of going through the staff report back that we had uh the first main section really deals with uh common terms and affordable housing that's really just an FYI uh because we often uh at least City staff and people who are doing the work every day uses a multitude of different terms uh and and we just wanted to provide some clarification on what those terms are as we go then the second item in the the staff report back really highlights kind of a snapshot of the homeless situation in Poria uh if you a full more detailed is in a attachment B uh and that was provided to us by Kate green um but some of the highlights included I'm going to go over just as we go through so permanent Supportive Housing is one of the terms that we Define in the glossery um and it is permanent housing where long-term housing assistance and supportive services are provided to household with at least one member with a disability housing assistant covers a portion of the rent for a unit Supportive Services can include case management job training Mental Health Services substance abuse treatment services and more often when we're trying to provide housing for our unsheltered population uh we need kind of permanent Supportive Housing uh for them to go into with support services from our uh nonprofit providers I went one page too far so the current capacity inside peori is 372 uh units uh this does not include this is data from 2023 so it doesn't include the recent six units that came on board with Madison 3 um which leaves us still with the total need of about 245 additional permanent support of housing units in Poria uh if you remember correctly Madison Manor which is building in the old Methodist College uh will'll be able ble to to to reduce that number but we'll still be about 170 permanent Supportive Housing units short um and that's just something that over the next you know until we get that covered what we just need to continue to put our uh home funds our cdbg funds contining to go after tax credit projects to really continue to to increase that number of uh Supportive Housing Services in our community from there we talk a little bit about rapid rehousing dollars uh rapid rehousing dollars is really kind of uh the money needed to provide uh rental assistance for those who might not need the permanent support of housing but need additional assistance whether they don't have income they're on Social Security and just need additional uh funds to ensure that they don't become homeless uh or or have a place to live uh the city of porori gets ESG money every year and sub uh that money goes into rapid rehousing uh it's specifically awarded to Phoenix Community Development Services and then there's additional money provided through the state and the federal government as well the next section specifically goes into the shelter bed availability uh I also want to point out that these uh numbers that we're coming in are for uh a multi-count region because that's the area that Continuum uh represents uh so they're a little not as drilled down as they could be for just specifically uh for Poria but they are what the Continuum serves right now in our community we have about 497 uh emergency shelter bed capacity with some additional overflow um this number represents kind of how many shelter beds at any given night are available in our community for people who are experiencing homelessness um it doesn't keep in uh it doesn't measure when some of our shelters go over the capacity what they can hold for example um the information provided uh during a time in the summer when it was very hot out I think the Dream Center went up to 200 people at their shelter even though they only have beds capacity for 125 so that 497 doesn't represent when they go into the Overflow for shelter capacity from there we go to 2 point uh section 2.6 in the report back that talks about the coordinated entry breakdown uh when you when someone calls 211 when the the Phoenix Community street team or Salvation Army or anyone presents thems at the shelter they come across someone on the street they go into the coordinated entry list and that's the list they used to work through to provide services and provide housing as of October 1st 2024 we had about six 31 individuals that were on this list uh and that is uh kind of the list all the nonprofit service providers walk through and go through uh to provide uh services to uh residents in our community from there section three uh one of the things during the uh first meeting we had uh was referenced and that's attachment C the US inter agency Council on homelessness strategies and current implementation really is the best practice for Street Outreach and how to deal with encampments uh we went through and tried to highlight all of the areas that City staff either currently does or we are aware that the street team currently does uh and that's section three that shows what best practices we have been doing and what best practices we are currently doing to address the situation in our community section four uh spends time specifically looking at uh the city's work in this Arena uh there's kind of two main approaches City staff has taken to to address uh housing in our community and the unsheltered population that's either Services directly related to the homeless uh population or services to provide just additional affordable housing in our community uh I I think we wanted to make sure to include this to show that the city it's one of the main goals of the Community Development Department it's one of the things we're always working on uh to really try to improve more affordable housing in our community and affordable housing uh often people think of rent subsidies or or um different vouchers from the Housing Authority but affordable housing really just comes down to uh housing that's affordable to the residents who's uh trying to live in that community and sometimes that does cause mean subsidies for rent uh but it doesn't always mean that just if if the rent is Affordable to the resident but specifically some of the projects the city has worked on um that that we wanted to make sure to highlight and share tonight uh is the upcoming project on McKinley School with um habitat for human it church for Gardens down in the South End uh with their affordable housing uh rental units that'll be coming on board our work with the housing authority on our choice neighborhoods grant that will hopefully lead to Future grant funding to redo uh Harrison uh homes down on the south end and then section 4.1 specifically talks about our homeless funding and programming couple of the I won't go through all of them but one of we've specifically talked about Phoenix Manor uh which will be 55 units of permanent Supportive Housing for families in Poria um that project uh will start construction next year they're still going through the closing process and and the application process uh not application process but closing process I think they close uh relatively not that long ago so it'll be construction next year it's still uh we'll bring add 55 units of permanent Supportive Housing for the city of Poria the other uh project I want to highlight The Haven funding uh The Haven is a uh very very low barrier group home uh down in the North Valley uh where where when we were working on some encampment issues last summer uh Phoenix stepped forward and said hey with some additional funding we could convert this and allow uh residents to come in here and it provides 14 uh units for for residents to stay in uh the other thing I really uh want to highlight and it's listed as one of your attachments I think it's attachment uh F uh is the city's flexible rental Pro program if you remember the city of P and the county uh put substantial money towards um the Health Equity Fund where that went to the health department uh from there the health department had discussions with the city about how we can use that fund to really impact housing we created the flexible rental program that's run by the Community Development Department so that money came back to the city but uh luckily because of the Health Equity Fund it was essentially doubled with the County's investment uh one of the things we found with the coordinated entry list is based on federal guidelines they they really have to focus on uh those at the top of the list based on the ranking system but as you got further down the list uh there were people that could be housed uh for much uh less funds and they didn't need the uh substantial support services that come with permanent Supportive Housing uh so this could be uh an older lady that was staying at the shelter and was on social security so she didn't couldn't afford a first and last month's rent or security deposit or moving expenses so staff uh because this money was funded with American Rescue plan money we didn't have those federal guidelines that uh were tied to some of those other monies so we launched this program uh and this programs goes through 2026 we have about $930,000 into it uh it allows us to really um provide housing for people who have income who are experiencing homelessness who just need the two three $4,000 uh to really get over that hump about a month ago we pre uh presented this program at the Illinois housing housing Action Agency conference in Bloomington uh the feedback our staff received about kind of the Innovative solution and the work they were doing uh was fantastic and so I just really wanted to highlight that program as something that we they really brought and tried to do that is very different outside the box but has seen really really positive results I believe uh to date they've been able to remove about 15 people from the list and provide housing uh who just needed that that small extra step uh in addition our our two housing coordinators work on some of that case management with them checking in on them uh providing that kind of uh support uh going forward as well so they feel like uh if they have questions or issues they can Rel talk to us about that as well then the last project I want to highlight is uh something that Council approved not too long ago the Salvation Army project where they're uh building and renovating and expanding their shelter Services uh with the help of Salvation Army the city applied for a $2 million Grant from dco and was awarded it uh it'll increase the capacity from the shelter for about 45 individuals per night to about 75 uh it's about a total of about 12 to18 million project and is expected to begin in the summer of 2025 so before I get into the the next section so the next section really talks about the recommended process if either ordinance is approved tonight so that's when I'm going to hand it over to uh Corporation counsel to walk through both of those and then he'll hand back to me and I'll go over the process that we'll use uh before we uh hand it back to you guys Council Hayes thank you Madame mayor so the S the city traditionally has addressed unauthorized camping through the use of the state's trespass law that's worked very effectively over many years so the city had not had any sort of specific regulation restricting camping prior to this time as the council knows from our briefing on the 13th we've seen a Congregation of um unauthorized camping on state-owned property specifically idot property throughout the downtown footprint um we saw large encampment a large encampment behind the clear the vacant lot up at the top of the hill on Knoxville because the Illinois Department of Transportation would not authorize the the city to use the state trespass laws it uh that law in order to be effective you have to have the owner state that the individual can no longer be present so we're in this situation where absent a real Health crisis we're unable to take action to clear a property from unauthorized camping um that's what provoked us putting together the ordinance that we presented on the 13th of August that ordinance is modeled after the state's trespass law the state trespass law affords us an immediate opportunity for law enforcement with the cooperation of the property owner to address someone who's not on the property and tell them to leave and even with the advancement of the safety act which reduces the number of offenses that people can be arrested for the safety act itself was amended to give the authority to law enforcement for people who remain present after being cited for trespassing to go ahead and apprehend them and then the court system takes up its uh charge to deal with the criminal trespassing charge that results from that incident um this has been very effective for us to clear private property and city-owned property and we use that tool quite consistently and we use it all the time we've used it this year on a number of occasions most individuals confronted with those choices to leave an area or face apprehension under the state's trespass law will choose choose to leave the area so we modeled our ordinance that we presented on the 13th and that is consistent with one of the versions presented tonight with that ability to apprehend people or the potential of a jail sentence if they don't cooperate so it wasn't a unique law that we crafted in the ordinance it was mirroring the state's Provisions regarding the trespass ordinance or the trespass laws that being said we saw in the clearance of the landmark area and the clearance of the property up on Knoxville that the individuals chose to move along even though we didn't have the ability to charge them with trespassing and we're hopeful that going forward we'll get cooperation from individuals when we site them for the violations of the ordinance in the future of unauthorized camping Andor storing personal property on public property that they'll cooperate with our measures to remove public proper uh private property from the public space as well as to have them move along and so there's two versions today I was encouraged by a number of members of the council to provide a version that didn't have jail time as a consequence and so that's included in in um attachment e um and the two ordinances are very similar to what was presented back on the 13th with a few changes so I want to go through the differences from the original ordinance presented on August 13th so the council's aware of what's changed um first we've U made clarifications throughout that not only unauthorized camping but also storage of personal property is prohibited um this will allow us to address situations where no one's present but there's a lot of personal property left behind you might have seen earlier this summer on the property adjacent to I74 that there was a stack of bicycles there on the property and so we want to have a tool to remove the accumulation of personal property on public space so that's the reason that these two elements now are within the ordinance and it's emphasized that either or both can be enforced um we've clarified that it's the Bill of Rights uh for the homeless act which prohibits unfair discrimination based on the status of homelessness and so our ordinance is an ordinance of General application and it operates without regard to whether the people have a status of homeless or not and so it's simply the unauthorized presence on public property that we're interdicting um we've clarified that um there's been an integration Clause put in there to bring in the whereas Clauses into the ordinance that's a legal technical thing um we have included and clarified the exceptions our Park district has some programming uh snooze at the zoo and things like that where they authorize camping on parked property within the city of Poria and so we wanted to make certain that the ordinance clarified that we weren't seeking to interdict that type of conduct and so that change has been made um in um section D1 we have clarified and from one of the other jurisdictions I believe it was duth they had a provision in there that um a person who had been banned from shelters would be deemed to be in a status where they the ordinance could be enforced against them and we felt that that was an important element here as well that if someone by their own conduct doesn't have shelters they're eligible to be housed in that we could still enforce the ordinance against those individuals um and finally um that um we felt that once we took action against an encampment theity City should be able to post that property for no camping and be able to immediately enforce the provisions rather than go through the multiple steps and notices required in order to clear an encampment and so there's a provision at um uh section uh D5 that indicates that the city can provide a notice and post an area for no camping or storage of personal property and we could immediately enforce the ordinance in those spaces within a certain distance of those post that gives us the opportunity to go ahead and so to speak once we've cleared an area not have to clear it repetitively in the future um uh we have uh included in the penalty Provisions a lesser amount of fines $50 for the first offense $100 for the second offense and 150 for the third offense within 180 day period we've also included a provision that the first offense findes would be forgivable as long as there wasn't a subsequent violation by that individual within 180 days in this regard individuals with limited means who are unaware of the provisions of the ordinance would on their first offense suffer no consequence because the fine would be forgivable so it would only be repeat offenders that would be subject to the fines U that provision is consistent through both uh both of the versions before you tonight um finally I put in a clause uh that's more legal technical issues regarding if any of the provisions are deemed to be unenforcable then the other Provisions can remain in force um so that that is the difference from the originally presented ordinance and the ordinance version that's in front of you tonight with no incarceration and then there is a version with those same changes except for the penalty Provisions have an incarceration provision and the fines are a little more in line with the originally presented fines they're slightly higher so other than that the two ordinances mirror one another I'd be happy to take any questions about the ordinances and their differences um but wanted to indicate that um we have provided an ordinance at direction of the council again that mirrored the state's trespass law and now we pres presented an alternative U at the direction of a number of members of council where there's no consequence of jail I do think that the population that's involved here is very intelligent and we've seen that by the way that they have moved to the few locations in the town where the the trespass law can't be used against them and so in the future if we find flaws or other loopholes that are within these ordinances that we present staff will be back to you with a report and ask for changes to the ordinance so that we can correct those issues I appreciate your time and I'd be happy to answer any questions so we'll start with questions to you Council Hayes uh the first question I wanted to ask is related to the last page of the option b uh draft ordinance and it says that the this ordinance shall take effect upon passage and may be published in pamphlet form by the office of the city clerk there's been some discussion uh with City staff in terms of when implementation should or could take place whether there should be a time period of 30 60 or 90 days before the ordinance would actually be implemented to allow time for people living in encampments to [Music] be moved successfully into shelter or permanent or or temporary housing can you speak to that I can't thank you your honor uh that was a provision of the original ordinance that hasn't been changed here but we're happy if we need to change it but it's my view that there's another provision that will limit staff's ability to proceed with enforcement until the policy is adopted in section D4 towards the end of that uh in the middle of that paragraph um the um Department's um uh policy will be adopted um I'm sorry I've directed you to the wrong section um the community development director in section D1 is directed to create a policy uh to include the procedural guidance regarding the implementation of the ordinance that policy is to be published on the city's website and implemented no later than 30 days after passage of the ordinance and so while the ordinance would be effective immediately its enforcement would be triggered by the publication of that policy on the city's website we anticipate that that policy will be finalized and published within that 30-day timeline and director Duan can speak to what's in the policy but at the end of the day that policy the final elements of that policy I think were something that he wanted to make sure that he could address any changes that might come up in the adoption phase of the ordinance in any regard I don't believe your staff would be in a position and I wouldn't guide staff to enforce this ordinance until the policy was published then the ordinance would could be complete and we could move forward and might we anticipate that would happen within 30 days of Passage thank you yes I I just you know relative to the word policy and staff creating a policy if it's a policy it seems that that that would be something that the council would need to approve because the policy makers are right here and so I see it as a process um I I like that term better as it as it applies to to staff creating a process to support the ordinance I'm I'm not crazy about staff creating policies that are not approved by the council so I I just want to put that out there uh council member Oiler thank you madam chairwoman my first question is the option one that has a jail time component attached to it is quite similar to the trespassing ordinance that we already have on city property correct so uh yes it's mirrored and now we enforce the trespass law of the state of Illinois because our ordinance adopts it by reference so while it is in our ordinance in that regard there isn't a separate city ordinance on trespassing and we rarely ever have to take official action on that correct because once we communicate to someone that they're you know camping on a piece of peus property or somewhere that they shouldn't be and and that that is a consequence they generally move along as I understand from the discussions that we've had um yes and have a little bit of data to illuminate that issue um we've we have uh On Any Given year we have hundreds of police reports that include a trespass violation that are submitted to the State's Attorney's office for consideration and charging but we've only got a handful of occasions over Over The Last 5 Years 54 of them back to 2019 were the city ordinance Provisions been triggered and so to your point our ordinance violations are very limited uh last year we only did five of those the year before eight and so um there's a very limited circumstance at least to date that we've had to actually proceed on those ordinance violations and as I mentioned when we were dealing with clearing the landmark area and the uh the the lot on Knoxville at the top of the hill uh neither of those occasions resulted in any arrests even though were there were uh dozens of people at the Landmark property and at least 10 or 12 I think at the Knoxville property when we cleared them so should we choose to implement that option we wouldn't anticipate that there's going to be some drastic arrest scenario that comes with it it's basically marrowing how we already treat property that's currently owned by the city correct um our ordinance provision requires that uh the enforcement Personnel give the individuals an opportunity to comply before citing them and so even if we did have an arrest component we don't think that many people would choose that to force our staff to go to that section and as mentioned previously um in the uh ordinance uh with the jail option it's the third violation within 180 days that has a consequence of any jail time okay and would it be safe to say that one of the reasons why that we don't allow these encampments and things like that and on our own property is because it causes safety risks legal risks it's not you know a satisfactory housing source for people on our property correct the ordinance Preamble speak to the issues that we've found in these uh encampments that include unsanitary conditions uh the preval of human waste being present um uh a lack of Sanitation facilities um sometimes drug paraphernalia and used syringes things like that are present as well and so we we feel that the risk to the occupants of the encampments as well as the risk to our public safety personnel that sometimes have to deploy to those and risk to the general public are unacceptable and that's why we're we're taking action that these these are not human conditions and that we are try doing everything we can as director Duan indicated to provide options to those individuals for appropriate housing choices thank you I and I'm going to apologize now for the filibuster here but I think it's important to piggy back on that question by the public knowing what was presented to the council in terms of what those phone calls to service look like number one large fire intense with injuries two overdose three difficulty breathing four altered level of Consciousness five full arrest no pulse six large fire in the tents in the woods seven overdose eight trouble nine fighting altercation 10 General weakness 11 altered level of Consciousness 12 chest pain 13 General weakness 14 chest pain 15 drugs 16 fire 17 officer initiated 18 officer initiated 19 fighting altercations 20 officer initiated 21 overdose 22 smoke in the area 23 difficulty breathing 24 officer initiated 25 gunshot victim 26 officer initiated 27 chest pain 28 assault with injury 29 difficulty breathing 30 General weakness 31 chest pain 32 tent on fire 33 altered level of Consciousness 34 General weakness 35 General weakness 36 chest pain 37 General weakness 38 altered Consciousness 39 altered Consciousness 40 fire in a tent 41 General weakness 42 altered level of Consciousness 43 General weakness 44 fire in the homeless shelter 45 fire in the homeless shelter 46 undetermined 47 fight 48 fight 49 suspension of person 50 assault 51 officer initiated 52 trouble 53 trouble 54 trouble 55 5 fight 56 officer initiated 57 stolen property 58 theft 59 male assaulted 60 domestic attempted suicide 61 citizen complaint 62 officer initiated 63 male assaulted 64 female being stalked 65 suspicious person 66 group fighting 67 loud music 68 trouble with mail 69 fire in the encampment 70 officers initiated 71 officer initiated 72 assault and 73 exposure to the cold so these encampments are incredibly unsafe places to be both in terms of the altercations that happened between the folks that live there and their physical and mental health so something has to be done to address them thank you council member Gordon young thank you madam mayor I have a question regarding um some of the language used in relation to the fines I I became a little bit confused when you talked about there's a $50 fine that would be forgivable um and I believe you said there was no other offense within a certain amount of days is that correct yes ma'am okay and so with for example the $50 fine like when would that be due in order for like 180 days to go by and it's already forgivable you know what I mean does that make sense yes so our our fine enforcement process and collections on fines this low would generally be limited to referral to the local debt recovery program uh we would hold these fines for that 180 day period and wouldn't submit them to that collection process if someone voluntarily paid before that the fine would be satisfied if they didn't have any violations at that 180 day before we sent it to the local debt recovery program uh we and there weren't any other violations we'd deem it satisfied and we'd we'd write off the fine and so that is it that penalty provision is at E1 of both of the versions that um would indicate the fine for the first offense would be deemed satisfied if they hadn't had another incident of violation of this ordinance yeah so so for you know I have to be very honest for me um option option one or two doesn't work like I I don't like either one of those options um I certainly don't like the um incarceration but when it comes but I but I also understand that we've got to have something in place I'm about assisting our residents in terms of Housing and but when I see the language there that says there is this fine that people will be assessed um but it also like it doesn't really have a window uh and and so that I think um can also cause some problems for the person who is assess that fine because how do you determine when they're in violation if there if there is this like imaginary line if you will that they may or may not know about I'm not certain that I understand your question about when somebody understands that they're violating the ordinance or not I I think the indicates that if you're camping on property you have to be warned prior to being cited and so they'd be informed at that point in time that they're in violation if they don't comply then then they' be subject to citation let me be clear because I'm I'm not being clear I'm not talking about they don't know they what I'm saying is they've received a fine right and I'm asking when do they have to pay that fine like how many days is it 30 days and what I believe you're saying is Well they kind of don't have to pay it as and if 180 days go by and there is not another infraction then it's forgivable sure well we don't make any effort to collect any fine until 35 days passes after the date of the administrative outcome because people have a right to appeal and so after that then we look at the different fines that we have imposed and determine what we might do a lot of our fines The Collection effort is limited to filing a lean or uh doing a memorandum of judgment uh which is another means to perfect sort of a security interest in the person's general property in the in the county and so in these fines for fines like this our soul means a debt recovery typically would be uh pay uh we send them a notice that they haven't paid after that 35 day for appeal runs if they don't pay after that then we refer them to the local debt recovery program that's the uh program the controller intercepts people's uh income tax receipts and um that's basically what we do with these smaller fines because the cost to collect such a small fine doesn't Merit the retention of attorneys or the process of a citation to discover assets or other means that we might use to to recover a larger fine and so that individual has 30 days to pay basically or they get a notice from us and then the consequences depend on the amount of the fine and as I mentioned the sole consequences A F of this level is that local debt recovery program referral and we would delay that for these violations until that 18 day ran to see if there were any other fines and if if there were no other violations we'd write off the fine so if I understood the answer correctly it is they have 30 days to pay their fine that they've received right and then we'll send them a notice in in the ordinary course 35 days after the after the event then then it's now no longer appealable and we would send them a not notice shortly after that that hey you you owe this money if they don't respond to that then it would go to local debt recovery that these cases would have a further delay to make sure that that that it was collectible we would what I'm saying is we wouldn't refer these for collection to local debt recovery if they were in this Shadow period of of non-payment and within 180 days of the vi of the violation so we could determine whether we were going to exempt them from payment or not that only relates to the first offense ERS all the other folks with if they got subsequent offenses we'd be referring to local deck recovery how is it forgivable then for a first offense if there's no subsequent offense we won't Refirm the local debt recovery for collection and we'll write off the fine at that point in time okay and for and some people might pay that right pardon me some people might pay it within 30 days correct I they may they may right yeah okay and so is there in I don't know they get a coupon or they get you know I mean good faith put toward housing if they pay they're fine I'm just saying like you know there there are people that may comply and pay this fine if this is what's enacted right and then there're going to be people that don't have the means to pay the fine they're just going to blow it off anyway um but they have not um received another infraction yeah the vast majority of people in these circumstances will have been defaulted they won't have made the opportunity to appear or inquire and then we will not have the opportunity to inform them but the letter that we send them for the first offenders would include a provision if you don't have any subsequent violations within 180 days in the offense of this this offense this fine will be forgiven okay you know so my questioning just so just so you understand where I was going with this is just to make sure that if this is something that is enacted that it is fair you know across the board is not just like you said it earlier there are some loopholes and where some people um are being fined and then I mean like you know they're really being fined um and it could go further and then there are those who are not like how is that determined making sure that that is definitely in them in the writing we'll do so thank you thank you Madame mayor thank you uh Council Hayes I'm not trying to be factious but we're talking about people living in encampments where are you going to mail their [Applause] notice thank you gor so most people that come through the process will provide an address and if they don't then we won't have an address to you know as a practical reality we won't have a place to send their notice that's the truth of it so if they don't have an address that they provide us when they're apprehended and cited that's information they're not providing us for a point of contact if they make inquiry here at the city they'll receive the information about their offense they're fine their status if they choose to make inquiry otherwise I don't know how we'd provide them notice the community service aspect appeals to me how is that equated to the dollar amount I mean how you know we haven't specified that $50 equates to two hours of community service how do we get there well in our administrative process P presently we do not have a community service mechanism and so in in hindsight maybe I could have added those Provisions to the ordinance but right now our administrative hearing officer is in position solely to issue fines and doesn't do it doesn't provide any other remedies the uh provision for community service was put there for cases that we might prosecute over in circuit court if we have an ordinance that has a provision for incarceration the sole means by which we can enforce that is over in Circuit Court the Circuit Court likes to have options with regard to fines and community service and so these would be options primarily put in the ordinance for the purposes of the Circuit Court to determine whether somebody should receive a fine or should be able to work through that fine based on community service so we anticipate that this would be relevant for uh the version that we uh have incarceration as an option um and probably a rarely used circumstance in our administrative hearing process so but we do include that I mean you do include it in option b where it says a fine or community service right so my my assumption was that we would have that option that these individuals would have that option they would get a fine or they could choose they could choose not the court but they could choose community service that perhaps could be coordinated through an organization like the Continuum of Care if we came up with some type of provision for if they get a $50 fine then that's X number of community service hours if they have a $100 fine that will mean X numbers of community service hours that isn't that feasible it is but traditionally the issue of community service is at the discretion of the judicial officer that resolves the matter not a matter of preference of the of the individual being being uh penalized now it is something they can ask for and an option for the court to have and that's why it's in the ordinance but it's at the discretion of the court in general and circuit court under the criminal code and the sentencing Provisions that this was modeled after but if you'd like to have have that be part of our process then we can certainly take action to put that together and develop whether we can provide that option or not and that may well be a situation where we need some Community Partners to help us monitoring community service is a fairly expensive process and so we'd have I think we'd have to be cautious about uh what we would take on in that Arena if we're not relying on the circuit court and Probation Services to do that thank you honor yes and I would not want the city running the community service component of that but I do believe that there's organization with partners that are willing to do that should an ordinance um be adopted council member vesa thank you thank you Madame mayor um I I would like to to Echo what um councilwoman Gordon young said I I don't see incarceration being a solution I think that's you know it's going to cost the taxpayers a lot of money and especially in the winter it's kind of an upgrade in some respects you know Willie York used to break windows so he'd get arrested and get three Square meals and a heated place to stay in a cut um fines finding homeless people I that seems silly at best counterproductive at worst when they start finally get getting back on their feet we're going to try to collect something from them I it it seems it seems silly I I understand where you're coming from and I'm not um and I appreciate uh the the changes that have been made uh to soften the ordinance um and I I do think you know Camp encampments uh need to be cleared when it's dangerous or hazardous um but um you know I I I keep hearing we're trying to get them to move on where move on where because it's not East Poria East Poria is just going to send them back here um it's not going to be any of the surrounding towns um just move them from an encampment to stairwell to park benches uh to the woods um where we've heard a lot of these a lot of these medical emergencies you know chest panes if they're in an encampment maybe maybe an ambulance gets there if they die in the woods no one around I mean that's one less person um you know there's if if we just if we're just going to play whack-a-mole clear these encampments every time they pop up it's it's going to cost a lot of money to clear them uh each time um and we're we're just going to be chasing our taals uh until we have enough housing um and you know I am encouraged I encouraged that we're going to get a lot more housing a year from now um but you know in the meantime um fines and and jail time I I just don't see how that moves the ball just being completely honest thank you madam mayor you're welcome Council member grup thank you madam chair in Poria today we are in crisis we do not need Hoovervilles anywhere in our city or in our downtown or any of our five districts yet disturbingly that is what we have in an increasingly out of control and violent city I know mayor Ali you did not see it that way but those of us who live here and go out into the neighborhoods and visit with the neighborhood associations and have represent business interests downtown we know what's happening in the neighborhoods including our downtown neighborhood we can see what's happening and we are appalled at the lawbreaking which is happening all over our city involving both repeat offender adults and repeat offender juveniles with no neighborhood in our great City now immune from The Wretched conditions and ongoing violence your burgeoning encampments serve as a stark notice to all peans that our city is out of control they have become emblematic and they are glaring they have proliferated in the past few months because of your Embrace of a radical ideology in the Journal Star you referred to the Chuck gra method of eliminating these popup encampments I plead guilty but you might be interested in knowing that the chuck rib method resulted in no fines or arrests when you placed a moratorium on dissolving these some eight months ago so now the problem thanks to your approach is totally out of control in a self-fulfilling prophecy other communities whose elected representatives have outlawed outdoor encampments are sending their people over and down here to Poria we've thrown our own city under the bus and yet you and your allies have the audacity to try to place yourself on a moral high horse as if you are completely oblivious to the humanitarian crisis unfolding in our city with the perpetually unhoused people people dying many years sooner by virtue of their being unhoused fellow council members you must become the adults in the room and declare an end to this even San Francisco is changing course as of their very recent municipal election their lawlessness fenel pedaling gangs and encampments had also become the norm what a steep and cruel price our city and other cities run by incompetent radicals have paid when Common Sense goes right out the window frankly the people of Pura are tapped out with the endless requests for more and more money for the unhoused some of our agency and Consortium leaders insult you insult you the elect representatives of this body and it is we the people and we the elected representatives of the people who have appropriated millions of dollars to solve these problems when the insulting ones come back asking me to vote for more money for their failed leadership with their inability to deliver results they will find a different response in our city we have long banned and still ban people from living in homes which have no running water or electricity for their own sake let me repeat that in our city we have long banned people from living in homes which have no running water or electricity why is that for humanitarian and health reasons but again our adherence to the rule of law in this city has died merely money disappears here Mark for violence Interruption for over three years we've gone without marauding gang members wander around our city with mask on shooting people dead mentally ill people who threaten to kill are released to wander around our city including our downtown where we have mass Gatherings of people we are witnessing ladies and gentlemen death of Innocence Imperia and like powerless Spectators we have witnessed people feeling powerless insecure in even their own homes malignant acquiescence in the health problems these encampments bring and to the public health problem we know as the crisis of violence which is rocking the very foundations of our city speaks volumes as to who we are in Pura and where we are now in Pura last Sunday I received a number of calls people going to church on Sunday or are coming off the interstate have the unhoused running up to their cars beating on their Windows frightened motorists and cars go through red lights to avoid this harassment what do you think will happen when folks stop coming to our downtown or they decide Pura is unsafe to live in where will the money come from to pay for all these unhoused developments and to pay the very salaries of the employees of the unhoused Continuum some of whom are ungrateful and demand ever more resources for their failed and failing efforts they and you mayor Ali will have contributed to the very demise of small business downtown and the loss of jobs for many who work for these businesses who need to support themselves and their family members are we thinking about them some of our business people have their life savings invested in these businesses not to mention their Blood Sweat and Tears as they help bring vibrancy to our Downtown City Council Members you have a very easy decision to make tonight the very livelihoods of many people who work live and own businesses in our city hang in the balance vote to dismantle these encampments restore the rule of law in our city and insist as I do that all human beings be required to live in conditions which will not lead to a premature death spiral for them we the elected leaders have a solemn duty to uphold the rule of law and protect all of our people the time to act council members is now it is still not too late pura's future is bright we owe it to our children I have met in recent weeks with developers ready to invest in our great City but they're watching what is happening tonight and what we do or do not do they're watching tonight make no mistake about it purans though are a resilient and caring people not withstanding repeated cheap attacks on the very character of the people of Peoria we will solve these problems God willing we will begin to Lance the boil tonight thank you there is a state law of Ethics that prohibits political campaigning were on duty in the midst of Performing government work we we also all signed a civility pledge that discourages personal attacks on other members of the council you're out of line councilman you're out of [Applause] line council member Gordon Young thank you Madame mayor um I was a couple things come to mind and I want to be clear on um what I'm getting ready to share I want to remind us all that we're talking about human beings um and and and just coincidentally today a couple hours before coming here I received a call at the Pu County Jail where I'm imployed and and I was asked to go speak with someone who was in crisis and through talking to this woman who was having an anxiety attack um and that's about building relationship seeing what's going on getting to the root cause she told me that she lives in an encampment and as I got to know her and talk to her she explained her story how her baby died many years ago and just her mental health plummeted and and and from there there substance use and there's a bunch of layers of challenges she's dealing with I think that the city P has done an amazing job of putting Social Services in place we just need to use them and if we can start connecting with our citizens our residents who are in these places and we know that we can't save everybody but that's what we need to start I will never advocate for jailing people first of all you send them to me and I'm busy we have a lot of people inside the Per County Jail what we don't need is it to be our new mental health facility it's already that but we don't need people because they can't afford housing to be jailed and fine leading up to jail and you know the criminalization of their mental health or substance use there's for that and that means there's a waiting list that we have to be more patient in the city I suggest we really start looking at that but again I want to commend the direction that we have gone in but I cannot support finding people and I cannot support incarcerating people I think we have to really look at the human nature of this and go in a different direction this is not the time thank you madam mayor welcome member excuse me council member Kelly thank you Madame mayor and uh Madame mayor I would uh second your remarks but I would also ask that we re remember that order is to be kept at these meetings and they're not to be turned into cheering sections so I believe that the caler needs to be reminded of that now now to my remarks um I'll start out by saying that I do not think that monetary fines while a nice idea are going to work we have a real problem here that we need to address or we just leave it alone and let it fester and it's really really harming our city Corporation Council has talked about the uh trespassing uh statute that we have and that when confronted with either leaving or going to jail quite wisely perpetrators say all right we'll leave and so they don't end up in jail I don't know why anyone would volunt would take a choice to go to jail but what um and I think that monetary fines are really it's I think it's a silly idea they'll never be paid it's it's not a I think once a person gets a citation um they they you can just tear it up throw it at the police officer's feet and move on because there's nothing that that that will mean that all of those encampments will remain and will get worse and worse it seems as though the more we help the homeless in our city and this goes for many other cities as well the more we help homeless people the more home people we have they have an incentive not to change behavior these are behavioral problems okay they have an incentive not to change Behavior because they are supported so much in those negative behaviors we have facilities for mental health in this community we have facilities for substance abuse in this city we have facilities for um uh for uh women who are or women who are abused uh those kinds of things we we have facilities for them we we are building more and more and more homeless facilities here and as we do that somehow the encampments keep growing um it's we have to put a stop to this and it isn't going to be easy but my perspective here is that if we stop or slow the enabling of these behaviors people will think H maybe there's a different way to go here all of us are creatures of morality if our immorality is encouraged and encouraged and encouraged well gosh we're going to get more immorality if our morality is encourag encouraged and encouraged and encouraged we get more of that behaviors go back to [Music] morality I think that we need to stop what we're doing now start to reverse it I would give people notice Etc but even at the jail at the at the jail we have uh we have have mental health facilities we have anti- uh uh substance abuse facilities um hoping hoping that people will take advantage of them I I think the direction we're going here with fines and nothing else will be a complete and total failure because there isn't any reason for anyone to comply there's no consequence for non-compliance if we say or uh you go to jail well you know I I don't know what it would be huge majority of the people would say no I'd rather not go to jail and they would not and they would be forced to find another way we so enable these people to do this it's it's a sin because we're not helping them we're harming them in my opinion and um so I will be in favor of an ordinance which gets rid of all the f Etc which for non-compliance uh threatens jail time uh concurrent with or not concurrent with but modeled after the uh trespassing statutes um I'd want to give people ample notice that their encampment it needs to be cleaned out by X date and a re reasonable a reasonable period of time um I think this will work better than what we have it isn't going to solve all of our problems but it will be I think a good first step and say not only to those folks but also to the citizens of our city and the businesses of our city that this body is serious about protecting them and about about enhancing life in our wonderful city of Poria Illinois thank you Madame mayor you're welcome council member Allan uh thank you madam mayor when we approached this subject back in August after that very long meeting and I appreciate all the citizens that shared remarks that evening the next day um typically on my lunch break I go get some steps in in and so I walked near the encampment um that's down the road here and on my way back um I ran into somebody and this was an house gentleman uh he came up to me uh asked for a dollar and when I looked at him I said let's call him Bob I said Bob is that you and he called me dad so I could tell this individual was um maybe under you know irriation and then I said no Bob it's it's Dre and he said Dre it was one of my old Foster Brothers my parents used to do foster care when we was kids and Bob and his brother stayed with us for about a year and a half when I was in Middle School and Bob was very talented to the point where we both tried out for the basketball team and he made it and I didn't Granton you at my school how I I make the team right and I remember when Bob and his brother they wanted my parents to adopt them and it was three of us my parents couldn't do it and so they got adopted by a family out of Springfield and I never saw Bob again until I ran into him back in August after that council meeting and when we started going down memory lane he brought up how we rode bikes and how I had the red swim with the gold pegs and the game boys and all these different things and I asked him I said what You' been up to and he said when I turned 17 I ran away from home and I've been on the streets ever since then and we're 35 now 18 years on the streets and the only difference after that conversation and I did go to the ATM and get Bob some money because I could tell he was down on his luck and he said that he was going to go underneath the Bob Michel Bob Michael bridge where he was living and I was going to my you know my privileged position you know working for Peoria County the difference between the two of us going in our separate directions is I just had parents that had the ability to love and care about me that was the difference and so that really humanized this situ sitation for me because again this is someone who had so much potential and just didn't have parents that cared about him didn't have Guardians that loved him enough for him to feel the same things that I felt growing up and I know that we all want the same thing and we want our unhoused community members to have quality consistent housing and how we get there we're going to disagree I would hope that we can keep the political uendo out of this and really keep the test at hand because this has been an issue in our community before this Administration and it will probably be a continued issue for future administrations because Society has failed many of these individuals and so we all have a collective responsibility in addressing that issue when I look at the two options that are in front of us the op option that I'm leaning towards supporting this evening is a variation of option two because I feel that one option two gives us the ability to create awareness that we're taking this this issue serious in our community I'm not a huge fan of the fines but I do believe that we have to have some stick to influence behavior and as we're working with them through the fine process I'm praying that we will have Collective Community Partners that will help us case manage these individuals and we can get them into housing I'm not a fan and I can't support incarceration because I feel that at this time all that is doing is putting them on the hamster wheel that is the jail and the courthouse and once you get in that hamster wheel it's very hard to get off and so I would love to see us look at option two see what that looks like from the F the findes again I but it's a necessary evil because you got to get their attention I think be not being insensitive but the threat of removing items and personal belongings I think that's enough to influence behavior and so that is that is something that I would consider supporting because I do believe that we do need a policy on the book to influence this Behavior but I think that we can do it in a way that is Humane but also has accountability uh for our community thank you you're welcome council member Oiler thank you madam chairwoman what we are not debating tonight is whether we recognize that there is a human services problem in this community it is very apparent that there are challenges there are lack of resource issues there is a lack of Mental Health Services but that's not what's on this docket to discuss tonight what's on the docket to discuss tonight is whether we are going to continue to the allow the encampments to destroy our downtown because that's exactly what is happening I hear every single day that conventions are now cancelling at the Civic Center people are not bringing their families downtown to eat businesses are signing leases to move to the other side of town from our downtown buildings businesses are closing in total because they can't survive here the people are going to basketball hockey concert events do not feel safe outside of the Civic Center there are people on the phone right now watching this meeting that are waiting to see whether we do anything to decide whether they're going to renovate buildings downtown and invest millions of dollars or whether tonight will be the night that they choose to pull the plug because it doesn't work anymore and what I can tell you will happen if we continue to do nothing is that these con conventions and concerts will cease the restaurants will cease because they will struggle to survive the businesses will not survive here so we will lose HRA tax dollars we will lose sales tax dollars we will lose property tax dollars all the things that we use to pay the police and firefighters that have to respond to all of these calls so guess what happens then we start laying those guys off too and this becomes a death spiral that we cannot recover from and we're already headed there because I hear it every single day so there is a solution here and it's to Mere the trespassing ordinance that we already have an enforce on our own property because idot won't clean their own damn mess up these Interstate lines are owned by ID do they don't want to come deal with the problem so they want to let us have to figure out how to clean it up so they're allowing us to have unsafe environments for people that live in our community that then turns around and destroys downtown so unfortunately we have to take action that we don't want to take to do something that simply mirrors the trespassing ordinance that we already have on our own property I don't want to send anybody to jail either and we've already shown with the trespassing ordinance that we already have that that really is not the result so we're having the wrong argument and not addressing the actual problem and I appreciate that we have deferred this sum so that more inut input could be made to staff but the council members that don't want to take action tonight are the same ones that wanted to defer it so that they can give more input so we've accomplished absolutely nothing unfortunately which is consistent with some of the things that we do here when it comes to tough decisions and so tonight we absolutely need to pass an ordinance that mirrors the trespassing ordinance we already have to deal with the problem so then we can start fixing the actual Human Service problems that we have in this community so that it doesn't result in destroying downtown which then will destroy this city thank you council member Jackson thank you Madame mayor well I I have a similar story as Andre's about a homeless person I had been having conversations with and I've C you know just as uh the councilman said this problem has not has existed for a long time and I don't think it's going to uh mean the death of our downtown uh I I do believe just as we as a city we as a nation we as a uh this world came up with viable Solutions during the pandemic I am sure that we will do likewise with regards to this long-standing problem in our community um Madame mayor I I I appreciate the fact that you uh included this us inter agency Council on homeless because it it you know it did give us some viable guidelines and I you know I'm I don't have a problem with uh approving an ordinance I just want to make sure that it's done in a decent and humain way as strategy 16 advises us to do ensuring that encampments are closed humanely the process must be implemented in a Humane and Trauma informed way way and the goal must be to connect every person to housing and services to help them overcome and avoid future experiences so I think that having uh taken the opportunity to look at this uh this this this this guideline from the US inter agency Council on homeless I think it has provided us with a guideline a map by which we could proceed and I I just want to make sure that as we move forward and as we seek to uh close some of these encampments that we are doing in a way doing it in a way where we ex respect uh the situations and the circumstances be that people are dealing with because as we all know this is not a onesize fits-all solution situation so I'm prepared to move forward I'm just hoping that we do do it in a way that does not that will not cause this problem to continue to persist thank you Madame mayor you're welcome at this time I think our next step is to hear from director Joe dlan who will describe the process uh should an ordinance pass tonight what is the the what are the next steps and what is the process what is that look like director thank you mayor um yes so section five back of the report back outlines the the process that City staff put together um to if if an ordinance was uh adopted tonight uh the main thing I kind of want to point out is is the process will be uh implemented and ran by the Community Development Department it won't be uh started or initiated with the police department um it'll be something that based on the contexts we have in the current process that we work now with the the street teams and the different Outreach folk uh folks that will continue uh on those relationships and it'll be something ran by the Community Development staff with the assistance of the police department if needed so um the Community Development staff does work 8 to5 so if a violation is observed and it's after hours uh the police department may be the ones who make that initial contact but they will actually just take the information and hand out an informational flyer about the different social services and then uh provide that information to uh Community Development Department staff so we can follow up on the next business day on the first day of of when we get the the uh where we observe see a violation or find out about a violation uh we will let them we will send staff member down there to let them know that camping's not allowed it's public property it's in violation of this ordinance we'll also reach out to the street team uh Phoenix Community Development street team and the partners uh to get to let them know that we observed a violation and ask that they go down and visit the site as well we'll let them know that we'll return to the site in about 48 Hours uh and that they they need to be removed or otherwise we'll have to start the enforcement process from there after that 48 hours we will uh go back to the site um we'll be making sure we provide a flyer with all the homeless shelters in the area staff will inform the person that a violation they're not allowed to camp at that location uh and let them know that we'll actually be back again in 24 hours to post the final 24-hour notice to have them uh removed from the site and if they don't we will have to uh issue a citation and remove uh the clear the encampment and clear the space that's there day four we'll return to the site uh we'll provide the written notice once again that includes the different information and we'll post a sign in the ground that says the documents that the 24-hour notice will be back and that's when the citation will be issued and the encampment will be cleared uh we will give that documentation if someone's present if they're not present we will specifically post that at the property in the ground so if anyone came and we're not there they can see that when they return to the property and day five if we come back and someone is still present and belongings are still there uh we'll work with the police department to go with us uh depending on if the ordinance are passed with a fine structure there'll be issued a citation um and the Community Development start will call for an emergency work order of one of our contractors to meet us on site and clear the site of any items that are there staff will also leave a notice at the property for 24 hours stating that uh the site was cleared and how to retrieve those items if they choose to uh and we'll make sure that's provided to the person specifically if they're there and we have to clear the items but we'll also post it just in case they're not all the belongings that are collected will be stored at a location provided to the city for 30 days uh we'll be making sure that that information is provided uh to the Outreach teams uh and the person there and on the sign posted we'll make every attempt to save as many items as possible obviously unsafe unhealthy things like that will be disposed of but all the other belongings we will be storing in uh weather proof uh containers things like that to try to ensure its Integrity uh then we will take the the items to that that storage site and save them for 30 days other items not I want to point out is Staff will post this procedure and the informational flyer on the city of Poria website uh repeat Defenders will go through the same process just as the ordinance defines um we will work to uh make sure to connect to Residents with any of the the staff members uh um street team members that need to um and also camping on private property will be handled differently based on the current ordinances and how we currently Do It um this information was presented to a multitude of different stakeholders at the Poria Public Library on October 16th uh we specifically asked for feedback uh regarding this process if it wasn't implemented uh that feedback is provided in section six uh a lot of the feedback we heard was specifically about communication of who wanted to be included on uh kind of those initial email lists those Outreach efforts and what we can do there uh so we will make sure to incorporate as much as that and you know if anyone wants to be able to go and provide services or help for these people we'll make sure to incorporate that and um happy to take any questions on the the process specifically if you have any mayor thank you director Duan thank you for all your due diligence and what I think we want to do now is hear from some of the individuals that are present here tonight that uh have actually notified Us in advance that they would like to speak before a vote is taken tonight and so I have the names of the people that will speak we'll hear those in favor those in opposition uh maybe some neutrality in there but um I have those names of the people that are going to speak you're going to be limited to three minutes and when your three minutes is up the microphone will actually go off so I I just want to prepare you to it will automatically go out after your 3 minutes so you know try to there the microphone will actually start blinking I think when you just have how much time left when it starts blinking one minute when the one minute Mark the microphone will start blinking red or green I forget um and then everybody else Beyond these individuals will still get an opportunity to speak in the public uh comment section you get up to five minutes at that time so at this time I just want to uh give your heads up on where you are in the speaking list uh first we have Kate green followed by Christine Haley uh number three is Christine call number four is Ki Bernard number five Chris Schaffner number six Kathy mcneel number seven Susan Smith number eight AM arika Crawford then we have Pat Sullivan Jack Baris John Hopkins Karen KH and Kim Parker those are the 13 individuals that will have three minutes to speak to the council uh Kate green should have had some coffee for some jet fuel uh good evening thank you all I start with mayor councel uh city manager all of our leadership around this table we haven't had the opportunity for dialogue in all communities this is very important and I appreciate this opportunity to to be just engaged around this issue when I was reflecting on remarks tonight I was thinking about the role that we all play and for Council you provide strategic direction for all members of our community all the way from those experiencing home through to our Economic Development interests in the downtown area and everything in between it is complex it is challenging to navigate I do not I do not envy that it's not an easy job for the Continuum and our partners we Converge on a simple truth and that's that everyone deserves a place to call home it's foundational it should be the beginning and the end of every single day and for those that we serve A Place Called Home is Out Of Reach and so our work is to bring it back into the realm of possibility and work towards that long-term stability in my work I'm fortunate to be reminded each month during our lived expertise committee meetings about the gravity of this effort at each meeting without fail a member of the committee shares that the work that we're doing is saving lives lives that have been have seen desperation Beyond Comprehension just last month one of the members said that they come back month after month because they feel a level of respect and dignity that they have never felt before they get to make an impact in the work that moves us forward as a Continuum of Care and I am encourage as we walk through this discussion tonight that we focus on that incredibly humbling perspective that we all have the power to provide dignity and respect to those who often feel like they're in the shadows I believe all of us share the same ultimate goal that no one should have to experience homelessness uh whether that's for yourself or to even be in proximity of it we know that it is a symptom of challenges and and and a system that's failing and it is hard to witness um unfortunately the truth of today is that our emergency shelter system is stretched Beyond capacity and we've seen an exponential growth since the pandemic era uh and so our system really just hasn't been able to scale with this increased need even uh with significant uh Investments through uh organizations like the office to prevent an end homelessness but we have to get curious curious about system level drivers that are leading to homelessness curious about the unended consequences of policy decisions uh such as this ordinance curious about new innovative solutions to meet an evolving landscape of need and curious about the stories of people we heard a couple tonight uh who have experience homelessness and what it takes firsthand to escape it we're working towards system level Solutions often those Solutions can be slow and because they require funding and and collaboration with Partners like state and federal sources but tonight I stand before a body that wields incredible power to enable change through policies funding and collaboration in real time tomorrow morning the Continuum of Care kicks off a thank you Christine Haley good evening May Madame uh May Ali and esteemed council members thank you for the opportunity to provide testimony tonight uh my name is Christine Haley I am work for the state of Illinois as Illinois ch Chief homelessness officer I am a national expert in homelessness policy and implementation and my family has deep roots in Poria I'm a a former resident of Poria my parents were born in Poria my grandparents back to the 1890s so we are very invested in understanding how we find solutions to end homelessness in poran and across the state I'm here tonight to urge you not to pass either version of tonight's ordinance there is no evidence space that ticketing and jail time for people experiencing homelessness will end homelessness where we do have evidence is that investments in housing investments in in supports will end homelessness we have examples of that in cities across our state such as in Rockford and Lake County and Suburban Cook County where if we're able to make strong Investments at the municipal level at the state level at the federal level that we can end homelessness across our state we do not have the shelter or housing that we need homelessness is primarily driven by housing costs and we've seen in Illinois upwards of 40% increase in Fair market rent over the past four years across our state in different communities Statewide we are short of over 26,000 shelter and affordable housing units for people who are currently experiencing homelessness we understand that amidst this reality that communities are in very difficult positions at such times it's more important than ever that we make evidence-based policy de decisions to work to improve our systems not punish and further traumatize those most affected by our affordable housing crisis when we push already vulnerable communities further and further into the margins forcing them to move along or to face time or or rest there is an impact and these policies are a poor use of public resources because enfor them costs three times more than providing housing directly with precious Municipal dollars we implore you to make investments in evidence-based solutions to end homelessness and not the cost that you were will incur for ticketing in jail this does not mean that we are suggesting that there is no pathway forward with closing encampments We Believe In following nationally recognized practices in closing encampments where people are able to move out of encampments into permanent Housing Solutions and this you can do without passing these ordinances tonight ordinances like these do not allow communities to be able to have that they have the chilling effects of of of the relationship between those experiencing homelessness service providers and law enforcement is the time up thank you thank you time's up Christine Cole so first of all I want to thank all of you because when we were here in August my ask at that time was please delay so that you could gather additional information so I appreciate that you have been able to do that however I too am standing here and asking that you consider not supporting either ordinance at this time some of the language that's been used tonight is that we have a crisis we have a crisis we have a crisis the crisis is a lack of affordable housing the crisis is not homelessness the crisis is not the encampments and so again in August I ask that you look at solutions to end that not to penalize um the ongoing existence of the encampments that will not solve anything it will drive up the cost to enforce that many of the I heard councilman Oiler list all the charges um those were brought to everybody's attention in August as well every one of those charges would with the exception of the handful that said encampment fire could have happened at a fixed address it didn't take an encampment for any of those other issues to be present and so I think that is not something that should be considered is is looking that that's causing any more of a problem than your responses to single fixed address sites so I encourage you again to please consider not passing either ordinance and continuing to work with the system on solutions that work thank you you're welcome Casi Bernard hello Madame mayor and councel I'm Casi Bernard I am the co-founder Lula and director of Outreach for jolt I do direct service to the encampments 5 to seven days per week depending on the weather I am asking all of you to not pass either ordinance as they are written speaking of audacity I had to add to my speech to address checks weak and inaccurate conflation of Statistics the youth violence and so-called Mass Marauders he referred to do not live in encampments and do not go to camp this is yet another cheap attack where you try to blame our most vulnerable residents for acts they do not commit if you're going to come check at Le check at least come correct Mr Celly my area of expertise is in substance use disorder I ask you where the substance use disorder treatment centers are the weight list are long in my agency transports all over the state there is no Mental Health foral Health Carl is taxed and send our people to Chicago they send them back to tents there's no continuation of care I would like to personally invite you to speak on these barriers later Mr Duan stated they will pass out homeless shelter Flyers they already know where the shelters are how are you going to fit 88 people into three beds my unsheltered friends are scared they keep asking where we are going to go I am going to ask you where they are going to go no matter how how many times you throw away a entt it does not solve homelessness it does not give someone a home and it does not provide more beds in shelter last Wednesday we did a hard count we stood at 88 unsheltered City citizens make it make sense how you're going to fit those residents into beds I'm glad to hear there's more family shelter capacity but the people in camps fortunately are not families even the r written ordinance still punishes the most vulnerable people in our community without offering any real solutions I'm excited to hear the city is working with the continue of care to open more barrier low barrier shelters and housing but until then I am asking yet again for a transitional encampment or just wait until they can move into shelter or housing where are the most vulnerable and least resourced people can be allowed to lawfully exist if the city is wise and compassionate and doe a transitional encampment a lot of negative issues I hear around this would be mitigated I'm offering you a real solution bring in trash service bring in restroom so our folks wouldn't have to use local businesses allow service providers to access our unsheltered folks we would be able to find them if they do get pulled for housing it allows our medical Outreach team and it would cut down on EMS and law enforcement calls I I heard councilman o Oiler list the calls in attempt to villainize the residents thank you your time up thank you Chris Schaffner good evening Madame mayor and council members my name is Chris shafford I'm the executive director of jol foundation this ordinance is putting the cart before the horse because without sustainable trauma-informed wraparound services and safety nets this risks worsening the challenges faced by our unsheltered neighbors by focusing on enforcement first before building a robust support infrastructure we're putting the cart before the horse the Reliance on punitive measures like citations and escalating penalties is not only counterproductive but inhumane penalizing individuals already living on the margins with fines they cannot pay or potential incarceration only perpetuate cycles of poverty and instability these approaches are costly for the city and fail to address the underlying issues and create even more barriers are housing and employment selectively enforcing this ordinance against only certain members especially those acting out of necessity and hardship versus those camping at the zoo for fun is discriminatory and it creates a two-tier system that puts the city at potential risk of litigation even though you say you're trying to go after anyone camping on public grounds this will disproportionately impact the encampment residents creating a two-tiered system opening you up to expensive potential litigation I don't have to say that's being negligent with City funds and resources I urge the council to delay enforcement of this ordinance until a comprehensive trauma inform plan is fully developed and implemented let's ensure that we're not just pushing people out of sight but meeting them where they're at with compassion support and an actual meaningful solution and in doing so we can not only uphold the Dignity of every resident but also save the city money by investing in approaches that actually work thank you thank you for your time and thoughtful consideration welcome Kathy mcneel I love Poria and I like to see everything go fine with Poria just like the next guy uh it's pior is not just made up of real estate you know um we're thinking peans who have elected you all to represent what we have to say and um I want you to know I'm from uh faith community and um National Organization for Women and we have all said the same things that you're already hearing if there's any laws or ordinances regarding tent encampments if they're going to be considered amended or voted on We Believe those considerations should be strictly compassionate Humane and sensible so let's be real um you you've known about homelessness we've all known about homelessness for quite a while and uh what do we wait until the Supreme Court says okay it's all right you can you know punish people who have nothing and and so did you go to the ACLU and maybe ask them what they might have to say about our rights as human beings when you want to do something like this we're here to uphold the law to pass an ordinance or vote on an ordinance so um I'm just going to Simply say table it um I was here in August and my speech was simply to say uh could you please uh think about getting together and that has happened fortunately it has we there's been progress and uh I I think um Jessica would from She's ACLU president good evening can I can she relinquish the rest of her time to me no I can't okay go ahead sorry so so um please um allow me Madame mayor to say to say that uh for uh for all that you do we don't want to thank you uh for feting our city council I appreciate you for your skills and making yourself heard and easily understood I see your compassion just like we see from other black women leaders who continually step up to solve The World's problems despite the current patriarchy surrounding us the patriarchy surrounding us so I want to stress the importance of women especially at this time when we need to be recognized you know all too well that we are in a dangerous world Waters of of this majority white leadership at the national level it's time we hold all of them accountable and it's a perfect time for white and black women to coales in Peoria um homelessness yeah we've all known it's a been a problem and you've heard this before but so these are people at their lowest point who have nothing and you want to punish them Susan Smith thank you madam mayor and the council um just want to first start off I hope that this does not come into effect um I put my faith and Trust in Poria uh I was here back in 2009 and I was homeless then I came back again in 2021 and I was homeless again um I have worked with two of the most amazing organization nonprofit organization Dream Center Poria and Phoenix Community Development Services I am currently representing I'm a member of shipa a Supportive Housing providers assoc assciation and as my peers would tell it as the state of Illinois of peers that we created as a bond homelessness is not a mindset it is a mental health crisis um there is not a lot of things that go into mental health and certain people are being stigma I've seen some of y'all talk about the stigma stigma is real but at the end of the day um I'm losing my train of thought on this but um stigma is real and at this point if it was you at any given time uh hard times do not discriminate and as a good uh peer once told me is that if one day you wake up and your health fails you and you lose your position as this job and you have saving but that savings only go so far then what so I'm saying this to you to all of you that one day if you wake up and it becomes you because it came became me but I put my faith and trust in Poria and Poria got me to a point where I'm permanent stabled housing and I've been housed for at least give or take four years now and it was all through the help of Phoenix Community Development Services and Dream Center of Poria but just take accountability if you woke up and that was you and you decided that you stayed in a tent and you get convicted because homelessness is a criminal and it's not we are all people so take the homelessness out of it take the label off of it because we are human we are all human but just remember if you woke up and that was you ARA Crawford my name is ARA Crawford I am the chief executive officer with Poria Housing Authority so I came oh okay let me know sometimes my voice drops I am arika Crawford I am the chief executive officer at Poria Housing Authority I came here tonight with an eloquent speech prepared for you but I'm going a different direction um I Heard tonight that homelessness is a behavior and the behavior needs to be corrected and what I've heard tonight from many of you um it was an attempt to paint what homelessness looks like okay not everyone that's homeless um have a drug addiction um not everyone that's homeless has mental illness and let me say homeless and housing insecurity is there are two different things and what I will tell you standing in front of you that you're looking at a face of someone that was homeless single parent living in an abandoned home in my early 20s and if someone had have come to me and said you're trespassing I'm going to place you in jail I'm going to give you a fine put a misdemeanor on your record I would not be standing in front of you today so I want you to consider that we are dealing with human beings as many of you have always also um said but also we also have to understand that housing is a fundamental need the Poria Housing Authority has made a a conscious effort to partner with the city um we c um partner with Phoenix communities Continuum of Care Dream Center um and any other partner that would want to come through our doors to determine how do we address access to housing and housing policies so that we can make sure that people are housed because with the exception of the public housing authorities who fall under the public housing authority act um under the state of Illinois we have a six-month look back period um outside of that we cannot look back at people's backgrounds well private landlords are exempt from that so they're held to a different standard so while we want to attract investors and just understand that I think that's a great thing we attract attract investors but the housing prices are going up I see it every day when we're trying to place our families who have vouchers so I want you to consider that as we talk about placing people in jail misdemeanors thees because that goes on their records in addition to evictions and those are their hardest families to house thank you for your time thank [Applause] you Pat Sullivan me at a mayor council I too um it's hard to say I lived everywhere started at Warner holes East Bluff West Bluff Center Bluff Southside North Bluff and was homeless our family couldn't afford we we survived then I happened to be fortunate enough to have a organization picked me up set me in a straight way and uh work worked hard we were able to have a building we were able to help um a gentleman Two Gentlemen actually my staff and and and employees help bring me inside get them a job let them work we're we're having problems with homeless disrupting customers coming in customers leaving and trying to get there you're losing money the tax dollars that we raise you're losing money we know what it is we're on the street there I talk to them I first thing I ask him is where you from most of them are from out of town we will help we my staff and I and family have brought them in they were getting beat up on the street because they didn't Follow the Leader way that they had to go beg for money and give them some it's bad out there one decided to attack me a couple of weeks ago luckily enough I was able to defend myself they attacked my wife she has had a stroke banging on her window asking for money in her car we got to quit this we got to start waking people up and saying we had enough I hope we can all get together and get this done Poria needs it it's um it's pretty tough out there and uh just before we came here we had people putting tents up in my front yard I'm going to invite anybody that wants people to put tents in their yard thank you ja Bears Madame mayor honorable councel Mr manager thank you for your time my name is Jack Baris I on Jackson Adams there's a couple things that we live every day as downtown business owners my employees live them as well safety is my biggest concern every day maybe every other day I pick up needles I pick up human feces um we try to make sure that the Cookie Shop can get in when she's showing up at 5 o'clock to bake cookies because she's scared out of her mind I wouldn't want to walk into an alley with a guy my size either my employees to go to our cooler to get food to get beer are worried and they don't feel safe they don't want to do it I lost an employee to that she will not come downtown anymore and she was great for us cleanliness we don't allow people to live in these conditions these unfortunate people in these camps they deserve better and we should be a part of that our city and our taxpaying and law- abiding citizens deserve more out of our beautiful city thank you for your time I hope that we can all get together and fix our downtown this is not a downtown where businesses residents will stay and it's not one where they will move to I can tell you that from my personal EXP experience in the last two and a half years there's nothing open on Main Street in between me and Sean Kenny that's an issue a realtor tried to show a space the gentleman got out of his car and said the only people down here are in a camp over there it's it's very noticeable it's an issue we have employees that we care for they have children they want to send them to school they want want to feed them and their job happens to be at midnight downtown Poria which I hope for them we can get together and get a safer more prosperous downtown John Hopkins oh wait hold on just a minute good evening uh Madame mayor councel um appreciate everybody that's uh here tonight both sides um you know I've gotten to know more about uh many of you uh and I've known some of you guys for years so you know it's it's great to uh to get to hear some of the insight and in the care uh John Hopkins business owner down town here and I would consider myself a friend of Poria if I could share briefly and quickly uh I remember a conversation just a story uh I remember a conversation I had with my grandfather over 20 years ago where he told me about a chance he had in the 60s to move his family to New York or Chicago uh to run the accounting firm as Branch uh that he worked at in those cities he had that opportunity and he chose to raise his family in Poria uh because he said quote there is nowhere like Poria now this man was born in Oklahoma raised in Chicago before coming to Poria he then attended the University of Illinois the University of Pennsylvania and fought in World War II in the Pacific yet Poria was the place that he that held his heart so and I'm thankful that he taught that love of Poria to me um I've had a chance to get to know several of you again uh many in the crowd here tonight as well so I know know that like my grandfather and myself we all want the best for Poria as a city we've given funds and in uh what we were able to prepare um director uh we see that those funds have gone to organizations in the city uh and all these organizations are experts in their field of assisting others in their own way I personally donate to Salvation Army Southside mission in the dream C Center among other local charities because I value the help they Prov ifed to the parts of our community that are struggling I mentioned all of this only to highlight the care of the community that I have and I know that our city has and each of you members here do that brings me to the issue at hand the ordinance that is being proposed we are a free Society but this freedom is not a state of complete license to do whatever we have given power to the government to make and enforce laws for the public good we have opened beds available currently so these are the encampments these at the encampments are refusing service that are being provided I heard a number here tonight 60 to 70% of these have it's been a long time that they've been unhoused or homeless they're choosing this path many of them now some aren't and we need to help those but I'm asking for a quick and strict implementation of these uh en encampments I'll I'll skip to the end because I'm out of time it's time for our government to now stand beside and behind the large percentage of law-abiding citizens and business thank you Karen Khan good evening Madame mayor and council members my name is Karen Khan and I am here as a downtown business owner and I want to share my concerns that I have about the encampment across from obit and Isaac's there on 74 first and foremost I am deeply concerned about the safety of my staff and the customers and the broader Community we've had employees and patrons expect Express fears about being downtown particularly after dark this perception of danger not only affects their sense of security but also discourages people from coming from coming to downtown at all it has had a significant financial impact not just on my business but also the teams nightly take home pay which they rely on to make ends meet the problem extends beyond my doors because online reviews now describe downtown as an unsafe tarnished reputation of a city that we've all worked so hard to build this damages tourism convention attendance and the appeal of our city as a whole and we can't afford for this negativity to overshadow the progress that Poria has made in 2016 I took on the Redevelopment of the Cornerstone building because the council and the city staff at that time were very proactive and committed to revitalizing the downtown I believe in that Vision now and I believe you do as well and today we need that same Focus From the leadership to address the growing challenges that we face I am asking the council to act we have Professionals in the city and in this room that are trained and that are expertise to find a balanced solution to homelessness solutions that offer compassion to the unhoused while prioritizing the safety and vitality of this community as a whole this issue is is not just about one encampment encampment it is about ensuring a thriving welcoming and a safe downtown for everyone I want to make it clear I do strive to balance compassion and practicality I care deeply about the individuals that are facing homelessness but we must also consider what is best for the entire Community our residents visitors employees and business owners thank you for your time I know that together that we can trying to pass forward with this solution thank you you're welcome Kim Parker is Kim Parker here council member do you see her council member you don't here okay all right thank you that concludes our public comment for now there will be an opportunity I think I have 35 more cards for uh later during the public comment section of our meeting but at this point we're going to go back to you director dlan to answer any questions that Council may have unless you had something additional did you speak to the lease agreements that we that there was a there was some discussion over maybe working with local landlords using some of that 800 and something uh thousand doll to establish lease agreements with local landlords to open up housing opportunities for some of these individuals I think um you know the city of Pua in the budget process did put about $800,000 to address homelessness in our community uh I think based on the direction tonight uh we will come back with with the recommendation on what we can do that uh the manager might be able to speak to the issue a little further about Master Lease agreements he's had some discussion with landlords that open up housing we've had other discussions Thea nonprofits about opening up uh a a group home similar to The Haven uh and so we're continuing to explore that uh in addition um as Kate green mentioned there's a design Workshop for a 100 day challenge to specifically address this issue that uh they also might be a funding request to come from um so just kind of based on the direction tonight we will use uh if a camping ordinance did get put in place use that $800,000 to try to address uh and help house those while we're uh that are currently on the street while uh before whatever time frame gets uh established to put the ordinance in place manager I didn't know if you wanted to add anything or add anything to that Mr manager um no I think that we're we're going to continue to look at at other options as um I think you were talking about potentially looking at a Master Lease arrangement with some of our local landlords that have vacant properties um we've had some discussions with a couple about that so far that have expressed some interest and we'll continue to look at at all the options that we have in front of us to to um certainly address the issue and and try and move um with housing first as well okay and uh director dlan the number of people that the number of individuals that live in encampments in Peoria to my understanding is 40 to 50 people is that correct uh that is the number that that we've been told uh through the Continuum the last time we discussed the ask the question okay so is are you confirming that or uh that the the that's what is the when we talked in October November got the data that is what they reported to us okay 40 to 50 people is what we're talking about in terms of these encampments um and my understanding is that there's about 11 unique encampments within that 40 to 50 people individuals that are assembled because they have some commonality uh whether they're um using whether they have partner ERS spouses perhaps they're linked together uh because they have pets and certain other barriers that often um make it difficult for them to have housing or potentially they're banned from some shelter or they don't qualify because they don't necessarily meet the needs um so I just want to make sure that we're not talking just numbers but we're talking about individuals um that have human needs and we want to be able to move them from the encampments that are not safe in my opinion to housing I don't know that that can happen overnight I don't believe that that can happen overnight but I do want to ask how long director duelan what time period it might take to move those who are willing and the the research says about 75% would be willing there might be another 20 to 25% that will refuse any housing or support so that 75% that may be willing to move into housing how long would it take for us to actually make that happen for them uh mayor to be honest I cannot give you a time frame on that uh you know the role the city often plays in this process is a funer a partner we're not the expert so I I wouldn't be prepared to tell you how quickly you can everyone has a unique story everyone has a unique situation uh I think having the funding source available we will work with with all the partners to say let's move them as quickly as possible but uh putting a timeline I just I have I would have no idea how to answer that well do you think that you could do it in 30 days realistically uh I don't have I 30 days is is a very short amount of time for the amount of time people have been working to uh House people from the encampments do you think that you could do it in 60 or 90 days uh I mean the the longer time frame that exist uh the more opportunity exists to House people uh and provide resources that needed um you know the reality is is you know to this conversation whether in August or November isn't the first time we've been aware of this situation we've been working with the Phoenix community outreach team and all of their partners and the continue of Care on housing people in encampments uh it wasn't something that just popped up so it's been a continued effort and I think in the report where we highlighted the best practices we've been doing we've been doing those best practices and it uh it we wouldn't be having this conversation if they are working to house everyone uh very very quickly so it's it's a very complicated issue I think obviously with the longer time and the more funding that we have available to us the better resolution to a situation we can get to uh ultimately there might be uh people that that that can't be housed for whatever reason and and no matter how much time you put that those people may still not be able to be housed uh but but yes obviously the longer uh time frame we have the more likely we are to be successful in hous as many people as possible okay I I just want to point out that a a sweep a sweep of all the 40 to 50 people within 30 days possibly even 60 days is is Not Practical it's not practical I'm not sure who was first council member alen uh thank you madam mayor kind of to your point on on what's possible what's realistic has there been a a phased approach considered maybe we prioritize certain encampments and try to address those in a certain pecking order based off of number of calls for service or number of um concerns that have been raised by certain en campus I know the one that really gets a lot of um notoriety just because of its location it's the one near the expressway so has there been any conversation about maybe trying to address this issue in a phased approach the known encampments in the city uh are visited and provided the resources um available to the street team pretty much on a daily weekly basis uh so I guess the answer would be no uh to a phased approach because they are going and doing those Outreach Services on a daily basis uh to everyone as time allows um and and I think as as the mayor pointed out you know based on the feedback we've received from those who do the Outreach efforts uh we might see uh as one encampment along 74 but but it's really made up of three 4 five and I mean that's really where we do see the focuses there and then there's a few others uh but that's where we see but um whether you call that one encampment or four or five mini encampments I think it's just in a definition of of how you define encampment per se yeah absolutely and again not trying to prioritize one encampment or another but I think that that is the one again because of its location and downtown being our living room could be the one if we did more of a phased approach and really try to address this more in a strategic manner I'm not sure how many unhoused individuals live there but especially when we talk about possibly allocating some of the funding that we have looking into a voucher system for for housing working with local landlords maybe some there's some motels in the area um especially to get people transition through the winter time and then once the spring um comes up out maybe there could be more permanent Solutions as more housing comes available so just something to consider you know us looking at this as more of a phase approach maybe addressing that one first and then going from there I think my recommendation instead of a phased approach based on location would be a phased approach based on uh ease to house so if if there's people that can get into housing quickly and just needing funding those should be the ones that uh we would work to to house quickly um obviously we would have to do it kind of by location location just to get the data but really kind of providing the resources as quickly as possible to those that we know uh can be successful and succeed in housing as quickly as possible thank you director thank you madam mayor you're welcome council member here thank you madam mayor thank you director duing for all your work work on this is great to read and and see all the resources that the city of Poria makes available to all our residents um I have a question first uh tell me the what are the results in your opinion about these cities around us like pen and Washington and Morton that now have some of these rules and we all know that Chicago go is a sanctuary City it was very interesting to read about their Council meaning last few days uh and I know we have some of these illegal coming right here in Peoria so my question to you is what are your staff I knew your staff or police officers anybody asking like with Mr Solin said earlier what are your names where are you from do we know where these 40 and 50 individuals are from anybody asking those questions we have um the Continuum is trying to keep that data uh most of the data they come across most the individuals are local um I think you hear anodal evidence of people being from somewhere else or people coming from somewhere else um obviously uh with all the surrounding communities uh if they started enforcing uh the ordinances they have in place uh it could lead to um an uptick I believe you know there was a gentleman quoted in one of the news stories the other day that that specifically mention that I think it's probably a little too early in our data collection from the Continuum to know that for sure um but we will continue to track that and we can continue to report back to council okay thank you very much for answering that I know it's a difficult question but I think it's important since we're data base on all our decision that we know who else we need to help and where are they from because after all some of our responsibilities to make sure that we're fidi responsible with our tax dollars to make sure we're helping first in my opinion people that are from our area and then people from outside the city after that now I want to talk a little bit about my career here the last eight years in this chair and I've been through six of these plans okay I'm holding for some of you guys cannot see this is the current strategic plan for 5 years okay this is number six for me don't ask me where the first five are because we always spend a lot of money on these color brochures but they never come out after to print it never this is the first time I bring one out the current one and the reason I'm doing this because it's important when every time I'm asked to make some difficult decision I need to go back at what some of our goals are and what all of us believed in and the decision was made in the past and to me I have to agree a little bit not with everything everybody's saying but no uh Mr orer said maybe we're talking about the wrong thing tonight because when I look at this plan the main word that comes back to me all the time under strategic Direction has to do with protection talk about protection of everybody and when we talk about protection we also talk about compassion we have to be compassionate and sometimes very hard to get into somebody else's shoes right I mean we have to be a great listener which many times I'm guilty of not being but I'm a great listener when I'm able to get in somebody else's shoes and really listen to what they have to say but protection is a key word for me tonight and when I when I that's under strategic Direction the next page talk about strategic priorities and three of the six we have six those that we're all designed we all know got together and three of three of those has to do with quality of life Downtown Development and Community safety and I think to me tonight we're talking about a lot of community safety all the people that are there that are own businesses or live downtown they're very very concerned about safety and some of the thing that when we talk about safety here I'm looking at I mean under Downtown Development to create a safe a safe environment on community safety everyone can feel safe in Poria under outcome measures that's me that makes me laugh a little bit number three says we will increase the percentage of residents who feel safe in Peoria by 5% how the heck do we measure that I'd like to know so I want to be compassionate tonight but I think it's important that you know when we talk about safety right here in this building on the second floor okay the second floor for some of you who do not know this is where all your elected official work that's where M the Main's the main offices are at and right that second floor we have security doors that you have to be buzzed in to get in there that's safety at the front door tonight you all came in there was some security at the front front door so it's important for us to feel safe too so it's very important that all our s when we come downtown really feel safe I was I came downtown Friday night and Saturday night just to see for myself because I knew tonight was very important meeting between 9:00 and 10 I couldn't even get food downtown I mean all the kitchens were closed you know I mean you could get a drink maybe somewhere but it's definitely not no a a a city where it's vibrant and we're talking about now I'm not talking about a Monday night or Sunday night I'm talking about a Friday and a Saturday we do not have a vibrant downtown right now but and we all know people are waiting to see what's going to happen here tonight and maybe invest and make this the city vibrant now against my own wishes now this Council bought a building that we want to control so we can maybe down the road Road have a vibrant downtown so a lot of things that we're doing very important to eventually have a vibrant downtown but it cannot happen without safety safety is very very important so I don't know what's going to happen tonight but and and and like uh Denise said earlier you know one size fits all solution tonight probably won't happen but we have to start somewhere and then make correction and make it better and better like we all have done here to P our chair now we have to start start somewhere so so I want my colleague to make a tough decision tonight and let's start somewhere together and then let's improve as we go further thank you madam mayor you're welcome council member reinbach thank you madam mayor wow what a dialogue um I think there's been a lot of things said that I agree with 100% lot of things I disagree with 100% and a lot of stuff the middle so let me just tell you what where my head is right now because this is something that we've been contemplating for a long time um it's been squaring our face since at least August so let's look at some of the evidence of what puia this Council in particular has done to address this issue the um section four which which director douan outlined 930 $30,000 almost a million bucks for the flexible rental program I don't think we recognize enough the impact that's going to have and I think kathern Murphy and Nicole marrow deserve recognition for their work in putting that program together because that's going to make housing affordable for people that it isn't right now a million bucks The Haven that's a low entry shelter we've got about 180,000 in arpa funds that went towards that with this other 800,000 that we've got there's talk about looking for another entry point into the emergency shelter space that we could use that money for Phoenix Manor the old Methodist College or some people still call it the old Rada n um two million bucks we G we've allocated for that Madison 3 600,000 Phoenix's work force development 680,000 the Dream Center got 400,000 the Salvation Army God bless them for their presence and consistency in our downtown they just been award the city has been awarded $2 million grant that we're sending their way for that very low barrier emergency shelter space so the evidence speaks highly of our commitment to this issue you know statistics are a slippery thing to go down we've we've heard there's 40 to 50 unsheltered people I've heard that number could be double that regardless I think the trajectory is something we need to keep an eye on and there was a United Way report that came out I can't remember it was two three years ago that had that much lower 14 is the number that sticks in my mind 14 15 people being unsheltered at that time so um to think that we've seen that much of an increase in a short period of time would indicate that something's going on here that needs our attention desperately the ordinance that came forward in August was um clearly a starting point point that many of us weren't ready to step on and I I clearly had a lot of concerns about that and I think the direction from the council was clear talk to the stakeholders talk to the service providers in this space and director duelan again hats off for your efforts in getting 11 agencies with 2425 Representatives at the table to talk about what this looks like because clearly this is is something that needs our attention and the the the discussion here is how much attention and where is it going to end up but I I think we've come a long way um from August and and using that state trespassing law as as the guideline I think is is something that I hadn't even heard explained in that way that that's where the origin the Genesis of that came from but that's something that's been in the books that the state legislature has validated through the safety act so that's something that is an acceptable way of dealing with trespassing and it basically applies to every property in the city of pure except that which is owned by idot which is the problematic piece that we're facing tonight but probably the thing that concerned me the most about the ordinance in August was the lack of a process and admittedly it was the first reading so I'm not casting stones but I think section five of the report back from staff really outlines the process and if you'll allow me just to highlight that again we're not talking about going in one day and telling people in the encampment you're out get out of here we're we're clear clearing it out we're going to go in one day day one city staff Community Development as if they don't have enough to do will now be charged with working with the street Outreach team from those who are already doing that work and and and will talk to the people face to face telling them that they're violating the the the ordinance and that they need to relocate they will have a list of shelter availability so it's not like we're sending them out somewhere without giving them the resources I heard Rockford Illinois mentioned as a as a role model earlier I've gotten acquainted with the mayor of Rockford through IML and was at a seminar that he put on and I asked him afterwards how have they got down to what some people say is zero homelessness and he says really it's a face-to-face approach that they are doing exactly what our staff is suggesting that we do here so day one we we inform the the residents of the encampment that that that they need to relocate 48 hours will come back on day three we come back on day four we'll come back on day five so this isn't something that's going to be just get out of here this is something let us help you find a place to relocate and again the statistics bear out that 75% is would would be willing to do that and imagine if you had somebody coming back and somebody telling you I've got a list of places that I want you to look at take a look at this with me and then they come back two days later and say have have you found anything what can we do to help that's what's going to make the difference and that's why I think this ordinance even with the the consequences of non-compliance is much more palatable than what we were talking about in August because on a regular basis you don't write the headline for them to move into and I don't think that we have them today and I don't think we'll have them tomorrow I think we need time to build more of those housing opportunities whether it's through lease agreements or you know working with our partners to uh move some of these people up perhaps on a list but I think that we need time and and I think we need about 90 days time for for this to actually come into effect to be able to build those opportunities for these individuals to take advantage of council member grup your stalling Council months ago months ago a moratorium was placed on the face-to-face approach which our staff was using with the people in these encampments you city council and mayor put a moratorium on those activities to meet face to face and address the needs of each and every individual in encampment true now you may want to consider this but we cannot afford to let our downtown and our city continue to drift it's amazing how creative all of you have gotten tonight where was your tongue months ago as the downtown continued to deteriorate and the encampments proliferated to the point where we are a laughing stock with our own constituents never mind people who may or may not continue to come back to Pura I move to approve option one is there a second seconded by council member Oiler any discussion please cast your ballots councilwoman Jackson We it's not coming on am I make sure um option A was the one that wait hold on just a minute uh you turned it on okay it doesn't show that it's lit up councilwoman go ahead will we vote on both options or option one is there original ordinance that includes incarceration okay well we vote vote on the second that is what the motion is thank you oh okay all right motion carries with four five Nays Jackson Ali Allan fesa and Gordon young we have a lot of people that want to speak tonight Madam clerk let's give it let's give it a minute okay you Madam M clerk we are at citizens opportunity to address the city council okay if you're here um please come forth Estrella Diaz hello um first off I want to start off by saying thank you for everyone here tonight for showing up and being a part of this discussion because it does matter a lot to our city I also want to take a moment to acknowledge you know the mayor uh your dedication to the city and its people is it's inspiring um but I'm here tonight like everyone else who wanted to speak on the vote that just took place and um councilman gram as a representative of District 2 I've listened you talk about wanting to make the city look nice and comfortable for businesses and while I understand that I think we needed to shift our Focus if we're not investing in the people especially the most vulnerable in our communities then could we ever hope to build a city that we're proud of um I personally worked closely with programs like Lula jolt and the Dream Center volunteering my time to see the impact that they're making firsthand and let me tell you the impact that they're making is incredible they're meeting people where they're at and providing hope care and support in ways that truly matter um but what's disheartening to see is that in all my time there of volunteering I haven't seen leadership like yours show up um it's hard to say that some of you say that you're representing every everyone in your districts if you're not stepping into these environments to understand what these people are going through truth is life happens people don't end up on their streets or in shelter because it's a choice they wanted to make it's because of circumstances that often spiral out of their control some can't stay in shelters because they can't bring their pets or the conditions don't feel safe others are struggling just to get back on their feet uh with little to no reason resources punishing them or moving them around doesn't solve anything where are they supposed to go what we need isn't more displacement what we need is real action these programs like Luna Lula Phoenix and the Dream Center are already doing the hard work they built the trust they made the connections they know the needs of these people better than anybody else and instead of dismissing this effort these efforts you should well we should have been amplifying uh them and giving them the resources to do even more I'm running for district 2 because I believe leadership isn't about just making the city look nice it's about ensuring everyone no matter their situation feel seen valued and supported if we're serious about tackling these issues we need to step out of our comfort zones and into these spaces where the real work is being done we need to listen to the people who know the struggles firsthand this isn't about making changes that look good on paper it's about making changes that actually matter and that starts with showing up learning and investing in our people that's the kind of leadership I believe in and that's the kind of leadership we should be fighting for thank [Applause] you Linda Bolinger she here Linda Bolinger when you get older last time that I was here in my capacity in 1974 I was the city's first affirmative action program director and wrote the first plan so I know a little bit about things that go on here and how it goes and I have some comments to make as it relates to the city homelessness homelessness situation um I left Poria after sort of being run out of town for the work that I did as it relates to annoying many of the city coun ccil members including the mayor and city manager Robert whomever I can't remember because I uh organized the three male black lions in porori together to help me out in writing that program and I happened to have a cousin in Congress whose name was or is I can't remember remember I'm so old um Robert you know the uh Congressman the singing Congressman all right I won't go there let's just say he's a Republican and I'm an independent we never really got along well but he was very helpful when it came to affirmative action in Poria I've now returned uh to family and retirement tonight I really want to speak about the homeless issue and take I take exception to hearing that one of the members of The Horseshoe allegedly called the homeless trash did I hear that right did that happen just keep going miss binker okay in speaking to the homeless situation I really don't have all that much to say after everything that was said tonight but I do have a suggestion and I really like my council members remarks thank you Andre did you ever think about getting a Consortium of churches together in a partnership with the city council to work on this issue because in my experience experience in the 70s and my considerable experience in Washington DC as a woman business owner the president of the National Association of women business owners and God knows what else I did because I was really busy but I came back to poror because that's where my family is and I'm just dumb struck that you're acting as stupid as pre previous councils did in terms of utilizing your advantages and most of you are advantaged and you WR you write in a way and you talk in a way that leaves the impression you don't know what the hell you're talking about you really don't where's the compassion you're all Christians aren't you mostly doesn't that what isn't that what Christians do they take care of each other and those who are on KN in knee and you're flunking it big time thank you very much Pastor Harvey Bernett all right uh Dr Ali bless you real good haven't seen you in a long time thank you good to see you tonight and honorable council members and uh thank you all for this space uh listen I got up tonight and just listening to the conversation and reading up on this particular subject uh there's been a lot of good thoughts a lot of good thinking that has gone into this issue the vote has uh been had tonight but there was a few things on my mind uh really uh came into contact with this particular issue uh when we received our church uh building uh come to find out that our church uh on Western Avenue uh had been the home for many individuals uh from time to time uh personally I uh had the opportunity I hung around long enough one night and we're still not in there having service yet we're getting everything together but uh I went by one night and I was able to see them for myself I saw their what some of them left during the day uh but uh I was able to see them personally myself one evening and that compelled me beyond anything else listen I've been homeless before but I have not been homeless in that particular type of way to where I'm laying on the street trying to find some place to be whether that's under a tree I remember a scripture uh in the Book of Proverbs A very wise wealthy King said he that pth or has compassion upon the poor lendeth to the Lord and the Bible says that the Lord will repay there's something about helping somebody when they're down that really kind of changes the whole atmosphere these individuals that I saw I wasn't able to do a lot for them but what I was able to do I gladly did I bought them some food I talked with them prayed with them listened to their story and find out that everybody has a story and everybody should be heard this what disturbs me about the way that we approach things in pure is that we have considerable resources but we seem to only expend those resources in ways and in places that kind of makes us look good in a window dress back during the day and everybody's talking about downtown porori well when I got here downtown porori was burgeoning we had Bergers downtown we had a whole bunch of stuff going on downtown downtown was the place to be just recently I was over in East peori and I tell you what I looked there and it looked like a suburb of of someplace in Chicago I had been to recently all the traffic we tend to throw things away seemingly here for whatever reason maybe it's because there's no profit in it for us but I'm encouraged tonight by these people that came to this particular meeting to if nothing else say to these that are homeless those that are in that particular place that we will not leave them by themselves Harvey berett the pastor of new Beth Church of God in Christ is not prepared I've been here long enough but I'm not prepared to leave these people by themselves in any way shape and Manner and we will commit to do everything that we can to pick up each one of these individuals and connect with these resources and promote affordable housing expanded housing and pick people up without fear or penalty of jail time which is a misdemeanor which will hinder them from their future so I'm I I thank you for this particular space but uh I think we can see exactly what we need to do and I'm encouraged by this community standing tonight and I just want to let them know that I'm willing to stand with them and I hope that they will continue to stand with me and Dr Ali thank you for your leadership welcome Stephanie sailors Aaron Slaughter Kelly Martin Valerie engam is it inham okay I was homeless for a brief time and I tell you that so you know where my perspective comes from I don't want to talk about me but I do want you to hear these words of someone who is in a similar situation as a lot of our houseless neighbors what are you doing what are you doing this if this weren't so dire it'd be hilarious what I witnessed tonight human compassion lost in puia tonight what good will it do to find homeless people when we know that they cannot pay those fines what good will it do to incarcerate these people when we know that at the end of their sentence they'll be back on the streets will the process start over like a revolving door of homelessness fines incarceration and back to homelessness the pur Journal Star article published on August 27th reported that pan passed a similar ordinance which led to pans homeless finding their way to Poria if we pass this ordinance here are they going to migrate to Bloomington and after that where will they go this is not a solution this is the landlord special where we just pain over the problem and pretend it was never there and I know the city council has already voted and you already know the arguments and the data you know it all and you still voted in this way the solution is not a policy change it is a perspective change there's an attitude in this city that homeless people in Poria are nothing more than rabble rousers and loiterers they're not there are neighbors they're human beings who are deserving of just as much respect as any of us in this building and there seems to be a focus here on how to protect our property from homeless people instead of protecting homeless Neighbors from death and starvation we need to look at it another way I agree that living on the street is completely unacceptable it's unacceptable that Poria cannot find a way to properly shelter people treat people's addictions and mental illnesses and find a better solution for the circumstances our neighbors find themselves in are we actually going to punish people who are already living in crisis can we not find another way to serve our houseless neighbors that keeps their dignity intact and provides them with a chance to escape the revolving door there's a solution to help our houseless neighbors council members and this isn't it I'm shaking as I read this I have a lot of anxiety as a lot of people in crisis do but I don't let that stop me from using my voice so to quote the poem by James opheim Hearts starve as well as bodies give us bread but give us roses Douglas Stacy hello councel um today I just wanted to tell you guys a little bit about uh you know what it was like to be housed um in one of these permanent permanent supportive housings um with an addiction with meth addiction and a little bit of cocaine and heroin addiction here and there um they housed me because I had frostbite on my toe I could show them to you if you'd like um but I'm going to sa you guys that um they housed me they just gave me a door you know they gave me this great place to stay uh at New Hope um I was on the fourth floor I I was overlooking the highway uh the scene was nice you know um I was on the streets and they put me in this place um so I'm forever like grateful for that because that was a rough winner it got down to 32 below um in peakin where I migrated over here to um try and find somewhere warm to stay um or even a shelter um but I'm not sure what year it was right now off top of my head but uh I had taken some ammunition for a rifle into um the Salvation Army where a good friend of mine Paul was working at the time um police were police were called I I I was arrested you know and um I eventually got out and then I found out Phoenix was looking for me to to house me um because it was right after the frostbite thing um they eventually housed me um they gave me Permanent Supportive Housing I went into this notion of hey I have a place to live and and the city's paying for it that's that's beautiful right um there was a problem though there was a problem that wasn't addressed and I was using a lot of substances um daily to the point where if I didn't have them I was sick um uh physically sick the uh the worst part about that was you know the whole process was that nobody really cared to ask me personally to take their time out of their day to come to me and say hey what's going on you know why are you out here flying a sign every day because I was housed when I did that um I lived right down the road from Big ow I could walk down there and throw a piece of cardboard up make two three hundred bucks and get out the way right the next person would go out there and do the same thing I personally will tell you what I was doing with that money I was doing drugs I'm sober today and you know that's an embarrassing story to have to tell but I've said I've said this before at this meeting at one of these meetings um there are a lot of people out there if you give them a chance and just let them tell you their story you you know some of them have anxiety they might not even want to tell you the story because of the things uh the trauma that was uh put on them by by police or um by a stigma full system you know um I guess what I'm trying to say is is if if you if you talk to the people that you say are making the city despicable you know if you just had a conversation with them you showed them a little bit of uh concern and you listen to the answers that they give to you A lot of people will tell you the same thing you know it's it's it's it's substances it's uh it's my my my boyfriend was beating on me um it's it's you know uh my wife cheated on me and then and went to this other guy and and I don't have nowhere to go and I just don't know what to do and I don't have a job um you guys don't understand that because you don't have those conversations we do at jolt we have those conversations every single day and I can tell you I'm going to sum it up for you that 75% of those people that want help you want to know you want to know where the other 25 are tweaking they're out getting high they're out stealing and and uh back to the defecation in the stairwells I was housed when that happened I lived at New Hope but my addiction was causing me to do things that were disgusting um but what I'm saying is you know if you guys just talk to these people and try to figure out why they are in that situation Sit Them Down have dinner with them get them clothes that are clean cuz I know they smell bad cuz I was I was out there I smelled bad um a lot of people say i' smell like a barn animal if that gives you any idea how bad I was out there um I never encouraged anybody to do anything they didn't want to do but today I'm going to do that you know show some love to these people treat them with dignity treat them with respect and ask them where you can help John kaker John looks like kaker Kevin cashmir following Kevin cashmir is going to be Julia Langhorn you're not Kevin a Julia Langhorn evening honorable mayor Ali Council city manager and the audience my my issue today is a personal one it's not about the homeless uh population that you were talking about it I feel bad now about having not been prepared to speak to that but I have an issue in which I need to ask your s your assistance my property is located at 129 North Charlton the area is targeted for redevelopment and just west of here it actually sits between John Gwyn junr um Street and Adrien Hinton and it borders near Webster where and Mckinley school was across there it's my understanding that the property that was occupied by McKinley School is targeted for Habitat for Humanity at this time the public sign that is up does not state that and I don't know if my in my relocation I missed the uh meeting the public meeting that should have been held to inform the public of what was coming to our neighborhood well well in remodeling my my unit I encountered a city employee who informed me that it is the city's intention to take the remaining four properties on that block I ask you not to do that that is my mother and father's home since 1958 that is that is my connection and Legacy to them I am working on that unit and I asked the city if I could purchase the properties next to it they are empty I was denied the opportunity and the properties did not appear on the Surplus properties listing I don't know why I was denied that opportunity but I would like to have that investigated I was also told that you know if you declare imminent domain you can take my property by just giving me fair market value please don't do that please don't do that the house next to me has said that its occupant has owner has said that she will sell me her home so I am asking you asking you to consider leaving my property in addition to that the city's property had a number of trees on it and they were in they were dying and one fell on the roof of my shed when I contacted the city I was told that it was an act of God and I was on my own well I complained about the four dying trees next to it that were infested with poison ivy those trees were removed because I had them to come out and they could see that the structure my structure was compromised by the president of those trees and the the case that they might fall on my house well in taking those trees and removing the poison ivy which I truly appreciate I truly appreciate it they took my fence I would like to have my fence replaced and I'm sure that that was not an act of God with that tractor who took my fence so I would like to speak to someone about having my fence replaced on the property now I want to say that I am 67 years old and that is my house and if you take my house you will throw me into the subject that you talk to about today and that's being homeless and I do not want to be part of that group so I ask you to consider my requests and please get back to me have a good day everyone okay Miss Langhorn please follow up with director Joel Dulan with Community Development please thank you Terry Brink Stephen Her Herd her it's going to be followed by Nicholas Hall thank you for your time we are here through the Poria landlord accountability project to speak together and deliver a series of remarks on this proposed ordinance criminalization of homelessness including punitive fines and fees does not address the root cause of homelessness and will not produce the outcome of reducing homeless encampments in Poria no one experiencing homelessness chose to be homeless this myth is harmful to our neighbors and Friends sleeping on the street because it allows for policy makers and the community to blame them for their homelessness instead of examining the real causes reasons that people become homeless are many with largest factors in our community being a low supply of affordable homes domestic violence economic hardship health problems and the long-standing effects of racism against minorities this information is provided in reports from our Continuum of Care the vast majority of people that are engaged in and connecting to Services want to find help want to find housing and want to end their homelessness the myth that these people don't want help is a result of missed opportunities to identify barriers in the access to community service let us consider shelter for lgbtq Youth Shelter options are limited in the pur Rescue Mission Esther house Salvation Army Dream Center and the generosity of friends and family puor Rescue Mission has language on its website explicit explicitly forbidding train transgender people from accessing their long-term programs this clearly indicates a hostile attitude to transgender persons that they are excluded from these opportunities and that there is nothing the homeless person can seek seeking help can do to be allowed access to these Services now consider pets no shelter allows pets if you have a dog at home and you are evicted with nowhere to go then should you have to give up your dog and turn that over your beloved family member to the Humane Society in order to receive shelter we think not this barrier can even exist in cases where the animal is an Esa or service animal when staff members at shelters do not know what the law is this barrier needs to be address to get these neighbors to enter shelter Services because the alternative is to abandon one's animal companion ask yourself if you would be living to willing to give up a family pet for access to shelter when you have the alternative in sleeping in a tent or car for many of our unhoused neighbors their pets just like yours are an Irreplaceable member of their family additionally let us consider the disability and Trauma entering shelter is challenging many people experiencing homelessness have been victims of violence including within shelters this leads to feeling that no one is safe around people in a large group setting bunking with random strangers is already really scary for most people and when you add in severe anxiety PTSD depression schizophrenia and many other conditions that can create those can create situations beyond the capability and scale of most service providers weight list for mental health services are extremely long and some service providers will even deny applicants based on the medications they're taking this leads to people who desperately need their medications being denied shelter temporary housing or other housing supports because they cannot afford to quit taking their medications people often lose medications while while homeless especially when the city sweeps encampments and their belongings are seized they are regularly and they are regularly forced to relocate being homeless is stressful exhausting and unsafe daily men women and children who are forced to live vulnerably um when we take the time to learn someone's story We likely hear they are not choosing to be homeless but rather there are barriers keeping them from being housed it is our responsibility as a community to address the conversation of homelessness with an attitude of empathy and compassion and servitude criminalizing criminalization worsens homelessness because people experiencing homelessness are not on the street by choice but because they lack choices criminal and civil punishments make no constructive purpose serve no constructive purposes purpose policies of criminalization only make the problem of homelessness worse when homeless people are saddled with cripplingly high fines and fees or incarcerated for having to live outdoors it damages their employment and housing options access to education family stability and communities More Than This the constant arrest police contact court dates and fines make it harder for people to find them a housing placement landlords are not allowed to discriminate against someone for homeless status but it can consider a history of arrests and poor credit when you saddle people with fines and fees we throw and throw them in jail the landlord can use this to legally discriminate against them it also wastes police time dealing with issues that would better be addressed by a street Outreach team nurse Nicholas Hall okay in continuing my uh our remarks here today um you know our police would be better directing resources to address real address real issues like gun violence and homicide um Community engagement things that are actually helping reduce um crime in our community um this ordinance isn't an effective way to keep our community safe and it's disruptive to families and communities criminalization is also expensive and wasteful instead of helping people escape life on the streets criminalization creates a costly revolving door that circulates individuals experiences um and homelessness from streets to criminal justice systems and back wasting resources that could otherwise go to solving the problem Federal studies show that chronic homelessness due in part to criminalization cost the public between $3,000 to $50,000 per person the city of Poria staff failed to include the estimate that they have given multiple of Committees of $1,400 per day to jail somebody in Peoria County Jail it is far cheaper to provide services and support to the people people on the streets in fact permanent Supportive Housing would cost only an estimated $70 per day the original proposed ordinance that you passed night unfortunately um included jail time and this will be harmful to the people in our community it recently came out in national news that the mental health conditions in the jail um people were being placed in Restraint chairs some one individual for 5 days um these were uh described as torture and are far past industry recommendations um this is where you think of sending our unhoused neighbors those of you that voted yes on this the mayor has provided 19 strategies to address this and um I would hope that the staff will take the efforts to make sure that all 19 of those strategies are being implemented um we encourage you to save taxpayers money and do it and do a good deed in the same Stroke by repealing this ordinance in the future um criminalization also goes against President it should be noted that as was mentioned at the last meeting this ordinance is only being debated because a racist white uh sun down town where black people cannot sleep at at night filed a lawsuit with the federal government and allowed for a right-wing Supreme Court to overturn Decades of president that said that this that you just passed is cruel and unusual punishment piia had a choice when Grant's Pass came out you didn't have to automatically strip people of the rights they were previously afforded it did not have to be that we would subject our neighbors to cruel and unusual punishment I propose that instead of allowing this to continue that you revisit this in the future and you restore the rights that stripped from people by a racist Supreme Court we are all better off when we live in communities that work together to solve problems no one wants to see people forced to live on the streets not businesses not residents and most of all not those resigned to the streets themselves but the high cost of housing prevents too many people from being able to find shelter the lack of Health Care has turned our streets and prisons into our default housing for many people with mental health issues these are systemic problems and not the fault of our family Youth and veterans you've shown who you're with here tonight and maybe this will get you off your phone Mr graab but as the mayor said you violated ethics law I will be filing a complaint with the state and I will be working with Community agencies to get that put in place I hope you face consequences for your actions here tonight how dare you use taxpayer time and money to campaign in this room Lynn Finger Hut Lynn Finger Hut um I had a thing that I wanted to say but I'm NE really disappointed now that uh the vote has already happened and I just want to again comment that public comments should happen before votes they happen before votes at most other meetings including the school board which I frequent and when you have public comments that come after the votes have done people are looking at their phones half the group has left uh there's some pretty devastated people who wanted to say things didn't get their didn't get their time um this is this is deeply disappointing vote um I just want to uh say thank you to representative Al for putting up a poll on his Facebook page for taking Community input um you're the only person that I saw doing that and I just want to thank you for that I don't think that um there's a lot of listening going on um myself I live in a place where some people have started sleeping very close to my home um some of you know where I live not going to out where people are sleeping there's probably somebody out there tonight um I see them they're on a public uh busy road and a lot of people are probably seeing them and it's happened more over the last couple of years yes we have a housing crisis it's all over when I see those people sleeping out there and with various levels of encampment sometimes they have blankets um they they usually have some trash and some things that they can't dispose of they don't have a trash can there not one time have I thought let's send them to jail like let's get them out of here like this is Criminal what they're doing my thought is how are they washing their hands in their face where are they going to the bathroom what are they eating are they too hot are they too cold how do I do something to help them because obviously sleeping in a green space next to Western Avenue is not ideal and probably not their first choice so I don't know what to do I have learned a little bit more about what to do um because there are Community agencies that are active and I've been fortunate enough to be able to volunteer with some people from Lula the Dream Center jolt and these people are knowledgeable they know what's going on and they know these individuals I can contact them and say like there's somebody sleeping out here what can I do like I'll go talk to them but I don't want to intrude on their space I don't want to tell them that they're doing something wrong obviously they wouldn't be out there if they had someplace else to be but I've learned that people who know these people they know sometimes like where they can go they know um maybe they know somebody in their in that community that already knows that person like I'm just saying there are people who already know these individual ual and again not one time have I or my neighbors or the other volunteers who maintain that green space thought the first thing we need to do is kick them out send them to jail give them tickets that they're never going to be able to pay um I just want to thank representative Allen representative Gordon young representative Jackson I'm really glad that I got redistricted into district one I'm proud to have you as my representative representative esesa and mayor Ali thank you for standing up for this and I don't think that sending our home population to jail and making them putting them out of our sight resolves our homeless situation in this and our unhoused our housing insecurity doesn't resolve anything it just puts them out of our sight and if anything is bringing down my property values making our downtown less accessible we don't have a grocery store that's something that I've been concerned about that's a public safety issue a public health issue there's a lot of things that aren't open after dark uh in downtown we don't have a vibrant downtown you're right that was going on long before we had an encampment downtown long before that this is a decades old problem I don't like to see bad things about porori in the news I don't like to be embarrassed about this town I try so hard to defend it this is embarrassing this is embarrassing us going on a list of cities that are putting people in jail for the crime of being unhoused and then talking about their situation being immoral they're not going away thank you very much Lydia Wilson she'll be followed by Douglas Guzman hello Lydia Wilson uh new immigrate to the Peoria area uh I was very excited to get to know this place I was incredibly passionate about you know all of the things that I had heard were going on here I had heard it was such a great city um I've been here for about a week now I am embarrassed I am disgusted uh I kind of want to move I don't understand at all the uh you know all these statistics all these numbers everything that points in a certain direction it doesn't matter you still voted the wrong way uh you are focused on criminalization and prohibition of existence this is not something that works this is not something that has historically worked in the United States anywhere ever I was excited to be a p uh resident I was excited to live here to engage with the community anymore uh I'm not so after tonight we've got Representatives here and you spoke of dor Madam mayor uh you spoke of Civility I do not think it is civil uh in this courtroom whenever we've got council members discussing human beings as if they are trash animals Marauders uh anything along those lines inhuman Behavior Uh to be referring to these people this way and the numbers the statistics all of the facts didn't work we had to rely on moralizing certain council members here talking about Sin the sinfulness of living on the street the Marauders uh barricading what what is the plan here we're sending in the Jack booted thugs to deal with something you know a certain council member on the council referred to these T cities as uh Hoovervilles I guess we're just going right back to 1910 and we're calling in the pinkertons we don't learn a single thing from our history and we are doomed to repeat it and it is not a good look for Poria thank you douas Guzman I was a citizen born and raised in Poria whole whole life and it's been a wonderful place I don't think that's going to be the case much longer if you continue to pass things like what just happened are the people who are unhoused in Poria not also citizens of Peoria should they not be treated as such with representation and with the rights to be here should they be criminalized just for being unlucky getting unhoused mostly of their own bition it's not something you decide it's something that happens to you the council here decided something that will set Piya back immensely criminalizing hom criminalizing those unhoused will not fix the problem it will only make it worse they'll go to jail sure out of sight out of mind when they come out what are they going to do they have a criminal record now how will they get jobs how will they get get what they need to get another house or to get off the streets before they just go right back into that revolving door that multiple people have mentioned already criminal criminalizing homelessness is not the solution and I urge you to repeal this amendment of repeal this ordinance whatever it is as soon as possible to get people out in what they need what they need is housing build more housing thank you I Ethan I believe Cheney maybe Ethan so at first I had written something based on comments made by a certain councilman that I felt were out of line and he was rightfully called out for this but seeing as how the council has decided to undemocratically pass this ordinance without listening to the community I'm frankly very very disappointed with the six people who voted Yes dear Council I have many issues with what have been said at this meeting the fear-mongering by some members of this council is concerning at the least let's name some of these issues then shall we this proposed death spiral spoken by a member of this council is a slippery slope fallacy to assume that not removing homeless people would lead to the death of the town is ludicrous to say the least I will leave that there to address some more concerning comments made equating people who are down on their luck with a quote unquote pack of criminals is ignorant at best and intentionally dehumanizing these people and I emphasize people at worst you claim do have a plan but it sounds more like you only have a concept of one you're going to throw all the logistical work on implementing and enforcing this ordinance as soon as this passes to a department where people have no sight and this Council cannot vote on really really you provide no framework for actually housing people and instead say we'll just find them or throw them in jail until they can find housing or until they can make it to a shelter are you more concerned with your marginalized members or do you simply just want to move them out of sight and out of mind it's funny that it was mentioned earlier that people will be emboldened to take somehow take advantage of being homeless as if people just choose to be homeless we don't live in an area where it's warm all the time there are people who go to sleep and don't know if they wake up in the next day because it's just that cold you really think they chose to to do that are all of you that disconnected from reality you could have instead of using the force of violence to keep these people off the streets you could have chosen a compassionate approach you could have given them housing because as I stated earlier it would have been cheaper instead of giving them a bed and a home to go back to you have given the cold barrel of a gun I hope for those of you that voted yes on this ordinance that you remember that and that that haunts you at night because frankly it should to any other human being it would haunt them thank you next we have Miranda Bates followed by Jessica Thomas hi can you hear me hi thank you all for allowing me to speak I want to share my perspective and tell you why I feel so sick to my stomach following this unfortunate vote I worked for 911 in Portland Oregon a city that is particularly known for its homeless population I spent countless hours over the years speaking to people without housing I spoke with many people and begged them not to take their own lives they were ready to end it all because they were houseless and in and out of jails and various institutions like this ordinance did nothing to better their situation I've watched with my own eyes human beings walk over other humans sleeping on the street kick humans that were sleeping on the street people sick of their homeless people sleeping on their sleeping in their area call 911 asking for the cops to remove them and when when I told them that they couldn't do that they would tell me as a dispatcher that all of a sudden that person had a gun so that the police would show up and likely assault arrest or even kill that person councilman Allan I'm your constituent and I thank you for sharing your story about your Foster brother it truly brought me to tears in the other room humanizing people that are targets of vitrio is one of the best things you can do in in situations like this where people like Mr graab that have no idea what it means to live a life like your Foster brother but want to Deon dehumanize and sacrifice marginalized people to further their own personal privilege councilman graab I'll speak directly to you now if you can be bothered to pay attention I'm not sure what Echo chamber you've been hanging out in but that disgusting delusional tie raade you went on earlier this evening makes me sick how dare you act like our homeless neighbors are to blame for the crime rate of this city I'm not sure what soulless ghouls you were campaing aining to this evening but it certainly wasn't the common people of Poria your hate towards our neighbors in unfortunate situations is completely out of touch and I can say with much confidence that the majority of purans would not call jailing houseless people Lancing the boil truly I am shocked and disgusted at your choice of language I'd love to see the reports and statistics you're referencing tonight about masked Marauders and out ofc control crime rates you're supposed to be a voice for the people of this City how dare you I challenge you to go out and talk to these people and try to understand them and ask them if they think spending time in jail or depleting their savings over asinine fines is Humane or desirable in any way do you think these people want to be in jail it has been proven that the best way to help our unhoused neighbors is to give them housing you mentioned San Francisco as some sort of shining Beacon of endling ending homelessness but all I've seen is houseless people whose encampments were destroyed losing things like their motorized wheelchairs and other Mobility AIDS state issued IDs birth certificates food shoes blankets and other things that are necessary to sustain life so I personally wouldn't consider SF San Francisco police department and Gavin Nome to be harming I would consider them to be harming their UNH house neighbors more than helping them this country is on a fast track to an ugly brutal place and that is not the fault of the people struggling with houselessness but the fault of people like you for failing to care about the well-being of humans you have no place in that seat you definitely have no place in that mayor's seat and I would hope that you would listen back to your disgusting dehumanizing dishonest remarks this evening and decide later to resign in disgrace shame on you and shame on this half-baked ordinance all of you that voted yes did so knowing deep down that this does nothing to help these people sleeping on the street to my houseless neighbors do not despair our council members may have left you alone but the people of Poria will continue to fight for your rights you are loved and you are valued off next we have Jessica Thomas followed by Julie McKay well I'm going to go ahead and do my due diligence as the president of the peia um chapter ACLU and give the statements that were given by our state to read um just all eyes are on Poria all eyes were on this vote um not just here locally but Nationwide as well um but they write good evening on behalf of the Peoria chapter of the ACLU Illinois I want to urge the council to reject the proposed ordinance that will criminalize people who sleep outside because they are unhoused the option to eliminate actual jail time for violating the ordinance is not a solution or answer the ordinance remains a cruel answer to the fundamental problem that too many people in our community are unhoused it is of little peace that these individuals our neighbors and fellow human beings not be threatened with jail nor should they be punished with fines running into hundreds of dollars while they're simply struggling to survive in short the new proposal still fails to address the underlying problem of helping people to find stable housing repeatedly finding people who are already unable to afford permanent homes simply traps them in cycles of fines and debt and make it even harder to secure housing the reasons for and the solutions to the problems of the unhoused in peori are complex just as these issues are complex in communities across the country criminalizing those who find themselves in this situation does not create one more housing unit one more opportunity for someone to find stable housing and will not improve our community it only further punishes those who struggle with housing many of us choose to live in Peoria because we have grown up in this community even more of us have elected to live here because of the sense of pride in it Community Poria Prides itself on providing an exceptional quality of life but more importantly we pride ourselves on being a community that cares about one another this ordinance turns away from that tradition the council should end the fallacy that there is a criminal solution to the problem of the unhoused and start working on serious long-term Solutions thank you very much but as we saw here we did not vote for that so you made my job a little more harder my little volunteer job because we will have to fight this um along with other things that we will have to fight so now I take off the ACLU hat and I represent Jessica Thomas a resident of the city of Peoria for the past what 4 five years um what I saw here was disgusting I guess I'll start with thanking thank you Dr Bernice Gordon young um thank you Dr Andre Allen thank you the honorable dror Rita Ali thank you Denise Jackson um and thank you Mike vesa for for your vote um and listening I will also then go back around Zack oer you did a whole tie rate of reading reading charges meaning you forgot to read your own charges okay you are a domestic violence offender um and you forgot to read your own charges so violence and crimes happen in what you say Suburban areas with consuming people so um Dennis Seer you're from Canada we we welcome you here in peori but as a peor resident born and raised this is not how we do things and it's very disappointing Charles my God you like I really will wish that we do like a drug test for City Council Members or alcohol breathalyzer because you were on one like I'm really concerned about you and your mental health because that was a really unstable tie rate I felt like I was in a political Forum not at a city council meeting and it was an embarrassment so once you watch that back again I hope you do better Timothy I don't really know you guys much well you know I ran at the county level so I didn't really do a lot in the city because I didn't live in the city but embarrassing John Kelly uh I worked for the Boy Scouts for a long time and I know you're very familiar with that and you're supposed to leave the world better than where you came to your vote today was embarrassing I feel like you're un out of touch privileged white man and it's gross like the resources are not there you're going to overburden the taxpayers with all this stuff that's going to go to the county and they they're short on staff already so I don't know how you're going to spend that to your constituents when we're paying tax dollars for resources that are kind of like unfunded mandates so now you're going to have all these people in the jail and where do you think crime is going to be at your front door Karen no words but cuz you didn't say anything or really was active in anything and I know you too but embarrassing but that's all I have to say today do better um we do have elections coming up because Charles was campaigning on stand and I really hope that these people in audience consider to do something about it thank you Julie McKay followed by pe Ellingson Julie McKay PE Ellingson Katie eart Tara wood Tara Tara either way it's fine um uh Dr mayor ali uh council members um I don't really have much to add there's some fantastic things said um the one thing that I was thinking that's very different than what's been said um I just keep thinking of this as like a I mean when this was first read in in in August and it was called a comprehensive plan I mean by definition there's nothing comprehensive about what was put together and and then to hear you know the changes that were made pretty minor but um what I was thinking is that it's like if this were like a High School Sociology class or something and like the teacher assigned the students into groups and said come up with a comprehensive plan to address the unhoused crisis um I feel like the the kids would probably come up with something much more evolved than what we see here I I mean I really think that um and I I just that's what I wanted to share and I I see uh I mean Dr Gordon young and Dr Mar Ali and and the others who voted against us I mean but you two in particular just I I I mean I respect you so very much and uh I I just think you know you you guys you know you know what it's like to approach a problem you know a complex problem you know using evidence and data you know um to approach the uh the problem and come to a conclusion and and obviously trauma informed uh approaches you know you would know very well uh Dr Gordon young so I mean again comprehensive this is not at all um yeah I really like the fiery speeches before me um I just just more of a logical way of thinking about this I I just I can't believe it and I really hope that those of you who voted no um and and I know that you're a very talented uh uh educated experienced people uh that have approached complex issues and uh solved them in your academics and your professional careers that maybe um you know you can uh come together and maybe come up with a true comprehensive plan that will maybe prevent or at the very least reduce the number of people whose property uh livelihoods you know will be violated and uh destroyed uh because of the ordinance that was just passed um but yeah I it's just this is quite shameful and embarrassing and uh shocking and stunning and unbelievable I I I I can't believe this pasted I I really just I thought no may maybe two people will vote Yes so uh anyway uh work on something to to make this not as awful as it is uh I I would volunteer my time to help with that I've worked on many comprehensive plans before in my academics and professional career um use me I don't know I in any way I can this is U really horrible and sad thank you Nathan Paul followed by Jenny tripis all right hello my name is Nathan paully I am a volunteer with Pathways we go out to the encampments and visit the people and see see how we can help them how we can hook them up with services give them a coffee and a snack and a bus pass hygiene kit that kind of thing but I'm also an engineer uh was born and raised here lived here my whole life except for a couple of years of grad school um I work for that company you're thinking of when I said engineer um and I work in condition monitoring and that means we try to understand how a system works and how it fails to work we take data we measure it we analyze it we try to understand what is going on with this system is it healthy does it need work um and then we try to inform those who are in a position that can do something about it so I'm using that perspective on what I just saw tonight um and I see a few issues a few holes in the logic a few uh uh kinks in what I heard tonight uh one hole I saw is I I did not hear the perspective of law enforcement and emergency responders I think they play a role an important role and I did not hear their perspective and I I'd like to may maybe some of you have maybe that it's just a hole for me I just want to point that out um also I heard uh Council Hayes and coun councilman Oiler um refer to convincing someone to move along as success well if if we're going to use the justification that we don't like people living in unsafe and unsanitary conditions then getting someone to move from one unsafe unsanitary condition to another is not success that just becomes somebody else's problem right um third I think it's important to understand when and why a person cannot be housed in a shelter if they're turned away why are they turned away do we have that data just somebody May um I'm I'm not familiar with it um it is way way more complicated than counting beds and Counting heads and trying to make the two equal is a lot more complicated than that somebody somebody brought up pets um um we've heard about drug drug addiction you can't have people addicted and current users living with people that are trying to get away from that stuff that does not work well right there's sex offenders right there's there's many factors that can impact where a person can stay and just counting beds and heads is not good enough um also if if a suitable bed cannot be found um does that individual get relief from your proposal are they still sent to jail if they can't find a shelter right um also I think it would help for those crafting potential solutions to understand the perspective of the unhoused go with us on a ride along sometime I'm with Pathways but there's other great organizations that go visit these people and hear their stories all the time walk a mile in their moccasins see what it's like see what their goals and constraints and issues and past trauma or understand what it would take for them to see a shelter that you're offering as a better option right and finally and perhaps this is the biggest most mindboggling thing I've seen here tonight is you've got tons of great information the the packet was 140 Pages for tonight and that's on top of everything that you've seen and heard prior prior to this most of that was ignored the information is not informing the policy we we heard from the the state officer on homelessness that fines and jail time doesn't work um that focusing on housing and other types of supporting services works better and cheaper and yet we are still promoting a policy of jail and fines that blows my mind and I I've as a lifelong puan I've never before been embarrassed to be a puan but I think I am now and yet I have never been so proud thank you of my Jenny tripis [Applause] Nathan gluns hey good evening uh longtime listener firsttime caller uh my name is Nathan Glenns I'm a constituent from North End Lexington Park neighborhood uh very fortunately I've never been subject to homelessness but I have experienced Financial insecurity throughout my life and through that recognize that I and probably everyone in this room and much closer to homelessness today than I am to becoming a member of our economic Elite or our ruling class I didn't earn this Fortune I grew up in the late 80s through the 90s a member of a middle class family with two working parents and I've been lucky enough to remain employed through college in the worst of our recessions and pandemics others in our community have not been so lucky in June the Supreme Court ruled in Grants Pass versus Johnson that the cruel and unusual punishment Clause of the eth amendment does not prohibit cities from punishing unhoused people for sleeping in public even when they have nowhere else to go since that ruling politicians across the country have redoubled recent efforts to remove the unhoused population from the view of the public passing anti-camping measures criminalizing sleeping accessories authorizing deadly force against people experiencing homelessness and promising fines and Citywide sweeps of unhoused encampments and so here we are to discuss what that means for our community of Poria Illinois in that scotus ruling Justice sodora and descent commented it's hard to imagine a Starker example of excessive punishment than fining and jailing a person for the basic human Act of sleeping since then the ACLU has chimed in indicating that it would work to build strong cases against cities emboldened to arrest their way out of homelessness advocacy organizations have been preparing for this inevitability for some time and have introduced model legislation such as the Gloria Johnson act as an alternative path for addressing homelessness this state level model suggests the elimination of civil and criminal penalties against people experiencing homelessness in the absence of sufficient alternative housing and shelter giving all people the right to conduct life sustaining behaviors on public land provided it doesn't obstruct the normal movement of pedestrian or vehicular traffic as a hazard this is in addition to the longer term goal of giving these community members protected class status or vulnerable victim status and that could be a compassionate model to begin building a more complete and informed picture of the crisis and our community solution to it instead of directing funds toward enacting laws that fine and arrest perhaps the most struggling of our community members laws which some studies indicate worsen the tragedy of homelessness and put governments at risk of expensive civil rights lawsuits we could instead use those resources to implement housing first programs which provide housing assistance with no preconditions as a platform for rehabilitation these strategies have been found to be social and coste effective sometimes able to offset themselves in a matter of 18 to 24 months or we could direct our funds towards social mental health and or rehabilitation services that treat the underlying issues instead of an Ever growing list of symptoms it's worth reminding Council that actions of enforcement will almost surely disproportionately impact bipac and lgbtq communities while simultaneously putting them in direct confrontation with armed Enforcement Officers with a national and state track record of using excessive violence against those communities people are not choosing to experience homelessness they are being let down by the systems created nominally to protect them homelessness is a result of stagnant wages or unemployment or lack of affordable housing Health Care Mental Health and addiction treatment services or racial inequality or domestic violence or family conflict there are stories there and the people that have struggled to live to tell them nationally Social Services have had funding dwindle over time greed flation is forcing impoverished families to pick and choose which groceries to buy wages at the bottom have stagnated and we're experiencing a wealth Gap that is wider than it was during the French Revolution all while veterans struggle to get the care they need medical student and personal debt balloon along with the cost of buying a home and we police and arrest marginalized community members at increasingly disproportionate rates regrettably I can't ask the council to vote no on this proposal but I do encourage you all to support Humane policy discussion that treats all of our citizens with basic human rights and dignity that they deserve in the face of hardship and repeal or amend this movement thank you [Applause] is Robert Parker here Robert Parker our last speaker is George Hopkins is George Hopkins here that concludes our public comment Madam cler we do not have an executive session so we would be at adjournment can I get a motion to adjourn moved by council member uh velpula seconded by council member Kelly please C cash your ballots thank you for your service