Where Homeless Help The Homeless
PRESENT: Vince, Alan, Neal, Patricia
AGENDA:
VINCE:
Vince reported on his meeting with the new FUMC pastor. His impression is favorable.
John said space for tents okay. Vince did not call Mike Coburn because had not yet contacted John. Discussion followed.
PRESENT: Vince, John, Neal, Patricia, Alan
AGENDA:
BANK ACCOUNT: Patricia closed our bank account. TAPCO was charging us $25/month just to keep it open. She now is holding the funds for us. She will open new account at a different institution when we get our fundraising efforts organized.
PRESENT: Alan, Vince, Neal, Lisa, John.
AGENDA:
PATRICIA’S REPORT: Patricia was unable to attend. However, she reported she will close the TAPCO account. We discussed possibly opening an account at Sound Credit Union, where Occupy Tacoma has an account and does not have to pay any fees.
PRESENT: Vince, Neal, Lisa, Alan, Patricia
AGENDA:
Web Report:
Alan reported that he made a backup of the site and has been doing so about every 2 weeks. He reported that we’ve had a lot of spurious registrations, probably bots. He is going to look into a “captcha” plugin to block bot registrations.
Coalition Report: Neal attended the meeting of the TPCCEH (Tacoma-Pierce County Coalition to End Homelessness). This time, it was Police Department personnel who gave the main presentation. They reported on the police department’s encampment elimination program. They say that the problem is not as pressing as some people think.
PRESENT: Neal, Vince, Lisa, Alan, Patricia
AGENDA:
Report on Past Hosts: Vince contacted 3 pastors of churches which had hosted tent cities before. Vince distributed copies of reports from ministers. Some discussion on those. One has hosted a tent city 12 times and there has been much good feedback. Vince will ask pastors how they handled the insurance liability. Neal suggested contacting Share/Wheel for other contacts of people who’ve done it.
Present: Neal, Vince, Lisa, Patricia
Report from Vince about FUMCOT: Vince reported about recent encounters with a homeless person that has been frequenting FUMCOT’s doorstep. The congregation was ultimately forced to declare the area off limits for the homeless because of this person’s belligerent behavior. They also had discussions about the Baywatch Apartments and the intent of the managing agency to make it low-income housing. This will certainly have implications upon the homeless population of Tacoma. Whether this will be for good or ill cannot be said at this point.
PRESENT: Neal, Vince (facilitator), Lisa, Alan (note taker).
We really did not have a formal agenda at this time, as there wasn’t much business.
We discussed the public comment testimony in front of the city council regarding proposed land use permits needed to set up a temporary tent city for homeless people. John Harrington of the city planning department gave a presentation, and then members of the public spoke. Neal and Alan spoke in favor, and Pastor Bruce and Valentine Smith (a member of a neighborhood council) spoke against it. Mr. Smith said he based his comments on informal discussion with members of his neighborhood council, as well as other people who live near him.
Alan posted an edited video of the public comment on YouTube, our Facebook page, and our web page. He said he made an unofficial transcript of the public comments, which he will prepare for distribution as a PDF file.
Meeting notes taken by
Lisa Vick, 03/03/2014
Start: 4 PM, Ended 5:12 PM
PRESENT: John, Blaine, Neal, Patricia, Vince (Facilitator) , Lisa (Note taker)
Agenda:
Bethlehem Church News: Neal will give a presentation to the Bethlehem congregation meeting. This will help them decide if they want to proceed with negotiations with us to provide a host site. Neal will give the presentation on March 23rd, 2014 at 11:00 AM. Neal and congregation members will have a Q & A (question and answer) session along with the presentation.
PRESENT: Vince (facilitator), John, Blaine, Lisa, Neal, Alan (Note taker), Patricia
AGENDA:
NEXT MEETING NOTE TAKER: Alan usually takes notes and posts the minutes. However, Alan cannot attend the next meeting. Lisa volunteered to take the notes. She will send them to Alan, who will post them. Alan will probably ask Patricia or another attendee to proof them for accuracy and errors, which he does for those minutes he posts.
PRESENT: John, Blaine, Lisa, Neal, Patricia, Alan (note taker), Vince (facilitator).
AGENDA:
REPORT FROM JOHN: Bethlehem did not vote at annual meeting and felt they needed some more information. The vote not was rescheduled until they had more information about fundraising. Also, Bethlehem Church wanted to know if Planning Commission required us to have lined up a year’s worth of sites before getting approval under the new guidelines.