Thanks for joining folks. Um I'm going to call this meeting to order and it is 10:03 a.m. and um this meeting is being recorded by the Greenfield unhoused community ad hoc committee. If any other persons present are doing the same,
please notify the chairman at this time. Okay. So first we'll do a roll call of members. This is this is a different list of members. That's okay. Don't don't look at that one. Um the roll call of members and please
introduce yourself and what you're doing on this committee. So councelor Sarah Brown present. Christine Allen not here yet. Larry Thomas. Yeah, my name is Larry Thomas. I'm a um outreach worker here in the city of
Greenfield. Reese McGovern present. I was appointed by the city council president for this committee. Pamela Goodwin present. Um I was put on the adhab committee um by the mayor.
And so officer Zoe Zoe Smith she represent the Greenfield Police Department. Well, thanks everyone. Um, and now we'll have the approval of minutes from last time. Um, is there a motion to approve
May 22nd, June 6th, and June 26 maintain minutes? I move second. Excellent. Any discussion? I have discussion notes. And do you do too? You go first. No, no, I don't. Okay. No, I was sorry. Oh, you were trying to do the everybody.
I was doing the Okay. I have I my discussion notes are that I really appreciate um Tammy for taking these excellent thorough meeting notes of very lively meetings. Um and I have a few small amendments which I'll
just list off. So May 22nd on page four um amendment to change it under other comments included from councelor Brown stated that a group called pedal people in Northampton who had a partnership with a campsite to perform weekly disposal of waste had volunteered their
services for Greenfield and amending that to council round stated that a group called pedal people in Northampton had a partnership with the campsite to perform weekly disposal of waste. They didn't volunteer to help us, but I wish they would. Um, and then also June 6
meeting minutes on page 13. Um, it said commu, it's under the community member McGovern reported the following outreach updates. Amen. I would like to amend that to say that committee member MC members McGovern and Green visited and
canvas the days in which is currently under construction and become a Marriott offshoot hotel and change that to say and will become a Marriott a Marriott offshoot hotel and then I have two more slides. No, go for it. And then on page 17 at the bottom under
discussion, um, councelor Brown had spoken to senior policy director Eric Tars of the National Homelessness Law Center and relayed some nuance concerns regarding sanctioned encampments because they did not want a situation where it was ideally an interim solution until
there was enough indoor shelter for anyone who wanted it. And just for clarity, striking through the they did not want a situation where part. So that it reads um be um related some nuance concerns regarding sanctioned
encampments because it was ideally an interim solution until there was enough indoor shelter for anyone who wanted it. And then my last amendment um is to include on the
on the June 26 meeting minutes um two guests who the audio was unable to pick up who they were. So that was Lieutenant Jason Haskins and Sergeant Megan. And can I ask a question about minutes?
Yeah. when I open up the document and it's 22 pages long and I went, "Oh my word." Yeah. So, um, is there a way and I know Tammy does a fantastic job. Um, so a lot of times it's very accurate, but it doesn't say who said what.
Um, but when we approve these three months, does that mean the next time we could just get the minutes for this meeting to look at? because not until I went through the 22nd page did I see the surely was attached for example.
So that's the I just find that like daunting the minutes at the last minute and then have to figure out which I've already looked at and which I haven't. Yeah. So I don't I don't know whether there's an answer to that but just from my
viewpoint hopefully we've we're all caught up now. Right. And then we approve this next time and we're looking at those only. Yeah, you can ask Tammy that I can go and ask. That is typically how it works. Yeah, once you're all caught up, you're only right
approving the minutes from a lot to get to. Yeah, we just had to catch up. I make a motion motion. I make a motion that we accept all the amendments um as presented by councelor Brown. Thank you. Second. Great. All in favor of accepting the
amended meeting minutes. That's a wrap. That's everybody. Okay. Okay. So, now we are in um We still need to accept the minutes as amended. Oh, so we I make a motion that we accept the minutes as amended. Thank you.
Second that. All right. All in favor? Okay. Thank you. All right. So, all the minutes have been accepted now with the Thanks. Awesome. Okay, now we have public comment and just as a um a heads up to
everybody that we have been requested to respect public comment time for guest participation or for anyone from the public and then for um separate that out from the rest of the discussion time
when it's committee members and if we have a guest primarily speak um that guest is speaking to the part that they're added to for the agenda and then they can chime in if needed elsewhere but like otherwise they're not fully participating in the rest of the meeting. So that's how we will and we
are not allowed to use comments in the chat um even if it is during public comment because um the state is concerned that we might be misrepresenting comments in the chat. So, but if you anyone wants to participate um feel free to reach out
through the contact information on the website um or if you search this committee and then my contact info is there and we can add you to an agenda in the future and we really appreciate the the liveless veering on chaotic. So,
that's all right. So, with that, and if you're if you're on Zoom and would like to participate in public comment, please unmute or make a note in the chat that because of an access issue, you can't unmute and then we'll recognize you.
Um, so with that on public comment, I'm not sure if anyone Yeah, if you're want to come up to the table to speak, you can both come up. There's um the mic will catch you that way. Okay. And if you want to both come up at the same time or you can say that again. Sorry. You're welcome to
both come to the table or if you want to talk. Okay. I didn't sign up to um Oh, okay. If you want I'll be I'll mostly uh cover and plug um Yeah. My other Say your name, your organization, and where you live like a town or
My name is Natalie Berts. I work at the 3count continuum of care which is part of community action pioneer valley um which my office is here in Greenfield and we serve the three counties of Franklin, Bergkshire and Hampshire
County. I live um personally in Leeds um and uh I'm here today to uh kind of advertise and plug um our point in time count for the summertime. Um the 3count
COC has um responsibilities as collaborative applicants and COC leads for the region um related to homelessness and one of those is to um capture as accurately as possible a census of people experiencing
unsheltered homelessness. Now we are required to do this every winter time and we conduct this through surveys um that are um carried out by volunteers and community service providers. Um and right now we are working to carry out um
a summer point in time count. So this is a little atypical for us only that it doesn't happen every year. We try to do this every two years. Um, and our goal is to um collect uh uh deidentified data
points on people experiencing unsheltered homelessness. And this would be occurring for um based off of the date of July 20th, 2025, which would be a Sunday coming up in the next couple
weeks. And so what would happen and what we're kind of just announcing and sharing with the community is that um between Monday, July 21st and Saturday, July 26th, community providers, volunteers, um people wanting to um
self-report or disclose um would be we're trying to collect demographic information about who was experiencing homelessness on Sunday night the 20th. So the night of the count uh or designated night would be Sunday the
20th. And so providers have from the 21st through the 26th to survey people to say, "Hey, um where where were did you have a place safe place to sleep on um Sunday the 20th?" Um in the wintertime, we also are collecting
usually shelter data from shelters directly. We're only going to be focusing on unsheltered homelessness this um summer and I actually brought um copies of drafts that will be published online um in case any of the uh
committee members are interested in looking at them. There's going to be a few ways to um participate. We'll also have an electronic version available so people do not have to record responses by paper. there will be a link um that
will be available and we'll be working on flyers with QR codes for that and it'll be posted to our website as well so that any providers can do this in other communities. I used to um be a volunteer for the point in time count in Austin, Texas, where I moved from um a
while ago. And you know um uh anywhere any volunteers um and also law enforcement like any help that we can get from um folks who might be encountering people who are experiencing unsheltered homelessness,
any anybody can participate. Um, we've tried to make the survey language a little bit plainer and more clear on what's being asked. Um, these are all optional questions, too. And so, um, we just really want to encourage anybody
who would be interested or think that they might have, um, uh, a way to participate and contribute to just reach out, um, check out our materials online and, um, make a plan to count. Um, in
the wintertime in January 2026, 2025, sorry, I'm getting ahead of myself. Um, there were 26 people um, in Greenfield that are dduplicated um that were experiencing unsheltered homelessness. We would imagine that those numbers
would be higher in the summertime when there is less um winter uh shelter expansion or you know maybe um less use of couch surfing or other ways that people um uh might access uh shelter safety things like that um as they would
in the winter time. So, um, aside from that, um, you know, this is just a piece of my role at the 3count COC. I also want to plug that, um, we have several committees, um, that maybe members of
the community might be interested in joining or hearing about. We do have a work group for interim housing. Um uh we have a a persons with lived experience action board um that we're always
looking for members for. Um and we also facilitate coordinated entry. Um, and my team member Vega, whom is probably online, is um, somebody that can uh, we can connect you to if if anyone's interested in learning how to become a
coordinated assessor so that they can advocate for people to access the limited housing options that we have for people who are experiencing homelessness in our area. Um and then um also with me is uh Emma Kohl's who um will be u
facilitating our domestic violence and also some of our um uh emerge coalition activities going forward. And so um just wanted to uh yeah make this connection and uh hope that my team members um Vega and Emma can continue to attend in the
future. Um and I will leave the paper copies um just if anybody's interested of the draft. These ones will be posted on our website um in by tomorrow along with the link to the public form. One last note about the point in time count
for anybody who wants to participate. We cannot collect data before the night of the count. So you can't even on Sunday evening technically until like 1000 p.m. survey folks. So, anybody and there it's written on the directions and things like that, but um you know uh just
wanted to kind of throw that out there. We have to ask, you know, after the fact. Um uh yeah, thank you. Thank you so much. Um I wish we could ask follow-up questions, but we will save that for
future agenda. Um is there anyone else who would like to give public comment perhaps? Um, feel free to come off mute if you're on Zoom. Okay, we will close public comment if we don't hear from anyone. But um we
appreciate folks showing up and and also feel free to leave if you whenever you want to. Okay, so we will close public comment. Um, all right.
So, next on the agenda, we did have a guest speaker who is um not here currently, so we will skip that part, but we're also joined by um Pamela McBride of the Greenfield Public Library. Um, so
Pamela, if there's anything that you would like to share as updates or things that feel relevant to this committee, we'd love to hear it. Uh, good morning everybody. Um, I was just wondering if you were going to drop a paper survey at the library. I know
that we have Yes, that's the one. Um Um, I'm not in the library today. Um, but if uh you can drop it off or if I can pick it up from someone um that would be great. We do
have the QR code flyer um kind of distributed throughout the library. I don't think I have anything else at the moment. Pamela, I'll I'll be bringing um the paper copies by after this meeting. Okay, great. Just um yeah, hand them to
somebody. Yeah, thank you. Okay, thank you. Um, I don't have my notes in front of me right now. They're in this packet. But, um, we mentioned several locations besides the library. Uh, Summer Eats. I
don't know where that is taking place in front of the food co-op. And um I'm going to be out of town pretty soon, but I do have time this week where I would like if if this committee decides I'm going to stand somewhere at a certain
time with my clipboard. And with that, I would like to get that ball rolling as well. Um we do have survey progress on the agenda. We can move it to talk about it now or we can come back to it if folks have preference. Yeah, feel free to chime in.
I was just going to say that um the library uh Pamela the library does summer eats on Tuesday nights from 5 to 6 p.m. and it's fairly busy so it's a good turn it's over 150 um families that
show up if you want to come there. What's the time frame again? Uh 5 to 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday evenings. Thank you. And then I think Wednesdays is the skate park and Thursdays is just roots or something. I'd have to double check that, but but summer eats is throughout the week
around the city as well. So um can I make a motion that committee members coordinate um after this meeting to decide who will be standing the clipboard at what
location this week? Sure. Yeah. Um Tammy also said we don't really need to make that many motions luckily. She said yeah. So I think it's I think it's presumed that if anyone would like to um then yeah
committee members let's plan our times huddle for a minute. Yeah without being in a forum right I also well I don't understand that but um I also would love to see if Larry's going to have some of the hard copy forms at Wellflower Alliance.
Yes. Right, Larry. Was that an understanding for you? I would love to have some. Yes. Okay. Power copy. It's much easier to QR code with the folks like I work. Yes. Okay. So, I think we're just let's wrap up survey in this bucket of the
agenda. Um and then another thing is I'm curious if it would make sense to even like with the point in time count if that is even a good time to also consider doing the survey outreach. You've help with the point in time count. Does it
seem like this would make sense then or it's already enough of the survey? The point in time count the ser this is this is different than the survey, isn't it? Yes. Yeah. Do you think that people would be up for doing both of them? Yeah. In one
sitting or do you think that it would be better to separate them? I would separate. Yeah. It has a designated time, right? you know, that's very strict about when you can even do it.
Maybe just can mention it word of mouth that it's happening or something, but um so yeah. So, anything else on the survey? There's the paper copies for folks and the flyers. Um and I guess just to mention that Reese did um amend
the question if you don't like to say what you've amended. Sure. Um so on the survey it is the same as what we discussed before. I added one question.
Um it's on the first page and it's we have the question how long what's your current housing situation? How long have you been unhoused and how did you become unhoused? And then I added a question after that that says what do you want your housing situation to be like? Um
and this was prompted by discussion in a previous meeting about um what people would like to do under ideal circumstances. Um, so I added that in because it's an opportunity for us to
get more direct information from folks who are currently experiencing homelessness about what their ideal would look like, what their goals and hopes are for their housing situation. Um, and again, this is all anonymized.
Um, and if folks want, they can skip questions. Yeah. So that's that's the only change to the survey. Otherwise, it's exactly what we've looked at before. That's a wonderful question, Ree. Thank you for adding that. Well, Sarah,
so those are accurate and what I printed out are wrong, right? I only printed a couple. So that's the accurate updated one. So I had sent out to Tammy who forwarded to the committee. So if you went with the most recent version from Tammy, then it's the right ones. Are these the ones
that you printed? Yeah. Yeah. So, this is missing that question. Okay, thank you. Yeah, I just want for clarifying. Great. Thank you. And Tammy did a great job of printing these, so they're double-sided, which
means it's only one piece of paper, which is ideal on our end because we don't have to juggle stuff. And Tammy said there's 60 copies, which is beautiful. Yeah. And who do we give them to after we have answers? Um, yeah. So, that's that's a great question. Um, the ones that are at the
library will be collected by the librarian team if we are not there in the moment and someone fills one out. And if we are there in the moment, we can hold them. Um, I I can I'm happy to be the point person where at meetings we
can collect any that have been filled out and I can hold them all. Um but yeah, my recommendation would be outside of the library or wildflower alliance, don't leave them places because then it adds a place that we
have to go and collect them. So the library and wildflower alliance, we have people who are willing, able, and have agreed to like collect them in one place and then bring them back to the meeting one way or another. Um, otherwise they should be on a clipboard or with a
person who's helping fill them out and then collected when they're completed. Well, thanks again for um shephering the survey. Yes, I'm looking forward to getting these out and starting to get some
information back from folks. Um do we feel good to go on to our access to resources agenda topic? Um so under this we have cooling centers, storage lockers, trash bags, public
bathrooms. So we can and Pamela feel free to like um chime in if you have anything as well. So were there any updates on cooling centers that we wanted to share? I think Emily, we got some updates.
Well, I I um I've been trying to pursue we we had a period of days when it was extremely hot and that um survey was based on dates, but I have not been successful about like how hot does it
have to be. I did have a conversation with Pamela McBride at the library and the state has published this is pretty unhealthy but it was like in the 80s for example. So um I don't know who's going
to make the conversation. I did have a conversation with the mayor and she said that she and the fire chief will determine that. So that's great to know. But then how does it from that determination get into the hands of the
people who are trying to figure out where to go fill the water bottles and are they going to you know stay in the campsite or go to a cooling center. Last time we met there was talk about them not wanting to really go to a cooling
center but we need that as an option. And we do have a list of like when Salvation Army is open for feeding lunch and when they are open at Arch Street and um you know but that was for a specific period of time during a heat
wave. So I guess I need to figure out or we need to figure out like how is that all going to work. I was going to email Chief Strahan and the fire chief but I didn't I didn't get to that either.
I really appreciate you bringing this up because this for me sort of captures something important about about unhoused experiences in this town specifically, but also regionally, which is that we have some really nice
resources like pooling centers. But the inconsistency and the way that the information is disseminated about inconsistent services are both really big barriers. Um,
which, you know, it's like it's great to have tools. It's great to have resources. And also if they if people don't know when they're happening or available and or people can't get information about when they're available then
they're they're insufficient in terms of like community care. Well and can I add go ahead Larry then I'll go after you. Um well um we have a sign at the fire station. We have electronic sign on the
common and then it does become kind of word of mouth among the community of the unhoused. And the day that the library was the only place open until I think it was like 8:00 p.m. on a Wednesday, it was like still 99 when everybody was
told, "Okay, go away." So, um I agree with you entirely on like we need a plan. People need to have advanced notice about things. So, if they are willing to go in and I know the library uh people have been fantastic, but if
Salvation Army is going to stop serving lunch at 1 and everybody's told it's cool in here, but now go away. I don't know whose job it is to follow up with um the two people in charge of Salvation Army because there is always this like who's talking to who and how do we
spread that word? Um, but that frustrates me to no end. I appreciate what you all said, both you all said said today. I know in the winter time when the winter when when
they when it was like they had they made a temperature. I think it was like 15 degrees or so. Sorry, I'm sorry. That was my phone. I don't remember the exact number exact temperature but it was a temperature when they the the chief the
fire chief and the mayor would make the decision and then there would be a number of emails sent out to every all type of service providers. We would spread the word to folks about the woman the woman shelters and stuff like that. There's no thing for the
summer. We talked about that. There's nothing for the heat. There's no I mean there's there's a list of cooling centers, but there's no temperature, right, when when this thing is supposed to and everything's supposed to pop. And so it's um it's really um
it's a lot of holes in a lot of different things. That's the best way I can put it. Yeah. Swiss cheese. There there's something else too, which is that um I don't know if everybody is familiar Sure. I don't know if everybody's familiar with this term.
But there's a there's what's called a wet bulb event, which is when it's over a certain temperature and the humidity is over a certain percentage. And that is an extreme risk of dehydration and
heat heat related injury. Um, and that was part of what was happening during the heat wave. And so it's I I think it's important that as we continue this conversation with organizations in town that we're not just talking about temperature, but we're also talking
about humidity because of the way that the climate is shifting and because wet bulb events are becoming more common everywhere. Um we didn't used to have wet bulb events except for like you know once in an ever and now it's it's going
to be more common. And so, so as we talk about temperature, we also have to be talking about humidity because it could be 85 and totally reasonably manageable for a human body or it could be 85 and the humidity is 100% and
suddenly it's really hard to be outside. Totally agree. And I feel I saw somebody not be able to breathe yesterday. The humidity was real high yesterday and it wasn't as hot as heat wave and this person had a very in front of Greenfield's having a very difficult
time. I stopped and talking they just couldn't breathe. Yeah. So, so it's I feel like it's a little bit different to the winter because in the winter it's just it's too cold to be outside but in the summer they factor that into right but in the summer it can be it's
hot or it's so hot plus the humidity that it's dangerous. And I will point out that as people age, I mean I see it all the time is there's more and more COPD, there's more and more emphyma, there's more and we do know that our unhoused often are
smokers. So just breathing in that high humidity is a real challenge. So it's not just a temperature thing. So um yeah I mean we would call that comorbidities and it's not just right like lifestyle choices like smoking but it's also in like ineffective access to
health care in general makes people more susceptible to these like climate and environmental stuff too. That's a great point. So we're saying we want like an emergency alert system like yes there's cooling centers and they have hours sometimes it closes when it's still in a
range that would be dangerous. So, we're saying we would like a like a protocol of like a way to notify people and like some designated spots that could have that could be made available and have
someone there. Can can we suggest to the powers that be that um the same alert system that's used for the warm bumpers is used for the cooling centers in terms of we've passed the threshold and now we tell everybody because it sounds like
there's already a system of communication that exists there. So I don't see any reason why it wouldn't be easy to just tap into that and use it in the summer at the same time or same way that we use it in the winter. Well, I know for the warming center, um,
the email, the original email comes from, I believe, um, Deborah at the opioid task force. Then it comes to house in Greenfield and housing Greenfield distributed to all those people and then it's just sort of like the tentacles go out.
I would propose that maybe um, a few people on this group could try to set up an appointment with Chief Strahan. I think he's probably pretty busy. um or or both the mayor and that so that we could just say we're alarmed uh you know
we need some information about dissemination but we also need to know about the humidity level. It's not just the temperature cuz we've got I think well every time I check the weather we got a series of rainy days and then it doesn't happen or it's just a mist and then we're going to
like we said expect some more hot weather certainly. Yeah. I just to piggyback I think we're doing a I mean obviously part of the discussion is that the warming centers have we have we've learned right we need to be more deliberate about how we kind
of organize them and stuff um but we've been forced to because those are overnight right and with the cooling center I think a lot of these cooling centers are just oh we happen to be open so put us on the list right and it's and it's caused this situation where right nobody kind of knows what's going on so I I think that's great right like if the
mayor and the chief are making the decision, right, that we've reached some sort of critical point that we need these cooling centers. Awesome. Then we have a centralized kind of flip in the switch and then working out from there how do we notify how do we like get
people to agree to, you know, minimum hours or whatever it is. I'd be interested in being in that meeting. That'd be wonderful. And Pamela, other Pamela Pamela McBride. you have your hand up.
Sorry, I was muted. Um, I just did a a quick little um research. Um, and for due points and 60 degrees due point is considered uncomfortable. When you hit 70, that's considered unhealthy. Just so
just to give you a little reference. That's percentage. Dupoint. Percentage. Yes. Percentage. Yeah. Thank you. That's useful. So if you're interested in following up is any do you want to buddy with that or I would love buddy
talking about with the chief. Yeah. Oh your your recent buddy. Cool. And then do we have to wait till the next meeting to get results or is there a way that we could you can find out what they found out? You can forward to Tammy
uh notes from a meeting and then it would go on discussion and then it would be part of the public record next time. We're not allowed to like have a conversation about what you found out, but you're allowed to like forward information for us to digest. We can document the meeting and share
Tammy, right? But then it's then we're waiting until the next time we have our meeting to address the issue to discuss it. Well, I mean I if it's hot in the meantime is my concern. So I I guess the thing is like we could meet with the chief
and the chief could go, "Oh, that's a great idea. I'm going to implement it tomorrow, right?" We can't discuss that decision, you know, amongst ourselves until we have an open meeting because people need to be able to listen to that discussion. But we could share with the committee, hey,
FYI everybody, no discussion, but the chief said he was going to do this. We can talk about it at the next meeting. So, super. And in a perfect world, I think we would get some kind of answer like that and then we could discuss how's it been going, right? And I will say it's it's always a
staffing issue. The mayor has said to me um privately, hey, um you and I will go staff someplace that doesn't have staff. And I'm happy to do that if I'm available and if she's available. So it is I mean the library isn't open on some days past
2:00 p.m. That's a staff, you know, that's a so whatever the location will be. I don't know whether cso has a staffing issue. I can't remember what time they close down. I know they serve, you know, they do the laundry and they have, you know, but that's that that's
that working thing that we seem to have this who's doing what problem. Thanks. John Zon is like our designated emergency what is it? Emergency shelter. It's a cooling. All it is is a cooling thing. Oh,
cuz the fire station became the emergency fire station. Thanks. All right. Yay. Good idea. Right. Talk about um let's go on to
storage lockers. We both I attended the public hearing on that. Um, and I didn't to release the CDBG funds for lockers, but still no I don't know anything about like a location. Um, I don't know if
anyone else knows more. Maybe you I was not at that meeting. Can you just summarize what the decision was to um was it approved? It was Yeah, like it was just like a public hearing about that decision. It wasn't It was just a very short brief um
15 minute update pretty much. I tried to get online and then Anna said to me, "I saw you couldn't connect." And so then I wrote my written statement. I think I copied you into it. So I um you know, I made a real strong argument on why we need lockers um locked up for their
belongings. And we're waiting, I think, to hear from HLC about that kind of thing. And then um yeah, so it's in the works anyway. We're waiting to hear back and they know it's it's it's a serious need all of them,
but the intent is there to spend that money on lockers. I just don't have the details. Okay, good. Yep. Just don't know the location yet, but the funding has been approved. Great. Um trash can. Before we actually move to trash, can I ask a question? This is related to
services, but it is not a point on the agenda. Um, and we had talked at a previous meeting about the Portland Loo and the structures that are at the skate park and that that was
potentially managed by a private company. This is on the agenda. Oh, it is on the agenda. Sorry. Sorry. So, first we have trash. Sorry. Okay, never mind. Um, so we will pass it here. Um, so trash was honestly Robin's update who I
somehow missed in the roll call and Robin is unable to make it because it's on call right now. I have some trash little bit about trash. Um, because previous meeting the chief talked about how somebody has to pay for
these big blue heavy bags. Um, and that comes out of the police budget. So, I made a call and left a voicemail with Amy Clark, who has the um interfaith council funding. And then Susan asked me to put it in writing and Amy has some
other things going on in her life. So, last night I was told that the trash bag situation is being handled, as far as Amy and Dave know, by the sheriff's department,
which had come up in previous meetings, right, Larry? Well, I said it. I knew there was some conversations, right, about the sheriff's department going out and cleaning up the woods where a lot of those campsites have been, abandoned, campsites, picked, all that stuff.
Right. And so tying in with that, what we were hoping to do, and I've heard this from a few people, is we would love to have the unhoused work alongside of anybody that's decided to volunteer and safely pick up trash and bagg. So the
question now becomes who in the sheriff's division I think Laura is the name of the of the person over there. Um but I you know again it's like okay so we have to now say to the sheriff's division when are you doing
it? Can we help you? Can we make sure the unhoused are also available to assist? Um because when I went to the campsites, they were all downtown and there was nobody there except Officer Smith and Officer Llewellyn and I visiting the
various areas and there is a lot of cleanup and we've talked about why that's really difficult for them. If you don't have bags to put stuff in, then that's a problem. and getting these big bags out of an area. Um, like the dog park. I don't know if that means that
big trucks go go or big cars go in across the ball diamond and kind of sit there waiting to have people bring out these things. So, the logistics of it is what I would love to see happen very soon so that it's not one of those things where we're in the fall trying to
figure out if we're doing it as late as that. And I know Christiey's not here right now, but Christy has been asking for support with cleaning up her campsite and because I think the barrel is like not enough down there. Yeah,
the barrel gets full immediately and then what do you do? Um, that parlays a little bit. So, the sheriff's department now has a sheriff's deputy, Jake Mccclelay, who is assigned downtown
um mirroring my role downtown as well. And he was selected through an interview process and recommendations um because he has a very similar kind of ethos and perspective as I do. Um, and
he will be working a morning more morning shift a 9 to5 whereas I work on 11 to 7. So we'll have some overlap in the middle of the day, but then we'll have some expanded coverage. I will talk to him. He wasn't able to make this meeting today, but I will talk to him and uh at least if he can't answer the
question, get that coordination, the point of contact of the sheriff's office to see about their intentions um with clean up and and who would be in charge of coordinating if you know community volunteers wanted to also participate.
Can we invite him or another representative of the sheriff's department to the next meeting? Yes. Yeah. Um, he's brand new in his role. I would like brand new. This is his I think this is
his like sixth day on the job. Um, I will say for the sheriff's department, I think he said for 12 years. So that's that's the piece that I think is important even if he's new to But I guess what I was trying to say was he should be here. um we should have him
on the agenda so he can you know uh talk. He knows a lot of the people personally. He has a lot of great relationships with people that I'm still building that he's already had for a decade. Um but I think if there is another I suspect Hi Christie.
No, I'm glad. Um the I'm assuming there is somebody with the sheriff's department who can speak to the trash thing specifically and I can find out who they are and see if they're willing to to also join the meeting. So I'm sorry I got early.
Thanks for being here. Thanks for being here. Um appreciate everybody's conversation this morning was very good. Um actually it's good timing Christine. We are talking about campsite cleanup um and trash. So if you have any
and the the update is that the sheriff's department is potentially managing some kind of provision of trash bags or provision of trash services. We don't actually know. Uh can I even though you're talking
about cleanup throw something out there? I ended up hearing last week or so that dog park might be getting closed towards the homeless people. So, I thought I'd throw it out there.
I have not heard anything to that effect. So, I don't um we can um thought I'd throw it out there. I just heard it from Dave. Dave? Who's Dave? Uh one of the homeless people that lives over there in the woods.
Okay. I we'll either let's uh let's let's wrap up the trash bags discussion, Christie. I want to make sure that we either address that like in the meeting or, you know, as an aside. Yeah. Um interesting. Okay. Uh Okay. Uh thank
you. Uh cleanups though, sheriff's, you were what did you just say? I just was saying sheriff's department is potentially involved in something around trash bag provision, trash removal. Unclear as of
now what their role is, but confirmed that they are involved somehow. And that this Jake Mcclelay is going to be invited to be on the agenda at the next meeting. So that's great idea. So when you walked in, I was saying so Jake is the new the sheriff's department
version of me. So, he's downtown with me now. Um, and I'm gonna He was supposed to be here today, but I'm going to ask him at least who the person is over at the sheriff's department who is apparently coordinating or responsible to help with the cleanup and um and what
that's going to look like. And so hopefully we'll have that answer. We'll have them at the next meeting. I can do some help with cleanup. Yeah. Well, and thank you. And part of the conversation was right like are they going to be willing to allow community members to help participate in that? So
yeah, I think that's something that should be a possibility for other hoping. I mean the other community is what helps me it up. So to have them help clean it up would make sense. That's what we constantly been asking to
have including people at the table to do it. And I know in the past the mayor had taken I think a broom and a dustpan and they were grateful to be able to have it, but you do need the bags and you do need the gloves and all of that. So maybe if they do allow it though too, we
can find a way to get all the homeless people into a group so that we can ask them and see if they would have to pick it up. When I was there and nobody was around, so it's coordinating. We're downtown, but I was on the Yeah. So it we can
coordinate that. That's the hope is to intertwine all of them. Chrissy, I have a question for you. Do you have a sense of what time of day would be best to sort of get access to as many folks as possible if someone were to like come to the dog park?
Right. Like Pamela and Zoe, is there a time of day that more people tend to be there? Most of the time people are off with their jobs now that are homeless. Um, the nighttime is the best time to
catch people is when they're off work. Like five or after. Okay. Would be like the best time to catch them. That's around the time we hear them in the back making a lot of noise. I think someone's back there using a chainsaw.
We've been hearing trees getting cut. Oh. So, just to give a warning out there, someone's got a chainsaw. Yeah, good to know. I'm thrilled to hear that many people have found employment. That's great
news. Whiskey had talked about that at a previous meeting, remember? Quite a few of them out there have jobs. That's awesome. Yeah, you feel good on trash, campsite cleanup, and good to go on to public bathrooms. And also, as per usual, we
will not make it through our agenda, but that's okay because they're just here as like items to like pull from. Um, but maybe we'll do public bathrooms and then we can afterwards think about what to prioritize for the last half hour. So, we had talked previously about the
Portland Loo at the skate park and there was from my memory an open question about who who manages that and where the chain of management falls if it's BPW, if it's a private company. Um, and the question
that I have about it is that I believe as part I I don't know if this is the same management stream or if it's different, but on the other side of the skate park next to the bench, there's a solar charging station. And right now, three of the four solar panels are
broken. And yeah, and I would love right to see that be fixed. And I have no idea who is responsible for that. That's Carol Collins um was previously
responsible for the solar charger that was by Energy Park and I think the her wheelchair of housing. She's the sustainability and energy director for city and her office is across the hallway. But I would email like would that be coming out of funds
from the city or would that be somebody else paying for it because it needs if it needs to get repaired it's going to cost something? Yeah, I'm assuming um it's in their budget probably. Okay. All right. Yeah, I'm happy to follow up with her.
Well, yeah. I mean, it could be literally just something as simple as she's not aware that it's broken. you know, that's exactly the type of thing that everybody grasses about and then it just, you know, never actually got back, right? Yeah. And then on the bathrooms, my assumption
was that the This is also something that Robin researched and I can pull up Robin's email on this honestly about Yeah, please. Um, what Robin said, and I kind of forgot that I have it in written. the subject is sad porta plot at energy
park someone in the public and then ramen responded with some more info about it. Um there are three public full service toilet sites in Greenfield that DPW
maintains Portland Lou at skate parks public library and the town hall. All of these are cleaned and maintained by central maintenance three or more times a day based on need. Um the DBW is doing really good work. Um there are also a small number of portaotties in
Greenfield, including one at the dog park and one at the pocket park. These are the service United toilets. Um Robin called United to ask about how and when their service and they admit that they are responsible for the service but are unwilling to give details about
scheduling to any but the contracting party. That being some part of the city government that they would not specify. Robin asked EVW about this and they insisted they that they do not have this info and that Robin needs to call United. So
So we should ask the mayor2 we should ask the mayor about the portaotties servicing. Um and so whoever is actually responsible for scheduling services to the portaotties in town if it exists has hid themselves quite well.
the I do believe I meant to double check and I absolutely got distracted, but the energy park one at least I think has like the service checklist like when they come by and they service it, they make a note like this bathroom last clean on whatever.
And I think it was about twice a week. Um, but I meant to go back and and actually double check. And I I I don't know what the green uh what the Green River Park is either, but we might be able to get that answer just itself. Also, some something that Robin
identified in this email is that um DPW does not keep a publicly available list of restrooms in the city on their website and will not provide one when called. Same with parks and wreck. So, we should make it very obvious where you can use a public bathroom.
say, "Can we make one and post it at like the library?" Yeah. No, honestly, something I was thinking is like we could have, this is related to all access to public resources, but I also meant to ask Larry, but I forgot about the water refill. Do you know if there's a water refill going? Sorry.
In city hall, there is I mean at like Mesa Verde, Mesa Verde, no. But like if we had a map where we were just like this is every public bathroom. This is every like water refill. This is the the charging station. I know there's a water refill over at
the dog park. I know the cemetery's got a water refill spot. This is like some places you can clear up. I love the map. Yeah. An 8 by10. And this is where you do this and go here and you know they already have the map on all the different churches that are
serving the foods and the and the pantries and those kind of things. Yeah, but this idea of like where to go for that map for access to public resources. We could find like a common spot to grab all of like in general the resources to
put them on one map to put them in a spot in the common might be a better idea so that this way they can look around at what resour Yeah, I think that's great. I'm meeting with the Greenfield Business Association directly after this meeting and that also feels like something that the GBA would like Yes.
either have available or want to make available to people visiting the city. So, um I'll ask her what she's got. Yeah, I'm thinking about the the like tourist maps that exist where they're sort of like a cartoonized version of the city, but it's really easy to see
where stuff is. And I'm sure that some organization, maybe the business association has that for Greenfield. If we could use that as a base and then add onto it, that would be perfect. Free community meal Tuesday and Thursday
like summer eats truck visits here on Wednesdays. Yeah, because we have the info like the 413 cares pamphlet. There's literally one this tiny tiny yellow one up on the board. Yeah, but I feel like it seeing it visually was really helpful. And also
I have Oh, wait. You have one right there. Oh, no. Is that Yeah, the 413 car mine is mine is white. And this this one needs to be I'm wondering if it's the same thing, but this needs to be updated. Um, this is put out by the city of Greenfield on
community and economic development. Needs to be corrected on Maria's church. And then I drew a line past days in family shelter cuz that's not going to happen. So the question became I think I was speaking with Maria about this verse
and who's in the room I believe. Yes. Who's now here? So um I think this has to go back to Amy Cahale and say can you make these editing things because I picked up these at the justice center and they're given out routinely from
people from the house of correction or probation. And I said, "How do we get these in the hands of everybody else?" And so I would take like I went to this and I went to recovery project and so forth. So I know this is great and this
is the same thing where the chief said we should laminate it to me on the town common. Laminate it, fold it in half. Well, that's the thing I'm saying is that's wet, right? Yeah. It's find a way to put that make it bigger. The other thing is Yeah. This right now is
restroom services on with it too. Yeah. So this is a quarter page. Put all services together. If we if we did it as a half page and folded it and had a map with numbers kind of like that and then have the numbers on the
different resources that would let people access it who are either struggling to read or struggling to see or would rather see something than have text. Um, I wasn't really thinking of like them being able to flip it though. Like if
they can get their hands on it, it could somehow get destroyed. So like somehow put it behind some sort of like glass or two sides on the glass. Well, that if we if we were to design something that's a half page, right? You can take one side and print it on the
other half of an 8 and 1 half by 11 piece of paper and put it up as a single-sided document, but also then you can have it something that folds down to this size that includes all of that information. That makes sense. I just want to before we get too far
off, I want to just say how important I think that map will be for accessibility. I a couple times a month somebody will come up to me downtown. They are new in town. They want to know like where they can get a bite to eat, where they can stay, like those types of things. And just and they're not always
native English speakers either. And so trying somebody who's never been to Greenfield who is on foot and English is their second language, being like, "Oh, one arched place at the shelter and they're like, "Where's that?" And trying to like give like on foot directions to one arch place where they don't even know the street names. I think like a
map would be like really really powerful. Like be like, "Hey, here's the food tonight." you know, like and and like, you know, walk this way type thing would be really little visual symbols. You don't even need much language. If only there was a way to like put it online for people's phones though, too.
Oh, there's a way. Oh, yeah. That would make it a lot easier putting it online. Yeah. Like the Google My Maps thing is a platform. Yeah. But also, if there's a document, it can just be up on if city do it on the city
website. if the city won't do it on everybody else's website. And I like that electronic board if you stand there long enough out on the common and that's also got the map. You know picture of that on their phone is run
and managed by the business association, not the city. So we would just need to partner with them. You already have that meeting coming up. I've got a I have a I have a standing monthly meeting the executive distributor. So that's got a map on it. Well, no, no, no, no. But Pamela is saying that like
there is for activities like so the business association members can share their calendar of events on that interactive screen and so people could go up to the screen be like yeah what's happening for live music tonight type thing. So I obviously can't make
promises nor or nor can I twist the arm of the business association but I think like you know we could certainly figure something out ask yeah it is a mutually beneficial I think that there's also an argument to be made towards the business association
to say like if people know where the public bathrooms are they are not going to come in and try and get into your bathroom right which I know is a pain in the butt for a lot of businesses. Well, on the flip side, there's businesses that do want to open up like, oh, I'm available for water refill or bathroom. Like some
businesses might like last ditch, I know, has said that they would like to be included in like availability of resources. So, yeah. Um, cool. Well, this is a great topic that we're scratching the surface of that we will get into next time on the
agenda. Could we at some point throw in figuring out how to do some sort of extra shower systems for them besides salvation? That's a horrible idea with it being like the only place
people can shower. Yeah, there's there's an acronym. It's Wash. I know for right now me and Fernando are going to do our own the Wash acronym is meditation or something. We're just I know me and Fernando are going to do
our own little for now pump type system in the back there. It's a water sanitation and hygiene. So like making sure that your community that's that's like the acronym that you want public health public health like what what is a good community provider? It's water
sanitation and hygiene. Um specifically because those are three specific things, right? And so just putting a faucet out isn't enough if you know somebody can't actually bathe there, you know, in a in a respectful way or something like that. So, and we did price I think you might have
looked about $50 for the little portable shower thing. I I didn't price it, but I had said when you had ordered it, Christy, what was the cost for the shower that you ended up getting these? I don't remember. I'd have to look up what it was. I think when I looked they
were between like 50 and 80 depending on for the for the ones that don't have any heat to them. Yeah, that's just a a system to hold water and then put it over your body. Yep. Yeah. I think mine was around like 80 something.
Um so I think we're mostly good on this topic. Maybe Robin, I don't know if anyone wanted to like follow up with the mayor about the report body contract meeting service, but I guess well somebody's paying that bill. So So if they just are going to say, "Well, we
don't know who and we can't divulge." Then um I'll try to figure that out. I guess to me that's important. You know, like if they're saying they're doing it two times a week or three times a week, it's like I have camps when it's looking like it's never been done. It's like forget it.
I suspect it just merely comes down to United's is like we don't discuss people's individual contracts because they don't want to, right? And that the city's like, well, United cleans them, but really it is whatever is enumerated in that contract and who the contracting authority is for the city, which would I
would start with the mayor. Well, right. My impulse is that if the company won't tell us and the city doesn't make it available, the mayor is the person to just go to and say this is a piece of information that should be publicly available. It's not. We need your help. Yeah. And I think and also Matt Conway, the
communications director person who is um leaving at some point. I don't know when, but um we'll include whoever is the communications person on like putting some of the public resources on the website and whatnot. Um so I'm going to talk to the mayor
about this thing. That'd be great. Sooner the better, right? Yeah. It's not good, right? Oh, I agree. Okay, I'm asking you haven't been out there. I have. Yes, I'm sure. Nasty. Yeah, it definitely ASAP.
Happy to figure that out. Thank you. Especially as with with as we've got homeless people that do go into those bathrooms and they do throw up in those bathrooms, it seems quite frequently. So, it's make it it makes it smell worse. Well, and if you are somebody who is
struggling with an opioid addiction or with trying to get out of an opioid addiction, that's going to include stuff like vomiting. And if there's nowhere else to do it, that's where you're going to do it. And I will admit, too, there has been a
few times where my boyfriend has found products sitting in the bathrooms. So, that's kind of a problem, too, is we don't really want them somehow hiding them in the bathrooms. Oh, I had one more thing I wanted to ask
related access to public resources. On access to public resources, which is um sharps containers. Is there a sharps container at the dog? Yes, there is a container. Yes. Okay. Is it one of the tapestry boxes? Do you know? Not too sure if it's a tapestry or
something we need to include on I will I will follow up with tapestry. Yeah. Ask where their boxes are and how they get that one to figure out what that one I'm happy to start a map also. And if it's not, I'll call that and we'll figure out what one that is
exactly. Is there sharks container at the state park at all? Ly. Yeah, there's a there's a receptacle inside of the L that is a small round hole that you can Yeah. insert needles, too. But I mean, I
think like, you know, you wouldn't know it was there unless you saw. It's like if you're walking by it says like sharps contain or anything. Awesome. Um, so we have 20 minutes and we have
one, two, three, four, five, six topics. You can do two and a half minutes for each. But um I'm wondering I I feel excited. I have some like sanctioned encampment updates potentially that could be excitingly shared. Um, but what
else feels like I would love to talk about the eighth grade civics project got involved in that and I did as well. So I feel like that keeps getting tabled shoved off. So let's do that and sanctioned encampments. Hopefully we can get to those too.
I don't know. Does everybody happy with that with that thing? Yeah. Um, and with no objections, I don't think we don't need to make a motion apparently. With no objections, we will. So, we just keep nodding our head. Exactly. Not a lot. It's all on the agenda. We're free to
float around if you want. Yeah. Um, so for people that don't know, um, I spoke with Rebecca. I cannot think of her last name now, but Huh? I think it was Zimmerman. Zimmerman. Right. So Rebecca Zimmerman
had an eighth grade civics class last year right toward the end of the school year and um I believe every city counselor and the mayor and so it was forwarded to this ad hoc group and uh in sitting down to read these amazing
perceptive children's take on the unhoused in the city was pretty cool. um especially since I had been a teacher and uh especially focusing on eighth grade. So I read each and every one of the letters and um and then I called the
school system the day before school ended. They had only a half a day the next day and they tracked down Rebecca and she came through the phone and spoke with me. In the course of that she said one her eighth grade chose that as a
project. it wasn't something she said okay folks how do we feel about they wanted to delve into it why does it exist what's going on um and then she said also Wid Perry had answered immediately and she was able to read
Wid's email to the class so I said I'm so thrilled to be able to talk to you would you be able to tell them to tomorrow on the half a day of school that um that it was great information that I would take it back to this ad hoc
committee and and talk about it. Um so and I can think of one particular person um in the eighth grade very very perceptive and good ideas that this group didn't even come up with some of
them but I didn't review them recently. What I was proposing was I said um people could go in and talk to an eighth grade class. She's not teaching civics next year. she's going to be teaching reading and she's going to retire in the
middle of the year. So, but I'm still and she had me send an email off to her and to the principal. I think his last name is Brown at the high school. And um so I think looking forward, these are our future citizens in the
city of Greenfield and to ignore their take or not honor their hard research. And I mean they did powerpoints some of them. They they really delved into all kinds of issues and started problem solving. And so I think it's a follow-up
thing for us to be able to continue it. They would be ninth graders next year if they continued on in the high school. I just didn't want that to be a dropped ball. everything from like how can we help them so they they smell a little better or you know that kind of one of
the kids was talking a little bit about that. Um so I'm happy to talk about it another time but I just think that we need to follow up with kids of all ages. Yeah, you know there are kids of all I've heard a city counselor say my kids are
scared to death to go downtown and I'm thinking like well that is your job to correct that as a parent. That would be my take on it. So whatever we decide to do for outreach with young people and unhoused and and teenagers or whatever
is really an important thing to think about down the right the pike. And I will say that this family uh fun night on Friday nights over here at the common would be another good way to mix that unhoused community in with whatever
games and whatever karaoke and whatever else is being planned. It would help housing and homeless get along better. Yeah. So, um and that's going to be on Friday nights in the month of August. There's there's something every Friday night that's being planned um along with
possibly the the business association and involving uh eating downtown and doing stuff. So, that's all I wanted to say is, and I don't know if anybody else was able to send an email back to Rebecca in time because school was like over right then and there, but it's
really important to address how the little kids feel about, you know, say let's say the bad language, you know, like that's that's pretty scary thing for a little toddler running around and a parents trying to protect little ears, you know. So, it's a an outreach thing
that I think can be followed up on. It's great. Thanks. And we have time to think about like over summer we can try to figure out community things prep something for the fall activities.
Try to figure out some before fall hits too. That's true. Ideally out of that. Um does anyone else want to comment on I I want to look back more at it. I only read like some of them, but I want to.
Yeah, it would be good to read through. Oh, their little letters. Yeah. Oh, they're so good. So, so good. I mean, I don't know if we'd have to get parental permission to I I reached out to one parent because I recognized the last name, but you know, it'd be great to like publish it,
pass it around, and honor all their hard work. Some way the letters that they have, you know, how we're putting the map and all that into the center of the town. Why don't we find a way to plaster all their letters up just so that like people
walking by can read them? Yeah, I think that it would be a really cool thing to talk with the school and talk with the parents to see if some or much of that work can be sharable, right, with some anonymization because
it's really important to protect kids privacy. Um the other thing that I'm thinking about with this is and this is coming from my personal experience like yes I want to make community connections and yes I want there to be direct human
interaction and also I get really wary um whenever there is like a marginalized group that's being asked to come and educate anyone um because it's really easy for that to become a like you repres represent every experience and
you represent every perspective on this. And it can both really exploit people's experiences and harms that they've experienced in particular, but it can also provide it can it can make a space
where like things are exper the the diversity of experience is really getting flattened um into one person's perspective. when you have like the sort of the model unhoused person. Um, and it's just something that I would I think as we pursue this because I think we should pursue this. I think it's
something we have to keep in mind is to really center like the the the ability of people to say no to being that in that kind of position and also like the ability of people to
know know when they're speaking about their experience and know when to say something like that's outside of my experience. Um because that's also a that's a kind of educational role that not everyone
can do and not everyone wants to do and not everyone has any experience doing. And it's that's just an important thing to keep in mind anytime you have a community representative coming to provide some kind of educational experience for kids.
Did you have an update about like a legal wise I do. I have I reached out to Dignity Village which is my favorite of the models um which is like the village
model in Portland, Oregon. and um to ask them about liability because they're on city-owned land and they next to like a leaf litter composting site
and and all their legal documents are on their website. They have a contract with the city and there's an indemnification clause to hold the city harmless and and a contract requires Dignity Village
to maintain their 501c3 nonprofit status as leasing the land and to maintain an insurance pol policy with enough liability coverage. All reasonable normal things. Um, so I think that that
and and they also have all their like bylaws up on the website and all the like community agreements that anyone who joins has to agree to. Um, so I think they seem like they've really figured it out and
um and the person who I emailed there was very happy to talk more about it and she shared some really cool insights as well. Um she said that they're so asking about operating costs because it's not for free. Um and they have a minimum so
they serve I think it was like they do like 50 residents and the average amount of time that someone lives there is 1.8 years and then they have a variety of um different buildings that are I think
they have she said that they're Oh, I'm sorry. like she and this person said they. So, um they said um our city code originally allowed for two emergency camps to operate in
economically distressed situations. For us, this has been the chronic housing shortage. We've successfully since gotten the city to upgrade the codes to allow for more humane living conditions and to allow for more alternative shelter sites. there's still more work to be done on this front. So, I think
that's how they are able to have shelters that don't have their own um running water or something or they have like a common sanitation kitchen facility. So, we can pursue that more
and look into that. Um, and then also they have two staff and it costs for and they serve 50 members and then in the winter they have a greenhouse that serves 10 members additionally for like
that's like a their warming center essentially which I thought was like a very creative idea. like a greenhouse is like cheap like um and they said it cost $500 per person per month with the staff
but compared to the pod shelter model that usually is 3,000 to 6,000 per person per month. So like this is like extremely cost effective extremely cost effective option. Um, yeah. So, I I think there's more to
explore with this, but um don't turn it into like another sheltered deal. Exactly. Like one giant building with 50 people in one building. Yeah. That's just
Yeah. And Dignity Village is an outdoor space that has been that now accommodates individual small structures. It sounds really nice. So like people build tiny houses there and and structures and volunteers in the community help people build their
structures. And I also was doing some like campground research in general about like um looking at like sanitation code. But so maybe the next time we convene you can show again um you know the the
screen share. Oh yeah, that was amazing but I'm looking at the clock. Yeah. So exactly. So that's really all um I feel and then just to quickly touch on the housing stability and notification ordinance which was also listed on the
agenda was that this is something to help prevent evictions. And how it works is that at the start of your teny or at the end or if there's like a notice to quit your um the city could pass an ordinance where landlords have to um
give tenants a list of resources and their rights. Um so this happens in Northampton. It happens like I I pulled up like a there's like lots of places that this is happening. Um it's a little bit harder here to enforce that. We don't have a
rental registry yet. So it's sort of like in this bucket of other projects that are like inching along. Um so if we did have a rental registry and then we did have more like um health department staff that's like overseeing the rental registry and then there's
we get a rental registry. How do we get? It's um right now there's currently some lists from the assessor's office, the building department, and the health department, but there isn't a cohesive list. So, there's a grant
that's working on getting it um updated. But this registry would require landlords to um to pay a small fee to be registered and then also have a inspection every five years. Um, and so it would help with like quality of
housing. If something's deemed like a problematic house, then it would also it would what? And then the Yeah. So that just that's an idea to like help prevent evictions, but we don't quite have like the capacity to enforce it yet, but we could still start getting that in
motion. For towns where you have seen that there is a rental registry, who what what city agency typically manages that? Is it consistent that it's a particular uh bucket of the city government that it falls under or does it vary by count? I
think it's usually health department, but some things get flagged for building inspector or like it depends on I can say that somebody two houses down from the welden was just evicted and I involved um Susan Morgan from housing
greenfield and the landlord just said you know move out I'm going to charge $3,000 on the ground floor once it's renovated and u you know so there was a legal agreement ment between the landlord and this particular older
couple. And so um anyway, you you cannot go into housing court without first getting the notice to quit in this state. You have to do it even if your landlord acts stupid about it. Um you know, but evictions are a big problem and calling the board of health
on an issue creates a big issue and I know some people who are landlords and they're not getting any rent from anybody. they're just, you know, they're bogged down. So, um, but I do think that we need we need that rental registry.
And we did discover apartments that we didn't even know existed, um, by the assessors doing a whole lot of work. And then you continued to do your assessment as as a person, too. Right, Sarah? You found even extra apartments that were being rented. So, um, but we don't have
a rent cap in a home rule situation and we've tried to do a rent cap statewise. So, um, it's just it's a concern. If you talk to Pamela Schwarz and Western Mass and homelessness, it's just an ongoing
constant issue on who's housed and who's going to be unhoused for whatever reason it might be. It's something that has to happen. I wanted to throw out there, by the way, the housing places. I discovered
recently that certain ones are like not allowing people to get into them, but are saving rooms for people in their family instead. By the way, I want to throw this out there. Talking about shelters, I mean like Greenfield Gardens where the
homeless are. I found out that there have been a couple of homeless who have signed applications for there and they have not been able to get through because those people that are working there are trying to allow their family to have a place to live that aren't from
America. I found out that are in other states. I figured I'd throw this out there so we can try to figure out what's going on with that. We can find out why our homeless aren't getting into those places. like a nepotism like
and you're talking specifically about like section 8 housing. From what I heard, Greenfield Gardens right now is the only one I heard of. I don't know if any of our other places are doing that, but I know Greenfield Gardens is I don't know if Light and Woods is doing the same thing or what
or if Elm Street or some of them are public housing and that's Jack Redmond who belongs to housing Greenfield. Others are privately held and not, you know, but there still is going to involve funding. Who owns the Greenfield Gardens?
I think it's a privately held thing, but I don't I don't remember whether it's that. I mean, ILM Terrace and some of those are run by Jack Redmond. He's in charge of, you know, the housing network is over there based in Turner Falls. And so, um, some of them are funded that
way. My building is funded federally, separately, owned privately. Um, so you have to look at who owns Greenfield government. It's privately owned, receives section 8 certificates from Greenfield Housing Authority and also rents at market rate.
Yep. And when it's privately held, um, because those are the people that came in with with their lawyers to the board of health once I was there live. So, and then it's also a question of like how many section 8 vouchers do they have
and like are those units filled? Are they, you know, how are they how are they assigning those units? Um, I have a heart out at 11:30, but I just want to I you I don't want to say glossed over, but I want to make sure something's not lost in the sauce.
Dignity village, right? I mean, we we've been kind of using this term like sanctioned location. sanction kind of implies that it's like illegal, but like we're like going to like try to figure our way around the laws or whatever, but like we just have campground zoning, right? Yeah. Like Dignity Village is legal. Yeah.
Right. It is lawful. It it like um like there is dignity in living there and also they did it by not having to invent anything, right? that like as you like rattled off, these are normal contractual agreements that nonprofits
and private organizations have with municipalities and government and that it's just it seems so out of reach because we don't have anything like that around here. But really like these are all the tools that are just laying around us right now just combined in a
really meaningful way. And so um to make something that is legal, right? We're we're not trying to skirt anything here. This is literally just like, oh, we can do this if we want to. And it's it's a value judgment at that point. And so I think like it's really important that I think we like kind of hound that like we
can do this if we want. Exactly. And we can do this if we want. And the when Robin and I went and looked at particularly like the DPW land just just near stop and shop. That's immediately what I thought because it is driveway already. Yeah. It's perfect. Yeah.
Um laundry. It's going to work. And then and then I will just forward an email. Sorry, I forgot to include announcements on this, but just on the eviction topic, there's going to be Springfield No One Leaves is hosting an eviction sealing clinic in August, and
they wanted to do one in each county, and they were asked me if I knew what groups to invite, and I was like, we're a good group to invite. So stay tuned for that. Um, but other than that, like next meeting, our next meeting, I assume it's Tuesday. No. Is
that okay? I I like the That's been Yeah. Just a standing every two week thing. I won't be here the week of the 20th. Oh, no. Yeah, it would be 24th would be two weeks from now. If you want to meet I just won't be here. We could do the other one. The
31st and if that works. The 31st would work for me. I I would love the 31st. Great. And we have a bunch of action items that include meetings. So, 30. That's what I wanted to mention.
I will relay that to Timmy. Not to be rude. Yeah. No, that's it. That's it. Oh, wait. Sorry. Wait. Can we do the like meeting? This meeting is adjourned. I make a motion. That we don't have a quorum. Second.
All in favor? All of us. Great. Thank you so much. Everybody appreciate it. Everybody calmer. Thank you all. Thanks.