About 150 people showed up. Most comments circled around "affordable" (a very loose term used by realtors wanting homes under $250k and renters wanting $500 rents,

and homelessness.

Of course lots of talk about LLs just need to charge less and not be so concerned about money. Civil, not bashing.

A few take aways...

Me? For all the folks upset about the city not providing for the unhoused - stop waiting for the city. Take action. Your bag of canned food is nice but if you are serious, write a check, a check as big as your zeal for the homeless.

And take in a person in need like (Seattle??) suggests. Most have plenty of space in their home or garage - a homeless person does not need much space. Park your Prius in the driveway and let someone live in your garage. AirBnb hosts rent out their spare bedroom.

Allow people to sleep in their own car. My neighbor's inlaws showed up in a $250K Mercedes motorhome with the plan to sleep in their own bed while visiting for a few days. Nope. Against the law to sleep in a vehicle which is not in an approved campground.

My Sec8 renter was allowing his buddy to park his minivan with a mattress in the short drive to the garage off the alley. A legit parking space. Nope. *I* was going to be fined $200 because fines go to the property, not the vehicle.

My simple solutions to help some of the people that would not cost the city a penny.

BRAD

1. Allow "the homeless" to sleep in city government offices and use said bathrooms after hours.

I deal with many people from all levels of society.

Some people do not have the mental capacity or cognitive ability to work out how to survive in this world. This is where family and community come into play. The care of this issue will only be mitigated (not solved) at a local level.

Expecting the national or state government to fix an unfixable problem is not going to work.

There will always be the poor. There will always be those with mental health issues. There will always be those who find solace in drugs, gambling, or some other self destructive activity.

Off topic I know but while I do not agree with Narcan being administered repeatedly to abusers I feel that the first responders should have it on hand for accidental intake.

Maybe a kid gets into the stash. Maybe someone gets a roofie of fentanyl. I talked with a buddy of mine who has dealt with the drug interactions with his job as a police officer.

I saw a video of an officer who came into physical contact with fentanyl. She was freaking out. Turns out it is more in your head with the slight contact she had, but what a scary situation.

Have also head of the same person getting multiple hits of Narcan at different times.

Brad: Did you have an opportunity to speak?

Did you?

If yes, did you say what you wrote here?

What was the response?

If not why not?

Were you afraid (justifiably) the response would be a mob attacking you?

They won't listen. The party of "Compassion" has always operated under the guise of "rules for thee, but not for me."

For the same reason I call B.S. on Libs who want to raise taxes on the "evil rich", but who won't actually write out larger checks every year at tax time, I call B.S. on these "activists". Did you know you can willingly pay more taxes than you owe? Increasing tax rates by law is not necessary. Just write a bigger check! The IRS will cash it.

"Removing Narcan from first responders would help mitigate the drug problem this country is facing"

I couldn't agree more. Why are we saving a thieving drug addicts life? Bullets are cheaper.

"I’m curious why you even went?"

Get to know your enemy.

Folks see what they want to.

Most of the rules to "protect" tenants actually punish landlords - which leads to fewer, more expensive, less well-maintained units. Who's that good for?

Making it easier to add new units - build, subdivide, or renovate - does help but is happening s-l-o-w-l-y if at all.

FYI mortgage costs and single family home prices have risen FASTER than rent, but the political heat is focused on rents.

Throwing government money at the housing crisis hasn't made as big an impact as people want. Making changes that don't cost much government money are somehow unpopular.

Rick! You are today's COTD Winner! Comment Of The Day.

Those govt halls are totally empty at 5:01pm, and all day Sat and Sun, with ADA compliant ramps and restrooms.

You actually gave me a fantastic idea - allow overnight parking in the City and County Buildings' parking lots. Next door to the police station, jail, MacDonalds, and grocery store.

Allow parking 7pm - 7 am. No outside furniture, grills, storage.

DJ,

Wifey said I should be there as the Prez of our assoc.

I was polite and did not make public comments on the open mic. I've been misquoted plenty of times on the front page. They DID include my photo while talking to others. This was a time for the social justice warriors to vent. And really there were many good comments.

Theme: Why doesn't the city do something about this!

Me? The city CAN do somethings like relaxing the limit on number of unrelated persons in a house, allow sleeping in vehicles/RVs, allow smaller square footage for residences, allow the police to remove squatters, get the court to evict quicker and without an atty...

I did talk to the organizers that they should include "ability to qualify" as they look at rental housing demographics. 1 out of 50 applicants qualified. Do you really need 5 dogs? Consider a roommate to combine incomes. How many times evicted? Criminal records...

BRAD

BRAD

I understand the "Darwin Awards" concept regarding narcan but cannot agree.

I'm sure there are people who say the same about LLs.

My former worker, 20's, defeated drugs, got his act together, asst manager at Burger King, working 70 hours a week, able to buy a nice car and apt, putting money in the bank...

He slipped. Once. A mistake.

Experts called it an accidental overdose because he probably did the same dose as before but his "clean" body could not handle it. PLUS it included fentynal.

He died with the needle still in his arm.

If someone with narcan had seen him he'd be alive today.

Some of these folks are given bad drugs with fentynal.

We rent out 4 Sober Living Houses - a halfway stop after rehab to solidify good habits and rebuild their lives. I see pictures of their kids on the wall and hear about their visits. Many admit narcan saved their life, and saved their kids from losing a father.

Our Sheriff says drug addicts are not criminals they are sick and should be treated like patients.

Brad, you said "Our Sheriff says drug addicts are not criminals they are sick and should be treated like patients." I completely disagree with your sheriff. Most of them are criminals. They still for drug money and some of them will kill for it. Those are crimes. My tools got stolen by a heroin addict.

Ken, you may be right.

Great topic. There is an "affordability housing" meeting scheduled here by one of the civil rights groups. I read part of the guest speaker's book. There was/is such a thing as "heirs" in legal settings. It is a state government regulated process whereby the heirs of a piece or property are contacted ( if they can find them) , and for instance, someone buys out one of the 6 heirs's shared, even if it is a 3% share. Then that 3% owner can force the sale of the property as per state law. An example was given of 160 acres, a timber company paid one heir $100 dollars. The timber company forced the sale. The courts had an auction, none of the real heirs could pay the back taxes , etc. for the property and the timber company bought the land at auction. The heirs could not come up with the money so the family line lost the property. Many states are changing this so that at least the family heirs can get a fair market value sale vs. the courts having an auction of the land. This meeting will probably talk a lot about the generational wealth issue we hear about now, as well as the rental rates, etc in this area. There are some good points here, but until laws kept up in regards to these type issues, the poor will be at this type of disadvantage. . Also, education is key so that older folks know to have a proper will, estate plan, etc.on place.