 Welcome to the ninth, I think, annual Green Space Gallery, which started nine years ago with the Green Room at Merrill Authority. And there was about 100 people that came, actually. And we all sat in one big circle and talked about what we wanted to see happen in the parks, important. And then it just evolved with the help of the staff and the great members of the Park Commission over the past few years. We've been able to continue doing this. This particular night, we are looking to give information. We have a stellar panel here. We actually have a couple of people running late in traffic from Augusta coming down and from Brunswick. But they reassured me they were gonna be here any time now. So by the time we get to the panel, I think they will be here. I hope they're here. Anyway, I'm Dory Waxman. I'm the Chair of the Park Commission. And I'm going, what I'm gonna do to start is I'm just gonna give a little tiny bit of history of why we came to this topic of homelessness, our homeless neighbors and friends in our parks. It came up probably about, well, maybe last fall and people started seeing after Proble Street had closed at nighttime, their day services. We started seeing more people navigating into the parks for a place to go hang out and be. And there was a lot of confusion. So we just figured as a Park Commission, because people were starting to call and say, is people here? We're not really sure what to do. Help, you know, what do we do? And we're not the people that do the help, but we figured we could foster a community conversation that would bring some knowledge from our esteemed panelists, they have a wealth of experience, everyone on this panel, and they can maybe answer certain given six questions. And those questions, I think, will inform some of the concerns that are out there. The Green Space Gathering Subcommittee consists of Zach Hanger. I'm gonna have all the Park Commissioners come up anyway. So we have Councilor Batson, Brian Batson here. He's our City Council representative. This is game number three. This is game number one. This is my district. This is five. This is three. This is three. This is three. Is it really? Okay. Joe, help. Thank you. What do you see? We have Colette Bouchard from Bayside. We have Mary Lowery, who is our, well, she was our land-back representative to the Park Commission, but now she's officially a Park Commissioner. Right? Almost. She's about to have that. About time. Cynthia Lowenstein, Michael Wertheit. Cynthia is the co-, she's the sub-Chief. She's the chair of the subcommittee on initiatives in the parks. She's gonna do a little bit of a presentation, telling you what the work is her committee's been doing. Michael Wertheit has done a fabulous job with the fundraising arm that we've started in the Park Commission with Love Portland, which is an online catalog that he's gonna explain to you. Amy Zach Nathan is our fearless writer who has done our annual report for not one year, but two years with Colette and Joel. Is that right? And Mary. And Mary. I'm sorry. So I just am lucky not to be surrounded by good people and we're only as good as the people we're surrounded by. So I'm very blessed to be here, to be with this community and to be with new people. And Mary, oh, Mary. So sorry. I'm sorry. I was stuck in on it. Marie Gray, who was... Friends of Dewman. Friends of Deering Oaks, but also the former First Lady of Portland. Life of Joe Gray. We never really had First Lady, but you were that First Lady of Portland. So what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna turn this over to Michael, maybe. Michael, you could speak about the project that we've been working on. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. How are you? I'm good. How are you? Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. Well, we have Portland for many years has had a giving program that invites citizens of Portland to contribute to parks. But it's been a normal program for many years. The Parks Department has gotten up and running. It's been back on its feet for a while now. And we are now involved in the Parks Commission and we've been working very closely with the Parks staff and notably Allie, who's coming up here to help, have been working on bringing it up to date and providing more offerings, more options to residents of Portland in the types of contributions they might make as I can improve as they might support it. Broadly in two categories. So park improvements of various kinds for park furniture, park benches, drinking fountains and so on. And for plantings in parks with a number of tree options that individuals can select from for planting in parks. Some of these options are for designated parks with the Parks Department identifying where there are needs in some areas. We're reaching saturation. We're not. Okay. And in others, they are generally given to the parks as a whole. And then the other category of improvements. Okay, so here, this is an illustration of some of the tree offerings for large, large shade trees and smaller ornamental trees. And these were selected in consultation with Jeff Tarling or Arborist as being hired. We are also, in addition to the amenities, there are several options for people to support recreational programs in the parks. We're starting with the Mitchell-Kessler program, program which is an existing program that has been added to this program and then the halfway program at the skating rink to support, to cover the costs for students or for young people who like to participate, but who come from families of women that need to can't afford to do that. For each one of these, we have developed a description of the offerings and the cost of activity. We are starting, this is a considerable expansion from what the program was at the start of the exercise, but it's smaller than we anticipated and we're trying to start pretty modestly and get this up and running, get this underway and expand it as we've learned from the experience and as we have more confidence in that it will work. There are opportunities for people to click on the options that they would like to support and provide their credit card information online to make payments directly without unduly burdening the department staff. What's going to be a concern throughout is that we would like to minimize the disruption and the burden on city staff, although there is an evidence that it's hopefully will be mindful. That's right, going right in on the department, the department of department of commission, parks commission meeting and the commission meeting. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right, no, still here. Sorry, we're going. Hi. So there's been a committee that I'll chairman of that's in charge of citizen, sorry, parks initiatives. And this year, we're working on a project called the Baxter Trail. I just want to recognize Collette, who's on our committee and Ethan and David Little, who is not here right now, he's a member of, a friend's of Evergreen. Is there anything else? Pretty small group. But what we've been working on is trying to write up the history of the Baxters and talk about what incredible benefactors they were to the city of Portland and what incredible legacy they left us. So if you get a chance, wander to the back table and you'll see a series of seven signs and we've created these signs to tell a little bit about what the Baxters have done. So starting with the Baxter Boulevard, which you're all quite familiar with. But what's interesting is the stories that go along with it. For instance, it took 23 years for that to be created because there was lots and lots of issues and there's lots of information you'll see in the signs that talk about different stories. Like for instance, the linen trees along the boulevard, those are in commemoration of some of the fallen soldiers before one. So we have about seven signs. The trail is 3.25 miles long and you can take it from either direction and this starts at the shopping center at Baxter Boulevard, it goes and terminates at Evergreen cemetery. I hope you can take a chance to go back there and look at it. I think that we're looking for installation this summer, is that right Ethan? We've had some wonderful design done by Jack Birland and Nancy Montgomery. So you can take a look at them and get a chance. And if you see anything and you want to bring into our attention, any typos or anything like that, please do because we're still in the editing phase. Is there anything else you'd like to add, Ethan? No, just a felt great story. We're trying to tell more stories and parts stuff. Nathan, you're welcome to Robbins, how can we talk about the annual reports? Thank you so much for coming, this is great. And I'm Nathan Robbins, I'm our chair of our annual reports committee and I should recognize Mary Lowry. You said that. Oh, okay. Yeah, that's okay, the casual. You don't think that kind of speaks to the parks in general. But since our new park ordinance has been reporting annually as a parks report that sort of summarizes the state of the parks and works collectively with the parks commission and with the parks department on carrying that report. And it summarizes the state of the parks but it also makes recommendations for improvements to the parks. And the primary audience for that is the city council. So we make presentations to council for that important recommendations along to that. And it's really an opportunity I think for us not just for that sort of way I summarized but there's many other aspects that we try to pull into it around our capital improvement projects and through our green space gathering and through our meetings where we hear from all users of the parks and can really try to put that together in a collective voice. And so while the primary audience is the city council we really hope that anybody who is interested in the parks using the parks or improving the parks will engage with it and engage with us. And we will do our best to try to reflect that into the report and use that as just another opportunity to forward where we see sort of the state of the parks and how we can best improve them. And so I think that's probably the easiest way to start. I don't want to take too much time because we have such a great panel here and many other things we can do. Thank you, Nate. So Craig and Pine arrived just now. He flew in from Israel. He's also an esteemed member of this commission. I just want to say that all of these folks here they donate a lot of time and effort to be the guardians of the parks. There's lots of people out there that do their own in their own parks but with the staff, which is extraordinary, Sally, Matt, Ethan, Ali is like she does like runs around helping us all the time to do our work. But this group is, we're just really lucky. You should all feel really fortunate that you have the caliber of people here who are caring and loving and really there for our parks, trails and elephant spaces. It's really important. So would you clap for now? Woo! Woo! Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. A new member of staff informant, I'm not sure what you say, how long have you been here? It's about eight months ago. Matt. How long have you been here? How long have you been here, Matt? I started in August. Started in August. Matt Coleman comes from, did you come from Pennsylvania? I came here. I'm from New Jersey. New Jersey? Yeah. I'm from New Jersey. So I think I was with a wealth of recreation and experience and knowledge and he's just, he's jumped in and tried to, you know, really be a working part of the, Sal, he's got a wheel here. When he's a cog, he's a spoke in the cog of the wheel, right? So he and Jill are major. Jill? Coming on up. Jill's our wonderful ranger. She's going to be here. They're going to just give you an overview of department projects that are going on. And when they're done, we'll go on to it. The next guy. Hi, thank you. Yes, my name is Matt Coleman from New Jersey, Central New Jersey on the coast. Lake Jill, I worked as a part ranger back in New Jersey for several years and then became the assistant superintendent of the Modern County Park System and had the fortune to come up here and join the team of Portland Parks Rec and Facilities. So I just wanted to talk a little bit about the, some of the projects that we're working on and then also about the Portland Opportunity Crew, which a lot of you are probably already familiar with. For those of you that are not, I'll just give you a little background. But for me, I'm in the department of the Parks Director. So I oversee the parks, open spaces, trails, park ranger program with Jill, forestry, horticulture, athletic facilities, cemeteries, playgrounds. So the Parks Division, we currently have a total of 33 funded projects that are both active and are upcoming here in the future. Some of the projects that we're working on, we have two new playgrounds that are gonna be installed, one at Riverton School and one at D'Auri Field. We also have some projects taking place at Deering Oaks, a pond aeration system that we hope will help with the algae and some of the issues that we have with the water quality in the pond. We're actually looking to install that beginning next week, so that's gonna be right around the corner to check out. We're keeping our fingers crossed that this is gonna make a positive improvement on the water quality. We also have a future picnic pavilion and zip line that will be installed in the playground area of Deering Oaks. And we're also looking at a plaza of improvements across from the castle where the Tika Cafe is located. Some other things going on. We have a futile court that we installed at Fox Field. We have the development of the new master plan. Well, yeah, brand new master plan for Western Promenade. So that's gonna be very exciting. We're looking for a lot of participation from area folks that will, there's a survey online that you can have your voice heard to give us some pointers as to what you would like to see take place. And then we also have some shade structures that are gonna be installed. We have one coming up at Will's Playground at Eastern Prom. And we also have one at the Aquinas Playground and Pool area. And then plus various improvements to park infrastructure. All of these projects taking place. It's a lot of action going on on top of all that. We still have our day to day daily maintenance operation tasks that we're trying to accomplish. With the Portland Opportunity Crew, we have some information back on our table. Please check it out. With the Portland Opportunity Crew, it's a pilot program offering panhandlers the opportunity to earn money, to clean up public areas and linking them to the needed services, especially job training and support. City Social Services Division, they partner with the Parks Division to implement the program. It operates usually two to three days a week for approximately beginning April, May and extending on until November. Each day there is a crew of six people that are hired. Participants who provide the tools, protective equipment and transportation, some meals during the day and are paid a minimum wage. The goals of the program, there's several. One of which is panhandlers will earn more money in a safely and in a safe manner and have a healthy meal in exchange for payment and connections to services. The city's public spaces will become cleaner and safer. That's a big bonus for the program. Staff will go with trusting relationships that will target populations to move them out of panhandling and onto safer, healthier, self-sufficient career paths. Finally, panhandlers will be able to see employment with the city and also local landscape agencies or pursue training in a different career path. So it takes donations, it takes money to fund this great program. Any amount of donation helps the program be a success. But for $1,300, if that donation is accepted, businesses can hire an entire crew for one week. This money will provide jobs and meals for workers, help clean up public spaces and provide a pathway to future career and supportive services. The $1,300 sponsors that also includes advertising at cleanup sites while the workers are active, cleaning up in the parks, publicity from the city on our website and social media, and it's also tax-inductible. Some information as far as how you can contribute to hire the crew and sponsor the crew or to make a donation. Please visit the city website at PortlandMain.gov, portal slash crew, or you can text crew C-R-E-W to 911-999. So there's some information about the program. We'll be back at the table if you have any other questions and I'd like to introduce Jill Mulkern. She's our supervising park ranger. She'll talk to you a little bit about the park ranger program, what they do. She's our lone park ranger year-round. So she has a lot of ground to cover and a lot of tasks to accomplish. She has a seasonal crew in the summertime. They do a fantastic job. They're the faces of the department and the parks. They're the ones that are having those face-to-face interactions on a daily basis. So here's Jill. I'm Jill, I've been here full-time for three years now, over 10 years. I've done this job on and off and I get a good away from it. So I'm here now full-time. I have a passion for what I do. I really care about our parks. The people that use it, no matter who they are or what demographic they fall in. A little overview of what we do. We control over the 1200 acres of open spaces, trails, playgrounds. The Rangers are there. We have a very small crew and I'm the only one in the winter time. So it's about eight months of just me. And I can't cover everything every day. We, when I do have a crew, we train with the Orlimpiti. We have at least one to two days with them. If we go over verbal judo, situational awareness, we'll do ordinances, overview, ticket writing because all of us are deputized constables and all of them wear a uniform, like I'm wearing right now. We also go to, we just started going to the shelter because I want the Rangers to understand where a lot of our patrons that come and visit our parks that might sleep in our parks, where they might be avoiding. And they get to kind of see why someone might not want to go to the shelter. And it's really important to see them as a human and not a problem. And that is my main concern is that if someone goes in and just looks at them as a problem, you're taking the human away, which we do not want. We enforce all park-related ordinances. So dogs are a big issue. Smoking, drinking, camping, and littering, those are just a few things that we do enforce and we do it daily. And we make sure that the parks are safe, clean, and a happy place for everybody to enjoy, no matter who you are. We do wellness checks. If someone is sleeping in the direct sun wearing a sweatsuit, we might wake them up to ask them if they're okay because if it's a hot day, we want to make sure that that person is all right. We do not kick anyone out of the parks if they're using the parks appropriately. If we do see smoking or drinking or camping, we will have a discussion with that person. And sometimes they will move along or they simply throw out their alcohol, put out whatever they're smoking or they will take down their campsite. So when it comes to camping, the park rangers will patrol. If we have pairs, we try to do that because we try not to go into a closed area by ourselves because safety is in numbers. So we will ask if anyone's home, if anyone's home, we'll have a discussion with the person. We will let them know about our ordinance that says that camping is not allowed in Portland, no matter who you are or where you come from, you're not allowed to camp here. We ask them if they need a trash bag to clean up any litter that might be around their campsite. And then we also ask them if they need any bags for their belongings to help take down their campsite. If they are not there, we give them a camping car and it describes what our ordinance is, what chapter it is. And then on the park hours and on the backside, it kind of does an overview of the ordinance. On the bottom, it says for immediate assistance, you can go to the Oxford Street Shelter. It has the address, the number, and we date and time it because they have 48 hours to be paid wherever they are camping. If they do not remove their belongings, the rangers will go in and we will remove the belongings and dispose of them appropriately. So that is a little bit of an overview of what we do. Homelessness is just a very small part and like I said, it doesn't matter who is doing a wrong behavior, whoever is doing something inappropriate, the rangers will go and have a discussion with them. We do not single out any person or demographic whatsoever. I don't know who's talking. Thank you. Thank you, Joe. I'd like to introduce who is new. We have a new Portland Park Conservancy and they've just hired their executive director, first executive director, Nan Cumming. Could you just put your hand up, Nan? So now we're going to go to Sally Deluca, the queen of parks and recs. Like Pat Elfin used to be the queen of the tourism department in Augusta. Sally's the queen of parks and recs. She's dedicated her entire life to raising a beautiful daughter and also to the parks and recreation department in Portland. We are incredibly dedicated to her for her incredible work over 35 years. So she's gonna come, Sally's gonna come up and talk about what goes on in other places beside Portland. We do have to get outside of our own box sometimes. Thank you. Thank you all for coming today. I'm gonna talk about homelessness in general and especially from a parks and recreation perspective. So bear with me. Aaron Guyer, who works in social services, he was going to join me today, but he got called to go to the finance committee and talk about his budget, so. I think he'd rather be here with us, but he has to go before the finance committee. This is not gonna be new information for many of you. Local parks departments are on the front line of dealing with the daily realities of homelessness. Park agencies are striving to balance the needs of park users and the homeless and to show compassion for individuals while enforcing park rules and maintenance standards. As you have seen recently in the media, our own city is struggling to select a site for a new homeless service center here in Portland. We all know we need one, but no one wants it in their backyard. The issue of homelessness is affecting more and more parks and rack agencies. The presence of homeless in our park system has necessitated the development of new strategies to address the many problems associated with homelessness while providing for public safety and protecting our community resources. One of the challenges. I wanna take a few minutes to frame the issue a little bit. Health and Human Services defines a homeless person as an individual without permanent housing who may live on the streets, stays in a shelter or mission, stays in a single room occupancy facility, stays in an abandoned building or vehicle, or any other unstable or non-permanent place. Research finds that approximately 30% of homeless individuals are un-sheltered, living on the street, a park, or an abandoned building. I thought this was an interesting statistic as I was researching this. According to HUD, before the recession of 2008, an estimated two and a half to three million men, women and children who are experiencing homelessness each year in this country. After the housing bubble burst, they estimated that over seven million people lost their homes and either moved in with family and friends or became homeless themselves. According to the National Law Center on Homelessness, the five major reasons people are homeless are lack of affordable housing, unemployment, poverty, mental illness and lack of needed services, and substance abuse and the lack of needed services. In 2017, the homelessness rate per 100,000 people by state. The highest was the District of Columbia. They have 983 homeless people. New York has 470. This is per 100,000 people. So in the District of Columbia, they have 6,800 homeless individuals. In New York, they have over 91,000. Hawaii has over 6,400. Oregon has over 13,000. California has almost 130,000 homeless people. I was struck by the fact that many on this list, many was number 12 with over 2,400 homeless people here in the state. And our Health and Human Services Department told me that on an average night, 525 folks are homeless here in Portland. Sometimes it helps to know we are not alone. In January of this year, the National Parks and Recreation Association did a featured article on the increase in homelessness in our parks and open spaces. After their research was done, they concluded that the symptomatic impacts of homelessness, such as trash, campsites, and the ongoing presence of people experiencing homelessness, often upset other park users and drove many of them to voice public complaints to park management, police and health departments. Complaints to parks department included requests to remove trees, restrooms, vegetation, pavilion walls, and benches used by people experiencing homelessness. Constant public pressure regarding homelessness was reported to be stressful and costly to local park departments and often felt beyond the scope of their professional duties of training. Community pressure to respond quickly encouraged the use of short term, immediate responses by local park departments. Maintenance crews were often pulled off their regular duties and tasked with posting eviction notices like the ones Jill just showed us, throwing away camp belongings and removing health and vegetation and park infrastructure to try to discourage folks and the public complaints. Predictably, as NRPA told us, these short term symptomatic fixes did not encourage lasting changes. Most park workers reported that all they did was chase the impoundment from park to park. That's also been our experience here too. Results of this survey are on our Parks and Rec website as well as the Park Commission's website. It's really a great report if you get a chance to look at it. The park's table has a card that shows you the website. How many pages one was it, Ally? There was going to be a lot of papers so we decided just to steer you towards the website. Most park managers reported that public education is an important step in generating community support to address homelessness in the parks. Tonight is the first step for us to discuss this important topic. They recommended a list of talking points as part of a public education strategy and here are a few of those talking points. All members of the community are welcome to use parks and open spaces. Anyone can experience homelessness. Know the rules of the park. Call the parks or police department when necessary. Become familiar with the organizations that serve those experiencing homelessness. We have printed the complete list of the educational model that they have and that is in the back table at the Parks Commission's table. We also have a community services resource guide that Ally created for us and that's also back at the Parks Commission's table and that gives you access to all of the folks in the community who work with and try to help folks who are homeless. We certainly have a lot of work to do on this subject. We appreciate all the work that all of you do in the parks and thank you for participating tonight in this really important discussion. One more guest before we get to the panel and that is our esteemed chief, a vacuum chief police for Malik who's going to come up and talk to us about what it's like to be on the front line. Thank you. Thanks everybody. I'll be very brief, but I just wanted to let you all know that we do work very closely with the park rangers and with Sally and all of her staff. Parks are a tough thing for police because they're remote, they're so large and in many instances they're sort of secluded once in privacy, you want to feel like you're not in the city anymore which makes it tough for us to police it. So we do rely heavily on the interaction we have with the rangers to let us know where the problem areas are and where the places are that need extra police attention. And that also goes for other groups, the friends of Deering Oaks, the friends of Western Prom, having a relationship with all these organizations helped direct us on where the problems really are and what we know for sure is that we can chase them. We can move them around but sometimes it feels like that's all we're doing so I'm really glad that there's a panel here to talk about the homeless issues and homeless concerns. I will make a reiterated point that's already been made though and that is that our officers, just like the rangers, we address behavior. We don't care whether you're homeless or not and the example that I give you is that if you're two law school students and you're sitting in Deering Oaks on a nice plaid blanket with a picnic basket drinking a bottle of wine, you're committing the same violation as the two homeless people who are sitting on a sleeping bag drinking a Natty Daddy. And our approach to that violation is the same. We will warn both of you that you're committing a crime and we'll ask you to put your liquor away and not do it again. You've been warned for it. You could receive a ticket or even be arrested. So it's the behavior that we're interested in and that we want to address. And, you know, Jill did a great job of talking about the behaviors that are problematic. It's the drug use, which we see the signs of with discarded syringes. You know, it's the drinking in public and, you know, it's public urination and things like that. And it certainly is worse in certain parks than others but we see it in all. I mean, the same things happening in Evergreen Cemetery down on the back side. Jill's nodding her head, yes. It also happens in the western prom, the eastern prom, Howard Park, Deering Oaks. So that's to my point that we know we can move it around and sort of chase it. But hopefully this esteemed group is going to give us some great solutions on how to solve it. And that's all I have. I'm pleased to be here on this day just because I sort of want to hear what the issues are even more. And I'll be here for a little while afterwards. If you all would think, I suspect that firsthand knowledge about what the specific issues are, if you want to talk with me about those, I'll be sticking around. Thank you. Thank you for being here. So now we're going to just bring up Zach. And he's going to be introducing the panel and we're going to get started. So my name is Zach. I'm here on the Parks Commission. I'm also on the board of the Joint Committee to come up. And I'm up here just to introduce the panel. So I'll get right into that. And after the discussion, there will be time for questions from the audience. And we're going to just pass around some, we're going to pass around some new cards that you have questions on. And we'll just, me and Amy will come around and collect them so we can ask your questions if you have any. So I'm just going to go from left to right, introducing everybody here. We've got, we've tried to bring together a range of perspectives on this issue from social service agencies, law enforcement, people who are experiencing homelessness. And I think we've got that with this great group of people who bring lots of knowledge and insight. So on the left, we have the first Jane and Thomas from, he's the president of Vesta Housing, one of the main providers of affordable housing in the region. And we have Sarah Forehands, very fast like directors, director of the Oxford Street Shelter, which is run by the city of Portland. And we have Mike Sosachuk, the main commissioner of public safety. And he's also the former assistant city manager of Portland. We have Leslie Clark, who's executive director of the Portland Recovery Community Center, which is a safe haven for people in addition to recovery. We have Jim Devine, who was representative from Homeless Voices for Justice, which is a grassroots advocacy group that's based out of public security. And our moderator is Diane Davison, who is the former chair of the Parks Commission, and also a former executive director of the Friends of the Eastern Providence. So with that, I'll hand it over to Diane. Good evening, everyone. It's a pleasure. It's an honor to be asked to do this tonight, and it's a pleasure to be here, and it's so nice to see everyone's face again. Everyone that's in this room cares about parks, and it's the reason that people want to live in Portland because of our cherished open spaces. So we all share that, and as Dory and everyone else has alluded to, it's a pleasure to host everyone. And my gratitude for the laborers of love, the volunteerism, the city staff that work so hard, and everyone who just does what they can to keep our parks special. So with that, I would like to ask our panelists, again, we can just start. Well, maybe we'll start at the other end, and go ahead and start with you again with just giving a brief introduction about yourself and speaking to question one, which I'm realizing members of the public don't have the questions. So I'm going to let folks know what question one is, and then as you introduce yourself, you can speak to question one, which is, when someone in Portland is using a park in a way that conflicts with other users, such as, you know, using drugs, camping, threatening behavior, panhandling, et cetera, what happens? And what do police, social service agencies, and parks groups do to handle these situations? And what's the role of the organization that you represent in dealing with these situations? Yeah. It's an easy first question. I'll tell you what. It's an easy first question, but I got a lot to talk about, and I don't have like two hours to say what I have to say, but I will pertain to the question. I mean, I'm going to have to get with quote unquote, because I've experienced homelessness. That's one of the qualifications. And most of my life I was a mass electrician and contractor, but my struggle with alcohol caused me to experience homelessness. And I'm grateful with the help of providers and alcoholists around me, particularly haven't had a drink for a long time, you know, and so I'm grateful for that because I had a chance to do other interesting things. But, you know, I've been involved with a lot of different things. I was on the panhandling committee that pulled the downtown setup to address the issue of panhandling. I've done several presentations to businesses about their interaction with the homeless community, and I'm quite familiar. I've been on a couple of excursions with the quote unquote home team that circles through the parks and we've gone to the St. John Street and Lincoln Park and various parks to talk to people and get them the help they need. And so there's always a, there's always a provider available, not always, but there are providers available, hopefully, that'll help people without necessarily locking them up in jail. And I really helped, I really had a good time working with the new Chief Mark Suscheck that was a quote unquote, Colonel Trashot's witnesses. It was a particularly interesting thing to my former friend, Steve Houston, who was unfortunately no longer with us, because he was, he had quit drinking. He couldn't be in parks because of his drinking behavior, but he was drinking no more. So he wanted to be able to go back and sell his paintings and having the things reduced and the appeals process put in place was very beneficial to him. And I appreciate that. And I kind of lost track of what I'm trying to say, but, you know, I mean, in all our interaction with the business community and other members of the public, we try to emphasize the fact that you're homeless people are people and they need help sometimes in new services. I mean, I don't know if anybody's ever been to the Archery Shelter, not to complain about the shelter necessarily, but the reality is that the Archery Shelter is a huge room with a whole bunch of, with a hundred mats on the floor, a foot from each other, and everybody sleeps on a mat. Next to people they don't even know. And there are other people, there are people because of issues or claustrophobia or whatever, who prefer to camp outside rather than sleep in that environment. And now with the city planes, I relocate the shelter with a plaster they've put in the way out and Riverside Park, it's going to make it harder to access services overall. So I think I'm going to be fine. Does that make any sense? We're going to discuss right now, Leslie. Sure. Hi, I'm Leslie Clark, stand up too. And I'm the executive director at the Portland Recovery Community Center, and I'll just tell you really briefly what we do, and then that first question is actually a little bit of a tough one to think about for me. So the Portland Recovery Community Center started in 2012. We do four things. So one is we provide a safe haven for people seeking or in recovery from addiction or what we now call substance use disorder, alcohol use disorder. And we do that with all kinds of support groups, it's very grassroots, mostly volunteer driven and other kinds of social activities, recovery coaching, telephone recovery support, all kinds of things. We have about 125 people a day come through the PRCC, as we call it. The second thing we do is really work with doing all kinds of education and also support for family members and friends, resources for housing, helping people find housing jobs, healthcare. And the third thing we do is advocacy to help promote and encourage resources for people who are in need of and recovery from addiction. And lastly, we now service the main recovery hub to open eight, soon nine new centers throughout recovery community organizations throughout the state of Maine so that people will have access to recovery supports in their communities. You know, I was thinking, our role is a little bit outside of the direct part of this question, right? Because we see people when they are seeking, wanting recovery from addiction. So where addiction ties in to this question is kind of where we tend to meet people. About 25% of the people who come to the PRCC are experiencing homelessness. And there's an old saying in recovery about recovery is not for people who need it. It's for people who want it. And so then the question becomes what is the mechanism or what are the conditions that we can impact that help move people from a place of suffering from this really tough disease to wanting and believing that their potential and their life purpose can be something much greater. Nobody ever started out in life that I can think of thinking I want to grow up and be homeless and addicted to drugs and alcohol. That's not what anybody wants for their child. It's not what anybody wants for themselves. So once you're in that place of finding yourself stay apart and in all those conditions what is I guess I'm asking numerous questions that becomes the question how do we help people move from what they need into what they believe they can have. Alright, well thank you, Mike Sauschuk. So I spent a little time in Portland over the last couple of decades. I will tell you that when I left the city to go work for the state of Maine I left as an assistant city man and one of the city departments that I had the honor to work with was Parks and Recreation Facilities. I can tell you that some of the best days I had was driving around with Ethan and Matt and Ethan and Sally and going around and visiting sites and seeing things through their eyes and we really are lucky they have the Parks Commission and our Parks team know the work that they do every day. So they're pretty special folks so that's good stuff all the way around. I will tell you for me tonight, I'm here to kind of talk about our new role as the commissioner I suppose, a state view on these issues. My Portland police chief is in the room and he's the subject matter expert so if there's any crime related stuff for problem solving issues I'll turn to Byrne. Truth be told, just like I have for the last 10 years and I was in the command staff position I worked hand and hand with Byrne every day both hands and a special guy I worked around so I wouldn't dive in on any of those Portland style issues but I can tell you the Department of Public Safety deals with various aspects of this problem statewide and I think one thing that we're keying on as a profession in public safety is not just dealing with the issue real time. I know we'll continue to have arrests at 2am on the sidewalk but I want to know how they got there and I want to look as far upstream as humanly possible to see how we can help solve those issues before they start and in my role with the state what we can do is focus on the main criminal justice academy and how we train our officers Jim homeless voices for justice the entire team teaches our cops, our baby cops shiny pennies in the police academy how to work with people and how to talk about their experiences and you can't beat that opportunity Jim had touched on trust pass, paperwork timeframe when we had that conversation I had been in Portland a number of years I learned a lot, I learned a lot my sitting at the table which is why I consider Jim to be a friend of this day Steve Houston, Tom the whole crew was very very incredibly knowledgeable because they lived and they could feel it and if you open your mind you can feel it through them for the best of your ability I will tell you this morning the state of Maine had its first children's cabin meeting in the last 10 years or so and one of the goals of that particular cabin was talking about youth homelessness youth risk youth that happen to be at risk and that homelessness aspect I think is something that I can bring to the table there aren't a lot of communities in the state that deal with homelessness issues to the level that we have in the city of Portland for a number of years so we can bring that conversation to the table having a conversation with the Maine State Housing Authority which I did early on sitting in budget meetings were having the same kind of conversations because when I talk to cops in Houston as an example they have a Kennedy Park a little different than our Kennedy Park but they have a Kennedy Park and they deal with problems by community policing and outreach and collaboration and partnerships which is exactly what the world that I'm used to working in so while their problems may not be the levels or the numbers or whatever those may be may not be at some of the levels that we've dealt with year to year it's all relative and I'll talk to a police chief and gardener and they can say so what's going on the same thing was going on in Portland I've got 10 guys and you had 160 and our population is this so it's all relative to that and I think that's important for the entire state of Maine to remember that these problems are everywhere and there are everybody's problems and citizens that we need to help and to make them better so I appreciate the opportunity to be here and thank you I'm the Shelter Director for the City of Portland Oxford Street Shelter so our role is that we are a 24 hour low barrier emergency shelter provider for people experiencing homelessness in the City of Portland and so I want to thank the Parks Commission and the Parks Department first for putting this on but also for their interest in putting together Community Resource Guide so I think that's really important as far as education goes I think that's important because we have fantastic community partners in the City of Portland who are out there outreaching people in the parks and not just in the parks but just in general in the City of Portland and so I think it's very important that people are able to access those resources know who those individuals are the PATH team in the City of Portland the home team as Jim mentioned and Amistad has people out there outreaching people in the parks so I think those are all fantastic resources that are available making sure are well known Good evening, I'm Dana Toddman I'm with the Vesta Housing and at the Vesta Housing we have about 2700 apartments that we provide to people throughout Maine and New Hampshire about 750 or 800 of those are located right here in Portland so clearly when we're talking about homelessness we probably more than most can solve that problem because when we get somebody to go home or go on the homeless that's fundamentally what we do but last year we had 4100 different households applied to us for housing and we were able to move in and so to give you an idea of just how daunting the affordable housing challenge is please keep that particular number in mind when helping about one out of 11 and the rest of our side is saying double up so senior households may be living in an unsafe place and many are in fact homeless so we certainly are big advocates and we will work on legislation to create a housing tax credit, a state housing tax credit that we think could help a whole lot of people some of the things we've done before but I think that perhaps most closely relate to this particular issue is we do have 3 housing forest developments we have Logan Place we have Florence House and we have Houston County and in each of these 3 we have chronically disadvantaged long term homeless folks and provided them a house first and at the same time we provided 24 hour support where there were at least 2 employees in those particular buildings 24 hours provided that staffing we had great results the number of emergency call was decreased by 80% the number of emergency room visits decreased by 78% the amount of money that we sort of saved is just incredible because more importantly is we've discovered that once people do have a roof over their head they do start to engage in some of those services that work so we're huge supporters and advocates of trying to provide housing that will help homeless persons but we also acknowledge that sometimes it's not just a house you've got to have that level of support you've got to have that level of supervision and time use and I will say on occasion particularly when we go to the new housing forest developments and somebody has lived on the streets with their friends for years and years they leave for on the day they go hang out with their friends in the parks and it's a challenge to us we're fortunate that we can work with them and remind them that they do in fact have a home now have as many challenges in their lives as we get that they in fact have their own home and so we need to coax them back into our homes and hopefully they will start to go to the parks less and less the challenge that we then because they live with friends for years and years some of those friends want to come stay in their apartment and our lease is with one person not with four or five and so again with the staff that are there we're able to help that individual sometimes have some difficult conversations with long term friends so again we're not really serving people as we hope to get them into their homes once and for all we have about 300 or more people that live in our homes Thank you very much for those thoughtful detailed answers and clearly there's a lot of layers to this as I think the other questions will point out and question two really kind of circles back to some of those items that you've talked to so far but is there anything that you want to circle back on in terms of to what extent are the strategies that you've mentioned or presented strategies that you did not get to mention to what extent are those working how could the current approaches perhaps work more effectively and where are the gaps and I will pass the microphone over to whoever if anyone kind of informally wants to just I must inform or inform or whatever I've got a quick comment to make I have several acquaintances who've had a very good experience with this quote unquote opportunity group they enjoy the work it gives them and the lunch and whatever and you know at least do enough so I think that's a good program and I'd like to see it expanded if at all possible Does anyone else have anything to add because I think we're kind of touched on again from a statewide perspective when we look at main care expansion you know we talk about the treatment of behavioral health mental health issues and substance use disorders and how that impacts our residents some who happen to be homeless and suffer from homelessness and I think the more we can get ahead of that in the more treatment we can provide again to our residents our citizens throughout the state the better will be we'll be in a much better position to address issues just like this and how it starts with those issues and it trickles itself down into criminality in many cases and other problems that we deal with again everywhere From the perspective of substance use I think one of a couple of things that Portland is doing really well is the home team has been wonderful milestone is a great resource when people are under the influence and they need a safe place to be and I think even more importantly the opportunity to connect to more services, more support and maybe beginning to find a pathway forward and the housing person model is wonderful and I think the biggest issues really just not enough of these resources and the work the sense of purpose that people all of us have made for this and connection to others Thank you, anyone else want to touch on that? I know Dana certainly hinted at this more than hinted at this in his answer previously but with his numbers of how many people they've housed and how many people have applied to them we we serve on average 200 unduplicated individuals a night and so this shows people how many people are seeking emergency shelter last year on I think the number that we serve was 1800 unduplicated individuals so in the calendar so that just speaks to the number of people that are homeless in the city of Portland that's not obviously the number of people homeless in the parks but that's the number of people that are seeking housing but we definitely could use one for the housing always I want to follow up a little bit on what Commissioner Sasjak mentioned we could do more and more housing first developments, we think they work we think a good recipe however there's one fundamental challenge and that is how do we get the monies to pay for that and to make sure that there are a lot of staff present 24 hours a day we don't want to bail we want that staff to be there and so we are working incredibly closely with state officials to not just take advantage of that Medicaid expansion but to very closely look at how can the Medicaid state plan be amended and the waivers that are available because we can find places to build housing we can get the money to build the housing but the hardest thing is to provide the money to pay for the support to provide the necessary guidance and supervision and so I think that's an avenue that's opening up now more than ever in Canada we're very encouraged at this point thank you may I ask a qualifying question un-duplicated non-duplicated is that the first time it does not mean the first time it means that we're not found so when it comes to next question is a little bit more about parks and so what are some of the unique ways that our homeless neighbors currently use parks on the air where what are the services or opportunities that they find in the parks that are most important to persons that are in these circumstances one of the things that struck me about this question because I gave it a lot of thought if you are someone that stays in the shelter you are someone that is sleeping in a room next to as Jim said 75 strangers on a mattress 6 inches away that's a space where you don't get any privacy so where someone who's housed may go to the park to seek enjoyment with others and for me the thing that I thought of with this question was that if you are a homeless individual you may go to the park for privacy or quiet enjoyment so let's can I cap what you're saying? absolutely right Jim I feel like I'm making a speech here I mean it's very interesting I'm not complaining about the physical situation but it is a reality that it's a huge room with all these mats on the floor and if you eat at which I think that does a great job because I'm there all the time and I eat there you know I don't have to but I eat there because I may work but you know that's a very crowded place I know people that eat lunch at the Amistad that say they'd rather eat in a in a mellow environment at the Amistad than eat on a cross street in the zoo as they call it so you know all these people you know in a crowded environment and having a wide open space is very attractive to Miami and I can see but I do emphasize that wherever you are there are certain behaviors that are expected of every civilized person whether homeless or not and I don't mind saying that I would just reiterate what everyone has said I think quiet being part of community like all of us watching the world go by not being somewhere isolated but you know separated but also something that we hear very often in PRCC for people trying to recover is I can't go down the trouble street area because I will use and that means I've got to sleep in the park I've got to you know think that I can't go down there it's not safe for me and that's not a criticism of anyone it's the reality and if you're trying to avoid people places and things and turn a new way of living without drugs or alcohol that's not a safe place to be the park feels much safer thank you so the next question number four are like friends groups that are here groups that are involved with parks what are the resources tools best practices and available to parks groups and others who want to help deal these situations and get people involved get involved with people who are experiencing homelessness in a way that's a safe approach I clearly can't answer this question but just hearing the dialogue and the presentation on the forehand of what city officials are doing certainly seem to be on the right track to me so I think dealing with the behavior of the individual all of the things that were stated here were just particularly on the money so it's going to be hard for any of us to add what we want to this the city has got a very responsible and respectful approach to it now I would just echo that the talking points that were given at the beginning of this that Sally had included were I thought really had it in the right direction if not right on and so I think events like this are also having absolutely the right direction if we're wanting to educate ourselves more events like this so that we can be talking about the homelessness situation in our city so that we can be talking about the solutions so that we can be having dialogues with one another I think that is what we need to be doing I think common question so what can I do about a long list of societal ills that I've heard over the years and one consistent answer that I've given is that we focus on cheap and easy it's educating yourself having an opinion about what's happening and then having your opinion be known by us no matter what side of the issue you come down on educate yourself to be here tonight it's not raining out it's probably the first night in the last year and as if you took time out of your life your busy schedules to be here to learn and to hear what's going on and to me that's halfway home I didn't take a million dollars of this or a million dollars of that it's educating yourself on what's happening here in our backyard keeping your hearts and your minds open and then if you have an opinion on that make that opinion be known with whoever it may be appropriate maybe the parks commission or city department or the state of Maine whoever is appropriate based on the issue you have so I think that's always important I was really struck earlier with some of the comments about or presentation about the length that cities have gone to to the point of like cutting down trees or removing benches and I was thinking I'm a social worker by training I'm also a person in long term recovery but as a social worker I've always been really interested in working about systems and family systems but then also the macro level of systems and what struck me about that coming from the lens of addiction is thinking about and anyone who has ever had a family member or someone you know in the growth of active addiction knows that the people around them can start getting kind of insane themselves in ways of trying to manage and control and fix to the point of doing things that sort of are to our own detriment so if you take that to a macro level we start cutting down trees and taking out benches in an effort to control the situation and make it more manageable so I was thinking about this and Johnny knows as you were talking about how again I'm looking at through the lens of addiction but how this kind of situation can evoke feelings of hopelessness powerlessness anger frustration fear and how that's very contagious so I don't have any solution here about this but I was thinking if we took that and flipped it and took it to a macro level so what are the things we learned to do around how to interact with someone in active addiction how to manage our own feelings how to do how to be loving and helpful and useful as opposed to cutting down trees and removing benches and then take that to the bigger system level so I don't know what that would look like but I think that's part of the community conversation about this is what would that look like and what would that impact and make them all Yeah, let's see I got a list here that almost what I suggest is used in our presentation to the business community that is probably similar to this list here that was on table up there that lists all the services available and everything to the business community was the list of public restrooms because that's the situation with the business community where people walk non-hospitals walk in and want to use their restroom and at the end of the statement that I read I said I would like to say that we realize it's not always in your career to offer someone a physical service but at least with this information you can recognize the person's needs as a human being and offer them some alternative options I mean I can't think of a good place to go camp but I mean as far as restrooms are concerned where public restrooms are like City Hall and the Library in various places where anybody can use the facilities it's always a good idea to try to find a positive channel channel rather than starting a fight with somebody if that's all possible I've been out with the home team a couple of times walking with them trying to manage their visits and stuff and on the railroad tracks and everything else and I also did a great job so I like them Thank you I think in that category what I'm hearing and I think the point was made and I was struck by what the Ranger said and what the Chief said that now you're addressing a human not a problem that really resonated with me and addressing a behavior not a person and drinking on a blanket in the park is illegal whether you are going home somewhere at the end of the night or not interesting perspectives so in the realm of solutions and I know we've covered a lot of ground here are there other solutions that you're aware I mean a city saligates some great statistics on what's going on in other cities but what other cities are doing to avoid conflicts and ensure that needs of all the park users are being met Sure so again if I talk about system wide issues what I see is best practices around the country focus on trauma, focus on adverse childhood experiences, focus on all these things that will come out sideways later in life and this conversation should have some short term approaches some medium term approaches and that happens to fall more into that long term realm other things when I go back to the behavioral health side of the house I see nationally diversion centers places where you know somebody can't quite be stabilized on their own couch or on the street corner but they don't belong in jail they don't belong in ER and if at all possible we divert folks out of the homeless for more of a long term approach to that and those are drop off centers diversion centers, warming centers is a bunch of different terms for those and they're not cheap but there are federal style programs that are working with that and I hear about those style programs when we talk about other best practices around the country other learning sites like the city of Portland where they deal with people and the midst of the crisis Thinking of solutions I had the good fortune four or five years ago to go to Cuba along with a few other housing professionals from around the country and it was fascinating to see how that country deals with their housing challenges but what I remember the most is how the parks were used we were riding in this bus from city to city and it really didn't matter whether it was a huge city like Havana or very small towns and 500 people or so in each city or community there was always a park there was a church around it and the community was built from there up and every park seemed to be packed with people and we were just kind of like taken by what on earth everybody's coming out to the parks and what we learned is each park and each of those communities was the one spot in the entire community that had Wi-Fi and when we looked more closely people weren't talking to one another they were all on their phones and so I always remember that there's a little thought in there that I think the more we can make parks to be something of activity I think of some of the movies in Congress Square and the parks that are going on and whenever there's music in parks that brings people together we certainly like the the peace and quiet of the parks but I think also there's a huge opportunity to bring some levels of entertainment and engagement in our parks again whether it's art or music or Wi-Fi or what have you I think it really is a very helpful approach to a city and I mean I don't know if it's something that parks can do but there's something that people get involved with I mean I got my first apartment in Portland in the early 70's my rent was $103 a month I have a similar one to my apartment today and my rent is $1,025 a month so affordable housing the lack of it is one of the major causes of homelessness and I like what a bus to community housing remain and other organizations are doing I'm going to join with this fudging group called the Greater Portland Community Land Trust whose mission is to acquire the end of the trust form to make affordable housing but there's anything anybody can think of to promote the idea of affordable housing overall in any way, form or means which certainly could use anyway's time I don't know if that makes any sense but I had to say that so at this time we've got a couple of questions some questions on index cards and I'd like to address these questions to our panelists and kind of narrow down time and we'll give you about a minute so to respond to these the first one is funding is an obvious problem what ideas do you have about funding a housing first with social services model that is sustainable as opposed to building one big shelter that the neighborhood wants and the person would like Dana commission Sasha to speak to this I'm the commissioner of state of Maine, I'd be a little strange answering on behalf of the city of Portland for sure I can go back to a task force that I think Dory, you were one of the chairs ago and I think commissioner you and I were both on that at that particular time I think we said we needed five more housing first developments we've done one and so we do not have a sustainable way to develop the ones that we have been developing I do think it's going to take a new resource that will pay for those supported funds like I mentioned earlier that probably can be achieved through a Medicaid waiver so that you can have that staff certainly there's a lot of discussion about should they all be in Portland probably not there is one key piece to making all of these succeed somebody's got to pay the rent and so while we build them we need 30 project based housing section 8 vouchers and that's not an endless supply either so when we go to Westboro or some of the towns don't even have housing authorities we need to make sure that we get those housing vouchers we need to make sure we get the support we need to make sure we get the money to build it we need to make sure we find a site to do it so it's four challenges I'm encouraged right now that there are three or four pieces of legislation that will provide some ongoing monies to provide the support to do this I'm encouraged that we can do more but I really don't think there's enough money frankly coming out of Washington because we're fighting to hold on to the vouchers one thing that I see when I talk to treatment providers and work with collaborators around the state this day in 2019 we're far better now with the opioid crisis that we were so many years ago with a long ways to go that I still see a lot of these collaborative groups that don't have housing as a component there's a lot of there's peers as super people all the way around but there's a chunk that misses the vote and that is a lack of housing when I think about work with the Greater Portland Addiction Collaborate which Leslie is a huge piece of what I thought was great about that from day one was there was a housing component to that truly collaborative, truly comprehensive wraparound services that you don't do all these things and then fall off a cliff as you go back to the same house with the same phone number or the same friends, the same address and people know where to find it gets you plugged in and it's simple facts that if you've got some place to lay your head at night everything else will in fact be easier for you to seek treatment and there have some kind of consistency in your world so you can be stable enough to get better and I think that's a big piece of the puzzle I just pointed out there's just a suggestion Dana or Commissioner I'll just speak to that does anyone else have anything to add so the other question from the audience is can you explain who is on the home team how do they work and should people call them before the police I answered that as a former board member of Milestone Recovery Milestone Foundation the home team is based out of Milestone top notch people incredible program life-saving, truly life-saving and it's homeless outreach engagement so these are folks that are literally in a van and they're proactive so they're out they know every location in town and they're out driving those locations getting out, walking in those alleys checking out those tree lines working with people the other aspect of that is that people can in fact call the home team directly in their dispatch center and they'll send somebody out to deal with whatever situation it is they're talking to people, they're getting people plugged into services I am biased all day I'll admit it, Milestone is an incredible organization at a bunch of different levels and the home team is just one aspect of that but something that used to have a sundown van years ago we fought for 10 years to get something like the home team back and it seems like every year they continue to struggle for funding to survive we'd love to expand it out 24-7 payers, just top notch people that are out there and I can't read it enough saving lives that's the number one priority and if you wanted to break it down into brass stacks they also save a lot of money you're not running an ambulance to pick somebody out that needs a ride in a van to get someplace for the night so if you needed to go to that end which in some cases the political realm needs to hear that but I think it's an impactful program I always ask I just want to quickly say that Homeless Waste of Justice does most of our work here in Portland but we have the ambition of having other chapters in other areas of the state which looks like we're going to have a chapter related to a bit of a T.S. support center that's just open we also visit Link Center and the food kitchen and places in Lewiston and Brunswick and I mean all these towns are different but relatively speaking it seems to me that Portland exceeds all the other towns in the state as far as making service available that's my impression I don't know what to try about that Any other thoughts on that question? Thank you I think to some extent this probably in some ways brings up more questions in terms of how people can team together but at this point we wanted to take a few moments and if there's any questions from the audience that have not already been asked or brought up any any questions or issues I will do my best and if you can't speak I'll come around with the mic it's not that big a run Thank you I wanted to pick up where you left off by definitely thinking it only takes one bad experience for an independent business a neighborhood to really be turned off on these kind of services you were talking about the wonderful work that these groups do but we don't hear enough about that we don't hear the success stories anywhere near as much the news is splattered with all this negativity and how things aren't working or won't work how can we do a better job to prove that maybe that can help one business decide to be supportive and more supportive or one neighborhood to be more willing to accept a shelter of some sort or a home of some sort how can we do that how can we work to get that information out that means that in terms of I would agree completely what we get caught up in time is you see statistics and you see this you see that to me the thing that truly makes a difference are those human stories and Leslie can speak about this for days but friends that I have now they're in long term recovery I hear their stories where I sit on panels just like this and I don't need to be there I can just stare at them and see the strength that they have and hear about their journey and to me that shows and it's easy in society is he stats or is he a story in whatever and go recovery doesn't happen I've never been in any experience so you can just write off a whole group of people that are human beings just like us, loved ones and family members just like us and so it's easy for folks we can't solve that there's no way we can get to it but in fact we are surrounded by recovery every single day and I think it's very similar to the people that suffer from homelessness there are people that are striving every day fighting incredibly hard doing everything humanly possible they don't want to be homeless nobody wants to be homeless, that's a fact and so those stories are out there and I don't think they're hard to find I do think at times it's hard to get those on the 6 o'clock news that's not as racy as something else and I know as an example to bump back from milestone recovery they would do a monthly story on somebody and those are the stories that I want to see I want to see the human aspect of things statistics, all that stuff, I get it that's my world as much as anybody else's so that's an important piece of what we do but we can't forget about the individuals and you should put those good stories those good backgrounds in the bank for days where they may not be as sunny as something's going on and I know there's a lot of incredible stories when you go to these housing first locations and talk to people in a past life talking to homeless voices for justice for people that I have arrested multiple times legit everybody knows everybody by name and have just come like with just enough help that's what they needed, not a handout, but a hand up and that stuff is legit it's real and it's everywhere around so it's a great question though because that's something that we just need we can impact on are we volunteering are we going out to make contact with these groups because they're begging for assistance they're begging for help whether it's at the polling booth or at the bank account or somebody that could show up for a couple hours drop off a sweater any help across any any length of this conversation is incredibly helpful so I appreciate the question thank you for your questions thanks Diane I want to thank all of you my question is I really love the idea of Wi-Fi in the parks and we work really hard to bring events into our neighborhood park because we have a strong commitment that socialization is what really helps people feel connected and one of the things I'm thinking about is do you see any model programs in the country where people use the public parks for camping like at night under the stars and one of the things that have been that's been happening I've lived in my neighborhood for 30 years now and we're starting to really see a change many more solar living homes are coming into the neighborhood recovery centers just this is a real change in the whole we have many more different types of people and I've spent some time talking to almost people sleeping in our month old park that's why the dark park and people feel safe sleeping in there but do you ever see any program around the country where people open up their parks where people sleep and get to know the neighbors it was interesting because some of the neighbors came out and helped and provided food and bedding and then other people called the police so it was like a real range of reactions to people sleeping in our park you know I will tell you that Sally's team brought pianos to parks downtown and Sally will tell you that in a department head meeting she mentions pianos and a cop by training and experience I'm picturing a piano on fire going down high street at a thousand mile an hour I'm like Sally what are you doing this is bad just who would put the arrows in the park and it was an incredible idea that worked incredibly well sure it wasn't 100% but it was very impressive to me it was way outside the box I thought and I thought that was pretty cool and I'm going to always my idea move to Augusta so don't touch me like that there's things like that everything is in play and these are beautiful green spaces that need to be used as much as humanly possible because they're beautiful and they're for everybody so I'm not sure that anything is outside the box as far as sleeping or whatever I don't know what the logistics of that would look like but I do think that all things are open and I think we just need to to go into it looking at these locations as an incredible resource for everyone to share and then figure out how to get to yes rather than automatically say and pianos are insane so I'm not sure I know I didn't answer your question directly but that's where I'm coming from I got a comment to make about that I'm not sure if this answers anybody's question but several years ago when I was living in Biddiput at the time they had the occupied move and whatever you want to call it in Lincoln Park it had this big campsite all over the place some friends of mine with ASI visitors I didn't stay there and it was problematic in a number of respects and for one thing it was funny because not funny but a lot of individuals I was familiar with who were milestone regulars they used to come to Lincoln Park to crash for the day and having all these occupied people in their spot was a core protein of the spot it was a born intention and eventually the police had to ask everybody to leave it looked like they were going to be there forever for a while at the time I was in I hope you guys have fun sleeping on the snow I'm glad I'm going back home to Biddiput I don't know if that answers anybody's question but that's where I'll take your call out so whatever you're doing good luck do you want to share your comment about the pianos I whispered to Diane that we had some of our homeless friends playing the pianos and busking with dipters this is resourceful but you brought up the issue of the oh there is the occupy thing because I would challenge Mike a great honest word and respect but not everything is on the table and I don't think camping at the park is on the table because it would turn all the parks into camping sites I think I just think we can't go there I can't camp at the park I'm more than happy to respond I'm sorry sorry Gory yeah, what I heard Carol talking about was like a one night you're looking at the stars if you're doing something like that me and Vern worked Occupy in Lincoln we did the whole thing suit the nuts so I let Vern speak to camping in the parks but I don't think that's happening anytime soon and I do think if it's an opportunity there's folks out there and somebody's giving a class on constellations or whatever that would be there's an opportunity to do something after dark that maybe what parks not currently use that way so again you're expanding it wouldn't be Wi-Fi so it wouldn't be nearly as popular but maybe there's an opportunity again to get outside the box and are we using our parks so they're as friendly and as welcoming as humanly possible so in case there's any question I'm not advocating for camping in the box but I thank you for clarifying we had a question that's really informative, thank you all for coming and making so much time to answer all of those questions I'm not going to touch on all of it but I did have I was thinking a little bit about parks and sort of within one circle or set of parks and what we can focus on certainly the housing pieces is another level but so as I was hearing all of your thoughts I was thinking is this do any more people do we need more physical like sort of investments and sort of to that end I was wondering like I heard about bathrooms I heard about just space like open space like the idea of creating places for people to have a respite I was thinking sort of about home team or you know do we need more people for that or do we need more bands and equipment or do we need both and it probably is not all of the above but in the world of sort of resources you know there's things that you can do to get together and talk and those are really existing resources we have a great space gathering we have a theme each year we can probably think about more workshops opportunities to connect people but there's also this what are we going to do with the limited financial resources that we have and should we be focusing on you know more human resources or more equipment and physical investments in our parks so just if folks could have any thoughts about that thank you I think those are all good questions there were a lot of players there but I mean I think there are always a need for more focus on this there's always a need for more focus on this issue whether it you know be park related keeping it park related I think that you know we absolutely named a lot of community resources up here and I think I want to speak for those partners I won't say where their resources are but I think that the fact that we have interested parties here tonight who are willing to pay attention to this issue and educate themselves on this issue I think that alone is a really fantastic start so I think the fact that we can you know I said it earlier be having conversations on this and people can walk away tonight even feeling a little bit more educated about what they could do if they are somebody in the park who is experiencing homelessness or be a little bit more like they might understand something that that person is going through that to me feels like a win and if we can continue to have those conversations that people might know what resource to offer that person or you know even just engage them in a conversation I think that's you know definitely a step in the right direction but I would absolutely welcome that conversation I just want to take a moment and the question triggers this notion but what we are building for housing these days actually because of the cost and the cost limits is we are building a lot of really small small parks and instead of Thomas Heights on Washington Avenue there are 340 square foot park oak street blocks which is you know just crammed into oak street lovely building 250 square foot apartments so if you look at the picture living there many of our residents need parks more than ever because we are really infilling our city to a great degree we are building very small units and certainly people live with very few blinds but I think the natural link here between sort of shrinking the living space of people and the corresponding demand on parks the degree with which say 10 or 15% of our residents are homeless we kind of have been people that were homeless in getting apartments but they are still going to want to go back to parks and so I think there is just a fascinating connection in between the future of housing where living spaces are just getting smaller and smaller and smaller and the effect that has on parks I think it's just a policy question and we got to take a good look after this Can we have time for one more question? Question for Fisher and Suster How to move from being the biggest events important to Augusta Do you see include prospects for getting more resources from the state to deal with some of the needs of the economy a number of our homeless are from elsewhere in the state and many people I think feel that it would be appropriate to seek more state resources to address these needs of the economy So Governor Mills gave me a check for private design I was going to present that a little later but I do think that as a state we have seen a push in this first probably 120 some odd days again I think this morning's meeting Commissioner Lambrough from DHHS talked about 19,000 plus people that have access to treatment and Medicaid expansion now that we didn't have just a few months ago whether it's the schools and more money coming back to communities in 2800 legislative bills that are working their way through the system with a lot of those things in mind to try to provide more coverage for that societal fighter that I think has been missing in recent years So I do think that we're in a better spot now than we have been The answers to questions like some of these that have been asked tonight I was going to be more because when you're in the Desmond you need more of everything across the board so we're not there yet I don't think anybody would say that but I do think we're heading in the right direction and from my perspective we're heading in the right direction in a collaborative approach it's not just somebody that's cutting checks and throwing them around I continue to see a lot of great partnerships now around the state and conversations that I had every day are with good people that want to do good things and that's what my mind said and my experiences from Portland seeing that these are folks that get it, that want to make a difference and are in fact making a difference So yes, I do think we already have more resources than we had and I think there's more to come I think it's add on to what you said Commissioner it's a really exciting time in a way because we are seeing already resources come to the recovery community centers to train and deploy and support recovery coaches there's a bill that's moving along for recovery residences and sober houses and housing is a huge part of this the number one thing that people say they need when they come into the PRCC is housing and a place to live and part of that for a lot of people's recovery is safe recovery housing sober housing so there's both resources coming I think pretty much promised out of the administration to expand the number of recovery residences but also certification process to make sure that those are safe and quality housing because it's kind of wild west out there right now with people saying I'm a sober house and so I think there's a lot of really good resources coming and I'll just say this is a really long eight years for us working on the ground and to just have the energy of the people that are in place now the work that's getting done and has been stuck and moving and then just someone who sees what may seem like a little bit of money but we can stretch we learned how to stretch a little bit of money a long way and with the opioid epidemic it's I think one of the silver if there is any silver lining it's the attention that has been brought to addiction the whole issue of addiction and the stories the positive stories that recovery is possible and we need so many more of those what you said like the blessing of my job and what I think about like I know recovery works I know these things work because it worked for me but it's not really just because it worked for me it's because I've had the blessing of witnessing it work for thousands of people and getting those stories out and sharing and if anyone wants someone to come tell stories of recovery and hope call me we have hundreds of people that will come and share their story and help spread that message when you talk about recovery it makes the light bleed in my head so I have a couple of comments I appreciate being in recovery I appreciate the support I received from various providers one of the reasons that I'm a strong advocate of the housing first model is that in a lot of situations various treatment centers where I made a mistake and picked up a drink and as soon as you do that it gets thrown out the door very quickly and I was grateful enough with the help I got to be able to survive myself so far but I know other people who do not survive that experience and that's why I'm trying out for the housing first model and it's funny I run into people every day that I've met in various stages of recovery who are back having a hard time again I said you know if I can do it anybody can so don't give up the shift because it is possible to be sober and enjoy life important issue and very eye opening and insightful and educational and I'm going to ask Bella to come up I just want to say thank you so much for all of the information that you shared for all of the work that you do in congress we are working on ways that we can train volunteers more effectively so that we can be radically hospitable to every single person who comes in and so just hearing you it's really been moving thank you and I wanted to extend an invitation to all of you we have trainings that will be starting in May and June for our volunteers things like overdose treatment and things like verbal judo situational awareness and also how to befriend every person who comes into your space so we also have groups that are forming important to share information with one another about it's like a collaborative working group how are we implementing hospitality within our space how is activation working what conversations have been successful who have we been speaking to and what's up in their lives and how can we be the most helpful from a relationship perspective and so I'll extend an invitation to all of those trainings and conversations to all of you I'd love to have a collaborative working group on this and understand more fully how we as parks play such a vital role in meaningful mixing people's lives I think speaking about recovery it's so incredibly important to us to be a sober space and have entertainment you know Portland is full of like beer pubs in all of these places that of course we have to spend so much money to access so a lot of those spaces are unsafe for people who are in recovery and so parks are in that unique space of being these special places that are available to all people so I will send information through the parks commission and also through the green spaces coalition if you'd like to join in those conversations thank you thank you thank you to the city manager for having Portland Media Center here they recorded this session for us fantastic and to grow the school and again just this department we appreciate you and all of your time thank you very much