News From Around the Nation 

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Denver Homeless Propose Tent City 

A group of homeless people is seeking to get Denver Major John Hickenlooper to create a tent city for the city’s homeless. With the help of a college professor, the group studied tent cities in Portland, Seattle, and Los Angeles and presented a 39-page proposal for their own city’s Commission on Homelessness, according to the Denver Post 

A tent city is a small plot of land where people with no available shelter could sleep without fear of police harassment, bulldozers, or predators. Advocates for the tent city estimate that setting one up would cost $100,000.  

There is no precise census of homeless people in the Mile High City, but survey by the metro Denver Homeless Initiative, an advocacy group, puts the population at about 9,700. The number of shelter beds have remained at about 1,000 since the early 1990s. Families and children are the fastest-growing segment of the homeless population. 

The Denver Post and the Rocky Mountain News have both come out against the tent city idea. But surprisingly, the idea is drawing criticism from the most unlikely critics—the Colorado Coalition of the Homeless. The group said that “the plan fails to address health, safety, sanitary issues and it doesn’t address causes of homelessness such as mental illness, substance abuse, job loss, and the lack of affordable housing.” 

 

Mayor Kicks off San Francisco’s Homeless Cabinet 

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom recently held the first of many promised meetings of his new “Homelessness Cabinet,” made up of representatives from roughly 10 city agencies wrestling with the problem.  

He told the San Francisco Examiner that the planned weekly, or at least monthly, meetings would “connect the dots” and provide accountability so that needed services are delivered efficiently and homelessness can be ended in the coming decade. Newsom also said he plans to save some $400,000 a year by eliminating the Mayor’s Office on Homelessness. 

“It’s disbanded,” he said, adding, “I’d rather put those dollars in direct services.”  

The mayor said he wants to create much closer communication and cooperation among the various city agencies that together spend more than $100 million a year dealing with aspects of chronic homelessness. 

 

Site of New Dallas Shelter Debated
Last week, Dallas mayor Laura Miller held a town hall meeting for the homeless, according to the Dallas Morning News 

Miller wanted to hear opinions on city plans for a homeless assistance center, that the city plans to build or one of three sites. Some homeless people and advocates are concerned that one of the sites is eight miles from downtown. 

“It’s like throwing a part and no one will come,” Linda Cahanin said. “They want us out of downtown. Out of sight, out of mind.”  

The city plans to open a facility for 24 hours, seven days a week that offers restrooms, showers, laundry, drug and alcohol counseling, mental health services, child care, computer access, lockers, and other services.  

Voters approved $3 million for the facility in a May bond election, but officials say that does not cover the cost and that they must also raise private money for the facility. The City Council is scheduled to vote on the facility Feb. 25.  

 

Plan for migrant Worker Housing in Danger 

Hundreds of migrant workers in Merced County in California could be left homeless this summer, the county’s housing authorities have said. 

The Modesto Bee reports that state funding to build a new migrant worker housing is in danger, and Planada’s dilapidated Felix Torres Migrant Center was in such poor condition it was forced to shut down last October and designated for demolition. Back then, the state had enough cash to build more housing. Now that funding is in jeopardy, and about 400 migrants, their spouses and children could be left without a place to stay.  

The department had set aside about $4.1 million to build the new facility, with another $3 million promised by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. There has been no official announcement to withdraw the funding, but Nicholas Benjamin, executive director of Merced County’s Housing Authority, said he believes the project won’t be funded, and that once the state funding goes, the federal money will go as well.  

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