Dear Mayor and City Council,
I feel we are being betrayed by the very same people we helped elect and put our faith in. There has been no real outreach effort with the community on this shelter proposal. Many questions and concerns have gone unanswered.
We have a vagrant drug addiction problem more than anything else. That is what is destroying our community, fix that issue and you have solved the worst part of our problem.
If any shelter is built it must adhere to:
1) No larger than what we are required to have, I think injunction spelled that out. The larger it is the more people we attract from the outside, built it and they will come. Think small, not large acreage.
2) Any new shelter must allow the city to close down the current campsites, or it is worthless. This has NOT been formally addressed by city officials. It does not solve the main problems that businesses or people are facing in the middle of town. Think outside of the main city, semi-isolated, not in the middle of the city.
3) There must be some rules and management of the shelter.
4) In addition, when people are trespassed out of this shelter – just what does that mean. Are these people allowed to now sleep in the parks? This question needs to be addressed along with the other concerns mentioned above.
5) There must be a real discussion concerning the lawlessness and lack of enforcement of our or laws, period! This alone would go a long way in solving the community faces daily
Put the brakes on this proposed shelter until you have addressed the concerns and questions and have actually listened to the people of this community.
Respectfully,
Bill
