Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Public Comment Housing Health Drugs topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Public commenter urges county to examine links between housing shortages, health harms and drug markets
Summary
Tom Heelan urged the county to increase public participation and hold a detailed meeting on links between housing shortages, homelessness and adverse health outcomes, and he raised concerns about drug markets and cannabis.
A member of the public, Tom Heelan, used the public-comment period to urge the Olmsted County Board to increase public participation in policy discussions and to hold a future meeting examining links between housing shortages, homelessness and health outcomes.
Heelan related personal health circumstances and said he has relied on Mayo Clinic care for many years. He said he is currently receiving a protein immune modulator treatment that “costs over $10,000 a month” and that medical care has allowed him to remain active. Heelan argued that concentrated poverty and housing shortages produce harmful public-health outcomes and urged the county to convene a focused discussion on the subject.
Heelan also raised concerns about what he described as “salted cannabis,” which he characterized as cannabis mixed with methamphetamine and fentanyl, and he connected substance-market issues to homelessness and increased hospital admissions. Those assertions were presented as his observations and experiences; the county did not respond with independent data during the comment period.
Heelan suggested procedural changes to increase public engagement: provide physical copies of agendas in the hallway for residents to pick up and add hyperlinks in the online agenda to related grant documents (he specifically mentioned the emergency services program grant) so the public can review details ahead of meetings.
The chair closed public comment and opened the meeting’s formal business.
