The group welcomed a couple of invited guests to join the conversation.
The Mayor of Stanwood
A Pastor from our local churches
We started the meeting by reviewing the Coalition and the process of how this workgroup was formed.
Introduction of members and guests.
We reviewed "What we know" information gathered from previous meetings.
The system doesn't work or is very slow
Increase in # of homeless seniors
sheltered/unsheltered/potential
unseen/families
PTC-Inaccurate
Limited resources (stan/cam)
limited affordable housing
limited subsidized housing
Reviewed "What do we want?" information gathered from previous meetings
shelter
Hub where all the resources live
Safe Parking (vetted) families-women-seniors
agencies all have the same goal
affordable housing
Reviewed "What can we do? information gathered from previous meetings
Education
Note: the county has a Homeless Policy Task Force and Partnership to End Homelessness Board already working. Does this affect our work? No
Discussion: Education needs to be the first step and what does that look like? Who are the homeless?
families hiding-doing everything right
Seniors
Panhandlers-not the "real" homeless, most of the time.
Emphasize "What the community can do to help?"
How do we do the education?
social media
newspaper
meetings
Action:
Coalition to set up community meeting regarding educating the public about who the homeless are and how they can help.
Coalition to set up a meeting inviting the churches to talk about the homeless and how they can help.
Ask Interfaith to come and give a presentation on their programs and how we might duplicate them. Especially the parking lot and shelter.
Talk with City of Edmonds in regard to their human services department and how it has made a difference in the homeless situation in their city.
Write grants for startup funds to do this work.
Next meeting in August