Hey, we're a little thin on the ground for community members, but we do have all of our commissioners, and so I'm gonna call our meeting of public safety to order.

Um, two minutes and twenty seconds late.

Um, so um Mr.

Davis is here from OPA, and uh I've seen this presentation before, but uh thank you for being here, and he's gonna talk about our know your rights presentation uh first.

I thought that's how we had the agenda going.

So you may want to slip around your slides.

Flip it around.

Um but uh just just to uh for the for the public.

Uh this is a program that I think we're all very proud of, which uh Mr.

Davis has been very clear.

Um, where two or three are gathered together, he is willing to come out and do a know your rights presentation.

So take it away, Mr.

Davis.

Love the reference.

Good afternoon, Mayor.

Uh Manager Commissioners Public Safety Committee.

Uh, this is an abridged version of our know your rights program.

Uh just by way of a reminder, OPA offers uh several different types of know your rights programs in community.

This is the primary one we're asked to present, which is what to do when you're stopped by the police.

Uh, before jumping into it, I do want to uh make sure I give a shout out to Albert Gasaki who is here with us as well.

Albert leads our know your rights program, he's uh an analyst in OPA's office.

He's the one who's working with community to schedule, also get our volunteers who do a lot of the presentations as well.

So thank you, Albert, for all of your work.

Okay, let's jump in.

So when we uh walk through our know your rights program, this is usually a presentation that takes uh about an hour, maybe more with question and answers.

Obviously, we are not gonna do that today.

Uh so no, this this is the highlight real version of our know your rights program.

We talk about uh OPA, we have several exercises, and I'll talk about the exercises without doing them today.

Um we also go through some key terms used in the presentation.

We talk about uh different types of police departments, how to file complaints and things of that nature.

But the bulk of what we talk about is how uh is what to do if you're stopped by police.

So we give a background in the Office of Oversight and Public Accountability.

Since you all already know that, I am gonna advance through that slide, and then we uh start with an opening question, and we ask uh the members in the room, you know, what is their overall experience with police and law enforcement?

And what we find through that conversation is people have varied experiences.

There are people who share very positive interactions that they've had with police, and there's others who share things that are concerning uh based on their interactions, but that helps us level set that helps us get to a place where we recognize uh something that I say often in these presentations, and that is uh police are people, and because police are people, there will be times they get it very right, and there will also be times when they don't get it 100% correct, and that's why we have laws and systems in place to navigate those spaces.

Uh one of the messages that we always want to make sure that everyone understands is that every human has rights, uh, and that is without regard for uh their their citizenship status or anything like that.

In the United States, one of the best things about our country, at least the way the laws are actually written, is that everyone has a rights, whether you are uh a citizen of this country or not.

So, because of that, it's important that everyone understands those rights, knows what those rights are so that they can put them into place.

So it's a couple of things that we talk about, and these are some key terms.

Terms that are always uh they're legal terms.

I usually I walk through the presentation by explaining I'm an attorney.

I practice uh criminal law for the first half of my career.

Um, and with that being said, I had three years of law school to learn these things, and I still have to go back and review the uh these cases.

I've I've tried uh homicides, armed robberies, everything you can think of when it comes to criminal cases.

And still, I need to brush up on some of these things from time to time.

And there's still situations where someone will give me a scenario and I'm like, I need to look that up.

So, what does that mean?

By coming to a know your rights presentation, you're not gonna leave an attorney, right?

You're not gonna leave an expert on the law, uh, but we hope you leave with a greater understanding of what your rights are.

So uh we want every community member, and I'm gonna treat you like you're that group today.

We want you to leave understanding that you don't leave as an expert, but you do leave with more knowledge than you came in with.

Uh, and we will still encourage you to learn more as you go forward.

So, a couple of standards that we should always be aware of when we are talking about our rights and responsibilities.

One of them that you will hear often, it's probable cause.

When I talk about probable cause, I usually describe probable cause as a strong maybe, right?

So probable cause uh the legal standard is that there's sufficient evidence to reasonably believe that a crime has been or is being or will be committed, or that evidence of a crime is present in a specific location.

So the requirement is that officers need a degree of certainty and like fair probability.

That's that strong maybe that evidence or criminal conduct will be found.

Let me give you an example of that.

So if an officer is like making an arrest for a DUI, an example would be an officer sees a driver run a red light and then they pull them over and they smell alcohol in their breath, right?

That would be that would give them probable calls that will allow them to make an arrest or get a search warrant or something like that, right?

That's that strong maybe that something has occurred.

Now, you know, the smell of alcohol doesn't 100% at that moment say that they're above the legal limit, but that's that strong maybe that something's happening there where we can get to that probable cause.

When we talk reasonable suspicion, reasonable suspicion is more limited than probable cause.

When we talk about reasonable suspicion, it allows a brief stop and frisk based on specific articulable facts suggesting criminal activity.

Let me give you an example.

The most common example comes from a case uh that we call Terry, uh, but that it's called a terry stop.

And that is like uh an example of this would be like in a high crime area, uh, you see somebody, and that person officer sees someone and they're continuously like fidgeting and reaching at their waistband, right?

And this is an area that's been known for high shootings, or you know, there was a call about a shooting in the area, and now this officer sees this person, keep reaching in their waistband and getting nervous type behavior.

Well, that would allow an officer to do what is called a limited stop and pat down, meaning the officer could tell the person to stop and they could pat them down to check for a weapon in that space.

That's called a terry detention, right?

So when we talk about reasonable suspicion, we're talking about you could something that the officer can actually articulate.

Let me pause here, and this is what I do with community.

The fact that the officer needs to be able to articulate it doesn't mean they're gonna articulate it to you, right?

And that's a space where there's often a lot of confusion.

In fact, on viral videos, you'll often see a community member saying, Tell me what you stopped me for, what you pull me over for.

Now, I always say, I think it would be nice if the situation allows an officer to tell somebody why they were stopped.

I would want to know, right?

But there's cases when it might not be the safest thing for an officer to do that, and they don't.

The law doesn't require that they have told you why.

The law requires that they're able to articulate it, and that's later.

That would happen, you know, in the court process or something like that.

Now, here's the the third part, and and I want you to make sure you understand is that another thing we could talk about is a hunch.

And and we all know what a hunch is.

That's just, you know, some type of intuition.

I just got a feeling that something bad is happening here.

Well, let me help you understand that a feeling is not a legal standard.

Uh, and it doesn't work that someone can take action to infringe upon somebody else's rights based on a feeling.

Now that might make somebody look, right?

A hunch might make someone pay attention.

A hunch might uh cause an officer to be more curious about what's happening, but that that is not a legal reason to take action.

Okay, so with those key terms uh understood, the next thing we usually talk about is the difference between local police agencies.

Obviously, here in the city of Grand Rapids, the Grand Rapids Police Department is the uh police department for the city.

There are lots of other agencies though that community members may see that oftentimes, you know, all the officers, all the different agencies get lumped into one basket for a community.

And we can understand that, because not everybody understands those distinctions.

So because of that, we take time to just talk about the difference.

So again, uh there are several different types of uh police departments or different police departments.

When we talk about the law for the state of Michigan, the law for the state of Michigan is the law for the state of Michigan, no matter what department it is.

But there can be policy differences, and there are policy differences from department to department that could cause the way a stop happens to happen differently.

And that's just something we should be aware of.

The other thing we uh make sure we explain is that if there's a complaint about officer activity, we only take complaints related to the Grand Rapids Police Department or the fire department, but in this context, the police department, uh, we don't take complaints about these other agencies.

And I will say we do get calls from people complaining about other agencies or activity in other agencies, and they sometimes struggle to understand that difference.

So that's why we spend some time here.

Okay, so uh we then spent some time talking about immigration, and this is a question that we uh get often.

Now, I explained to everyone at the beginning of all of our presentations.

The first thing is is that while I am a lawyer, I am not intending to give you legal advice, right?

Um, so we're giving you information.

The purpose of this information is to help you better understand what your rights and responsibilities are.

I am not telling you what to do, uh, but I'm hoping that you get information that helps you make good decisions about what you do when you have interactions with police departments.

With that being said, obviously immigration is the question that comes up often during these trainings.

Uh, we explain that there are uh policies both in the Grand Rapids Police Department are foreign's policy, which we talked a lot about, and also in the state police department that speaks to the fact that officers are not allowed to stop someone solely for the purpose of uh looking into immigration status.

Again, that's something that's important for community members to know.

All right, now we get to the heart of our know your rights presentation.

When we get here, the question is what do you do if you're stopped by a police officer?

Again, let me go back.

This is not me telling you what to do.

This is me giving you information so you can be informed on how you navigate these spaces because actions have consequences, right?

Uh, and one of the things that I talk a lot about, you all may know this, but again, we're role-playing today, right?

So uh usually I spend time and ask people um if they're familiar with what resisting and obstructing a police officer is.

So let's do it.

Are you all familiar with RO what that means?

Yes, yes, a couple hands, okay?

Oftentimes the answer is no in the room.

So when we talk about resisting and obstructing a police officer, I usually tell us, I'm gonna do it.

Let's do it.

I tell a story about my mom every time I do this presentation, right?

Because my mom is one of those people where she would be, and she's probably gonna find this now, but uh, she's one of those people where she would be in the living room yelling at the TV when she sees a viral video involving law enforcement from anywhere in the country, right?

She would be the one, what is happening?

They're not resisting, right?

Like she, and and from a layperson's understanding of what you know, stop resisting, stop resisting is I can understand her frame, uh her framework, what she's thinking at that point.

Because what she's thinking is the person, so officers may say, hey, stop resisting.

They may have given a lawful command, put your hands up, right?

Um, and the person doesn't immediately put their hands up.

The person may be saying, uh, why do you want me to put my hands up?

Which is something you may have seen before, right?

What why do I need to put my hands up?

I'm not doing anything.

And the officer's like, put your hands up.

And the person's like, explain to me why you're not putting your hands up.

And you might hear another officer say, stop resisting, put your hands up.

Here's my mom in the situation.

They're not resisting, they asking a question, right?

Like, and the truth is, under the legal definition in Michigan, that is resisting and obstructing a police officer.

Because the legal definition in Michigan includes uh disobeying a lawful order.

So when we think about RNO, oftentimes, we think about running away from an officer or trying to hit an officer, right?

Or snatching away during an arrest.

Those are things that common sense come to our mind about RO, but the law goes further than that.

The law says when it uh there is a lawful order, uh, you have to obey it, period.

Full stop.

Now, I know that this is not always prosecuted this way in uh in Kent County or in Grand Rapids, but technically, uh failure to obey a lawful order under Michigan law can be punishable by two years in prison.

It's a felony punishment by up to two years in prison, right?

So that's something that I try to make sure everyone understands.

That's why it's important to know our to know our rights, to understand our rights when navigating these spaces because what you don't know can hurt you sometimes, right?

I I want community to leave understanding that you think you're asserting your rights by asking why do you need to put your hands up?

And the truth is you could be violating the law in that space if the order was lawful.

So that's a piece of information we navigate.

So uh what do you do when you are stopped by a police officer?

The first thing you need to do is stop your car in a safe place.

I pause and help people to understand a safe place doesn't mean a place I want to stop, right?

When we talk about a safe place, we mean like not in the middle of the road.

Don't stop your car in the middle of the in the middle of traffic, right?

Get over it as soon as you can practically.

Now I've had clients uh, you know, in my former life or I've had cases in my former life where people would uh I remember a case specifically where somebody drove like several miles and they they were driving to a uh they were driving slow, clearly not trying to get away from the officer, but they didn't feel comfortable stopping where they were.

When they wanted to get to a space where they felt comfortable.

Want to be clear, that is not what getting to a safe space means.

It's not about whether you feel safe personally.

It means we're getting to a place where you're not in oncoming traffic or something like that.

So we go through that and make sure that the room understands the difference in that.

Then the next thing is to stay in your car, uh, unless the officer requests for you to step out.

Now, here's some things where uh we talk through it.

I suggest to you, I always say, Brandon suggests to you that you remain calm and respectful.

Why?

Because officers are people too, right?

Now there's nothing in the law that's gonna tell you that you have to, you know, be super courteous in every interaction with law enforcement.

I'm not suggesting that that's the law or that you should be treated poorly because of it.

However, people respond to people as people, right?

And when you are disrespectful to somebody, it's likely now they officers should be professional.

They are officers, they're required to carry themselves, you know, professionally.

But the human nature of people can cause them to respond in ways uh that you may not like, right?

You might not like that tone.

And that again, that's not a legal thing.

That's just a I recommend to you to navigate this space this way if you want to get the best outcome.

Another thing is officers have discretion when it comes to certain things.

There's cases where officers can give warnings, right?

And they might not have to give a ticket.

Let me tell you, if you cuss an officer out, the chances of you getting a warning in that situation is probably a lot less.

Those are the type of things we talk about to help community members understand the distinction there, right?

The other thing you want to do is keep your hands visible at all times and avoid sudden movements.

Why?

Because officers are walking up to a vehicle where they don't know what's in there, right?

And because of that, you keeping your hands clear helps to uh avoid anything from escalating in that space, right?

So we talked through that.

We also talked through uh showing your required documents.

So your license, your registration and proof of insurance are things that you are required as a driver to provide uh in Michigan.

If you're asked for your license as a driver, you need to provide to provide all of those things.

Um, again, this is a branding thing or OPA thing we recommend.

Every time you go to reach for something, inform the officer of what you're doing.

Why?

Because they don't know what else is there.

So again, you want to make sure that your moves and all those type of things are very clear in navigating that space.

Here's part that we want people to understand.

If you're given a citation in this space, don't resist it, right?

But some people uh assume that if I'm given a citation and I take it, that's me admitting that I did whatever happened.

That's not the truth, right?

Uh, you accept the citation and you fight later.

Fight not uh on site, but always in court.

That's the time for you to uh take action regarding the things you're concerned with.

So you do have the right to document those interactions.

You can record what's happening, you can also uh request the officer's badge number and and anything else and report that later if you're concerned about the activity of the officer.

Let's be clear there were there may be times when a community member is frustrated with something that happens and they don't believe it's proper.

And there most certainly are times when we see that happen.

The way to deal with that is not by arguing at the scene.

That doesn't make it better.

The way to deal with that is by collecting as much information as possible.

You can report it to the officers of oversight and public accountability, or if you believe that there's something further that needs to be escalated, you can do that as well.

Okay, so let's talk about those rights that exist during the the uh a traffic stop.

So under the Fourth Amendment, uh, which is protects against illegal search and seizure, uh, you can refuse a search of your vehicle, right?

So an officer says, Can I search your car?

Right?

You can say, I don't consent to this search.

It's no special language, you can just make sure the officer understands that you're saying no.

Now I want to be clear.

That doesn't mean that the officer will never have grounds to search without your consent.

Um, there are times when an officer can search a vehicle without your permission, and again, they why whereas Brandon would think it would be very nice for them to help you understand why they are doing that.

The law doesn't require that they make it clear to you here is why I'm gonna do it, right?

They can order you out your vehicle and have you searched.

If they uh if they search the vehicle and it's improper, what do we do?

Not argue about it there, right?

That's something that you can bring up later.

You can bring that up to your if if it results in arrest, you can bring it up to your attorney, or you can report that as a violation to the Office of Oversight and Public Accountability, those are the types of ways you navigate that.

But there is a difference.

If a if you say, if an officer says, Can I search your car?

And you say yes, well, I want to be very clear that that takes away that legal argument later that you didn't want the officer to search it.

And sometimes what happens because of you know power dynamics uh is somebody asks us to do something and we don't really want to do it.

Uh, but we say yes anyway.

Here, if you want to say yes, you have every right to.

But I also want you to understand if you want to say no, you also have every right to do that as well.

So, again, what we're giving you is the information so you can make that choice.

Don't try to stop it once the officer makes their decision.

That's not your job to stop it.

Just make clear I don't consent to the search if you don't consent, or say yes, if in fact you do.

Know that uh if you consent, though, those search issues, whatever is found will likely be usable in court, right?

It's unlikely that you will be able to defeat a search issue related to that part of it because you consented.

That's the ultimate okay.

Okay.

Um so if the again, we talked about the fact that an officer may be able to search anyway.

Let's say if there was uh probable cause or a warrant.

Again, let's talk about that probable cause, a strong maybe.

Uh a classic example of probable cause to get somebody in the car or officer in a vehicle would be like if the officer comes up to the window and there's an open beer can in the car, right?

That officer's probably the officer's gonna be able to come in that vehicle uh to at least search that part of it.

And maybe more than that, right?

Based on the inventory search and stuff, we're not gonna talk about that because we don't have enough time.

But um that's part of it you need to understand, right?

So there is a difference between them having the legal right to do it already based on probable cause or warrant, or you giving them consent to do it.

Something that you should ask in these situations is am I a detained or am I free to leave?

Um and the difference in that is when you are first of all, there are certain rights that come into play when you are detained, limited time.

I'm not gonna go into everything today, but certain rights that come into place when you're detained.

And if you're free to leave, you're just that free to leave.

So the question you can ask if the officer is engaging in questioning or things of that nature that you don't want to participate in, am I free to leave?

If the officer says no, then you need to sit, right?

But under the Fifth Amendment, you don't have to answer questions unless you choose to.

So for example, the officer may ask you where you're coming from, or you know, what you're doing out here this late, or things of that nature.

You have every right to answer those questions if you so choose.

You also can decide I don't want to answer those questions and respectfully say, uh, you know, I choose to remain silent.

Now again, officers are people.

So when you think about that discretion factor and thing that nature, make those choices.

I usually tell an officer where I'm coming from if they ask me.

Um, but I also know that can be used in a way.

Uh anything you say or do could be used against you at court, right?

So if let's say it resulted in some other charge or something else came from it, what you told the officer about where you were coming from is something that is usable, right?

And our officers are professional.

Our officers uh should be able should I believe do understand the fact that if you assert your rights, that's okay.

Um that doesn't mean that you get to say, I choose to remain silent and not identify yourself.

That's different, right?

There's a distinction there.

As a driver, you're gonna have to identify yourself.

Um, but you can say, I don't want to engage in other conversation, and that's perfectly fine.

The other thing we always want you to remember is that if you are arrested, you have the right to an attorney under the Sixth Amendment, and you could just do that by saying, uh, I wish to speak with an attorney, and you go from there.

Okay.

So I won't I don't have time to go through the rest of this know your rights training.

But that's the overall of how it comes.

You'll be able to see by looking at this slide.

We have like traffic stops, role plays where people would come down and act it out and things of that nature.

We make sure they leave understanding.

We also go through what h what to do when you're stopped on the street and what happens if the police come to your home.

The overall tone of our presentation is again, we want people to leave understanding their rights.

We're not trying to tell them what to do one way or the other, but we do want them to leave with the knowledge necessary to make informed decisions, uh, because knowledge is power.

So that's it.

Thank you, Mr.

Davis.

Great uh summary, and I I I get that there are varying sizes to this, and you didn't go through it all in detail, but um clearly you've got passion for this and expertise, and that's uh a real asset for the city.

Um I want to uh talk about a couple things.

Uh the first is you briefly flagged uh the interaction between um our city police officers and uh federal agencies, particularly ICE, which is on a lot of our community members' minds.

And there have been people who have uh come there there's a uh a group out there that's been sort of circulating a list of six demands for the city.

Well, six demands, and and frankly, only I think as far as I can see, only two of them really apply to the city.

So there's some demands that they don't really differentiate between whether it's city or county, and some of them clearly apply to detention centers, and we don't have any detention centers.

Um but as far as that those uh concerns, um, I want to be very clear that the city has absolutely answered the concerns that relate to the city, and I think that's important for the public to know.

So the first is what the point you made, which was we have a non-cooperation with immigration control and enforcement policy that specifically prohibits us asking people about their immigration status, detaining people based on immigration status, um, and uh enforcing federal civil uh immigration laws.

And uh that's a policy that uh a number of other cities that um have have very have policies that to me look indistinguishable, cities like Chicago and Boston and New York.

Um, and so I think we have a very carefully crafted policy, and no one suggested any improvements to it to me in any context that I've heard, but that policy exists, and so it's important if the community wants to know what we are doing in this moment with ICE doing its activities.

The city has a very clear not participation in that process policy in place.

We have and we continue uh to hold that as a matter of policy.

The second thing is that uh this group has demanded that agencies not participate in what are sometimes called 287G uh arrangements.

And I want to be very clear that I've consulted with our city attorney, and we have policy in place, and I wanted to make sure that he that I I got that the conclusion that I reached reviewing those documents was correct, um, and he's concurred.

We have a policy in place uh which frankly which exact which specifically prohibits us and makes it un makes us unable to uh sign or participate in 287G motions.

So I just want the community to know that the demands that are being made, they can go make make demands that group can go make demands to other groups or other legal uh agencies like you know the county or the state or whoever um but we have uh what they're asking for are things that we have already done.

And so um I am not aware of anything city applicable that those uh activists are asking us to do that we haven't already done, and I think that's a very important message.

Maybe not for those people because they don't seem to really understand that answer, um, but for the general population to understand that those concerns are and have been asked and answered.

Um the second thing I want to get into, and I just wanted to put that out there for people who are listening.

Um the second thing I wanted to ask is um the number one misunderstanding I hear from civilians is a misunderstanding of Miranda.

So I hear people say, the police officer asked me a question and he didn't even read me my rights, and then I always have to explain.

Well, they don't have to read you to the right your rights if they want to ask you how old you are or whether you liked uh the Lions game last week or any of a number of questions that Miranda comes as a as a part of the arrest process.

And I I don't know if you cover that in your presentation, Stanley or not.

Yep, we talk about Miranda often.

We talk about custodial interrogation and you know, basically that's the part that applies to how TV teaches us something different.

People think the case goes away because the officer didn't read Miranda, and the truth is that most what you said probably you know may go away.

So we talk about that.

Yeah, thank you.

So thanks for the presentation.

Great.

Um any other uh questions or goes?

Yep.

I for stopping you on the street or if visit your home for those under 18.

I've heard uh children say even of I don't want to answer anything without my mom.

That won't stop it, right?

If they just say I want my parents, yeah.

What my parents alone is not gonna mean that the arrest or the interaction stops.

That's that's correct.

I think I I can't speak exactly to GRPD's policy on how to navigate it.

I'm sure the chief can uh in greater detail, but under the law, the fact that someone is under 18 doesn't mean that they can't be arrested without their parenting or something like that.

Or don't want to ask questions because of a parent.

They need to cite, I choose to say silent and just saying right grandparent.

You also have the right uh uh Fifth Amendment right not to uh respond, and it's important that they understand that as well.

Great question.

Thank you.

Mr.

Davis, uh, thank you for your presentation.

Uh and curious to know uh do you cover all modes of transportation that may be used by individuals within the confines of the city as it pertains to uh those that be in maybe stopped, uh which includes uh scooters and other things such as bicycles, possibly.

That's one question and then and then another.

Um what are you doing to get the information out to the community uh for those that do not actually have access to uh asking for training within the confines of that capacity?

So uh I'll start with the first part.

We respond we talk primarily about driving a vehicle on the road, and we talk about being stopped by the police.

But when we talk about uh being stopped just like on the sidewalk or things of that nature, a lot of those other parts will come into play there.

When qu questions have been asked about scooters and bikes in our training, then we respond in those questions as well.

Um as it relates to getting information and community, uh we this program is a uh obviously a program I'm passionate about, and I think we've gotten great results uh related to it.

But as far as full-time staff committed to it, there's only uh half a staff person on the know your rights program, right?

Because Mr.

Kazaki also has other responsibilities.

So our primary way of doing that is by getting where to commute neighborhood associations, uh community organizations, and going to provide trainings.

We also have pamphlets and leaflets and things of that nature that we could provide so they can provide that to community as well.

Um but we uh currently we don't have capacity to uh do it at a larger level than that.

I am very proud of the results we've had.

I think the results you just gave me was over 700 people uh within this last year that we have trained in our know your rights program.

Yes.

Um I was just curious.

Well, first of all, for point of clarification, driving a bike is driving a vehicle, right?

Like just for language purposes.

No, no, it is not.

No, so what so no.

I guess if it had a motor on it, maybe it's so motor vehicle.

Okay, thank you.

All right, that wasn't my question, but uh my question is uh I have a 15-year-old daughter, uh, and she is going through driver's education, and I'm curious whether or not if OPA is working with educating agencies and the local public school systems and other schools that uh could educate this at a very young level where you have uh an audience that is concentrated and eager to understand at an early age.

I feel like learning it at whatever age we all are is a little bit tougher than having that captive audience.

For sure.

So we uh OPA has uh provided trainings in schools, it's been based on requests, but we have uh provided quite a few trainings in school.

We actually met earlier this week to talk about how to if there's a way for us to expand that to more schools.

But uh right now it's on an on-request basis.

Thank you.

Any other questions, colleagues?

Great.

Thanks again.

Um great presentation.

Um that's the second time I've been through it, but uh both of them were truncated.

So at some point I'm gonna have to get to the whole two hour presentation.

Um, or however, how long is the full presentation?

It's usually about an hour.

Okay.

Um, but some agencies they want more time, so we spend more time.

Right.

But in terms of like whether a congregation wants you to come out or a Boy Scout troop or whatever.

Minimum of the hour.

Okay, great.

Thank you so much.

And uh I hope that you'll continue to have uptake on that.

I mean, 700 people is a great number in a year, and so we replicate that and people tell their friends, and uh we hope we get some viral information here.

So thanks very much.

Thank you.

Thanks for the work.

Uh that brings us to our second item of business, which is um briefing uh from our uh summer youth program.

Uh uh, the It Takes a Village.

And um who's our presenter?

Oh, yeah, we're ready.

Mr.

Davis, right here.

Yes, I forgot that was your first slide.

You try to do the second thing first.

Okay.

Well, uh, we will be presenting today on our summer youth violence prevention initiatives, our gun violence memorial art installation.

Uh, and by way of agenda, uh, we'll go through the background real quickly because we know we had limited time, but we'll give a brief recap of last year's um civilian violence prevention efforts.

We'll talk about it takes a village program, which is uh something that started several years ago.

Uh it is several sites.

Last year we expanded to three sites instead of two.

Um and we'll talk about the plan for this year.

So this year we'll be can continue with night quests at Life Quest.

Uh so Pastor Jerry Bishop and his team, uh, we work with them on that, and then we'll also be continuing City Vibes, and that's at Gerald R.

Ford School, and that's a partnership between the Urban League, Grand Valley, and several others, uh GRPS and making it happen.

And this year we're bringing along something new, which I'm excited about, Freestyle Fridays at Muse GR.

Then we'll give you an explanation or update regarding the Gun Violence Memorial Art Installation Project, and we'll have time for questions.

Now I'm gonna I get to sit down now and turn it over to Ms.

L Letitia Lipscomb, who is uh came on this year to be our civilian violence prevention intervention manager.

I'll just take a moment of privilege to say she's done an amazing job uh navigating this space.

Uh, you know, it's it it's a big lift, and it was already a lot of work, but she's worked to expand it uh to polish some things, and I'm excited about her leadership in this space, and I'll turn it over to her to take us further.

All right, good afternoon.

Sorry about that.

I had to take a quick bathroom break.

My name is Letitia Lipscomb, and I am the civilian violence prevention and intervention manager in the Office of Oversight and Public Accountability.

Today, my task is really to provide you all with a program briefing on our summer violence um prevention initiatives as well as the Gun Violence Memorial Our Installation Project.

In addition to that, as Brandon kind of mentioned on my short agenda, I will also provide some background information on violence prevention and a flashback on 2025 C VPI programming and community.

So let's begin, shall we?

Um violence has become a staggering crisis in cities across the nation.

It is an urgent and undeniable epidemic that calls for our collective response.

To be clear, violence is a public health epidemic because it spreads through our community like any other disease, inflicting physical harm, traumatizing families, and cutting lives short.

When any neighborhood in Grand Rapids suffers, the impact ripples across our entire city, making safety and healing a shared responsibility.

By working together as we have to prevent harm and invest in people, we can build neighborhoods where everybody has the opportunity not only to survive, but to truly, truly thrive.

The data shows that violent crime involving youth ages 12 to 17 tends to rise during the summer months.

It tends to impact youth after hours of 8 p.m.

on weekends, as well as out of school hours.

In addition to that, this underscores the critical need for us to have intentional, positive and structured evening activities to keep these young people engaged and supported.

What you'll hear from me today is affirming that OPA's initiatives strengthen and complement existing efforts, including the city's youth curfew ordinance, as well as the Cure Violence Program in partnership with the Grand Rapids Urban League.

Together, these issues of violence prevention and these strategies advance the city's overall commitment to ensuring that every person in our community not only feels safe but is truly safe.

When I joined OPA last year in August, I was able to pick up the baton and continue building on a strong foundation that already existed in terms of advancing our violence prevention work.

Because no one single entity can push the community forward alone.

It's very important that we are able to highlight a few of our partners and programs that demonstrate the power of collaboration.

So I'll quickly just highlight for you.

In addition to that, one of my favorites was an opportunity to break bread for peace.

And that brought together over 20 trusted messengers in community at the Candy Dam, where we were able to engage in conversation about identifying key opportunities to reduce violence in this community.

In addition to that, in partnership with the Safe Task Force, the city hosted another impactful Safe Pitch Night, where a total of four community organizations were awarded 10,000 each to implement violence prevention programs and provided side strategies, an opportunity to engage in capacity building services to support these emerging nonprofits in the violence prevention space.

And then finally, last year, I'm really happy to highlight that we were able to engage in commission night out and gather input and feedback from real residents about what a thriving, safe, harm-free neighborhood can look like.

So moving on to It Takes a Village, I'd like to talk just a little bit about our summer violence prevention programs that really work to lower violent crime among youth by providing alternative activities during summer weekend evenings.

The goal of the It Takes a Village program is quite simple.

It is to leverage three venues as safe, brave spaces for youth to fellowship and gather.

And this year, we are so excited to host in both the first and the third wards.

Starting with the third first the third ward first, ironically, I'm happy to share that Night Quest and City Vibes will both be returning this year.

While both programs were wildly successful as they were, we're thrilled to announce a few program enhancements that this summer will provide in additional to wrap around support services for youth and their families.

Excuse me, food boxes, utility assistance, and car repair supports and more.

We're absolutely thrilled about this.

Moving on to the first ward, free style Fridays.

Traditionally, we have not offered programming inside of the first ward, so we're thrilled about this.

Next up, let's talk a little bit about the gun violence memorial, our installation project.

OPA has led robust citywide engagement efforts to shape the future gun violence memorial.

In collaboration with the Safe Task Force, the city is preparing to launch an RFP to bring this memorial, our installation to life.

Over the past several months, I've been across, I've been all across the city asking residents essential questions.

What should the memorial be?

What should it look like?

What should it feel like?

What should it stand for?

And the voices are helping to shape a meaningful community-centered tribute to the lives impacted by gun violence.

You can see from the slide some of the opportunities I've had to engage directly with the youth in our community, and their feedback and input has been absolutely amazing.

Moving forward, we have received an incredible amount of support for the project, and we drafted a process timeline based on information gathered from community.

We are right on track in terms of the process, and an RFP is scheduled to be released in May.

This time is set aside to recognize community members and organizations who work to interrupt and prevent gun violence and to honor the memory of individuals impacted by said gun violence.

The city intends to further promote and uplift gun violence awareness month through a proclamation, uh hashtag Wear Orange community campaign and other community engagement activities that I am currently involved in planning for and planning out.

That brings me to the conclusion of my presentation.

At this time, I will entertain any questions that this body may have.

Yes, sir.

First, I want to ask you about the um gun violence memorial, which uh it's a fantastic project, and I think this is a really exciting way to kind of memorialize the gun violence that we've seen.

Yes, um, especially in the third ward.

Um, so I want to ask about how that RFP will go out for this project.

Um, how do you expect that to be accessible to local community-based artists?

How do you expect them to be able to get get ahead of it and to have that proposal to be able to make it a proposal accessibly to get this grant?

So um we have already started announcing the information in terms of getting community buy-in support and enthusiasm around not only um local artists but students that can dream about and envision um participating in this project.

And so we plan to continue to do that by a press release, social media, making sure that we're engaged and getting the information, disseminating it into community so that everyone knows.

But I can tell you from um my time that I spent at Grand Rapids Public Museum School, they were already ideating on ways that they could either implement like an interactive mural or how they could work together with some other artists to be able to submit for the RFP.

So it's very inspiring to see that both people young and old are excited about this project and this opportunity.

So we are gaining steam, and I expect that we will continue to gain steam in that direction, making sure that the community is well informed and engaged.

That's wonderful.

I love that you're including students as well, especially in the museum school.

The children are the future.

Yes.

Mr.

Davis.

Thank you.

Miss Limskum, congratulations on the expansion of these programs.

It's clear that OPA is lucky to have you.

I'm thrilled to see your presentation and Grand Rapids is fortunate that we're continuing to invest in this way for our youth.

Please know that my questions are rooted in ignorance and not criticism.

I have some sincere, just a couple.

The first is that um I noticed on one of the slides that there is consent required for those under 18.

And if we're targeting youth with maybe um absent guardianship or maybe even stretched thin households where family may or may not be available to give that sort of consent.

Is there a plan for what to do when youth shows up without it?

So because I am new to the process, I am unsure of how I believe you saw that on the Grand Rapids Urban League side in conjunction with Grand Valley.

Um, I am unsure of how they dealt with it, so I'll turn that over to Brandon to address that question.

Great question.

So uh one of the things that about the way we do this program is that we partner with other organizations, right?

So we don't dictate what their process looks like on a uh day-to-day basis.

We, you know, provide some oversight and support in that space, and they uh take that into consideration on a case-by-case basis, as I'm sure you can understand their risk associated with having students in place in places where they didn't have authority.

So that's something that they uh would navigate on their end uh on a space-by-space basis.

Thank you.

And that just leads right into my second question, and you're gonna have a similar answer, I assume.

Um, because you're working with such wonderful community partners.

I'm curious how data sets and local or national best practices, our own police agencies inform the shaping of the programs with these partners.

Specifically, I noticed one of them is set from 5 30 to 7 30, and I wondered if that was the ideal times that we're tracking, or if we were looking for later hours or extended hours that might keep youth active and engaged uh past 7 30 p.m.

when we've seen more need for uh safe and appropriate activity.

Uh so again, the the root of that question is what are we where how are we shaping these programs and what is informing the way that we're putting these together?

Go ahead.

Okay, I'll add to it.

Okay.

So uh again, another great question.

Uh when we started the program initially first year, we looked at a lot of data.

We the police department was very helpful uh to allow us to look at some hot spot data that helped us to track our where crimes are happening, and we continue to look at that uh over time, where crimes are happening throughout the city, which helps inform where we want to have the programs offered.

When we talk about the times, we we've seen data that suggests that uh a lot of times students don't have things to do late in later hours.

But we also know the decisions are made about what you're gonna do in later hours, oftentimes in earlier hours.

So what we try to do is offer a variety of different times and a variety of different types of activities that will hit different interests, uh points of interest.

So, you know, if it is someone who it is that 5 30 to 7 30 where they usually get in trouble, there's a place for them.

But if there's a uh a group of students and there are groups of students with those late hours where they find themselves in trouble, there's a place for them as well.

So the idea is variety so that there's opportunity.

Thanks for the answers.

And I'll can I just sprinkle on top of that real quick.

I will say that the data has shown that by implementing program on weekends in the evenings, uh, it's really, really important.

We've seen great success with all three programs, including Freestyle Fridays, which started out as a pilot program, and so we're just looking to expand it.

That will happen on Fridays, but the other two will happen over the course of the weekend.

So both Fridays and Saturdays.

I'll also quickly say that other organizations are entertaining, creating additional safe and brave spaces that offer additional hours.

So one thing the Safe Task Force has been focused on is creating a community calendar that we can push out into community that documents where all of these places are, where a child could land safely until like a nine or ten o'clock at night.

So it is in progress.

Yep.

Thank you.

Um Ms.

Lipscomb and Mr.

Davis for your your uh work.

Um I I do want to um remind this group that part of the violence prevention memorial, and thank Commissioner Sasi and I see Commissioner Purdue here.

We had a very robust conversation on the dais um some time ago when there were a couple of requests to rename streets after victims of gun violence.

And we wanted to be more holistic in our approach and do something that was sustainable and yet provided both uh public education but also uh compassion to those who have been victimized.

And so this is in response to that, and I want to thank the Safe Task Force and the staff for really thinking through this and and coming back with a proposal uh to let us uh um be aware of of the progress and the community partners that that were part of this.

I remember going to Safe Task Force and there was robust discussion around the kickoff of it.

The second thing I wanted to say regarding um the uh violence prevention programs that we have for the summer.

Uh the city we have camps, right?

Through our parks and community services for daytime programming, uh some other places we have activated.

We also have a uh youth employment program uh for Girl 1000 applications are due on May 8th, and it's for some employment 20 hours a week from June 8th to the 17th.

And that's what she was still talking about earlier.

We were providing a lot of great programming during the day.

These uh uh partners are helping us uh think about how we positively engage youth in the summer on the evenings and the weekends when we've experienced a police department will tell you uh the most activity uh that uh when people are not positively engaged.

And so uh I do want to thank the all the community partners for coming back and and and being part of this as well as all the other things that are happening in the city to really make sure that we stay safe because it's policing alone will not result in a safer community.

It is very necessary, but we do need the community to step up and I appreciate them doing that.

And I it struck me as we're hearing this, um, you know, with the reintroduction of community police officers, there's obviously opportunity here for uh those community officers to uh to be present in some of these things.

Um so I'm sure you'll have those conversations and maybe you've already started this conversations, but integrating those two those two efforts.

Um, if if it's thank you so much uh sister lipskin, brother Davis for your presentation.

If it's possible get a list of all those community uh partners, I know they're extensive list uh that you may have because there may be some organizations that may be willing to to assist that aren't on there so that we can have access to that as well, and then also by by ward, you know, in that capacity.

As well as it's good to see the first and third being uh utilized in those capacity because and also the locations of them, knowing that you have access to uh to transportation if need be.

Yeah.

Um that regard I hope that is that there's still a partnership that's gonna be available to assist that endeavor for those that may need access to transportation in that capacity in that regard as well.

I mean, one more year, maybe second ward.

Here we go.

Okay, uh thank you.

Any uh further otherwise if there's sorry, Commissioner Sussey, then we'll move on to our next one.

Go ahead.

Thank you.

I know we have a packed agenda.

Um, thank you, Pastor Goldstone for that presentation.

Thank you, Letitia.

Echo uh Brandon's comments about working together.

Um we are working on the uh with the safe task force a a comprehensive sort of hear all the things that are happening.

We're gonna ask communities to sort of add to that because it again, as you heard about some staffing, it's it's limited.

Um, but we can sort of manage that and make sure it gets out to right partners and and already planning for next year.

I would say on the police memorial, I'm sorry, on the uh gun violence, victims of gun violence memorial.

Um that the intention there is really all those impacted got by gun violence.

And so if we can uh maybe at our next committee meeting, because we haven't talked about this very much, you know, we talked when we think about a lot of the homicides that have occurred in this in this city have been because of domestic violence, and so want to make sure we um you know, again, as you said, city manager, very holistic, and so and also what we heard, and I think you've really ran with this is like young people's voices in this have to be really represented.

So, how do we do all the things?

So um just wanted to put that out there as a reminder for me for the next meeting.

Thank you.

Okay.

Thanks.

So thank you so much for the presentation and for continuing to do this work.

Um the most important thing we can do in the crime space is prevent, right?

So um detect and and apprehend and all that stuff is fundamentally something we didn't prevent in the first place.

So thank you.

Thank you, sir.

Uh so that moves us on to our uh rebranded hundred and a hundred effort, which is now being gonna be called downtown pathways, and we're getting an update from all of the brilliant people who are involved in that, including uh our very own Ms.

Barons.

So take it away.

So I'm just gonna start off uh as I normally do, as we have committed to do, kind of putting the frame around um the city's overall response to homelessness and unhoused, and it's really a three-legged stool of uh investments in services and facilities, and then we have compassion and enforcement, and this body worked a couple of years ago uh to update some of our um uh ordinances that help with sort of that latter one, but we also typically try to report out to this body those other pieces around investment in services and facilities.

So to that end, we do have our partners here today uh to talk about the downtown pathways project.

But I just wanted again to put that in the frame.

Uh, as we were doing those um public health and safety ordinances back in May of 2023, we did commit to uh periodic reporting on data around uh this topic.

So I just wanted to give you a little bit of data, but again, you've you've had a lot of information.

We come back every three to six months on this data, so I don't intend to spend a lot of time in it.

Um, as has been the case since we've been reporting on this, hard to discern many trends.

So you don't see a clear downward trend in terms of uh folks reaching out to our 311, either looking for their own uh assistance, so looking to be connected to services, which is around it is better than 50 percent of the calls that you see here are actually people calling into 311 to be connected into services, and that has been the case since we started keeping that data.

And again, you're not seeing a lot of trends uh one way or kind of status quo, I guess what you would say.

Uh and we do also report out on a couple of pieces of information related to people who are living outside in our community.

So we do report on encampment cleanup.

So this is three two and three-quarters years worth of data.

That's why on the Q4 of the uh fiscal year, you don't see a third column there because we are obviously not through fiscal year 2026 yet.

Um but again, not really a clear trend of any kind that you can discern from this data, but we keep reporting on it and learning what we can learn.

Um, but we do have a program of encampment uh review if they're made aware, if we are made aware of encampments on public property, and we go out, we make we uh make contact, we provide information, we find alternative uh housing solutions for people, and then we come along with anything that is left behind.

Typically in these cleanup exercises, it's 50 to 70 percent of them have already the people have already left before permanent appear to have permanently left, and we are just cleaning up some things that were left behind.

So that's again a pretty consistent uh trend and number that we see.

And then uh I'm just gonna flash up a little bit of our homeless outreach team interactions.

Again, we are only three-quarters of the way through 2026 in this data.

That's the kind of goldenrod cover uh colored bar.

I also want to caveat this data in uh fiscal year 25.

We had changes to HOT and the staffing there and the model and how we sort of approach some of the work.

Uh and now that that team has sort of got gotten up and running in that iteration.

I think it will be uh behoove us to see if we should polish up some of this data.

And it may not be really a good idea to look at trends prior to fiscal year 25.

Uh so I may clean up this information uh moving forward as we uh talk to that team a little bit more about what makes sense to do moving forward.

I do want to just call out in particular because I think it will be relevant to what you're hearing from our uh downtown pathways team, is that um you'll see here in particular the coordinated entry assessments number really down for so that's in the middle of that horizontal bar chart.

Coordinated entry is the interaction with folks, making sure they are entered into the system that will match people up to a housing resource, uh, a very important sort of way to make sure people are getting into the system, and we try to ensure that people that are out and about uh in the community doing outreach are able to do those kinds of assessments so that we can connect people in as quickly as possible.

So those numbers down again for fiscal year 26.

That is partially due to the change in the team, the change in the people on the team, the need to be trained in the system, etc.

So we would expect that number to go uh back up, but just wanted to highlight that.

Um, with that, I'm going to turn it over to Mr.

Josh Lunger, uh, who is going to represent a team of folks that I'm sure he'll speak in more detail about about the downtown pathways project.

Thank you.

Well, why they pulled the slides, uh, Mayor Commission, thank you for the opportunity.

Um very pleased to be able to speak about something that I think um my colleagues and I have put a lot of uh blood, sweat and tears into, and a lot of other folks in the community have as well.

Um Megan from Catherine's and Courtney from the coalition uh to end homelessness will be kind of walking through some of the history of where we got how we got to downtown pathways, and then a little bit of how we work, and then we want to spend most of the time talking about what happened in quarter one and what we're like kind of looking forward to in quarter two.

Uh so with that, Courtney's gonna kind of cover a little bit more of the background and the details.

Thank you, Josh.

Appreciate it.

Um first off, I want to just highlight that downtown pathways, it is not a new organization.

We're not looking to create a 501c3.

Lord knows we don't need another one of those focused on housing in our community.

Um, really, it is elevating and evolving the work that we did through 100 and 100 to ensure that we are ending chronic homelessness in Kent County.

And we have done this through a lot of partnerships.

So the three of us might be standing before you today, but really this work has been happening in our community for decades with trusted partners using best practices, and we've just found a new way to really come together and um reutilize some of the resources we have, be more innovative, and make sure that we are more intentional about how we collaborate together.

So I'm really excited to say first off, we have seen significant progress since we initiated the 100 and 100 program.

Um we started this work in building out what we call our buy name list.

And we started with really understanding who in our community is experiencing chronic homelessness and making sure that we could document all of those individuals by name.

We started out with what we anticipated to be about a hundred folks on that buy name list.

What we learned is we were not capturing everybody, that we were not being inclusive enough.

And so we really had to expand that outreach and ensure that anybody who could qualify was being added to that list.

And that resulted in a significant jump on that list.

And it was quite surprising, I think, to most people in this community when we really recognize that we were more at about 225 to 250 for people who are experiencing chronic homelessness within a 90-day window in our community.

And that really led us to be more intentional about what do we need to do to drive those numbers down and connect those people to permanent housing that they would stabilize in and not return back to our system.

Hence where 100 over 100 came in.

We saw a lot of change.

We actually saw year over year change where we house 234% more chronically homeless individuals drain 100 and 100 than the year prior.

That is amazing.

I actually have some really great news that I want to make sure you do not walk away not hearing this.

We have seen our numbers go down to 170 on our buy name list that has been steady over the past several months.

We have not seen it trending back up.

And we have 144 people with active referrals.

That is huge for us.

It means that we have done a really good job in thinking through what are the resources that people need, how do we connect them to those resources, and what do we already have in our community that we might be able to repurpose?

So that means that we will have now, in theory, about 40 people that we need to account for.

You have to keep in mind though, every month we see new people flowing back into that list.

Um in addition to that, of those 144 active referrals, we know that there are some people who are not going to make it to housing for a lot of different reasons.

We see that people who have different background checks, particularly those background requirements can sometimes prohibit them from being able to access housing, especially those who might have a CSC record, so that's criminal sexual conduct.

If they have that record, it's really challenging for us to connect them to housing due to our inability to use federal resources to pay for that.

So we have a list at the top of that buy name list that we know who are going to be critically challenging to house.

And we need to develop strategies for for how we're going to address that.

So we learned a lot of lessons.

We're going to continue to evolve.

And we here's what we basically learned though.

Real-time response and decision making is critical.

So having this committee work that we've seen in our community year after year, where you come together once a month to talk about what are the challenges, what do we need to do, what are the strategies.

Once a month just isn't enough.

We meet at minimum weekly at this point.

It means that we are connected all the time.

We are bringing issues to the table in real time so that we can solve in real time as well.

You need to have transparency around that too.

We have to be able to trust each other.

We have to be able to ask for help.

And we also have learned that we can build resilient systems.

Now, we did a lot of this as we were flying it.

Um we built the plane as we were flying it, and we're still doing some of that to be honest.

But we've also seen as a result that we have seen only 3% of those individuals return back to the system.

So that's returns to homelessness.

That's one of the data metrics we look at, which is significantly lower than the national average.

Now, I'm gonna let Megan from Catherine's Health Center talk a little bit more about what is our approach and how are we going to continue this through downtown pathways.

Thank you.

Hi, I'm Megan from Catherine's Health Center, and my favorite joke is you can also call me Catherine from Megan's Health Center.

Sometimes people confuse that.

Um, as Courtney was mentioning, the name of the game is real-time response, flexibility, and housing first is an approach that uh we use all across the country.

Um, but we have adapted to use a housing plus approach because people are not fragmented silos, they are whole people, which means that we have to walk alongside them before they are housed and after they are housed.

Homelessness is a public health issue, just like violence.

And so when we're thinking about housing, we also have to think about the social determinants of health and that comprehensive resource structure that can walk alongside housing.

I'm not sure that healthcare walks or alongside housing, but yes, it does.

The other thing that we're we also learned is flexible funding.

Government programs are wonderful, they're the majority of our safety net, um, but sometimes they come with rigid rigid rules, and we need that flexible funding.

Um Josh, for instance, uh really acted as a liaison between landlords and shelters and would bring mattresses to places.

We need that flexible funding to do really innovative and improvement work.

So, how do we work?

Umtrepreneurial operating system.

Have you heard of it before?

It's the greatest thing that ever hit Grand Rapids.

Uh the EOS.

I have to admit, I did not love it for the first three years I was here, and now I'm a convert and I will evangelize throughout the nation.

Um but what really makes it special is that we are all separate nonprofits with our own strategic plans.

We do not have time, energy, or resources to create one big giant strategic plan for this project.

As Courtney mentioned, we are not creating another 501c3.

What EOS does, it's action-oriented, it's simple, it gets us all to the table, and we agree on annual goals that can be divided into quarterly rocks or objectives, and then every time we meet, we have to-dos, and we have to come back and say the to-dos are done.

I truly think that this is an approach that really works for a collaborative.

And I know in Grand Rapids and in West Michigan, we say that we collaborate well together, and I truly believe that.

This is taking it up a next level because we have a shared plan and interdependent accountability.

That is very different.

We are all responsible for the results for each other.

People cannot be healthy if people are not housed, and my shelter and housing friends cannot make people healthy if they do not have a health care or behavioral health entity walking with them.

Um, and so our proven process is we align, it takes it takes uh shared consciousness, trust, and humility, and no ego, that's a really big deal.

And we go out and try something, we act.

And because we are able to be honest with ourselves and we are results driven, we come back, we assess, we ask what's working, what's not working, we fix it, and we go back out there and we adapt.

Um, and now I would like to pass it over to Josh.

Thank you.

Thanks.

Yeah.

I'm not as much fun as Megan, so um so as a group, you know, they mentioned that we're all separate, there's public, private, nonprofit partners at the table all the time.

Um, and one of the things we know we need to do is better communicate across all the stakeholders that we engage with, kind of a concise vision for where we're going, and and then tell people very authentically and transparent transparently uh about what's working and what's not working.

So, first thing we did as we thought about what we were calling, we had like a project name that wasn't downtown pathways at the time, um, was decide what are our goals, like what do we all agree the vision looks like.

And after a thousand drafts, it felt like we really narrowed in on these four things that we think everyone uh in our circle all see value in.

And so there is a longer version of these.

You can go to PathwaysGR.org and you can read uh the longer uh sentence.

I won't read it at you.

Uh but the four goals are a smart homeless response system, a safe and welcoming downtown, connected stakeholders with clear roles and radical transparency.

And so then this last quarter, which just ended, um we we got together for a half day, we threw all of our best and worst ideas at the wall, and then went around and decided what are the four we didn't know the four at the time, but it ended up being four things that had to get done in order for us to see that vision complete by the end of the year.

Um, and so it looked at you know what can we influence, what's the importance of timing, prioritization, and so the four we came up with are one was secure funding for and launched the fair market rent study, and that is a Grand Rapids Housing Commission uh priority.

And what that means is that because rent in Grand Rapids has gone up, uh HUD says basically you can pay this much per month.

Well, the housing commission can pay more, they got authorization to do so, but they don't actually get more money.

So in order to pay for more, they shelve vouchers.

So we I think the number and Lindsay could correct me, I'm sure about 300 voucher vouchers are shelved and not being utilized by our residents.

If we are able to, and and Lindsay's done this, the housing commission has done this successfully before, appeal uh to HUD through a fair market rent study, we could unlock up to 300 vouchers, which is incredible.

Um, that is a great resource.

Um, not only would it provide uh vouchers for chronic homeless, but 200 uh two-thirds of them would go to the regular process.

Um, and so transparently, uh we did not secure all the funding, but we secured enough funding that uh this RFP has been issued and awarded and is the work is beginning and so it's underway.

Um and we do have commitments from a few uh philanthropists that are helping to cover that cost.

Um rock two is the launch of comprehensive communication strategy.

So that's really again focusing on how do we tell folks what's working, what's not working, who's doing what uh with a common uh focus, and that was really the launch of pathways, and that's the website, that's the newsletter.

Um we hope you all are all signed up.

If not, I'll keep forwarding it to you because I can see who signed up.

Um because we want to really make sure that we all had the same information when it comes to this issue.

Uh rock three is identify a location and plan for expanding housing units with complex care services.

Um last year on the state budget, the Chamber Foundation worked with Rep Wooden uh from Northeast Grand Rapids to secure uh I think we have about three quarters of a million we can spend on expanding complex care in uh Grand Rapids and for Surf Kent County.

Um this won't get us all the way there, but it's a good start.

We we really know through the work that Degaj has done at Hardside Landings and others have have supported, like Catherine's House, Network 180, et cetera.

Um that complex care services with permanent housing is an incredible asset and it's something we need more of in the community.

Um it's one of the big dominoes.

We'll talk about that next.

That we feel if we can unlock at least 40 units this year, we're gonna see a lot of this kind of stickiness within the the whole continuum loosen up.

So we have identified a location, there's designs drawn, there's um a requests submitted to MDHHS, they're trying to work through uh some funding strategies, and then we're also looking at more of a short-term um opportunity.

Uh we have a couple sites, Ryan and uh Ryan Kilpatrick and Thelma and a couple of other um businesses were were going basically door to door at uh for two weeks straight looking at sites, trying to determine what is the most uh responsible and feasible sites with emergency.

Uh this is something that I feel strongly that we want to get done by the end of the year is at least have a uh a mid-term um site open and running for um complex care.

And then the last one was uh was kind of the same thing, br bigger vision, but it's more of a long-term plan for with all the partners we have at the table.

Well who are the populations you're serving, what are um the needs that are met and unmet, and then how do we start to plan out what is a three to five year plan look like for what serve what what housing needs uh need to be identified and located uh to serve them.

Um and that's again trying to make sure that we're we're speaking accurately with both our public and our private funders about what the next few years might look like.

Um keeping in mind we still want to be adaptable, we want to be resilient.

So if things change, we're not locked into something, but at least we have a clear picture where we want to go.

So quarter two, we're um because it's really hard to schedule with 10 organizations for some reason, um, we're not meeting until May 8th to review quarter one as a team.

Um we're doing a couple smaller meetings in between, but we didn't have the full half day.

Uh when we meet on May 8th, we're gonna sit around and do the same process again.

We're gonna review quarter one objectives, determine what went really well, and if there's anything we need to uh continue doing, and then look at what has to happen between now and August 8th in order to uh for us to move forward.

Um so we've got some things we know we have to do.

Uh interim permanent supportive housing with complex care services is one of those things.

Uh metrics, transitional housing is something we don't have a ton of um, and then it'll be up to the group consensus to determine what's a priority for quarter two.

We're gonna assign someone gets assigned responsibility, so all four of those rocks, one of us was accountable for.

It doesn't mean we're doing all the work ourselves, uh, and then we're gonna go out and and execute, and then we'll make sure we communicate to you and to other stakeholders.

Here's where we're headed in quarter two, and you can follow along.

Anything I missed?

Save the date.

Save what's that?

Save the date.

For what?

The celebration.

Oh, we are gonna do another celebration this year on uh June 18th, and we'll invite everyone uh from our organizations uh from public and private partners, just to highlight again all the work that's happening.

Like what's amazing is we get together and we talk and we set goals and then we we work on it, but each one of the teams of the people at the table are really doing the work.

So, you know, Megan's got a team like Mark uh who's out actually serving the people that were and is doing the real work, and they don't always get the credit, so that'll be an opportunity to provide that.

Yeah.

Well, thank you for the presentation.

Um I've been involved in this uh a lot, and uh the energy involved, the clarity and the focus and the outcome-driven conversations are really inspiring.

Um so it's it's amazing to have like okay, we know the scope of the problem.

Um we're gonna develop a plan to deal with it, and we're not gonna give up.

So thank you all for that.

Um before I open it up to questions or comments from any else.

I just want to for the probably millions of people who are watching this broadcast right now.

Um I want to do my slightly contrarian thing and like name something that's important to name.

Um so if I was listening to this present presentation and I was a naysayer, um, you know uh well, let me back this up.

The number one thing that I discovered when I got into this space that I did not understand that just blew me away, was the fact that people who are really housing distressed don't move.

So in San Francisco, there's a study, and 99% of the people who they talked to were homeless in San Francisco were from San Francisco.

They didn't move to San Francisco because they thought that was a great place to be homeless.

Um, once you say that out loud, it makes them it makes tons of sense.

If I became unhoused, I wouldn't leave Grand Rapids because I know people here, you know.

I could maybe couch surf at uh Commissioner O'Kilgore's house, or you know, I could uh ask uh the city manager for five bucks for lunch.

Like I so I would I I wouldn't want to leave my community.

That's the last thing I'd want to do.

The reason I'm pointing this out is it's so important for our community to understand.

If we build a good system, it's not like we're mi building a services magnet.

It's not like people from California are gonna start coming here so that they can, you know, access Catherine's health.

We're talking about people who are from our community in our community, and if we help them, we drive these numbers down, we are going to see and you know, we're gonna be able to see the results every day, and they're gonna persist because now people do move here.

I mean, you know, that's always true.

That's true of every income sector.

And so, you know, tomorrow someone may move here from Detroit, someone may move here from Montana, and some of those people may experience uh homelessness.

But the vast majority of the need here is people who are from this community, we're gonna stay in our community, and so doing all of this work is is not going to have that sort of uh negative effect that you could that you could imagine.

So when I first thought about it, I thought, well, if you build a really good system, will other people come grab it?

And the answer is we're really serving people in the community.

All the data shows that wherever you are on the country.

So I just wanted to put that out there.

That's not a grumpy point.

It's just a a counter to my own biases before I started looking at the at the numbers that I think a lot of people might have.

So, Commissioner Kilgar.

Thank you, Mayor, and thank you so much.

Wow, this was awesome, Josh.

Courtney, Megan, thank you so much uh for this presentation.

I Josh, I have subscribed to the newsletter just now.

So I'm hoping other people do, and it says coming soon, so I'm really excited about that.

One of the things that stuck out to me was on slide five, it says approach challenges with appropriate urgency progress over perfection.

What a beautiful way to encapsulate this work.

And honestly, the work of public service.

I really am so thankful to see that from you all.

This was a very meaningful presentation.

We are uh in budget season now.

Uh we have uh seen uh in the preliminary presentation uh that we uh have a pressing concern here of we, as you know, Josh, of working to get the uh nuisance ordinance passed.

Uh a part of that solution was going to be storage.

The DDA has not really responded to that need.

They noted the last time they presented to us that it was not seen as a priority from their executive staff.

So as you all are working with this really innovative coalition of folks within our community, my question to you and ask to you is how can you all help the city of Grand Rapids uh really follow through on that solution that you helped craft the ordinance to have storage available to where it's not so much of a burden on uh our our tight budget here as we've seen in our preliminary uh presentation.

So walk me through if if anyone on this awesome coalition is thinking of ways to support the city to make sure storage, which is which is an integral part to what you discussed, right?

Giving dignity to our unhoused neighbors.

Uh give me some information on that, please.

Yeah, I don't know if I'll have the exact answer um yet.

But it is something that was flagged early uh from uh city staff that it would be a priority for this year and is something that our team has on the issues list that we see we get together, we to discuss um because having storage is a uh a top issue.

And I I have to say um just from my limited interaction uh with the city's public works team, they do an excellent job, and we really appreciate um their commitment to keeping our our community clean um and how they work with people to uh make sure they keep folks know about that resource.

Yeah.

So it it is something that we will seek to support in some capacity and and prioritize in some.

And you said you listed the next date that you all meet, which was in May.

Um we're uh is is that on the docket or agenda?

We're meeting uh this Friday for our weekly, and it is on the issues list right now.

It's it's a fairly long series list, probably like 20 items because uh we didn't get together last week.

But yes, it's on there for us to discuss and determine what's the best consensus way to address that.

And then will you communicate uh what that comes, what comes from that to city staff so where this committee could get feedback on that?

Absolutely.

Thank you so much, and thanks again to all of you all for presenting today.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh this is a great presentation.

I work for an employer who is listed on that slide, so uh I'm excited about this work and it's absolutely urgent.

I do have a question because I'm not involved in the day-to-day aspects of it, and from this perspective, sitting on this body, I'm curious how the downtown pathways project team is not only using current and past data to inform these decisions today from Courtney Myers-Keaton.

We had a chance to hear about the the inflated numbers that we saw once we started to peek back behind the curtain.

I think we'll continue to see that the homelessness numbers to our region and our city are maybe more drastic than we anticipated when we came into this work.

And this is rooted in anticipated growth around the homeless population.

So as there's a shifting entry level job market, as cost of living goes up for groceries and gas, and as housing supports like Medicare and SNEP are vulnerable uh from a policy perspective in Lansing and in the and the Capitol.

How is this work not only using the past data but the shifting industry to make sure that these solutions are anticipating the growth in these regions that would be necessary?

I'll I'll just say something quick and then Courtney will give you the smarter answer.

Um so you've you've hit on something that I think is at the core of what we try to do together is that um to quote General McChrystal, who I have a severe crush on, and we got to meet with him a couple weeks ago.

You know, today's problems are complex, they're fast moving, they're interconnected, cause and effect is often unclear.

By the time you start mapping something, it's already changed.

And so what we're really trying to do is focus on building a resilient system here.

And it sucks sometimes that you can't control some things outside.

Doesn't mean we don't need to be aware of it and don't need to plan for it and try to do our best to mitigate it.

Um, but it's one of those things where it's like it just further incentivizes us, I think, to really get it right here in Grand Rapids in Kent County, because there are going to be things that right now we have no idea are coming our way that will upset our apple cart.

Um and and so I think you hit on just the complexity of this because there's always a what about this?

And it it makes it hard work, right?

There's a reason that um that I think when I like do calls with chambers of commerce across the country, every single large metro chamber will we'll talk about what are we doing to solve homelessness in our community.

And I would hold our teams up against pretty much any other team I've encountered recently.

I would too, and I thank you.

I'm excited to hear from Miss Myers Keaton, but I hope that as the chamber continues to work with this group that your focus and legislation from the chamber and the members that you serve will start to recognize some of the gaps and the disparities that we see between where the chambers energies have existed and some of these connected systems that you're outlining right now.

So I'm hopeful that those things like Medicaid SNAP and other supports that do impact the housing system will be a priority at the Chamber of Commerce.

But Courtney, go ahead, please.

Yeah, first I just want to say I think Josh's answer was really spot on.

Um the only thing I'm going to add to that is we do have a couple of things underway that aren't necessarily downtown pathway specific, but are community oriented, and that one, we are developing a funding contingency plan.

We know that we have changes coming our way.

We've been discussing this for well over a year at this point, knowing that the federal administration's priorities have changed and that it is going to affect what happens in our local community.

So what can we anticipate based off of that?

What gaps are we likely going to see and how will our community respond to that?

Because we need to have a really community-specific plan.

We have a lot of unique resources here.

So what can we maybe do to mitigate some of those effects that we are anticipating?

And as you talked about, a lot of those changes that are happening aren't even necessarily happening within the homelessness response space.

They're happening further upstream, which then affects the homelessness response space.

So in addition to that, one of our goals within the coalition over the next year, now that we are fully staffed and have a new infrastructure, is really increasing our advocacy efforts as well.

Like advocating works.

We've seen it work with uh many of the legislative priorities that happen, especially at the beginning of last year.

We were anticipating some really negative changes to come our way that were able to be course corrected because of the advocacy that happened at the national level.

So our hope is that we will also be heavily involved in that over the next couple of years.

Thank you both so much.

City manager.

Yeah, thank you everyone for the presentation.

This is um probably the most synergistic I've seen our community work since I've been here, and we are all working to solve common um problems and challenges, and I will agree with uh with Josh having seen efforts in other communities being part of them.

Um I've not seen one as well coordinated um and holistic as this.

So I want to thank you for uh being open to change and um helping us to really be solution oriented.

I think um this is really we we don't we're we don't want to spike the ball.

Certainly we we know we have uh a lot more uh challenges to address, but I have seen remarkable improvement and I really want to thank everybody for coming together.

Amen.

Um we have uh legislative in three minutes, but if anyone else has any comments, great.

Thank you so much.

Thank you all for being here.

Thanks for the presentation.

Thanks for the work.