Tent City 2010 Meetings & Updates
May 14, 2010Posted in: 0 Comments
First, the next Tent City organizing meeting is this Wednesday, May 19th. These meetings are held at 7:00 pm at the Red Cross on Central, just east of Secor. For those wanting to help, come on out. We have many new things we are looking to add this year, such as an increase in service delivery, a walk-a-thon, special concerts, comedy benefits, (of course) and more for this year.
Our ability to accomplish any of these will depend on our ability to engage new volunteers. We hope you will come out or email us if you want to get engaged and matter to those who matter.
So many more updates, the board business, the homeless protection ordinance, Toledo Streets, Food for Thought.
The Board Business
In our last episode the TLC Board had engaged in an attempt to remove me from the board for daring to ask if taking a job at FOCUS after allocating the funds for that job to FOCUS was a conflict of interest.
They cancelled the attempt to remove me when it became clear they would only get half the votes they needed. They deferred the conflict question to the Ohio Department of Development which predictably ruled there was no conflict BUT the board should fix a couple things in their conflict of interest policy.
There has been a dramatic shift with the majority of the board now able to see the real problem, and they have sided with both forming the group of unhoused to look at our systems and having an open process in the allocation of federal funds.
I think the concern shown by the community and the media about this issue surprised them and made it very clear to the leadership that an open process is demanded which brings the community together.
Creating and funding a system that is expertly proficient in returning any member of our community who becomes unhoused for any reason, back to domestic autonomy should our highest priority.
The rest is mice nuts.
Homeless Protection Legislation
It’s official, Ohio House bill 509 was introduced this week. It is co-sponsored locally by Representative Barbara Sears. This is the bill both our city council and county commissioners passed resolutions of support. Giving credit where due, thank you Tom Waniewski for getting it into council, co-sponsored by Joe McNamara, Lindsay Webb, George Sarantou, and Tina Wosniak for getting it on the commissioner’s agenda. All council people and commissioners were unanimous in their support. Thank you all.
Last time this bill died on the vine. With 15 representatives sponsoring and co-sponsoring, we are certain it will get heard.
The hearings are yet to be scheduled. As Teresa Fedor is working for the same bill in the state senate we are hoping to arrange joint testimony.
Credit for this statewide goes to Brian Davis with the Northeast Ohio Coalition with the Homeless and Rep Mike Foley for getting this to the table in the first place.
Why do we have to do this? This link is an example of why. Because 1Matters.
Toledo Streets
So rare it is for newspapers to report (positively) on other papers. But that is exactly what is happening with Toledo Streets. The Toledo Blade, the Toledo Free Press, and now the Toledo City Paper all have done stories.
This speaks to how great our community really is! Competitors have no problem coming together to support a great cause.
You can too. Amanda is selling advertising space in Toledo Streets. Ad rates run from $35 to $400 for a full page color ad. I am sure your church, group or business would love to support such a good cause.
Food for Thought
Huge congratulations to Food for Thought for getting recognized for the great work they do from the Ohio Association of Nonprofit Organization’s Nonprofit Excellence Award! This is another great group you can support in every way!
