Speaker numbers apply only to this recording.
The Education and Human Services Standing Committee met on Thursday, October 8, 2026, at 2:00 PM in the Council Chamber. The meeting included a presentation on the updated Homeless Services Strategic Plan, public comment, discussion of multiple ordinances, and board vacancy appointments. The committee acted on a series of funding and contract measures related to opioid settlement funds, shelter operations, and youth programming.
Well, greetings. I apologize for my tardiness. I was helping some special guests get here and navigate their way. Park parking crouches are not easy to navigate in the city of Richmond as you all know well. Anyway, we'll call this meeting to um order, and uh, Madam Clerk, if you can read the chamber evacuation, uh, plan announcement public speaker guidelines. Upon activation of the emergency alarm signal, all persons should immediately exit the building. Please use the exits to the left or right front of the council chamber or the north or south stairwells outside the rear doors of the chamber. Do not use elevators or escalators. After exiting the building, security would direct everyone down ninth street to the fenced area located between Clay and Lee Street. Able persons should assist visually in hearing impaired visitors with exiting the building. Individuals wishing to speak during public hearings and the public comment period are generally allowed three minutes to speak. Persons appearing before the committee are not allowed to campaign for public office, promote private business ventures, use language of a personal nature, which insults or demeans any person, including comments directed at public officials or staff members that are not related to the official duties, or address a question staff members directly. All questions are to be directed to the committee chair. Members of the public who registered in advance to speak virtually would be called at the appropriate time, either doing the public comment period or doing the public hearing for the legislation on which they sign up to address. Okay. Um I'm Rhonda Sneed from Blessing Warriors RBA. I just have a couple of questions. Um this past summer dealing with our unsheltered people, there's been a lot of issues. For instance, families. When we come across families with children, let's say at 10 o'clock at night, they call me. There is no protocol, there's no one to call, nothing to do. I did contact Tiffany Ford at one time, and they had some kind of protocol that they wanted us to become a partner with, but I didn't agree with we didn't agree with it because it only they only had the uh before eligibility was the child had to be three years or under, or a child under 18 with a chronic health condition such as asthma or heart or kidney disease, or uh an individual who was three months pregnant. I don't think the child four years old should be discriminated against because they're four years old. It's okay for them to be sleeping in a tent or on a bench. Then that I well, one of the people from Bliss Wars had to be present with the family. So I they call us at home and we have to get out of bed to go see this family versus we just contact whoever the worker is, they go see the family. But that was only in the process when the shelter cooling sensor was activated. So that was what six, seven times this past summer. Otherwise, tonight, family contacts was at 10 o'clock at night. What is the protocol? Who made this protocol about the child had to be three years or yellow? And who are we to determine if they have a chronic illness? So if I say the child has no chronic illness and they found that the child has asthma, has an asthma tech. Are we responsible? We can't put that kind of uh liability on ourselves dealing with that. Is there a 24-hour hotline that they could call of who's responsible for these families or senior become of course people 80, 90 years old with nowhere to go? They tell us to call 911. And they tell us we're not sick. We don't need to go to a hospital. You just can't be out here in the streets in the porn main, 90 years old. For since 2014 that I know of, every year we have all these meetings to identify homelessness. I think 12 years later, we know what homelessness is. We finally have to come. This whole summer program, they opened up the shelter, which was great the other day at Maine. But that was but that was after it had been raining for 12 hours. Everybody was soaking wet. It just doesn't make sense. You know, I know they're they're trying to work on it, and I appreciate that, but it's not it's not moving fast enough. That's all.