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Residents urge council to restore evening meeting times and press for more homelessness services
Summary
Multiple public commenters thanked the council for community investments, urged restoration of evening meeting times for greater public access, and asked for more compassion and services for people experiencing homelessness.
During the public comment period, speakers addressed a range of community concerns, most prominently meeting-time accessibility and homelessness services.
Kennedy Garrett, a student and Avondale Community Center counselor, thanked the council and Councilwoman Noel for continued investment in the Avondale center and described benefits for campers and families. Dustin Hobbs (District 8) asked whether there has been discussion about changing the council’s meeting times to make votes and comment periods more accessible to residents who work afternoons; the chair said the council has heard the concern before and would take it under consideration.
Evelina Van Corte urged the council to return meetings to evening hours (6:30 p.m.), saying the current 3:30 p.m. schedule excludes working people and noting the meeting-time change occurred in November 2023. She characterized the afternoon start as less accessible and called it undemocratic.
Speakers also urged more and better services for people experiencing homelessness. Rodney Roach described efforts to find an abandoned building for a 24-hour center, food distribution partnerships and other local supports; Brian Lemieux, who works with unhoused neighbors, said roughly 1,000 people in the city are unhoused and asked council to treat them as neighbors first and include their voices in policymaking.
The council acknowledged the comments and indicated they would take the concerns under consideration; the public comment period closed with no formal votes attached to the remarks.
