Engaging our City to Address the
Needs of the Homeless
Recently, SRT successfully
advocated that the city establish a community dialogue on responding to
homelessness as part of it’s approach to the affordable housing crisis we are
experiencing. We’d like to further
explain our case for this approach.
1) This would not be
just “Another Taskforce”
Addressing the needs of homeless people will not be
accomplished by better coordination among and funding for our governments and
not-for-profit organizations. We have all learned this lesson many times over
in our work to address complex issues like preventing crime, improving
education, and addressing environmental challenges. Our governments and not-for-profits can do great work, but
they, by themselves, do not have the resources or ability to address these
issues. We know that it takes a
community-wide effort that can engage a broad number of our community members
at all levels to make real progress on any of our complex challenges. We need the resources and ideas of our
community members at all levels to address the needs of the homeless. Just as importantly, we need to find
common ground and develop a common plan to address this issue so that we are
all working together.
We don’t need another taskforce, we need a new process that
can engage our community and provide an opportunity for everyone to contribute
to the planning and work to address this issue. We need a process that brings the expertise of our
governments and not-for-profits together with the ideas and resources of our
community and its many organizations to succeed.
2) Broad engagement sounds like too
much work. Is it worth it?
We have the opportunity to create a broad and effective
community wide effort to address the needs of the homeless –an effort that
could finally begin to address this issue in significant ways. In addition, creating a process that
brings everyone together, this effort will give us all a chance to get to know
each other and learn how to work together more effectively. This will be a major step forward for
our city, increase our ability to address all of our future challenges, and
begin to shape the kind of democracy we need to create a great city.
3) What would the process of truly
engaging our community look like?
Let’s take a close look at an outline for this process, so
that we all understand both the time and resources that would be required as
well as the potential of that this kind of effort would have. This outline is based on successful
experiences in other cities that have worked to engage their communities.
·
To engage more of our community members and
leaders, take this conversation out to the community by forming small groups
for facilitated conversations.
Hold these conversations in our neighborhoods, organizations, churches,
and schools to give a large number of community members a chance to have a
voice and be part of the solution
·
Let’s set a target of at least 50 small group
discussions
·
Let’s prepare well so that these discussions
have the best chance to succeed:
·
Train facilitators for each of these discussions
to ensure that everyone has a voice and to encourage listening and learning
from each other,
·
Provide these small groups with the information
they need for an informed discussion by forming a group (students, homeless
leaders, homeless staff, interested community members, journalists) to produce
discussion materials that frame the question, provide information on the
homeless and current efforts to address their needs, and known options and
costs for addressing the issue from best practices around the world. Work with the Press Democrat to print
and make these materials widely available.
·
Small groups will meet and discuss these
materials and their own experiences and work together to find solutions
·
Ideas from small groups will be circulated on
city web site and in PD
·
Representatives from all the small groups will
convene in a city wide meeting to discuss and work towards a common plan for a
community wide effort to meet the needs of the homeless. Recommendations for City and County
action will be presented to Council and the Board of Supervisors for
consideration. An organization, if
necessary, will be established to implement the plan.
Let us know if you
are interested in hosting or attending a neighborhood meeting on homelessness! Contact us at: Pkuta@sonic.net.
