I think we've both been around.

We got a few things up our sleeve, right?

Yeah.

I call to order the housing, community development, and public health policy committee for Thursday, February 26, 2026.

Clerk, please call the role.

Jones.

Here.

Gaddis.

Kramer.

Martinez.

McPherson.

Meldon.

Williams.

Here.

Well, thank you everyone for attending this important committee meeting.

Just to give some background.

I um basically what happened with the funding that was cut regarding mental health services, prompted the conversation of how these essential organizations within the city are very important.

And what will happen to our clients Hill, our those who use these services if they were to cease to exist.

So this is to really paint a picture about of course the importance of these organizations and services, but also get to thinking about what can we do in order to really preserve our these services based upon what's going on federally as well as statewide.

So at this moment, um I will hand it over to Miss Julie Imbri.

And you can and also public comment is permitted.

Thank you.

I don't have it separate, just to know.

Okay.

Apologies.

I believe you have a copy though.

Yep, we do have a copy, and we can provide um Ladistar can also provide the copies as well for the public.

Um so as uh councilwoman Jones had um described, uh part of what we're here to talk about today is an ongoing conversation we've had regarding federal cuts to uh supportive programming that significantly impacts particularly persons with severe and persistent mental illness within our community.

And uh there are two different models, both a short-term and a long-term model that are that are impacted uh by this change.

And uh this isn't a project uh that's based on theory.

Uh part of what's going on is we have a system-based forecast grounded in how our homeless response infrastructure currently operates that this totally wipes out if we if we lose these fundings.

And so when we look at the scale of current housing interventions, um, the different funding risks and the legal uncertainty facing a lot of the continuum of cares.

Um what we'll talk about today is to present what a 12-month destabilization uh timeline might look like, uh multiple direct and indirect community impacts that Toledo will feel and uh part of the discussion will also be the financial consequences associated with those impacts.

So the core principle or piece you know, really to look at today is that when housing funding disappears, homelessness doesn't.

And costs do not disappear, they shift and they increase to other sectors.

If you look at the second slide in your packet that council has, um you might recognize this from our previous presentation uh as far as representing the number of folks statewide that will be impacted by these funding and potential cuts.

So we just wanted to put that in there as a little bit of a refresher as we move forward to what we're looking at.

So let's take a moment to look at the current scale and impact of what we're looking at.

This funding currently stabilizes 750 households, approximately 1,200 individuals.

30% of these are children.

Partnerships with more than 50 landlords and businesses will be directly impacted.

We feel that that number will be much greater on an indirect basis.

Over 30 program specific employees will exit the workforce.

And there's the potential for 128 participants who are in the program whose employment desperately is related to their ability to maintain not just housing but also supportive services, which are what help keep them independent and functioning and excelling persons within our community.

When we look at the financial impact, we're looking at at least $3.1 million that is in total jeopardy.

This is not a new number to you, but I want to break out a little bit more today what the more significant impact is as we're working through and realizing what some of the details are.

More than two million in this will be rental revenue to landlords.

So we're going beyond just program participants, but we're looking at workforce small businesses and entities that are serving our community that are going to be significantly impacted by this.

This impacts individuals in our community spending money.

This impacts recoupable property taxes on and on.

Currently, the National Alliance to End Homelessness has moved forward with litigation, and there are current impacts that we are looking at now.

Since the last time we were here, there have been several changes in that legal environment.

Congress has made appropriations that provide funding for some of the projects under this, which is really only about 10% of the projects funded by the COC.

A majority of the projects that are funded and how the appropriations play out.

A majority of the projects renew in Q3 of the calendar year.

And so a large majority of the COC funding is still in jeopardy with that timeline.

Currently, HUD has asked because of the appropriations that Congress has taken on.

Additional impacts that we that we will see here when we start looking at the number of individuals who are going to start falling out of the safety net.

A couple of other key pieces in addition to the numbers I just displayed for you.

We also need to look at the continuing aging population, which continues to contribute to the persons seeking services.

And again, we're also looking to have displaced families as we start to implement enforcement over our lead issues within the community, which is desperately needed to protect our children and the safety of young families.

But it behooves us to plan for the families that will need to relocate who want to relocate because they don't feel safe, and those who have landlords that won't be responsive to their needs.

So there's further impact into this issue.

Again, from HUD about what things look like on Monday, and so we can follow up to let you know at that point that will just give us impacts of what a timeline looks like of when funding will go away.

Definitely for 2027 that a majority of these funds will disappear.

And our contingency planning has begun with those partners with our board and with the COC board.

A little bit more about why this matters locally.

The court's decision also is delaying funding.

Currently, there's close to 150,000 that agencies are to date fronting in unreimbursed funds that will escalate by 50 to 75,000 increasingly over the next few months.

And if we get into June and July, that fronted money starts to get closer to about 500,000 a month that cumulatively different agencies will have to front if HUD is not providing a cash flow.

This group has wonderfully provided funding to organizations when there have been cash flows or other hiccups.

We're hoping to avert that, and we have good planning and frameworks in place.

But knowing that that has been a previous issue, I just want to put that in front of you that that is an additional impact right now is the ability to make sure that that cash flow is going will be difficult.

Even with the uncertainty and disruptions, housing programs require stable funding and commitments, and we cannot get commitments or clarity from the government, our local and state politicians that we have been working with and communicating with understand fullheartedly what this looks like and have done a lot of advocacy, so thank you, and we thank them, but we have to continue.

We need to have a system that is clearer, more defined, and forthright in our community to protect the needs.

As we move forward and we look at a what the timeline might look like, once we lose funding within the first 30 days, some of the immediate impacts will be that we will have to haul all PSH placements.

Those actually could be backed up and occur before this even starts.

We're already starting to see landlords who are getting a little skittish and apprehensive about wanting to work with us, which is very problematic considering our ask of them is to work with us to provide housing to folks that already have a lot of barriers.

We're already asking for significant trust.

We're already asking for them to kind of go out on a limb for folks that have multiple evictions, criminal histories, et cetera.

And when we can't guarantee the funding or the support services, which can help enable that person to appropriately live in that unit and respect the unit, it's really starting to erode our current system.

So within that first 30 days, we anticipate significant increase in the number of 211 calls, which is also a sorely under-resourced resource in our community.

We might start to see the beginning of eviction proceedings for households that start to lose their rental assistance.

And we anticipate across the community as many landlords that there are working with us, there are many that aren't, and many that are unkind to many of the folks that we serve, even if they are working to us.

We don't believe some that all those landlords will work with us as far as payment plans or provide any adjustments or longer periods of time for payment to be made as we start to figure these pieces out.

We really are kind of seeing some signaling that they will seek to move forward with immediate evictions.

But this can't compensate for the lack of funds or the lack of units that are in the in the community.

One thing that's important to understand about how this funding comes in is how the housing in our community is structured.

A good portion of the housing is scattered site with different landlords, but nine of the projects alone are through neighborhood properties.

Neighborhood properties owns their own real estate.

And so if they are required through this funding shift to change their programming to shift to different individuals that they are allowed to serve, all of these individuals could potentially have to vacate the units that they're in to make way for the new participants.

So we suddenly have a mass movement of renters within the community, and we don't have the number of units that we need.

Is what that shift might look like.

We have further concerns with this given the number of privately owned HUD properties that we know are experiencing difficulties with repairs and are not able to lease up the units that they have, so we have pressure in the community by those citizens that are already seeking alternative arrangements.

So it continues to compound, and we're gonna need to figure something out there.

As we progress down that timeline on a 30 to 60 day, I just want to remind you.

Where we're at already is we have 588 beds and shelters that are full.

There are approximately 200 households or 465 individuals waiting on wait lists to get into shelter.

As exit stall, those wait lists will grow.

Through your generosity, we've had the luxury of providing warming centers again this this winter.

Again, I will thank you.

I want to let you know we have served cumulatively an unduplicated number of folks, over 250 people.

We generally have anywhere between 60 and 90 folks every night.

The important piece to look at in that statistic is these are not people that are on the wait lists.

These are people that are off our radar.

These are people that have been banned or feel they're banned from shelters, so they don't even try.

So these are additional people that we have not been looking at, and the numbers continue to grow with the group of our in our encampment workforce where we're working with code enforcement fire and Toledo Police to address the number of folks that are reported to be living in boarded up units, which continues to increase.

Another alarming piece about the number of folks that are in those warming centers.

36 that are actively seeking help through the warming center are folks that are well beyond the level of care for a shelter.

That means their psychiatric needs far exceed what can be handled by the staff.

Andor the growing piece again is the medical needs presented by our aging population, folks in wheelchair, folks that have medical needs.

They can't toilet, they can't shower, they can't do those things by themselves, and shelter staff are not trained, insured, or capable to provide that level of care.

There's an additional 50 to 60 that we estimate in looking through rosters beyond the ones that are actively at warming centers that meet that same profile.

And so we have approximately about a hundred folks through psychiatric and medical needs that can't even be met through the shelter system, which is again further adding to our significant issue.

So as we look at these growing numbers and they continue to compound and we look at the different sources and the stress on the system, the inevitable is that the homeless unsheltered individuals are going to start increasing.

That's already been noted in several of the downtown corridors.

We are trying very hard to work with the uptown association, associated business owners there to educate, provide information and uh with the return hope, and they are being wonderful and providing grace and trying to obtain not just short-term but long-term solutions, and there is a care there for the humanity of what needs to be provided to folks.

But as that pressure continues and it's starting to impact their businesses or people's perception that they can't access business businesses because of the individuals in the area, the trash, and the increasing amount of human waste because there are no public restrooms, it's starting to become a little bit daunting for our public business owners.

In addition to these pieces, we'll start to see increases in public calls.

We did a very basic run through after a long period of warming shelters just to see what the roles looked like in the local jail.

And within less than 24 hours, there were six to eight individuals from the warming center that were at jail.

And so it just a small example of what we know, which is when they don't have a place to go, either behaviorally or they know they can get the proverbial three hots and a cut if they get themselves sent to jail.

Our local crisis personnel doesn't have the luxury for this to continue to increase.

They're not well, they're not staffed well enough, they're amazing people and they do amazing things.

But when we look at future planning and resourcing, that is a significant area we need to figure out how we can provide some support and resources as well.

We're currently working with TARDA.

One piece to know is after warming centers with different changes, and the operating hours of the library have significantly impacted how our unsheltered folks aren't able to maneuver around the city.

Our library is very kind and gracious to our unsheltered population, but with delayed opening, there have been several severely cold mornings where that becomes an issue.

So they've all started to kind of congregate at the TARDA hub.

We've spent some time down there observing, working in collaboration with TARDA leadership, TARDA security staff engaging, trying to discuss through solutions, and we're looking for some long-term options.

But the reality is it really just keeps coming down to there's not a place for our unsheltered folks to go.

They need a place that has heat, or conversely, cooling and some other basic needs.

We'll talk about that a little bit more in just a little bit.

As we start looking at the services that we need to provide, the significant shifts in temperature have also caused an uptick in our folks going to the emergency room because they can't adjust.

And I think that that's going to continue.

Our cooling efforts are going to have to be as equally responsive as our warming efforts once we get into that system.

If we keep moving down our timeline and the funding loss continues beyond 90 days, we'll start to see program reductions and closures.

At that point is when we'll start to see the workforce impact and layoff of staff.

We'll have loss of trains, housing specialists, and compliance folks that have trained and have gained significant expertise.

Their ability is or their skills and abilities are often very honed to a particular particular area, so reemployment might be very difficult, and re-entry into the workforce might be very difficult for those folks that have been the dedicated consistent employees in this system.

When we look at the landlord impact, the loss of that reliable payment stream again will significantly hit our landlords.

We anticipate many of them will cease to be landlords, increasing some and blight, unattended properties, and unrecooped tax property taxes that we need to keep our community vibrant.

When we look at the system level damage, it also reduces our ability to match to leverage other funds.

And so when we're looking at our state funding or other private funding, I know you know all too well the difficulty of match and how that works, but it is a significant concern for providers, and it is also a significant concern at the state level as well with how some of the money tandems.

And so we will continue to look and work towards what that looks like, but that could just exponentially start reduct the reduction of funds that is available.

So once we get to this point, it's system level damage, and we're looking at permanent loss of potential housing stock that goes into disrepair, which this community has strove hard to fight and rally against.

Again, we've lost nearly three-quarters of a million dollars in homeless services in the community this year just by our funded partners with very little change to service and acquisition is a large change.

But the services to our persons on the street has gone largely unchanged.

Some of the further impacts that we need to look to are further disruptions for our children, being able to have to move about the city, the disruption in their schooling, their education, impacts on their behavioral and emotional stability.

And this only increased educational setbacks for a school system that is currently stressed, and doesn't need additional pieces to add to some of the stress that they're experiencing.

And again, a reminder we are the number one city in the state of Ohio for the number of children that are unsheltered in the school system.

Let's talk about the impact on our adults.

We now have folks who have had severe issues and overcome barriers to become housed that will start increasing the evictions on their record, making it harder for them to obtain future housing.

This will reduce future housing eligibility and starts to push up the number of individuals in our home that we in our system that are classified as chronically homeless or having persistent and multiple issues of being unsheltered.

The indirect pieces are again our emergency responders, our health care providers, schools, businesses, and neighborhoods.

I want to be careful how I present this because we don't want in any way, shape, or form to paint the individuals that we're serving as dangerous or criminal.

But I'll tell you as a mama, if I had to feed my child, I'd steal something, if that's what it came down to.

And I think we need to be in touch with our close human nature to understand those realities of what some of these families and individuals are experiencing, whether they've been homeless before or not.

So the inherent small pieces of petty theft, different pieces, loitering, which is a significant piece of what starts to increase when people don't have a place to go.

And then when you enter in the significant mental health needs of some of these individuals, that starts to escalate quickly and puts up and it puts our emergency responders at danger.

So when we continue down this piece and we look at the community level impact, it is definitely not a contained issue.

It has significant impacts in significant areas.

The costs don't go away, they just shift.

That's one emergency room stay or approximately three days in jail, which is pretty much what happens with a loitering conviction for many of our individuals.

Housing is a preventative infrastructure, and emergency response is reactive and significantly more costly.

So when we look at all of these public systems being impact and the shift, some of the impact won't be as evident right away.

Some of it will be longer.

Again, when you start looking at workforce impact, unrecouped property taxes, the slum and blight that starts to occur in those in those housing facilities.

The cascading failures don't stop there.

Our placements stop, our shelter exits slow or come to a halt.

Our emergency systems and emergency rooms continue to become backed up.

We start to, we fear we will start to see the business owners and small landlords choose not to be landlords.

And the housing inventory continues to shrink even further.

Each failure compounds the next.

The longer the disruption, the more difficult and expensive recovery comes.

So some of the broader implications, as if those aren't enough, when we look at again the increased visible homeless population in downtown, then starts to impact some of the wonderful things that have been going on in several of the development of the corridors, the restaurants, the mud hens, people visiting downtown and bringing commerce.

And again, even just to tourism and some of the great, we have the new boat that comes and docks here.

You know, there's so many great things in our community that are launching that are going to be significantly impacted by these.

Some of those will have to be short-term and not provide long-term solutions.

But there are things that we need to do, like addressing the public restrooms need and the trash trash pickup or ability to gather trash in our communities, are some of the very basic pieces that we're going to need to address and meet needs of folks that are on the street.

If you think of that, our outreach to provide information is paper.

Our outreach to provide food is through disposable items.

So there's more cups and styrofoam and other pieces.

So in our efforts to provide human care for folks, and we absolutely should.

We're also creating other problems that we systemically need to take a look at how we can fix or improve.

We need to look at some emergency bridge funding mechanisms and how can different systems come together.

We're working with the mental health recovery services board.

This can't land squarely on their shoulders, but they are definitely at the table in the discussions.

And we're working closely with each of the uh we'll be meeting over the next month to gauge from our our providers.

We can see from a high level the cash flow impact that that's happening.

We are unclear at this point what their reserves are and their ability to sustain those pieces.

So that is the next step of our assessment and stress on the system.

And we will also start to uh hopefully be able to better gauge how many landlords are rescinding or not engaging in future engagements or placing new folks through uh some of the funding given the threats that are at hand.

Housing is the most stable and cost effective intervention, and so if we can stabilize uh some of these pieces or start figuring out trajectories and opportunities to place people, for instance, with the NPI, if they have to shift their structure design, and we have 750 people to rehouse, we've got to figure out where, and that's gonna take some creativity amongst city leaders, county leaders, the mental health, Lucas Metropolitan Housing.

Many of those entities are present on our board, so there's definitely communication going on right now and robust uh decisions and information gathering for us to figure out.

And I'm curious, I would be curious from your perspective if you have ideas of who we can pull to the table for some of these ideas as far as we come up with solutions.

But I also want to put out there and remind you last time we spoke a little bit about a group of community folks, mostly within the uptown area that have wonderfully given of their time to meet with myself and Ebert, who's the COC chair, uh, and uh also Donnie Miller from NHA, so that we can address uh the local health issues of the waste, the trash, and that group is coming up with several solutions and recommendations for some of the pieces we're we're doing.

I can tell you the direction looking at that information, information and some of the research that's out there.

Part of what we need to what we could do on a short-term basis are start to look at how can we look at a drop-in center type opportunity where folks who often can't obtain services in such a restricted environment can connect, have showers.

We do have small and limited services for phone charging, showers, laundry, but they are not substantial enough, and so we need to look how to make those more robust and use that as an opportunity to engage with folks and try to find creative ways to connect them to the mental health care that they have a distrust for, and so we're engaging that conversation with the mental health board as well.

Um part of it will take leveraging and reworking systems because we understand there's there's no bucket of money.

You've given us a couple already.

We understand, and so we'd like to move forward with some of those solutions, but again, we just want to keep you abreast of the continuing changes, uh, the emerging pieces of the significant impact that this starts to have as the ripples kind of go out when we throw that rock in the stream.

I guess I would like to know are there questions or pieces that I can entertain and help uh you with today based on what we've provided.

Well, first, thank you just for this information.

Um we felt that it was definitely important to really give light to what is really happening and how this affects Toledo on a scale on top of other issues that are still building up and that we are in the era of uncertainty.

So with housing and homelessness being prioritized, it's important to understand just what we're up against at this point, and the information you provided definitely gives us uh at least that that starting point to really start brainstorming of how we as council and also in um recruiting other groups to help out with this as well.

And the information you provided definitely gives us uh at least that that starting point to really start brainstorming of how we as council and also in um recruiting other groups to help out with this as well.

Um before we get to questions, I do want to acknowledge council members Saranto and McPherson.

Um I did have a question as far as um like data is concerned mapping.

Do you um I'm interested in the landlords that have these programs?

Do you have a map of where they're located throughout the city, or is that something that's more confidential?

We can make one.

Okay.

I would because I was just thinking, you know, not speaking into an existence, but in the event that this would happen where landlords would have to evict or just fall out.

How would that on which size of towns, you know, what will be more inundated with that, just kind of like being proactive at that thinking to cover those areas.

So yeah, definitely if you can offer that, I think that will will help also in other types of planning and and conversations too.

We've established um a heat map based on the engagements and information we get through the encampment group and through information we've received from TPD, so we can use that same model to obtain information from the I feel like that would be an easy ask of our data folks.

Awesome.

Thank you so much.

I'm going to give questions get questions from council, Councilmember Gaddis.

Thank you.

And thank you for this.

I know it's it's hard and sobering, but it's really important that we hear this so that we can strategically help um deal with these along the same lines about the um the housing.

Are we looking at single family homes or apartments?

Um I think when that would be really helpful information for the people that potentially could be losing their home if funding is cut.

Do they uh them demographically more of them live in apartments?

Are we talking single family homes?

A majority are apartments, but there are some single family home pieces in there, so we can we can gather that.

And then any information on the landlords, are they local landlords?

Is this gonna impact our I I know it's gonna impact our local economy, but are they local landlords, small landlords, mid-sized companies, larger companies?

That that is usually pretty helpful.

It's a mix.

Okay.

Um we can definitely try to parse that out a little bit more.

Um I'm actually I was actually pleasantly surprised as we've started to dig in.

Many of them actually are out of town.

But they're there, there are certainly out-of-town landlords that are well known in this community to not be responsive.

But I will say that there are some that have been.

And so we've wonderfully been trying to shore up those relationships.

Um I think it's a pretty good mix, but we definitely can do evaluation of to the best of our ability with what's ever in the the ARIS system, understanding are they in town, out of town, and looking at where payments are going, uh, what that looks like.

And then uh when I think uh you mentioned the restrooms in the trash, and and I've heard a lot about that too.

Um do you know if there's best practices for strategies around tackling some of that?

There absolutely are.

Is there anything you could share with us?

Um studies, files, anything that would be helpful.

Yeah, we can absolutely there, for instance, uh there's one project, um, and actually the research on this was spearheaded by uh keep Toledo Lucas County Beautiful.

They reached out to um neighborhood neighboring Detroit.

Uh there's a company, um, aptly named Throne, uh, who provides uh particularly trailers or locations where folks can use restrooms, they're monitored, they're locked.

You obtain passes to be able to use them, and they're very regularly cleaned.

So the overhead is high.

Uh however, um, it's an effective model that's allowed people to access the services they need.

It takes the stress and off of other areas of town.

I can tell you one area of town that significantly gets stressed because of the lack of restrooms is the metro parks and their restrooms.

Uh folks have learned that they can they can use those, and typically they'll do so respectfully.

We've we've worked with Metro Park Rangers, we've done training and education and information, and the Metro Parks is good about that, but there's um an overburden, if you will, particularly with a couple of locations in some of the metro park bathrooms because there lacks uh another opportunity.

And so those are some of the places I think we could anecdotally present where we might see some relief.

But again, so maybe we look to Metro Parks as someone who helps to be the solution with this because they're doing a good job of managing it.

Um but maybe we need to find a different way or location.

You can pull in tractor uh trailer type environments that move around in some communities that have uh larger encampments.

I'm not sure that we need to move around.

We there's two or three areas of town uh that are large that have larger numbered um individuals that might access.

Um but there have been success, uh, our very own Cherry Street mission during some renovations, um, had an experience doing that and pulling those in for restrooms, and so those are those are things you can rent, those are things you can purchase.

There are different options that we can present and give some cost projections on as well.

That would be helpful.

And then um you had mentioned the encampment heat map.

Um I think that would be really helpful too, because as I'm thinking through as a district councilman with my dip funding, um, we mentioned phone chargers.

Uh I mean, you can't get a job, you can't do anything without your phone.

That's really important.

So, are there strategies where I could use my dip for tables that have the chargers built in with the solar, you know, like stuff like that.

So I don't know if there's a way we could get that, but that would be really helpful.

And then I would love to schedule a meeting with you to talk about uptown because I'm having a lot of the same troubles in some of the uh neighborhoods in my district, and I think learning from them would be really helpful for the business owners and other areas.

So thank you for presenting this for us.

Um thank you, Chair.

I don't think there's any more questions from council members.

I understand you had a couple speakers.

Yeah, if I could um she's still here, Sergeant Kelly.

Um Kelly Russell, uh, her team has done a phenomenal job of engaging with our encampment group, helping us get information to expand and robustly populate the heat map I was chatting about.

Um I just want to say they're at the table.

They get that there need to be different interventions for for folks in our community.

Uh they are professional, respectful, and an amazing group of people that are are working with us.

Uh, we could use 10 more groups of them, I think, across the community.

But we asked her if she could just come sort of give you a precursor of information we'd like to from a couple of different lenses in the future, but at least from I think it's important to speak from with the unsheltered folks that we have, uh, the experience that they're that they're having currently, um, any of the barriers or issues uh that they have and anticipated things that might be getting worse.

Hi, thank you for having me today and being a guest here.

So I've been in law enforcement 25 years.

Um, I think the last 20 years, I don't know what I was doing, to be honest with you.

Um, I think I let public dictate exactly what I was supposed to be doing, resting bad guys, right?

Putting them in jail, writing tickets.

Um, but we missed the mark on that, right?

We should be out making friends with our um vulnerable group that often are people put into jails for as Julie stated, mamas that just need food for their babies, right?

So I have a nursing background, I'm also a registered nurse, so I understand the mental health process, the substance abuse process, and I built that epiphany of empathy.

I have the only tool belt, you can't see it, but it's on there.

Um I had the opportunity to work at Northwest Ohio Psychiatric Hospital in 2020 for three years, in addition to being a police officer.

And I got to see my people.

I call my people, Chief Trentling will say they're my people.

I saw my people get better.

Really?

There was hope for them.

And that was really how I missed the mark for 20 years.

I got to see them get better, and um that meant a lot.

And you ask police officers today, what what do you want?

What do you want done?

What would make your job easier?

We need help with the people that are unhoused.

We need something for them, somewhere for them to go.

There's nowhere for them to go.

A lot of times they'll take money out of their own pocket to buy them a room for the night.

So we're out of options.

If you don't have housing above you, you're at the other flight, you're in survival mode, right?

You can't work on your mental health, you can't work on your substance abuse.

So when Julie asked me to come speak, and really I was in the awesome, I didn't know all these numbers and statistics that she had, and I'm thinking, what are we gonna do?

I didn't know all these numbers and statistics that she had, and I'm thinking, what are we gonna do?

Right?

First responders is gonna be on our shoulders.

Um we're gonna be out there helping.

We we sit with my um meetings with all my team members back here.

They're part of my team.

I'm the crisis intervention team coordinator.

A lot of people think CIT means training.

No, we work collaboratively with the community outreach group with PATH NPI, the mental health board, the hospitals.

We've the gentleman that lived on the east side, I don't want to mention his name, but he made a house out of the post office, right?

Um he really hindered the quality of life of a lot of residents over there.

We sat on the bench multiple times and talked.

He's scary, but once you get to know him, he's awesome.

And he had pizza and he told me all his history.

Well, guess what?

He's not out there anymore.

We were able to get him in housing through his guardianship services board.

And then, you know, we had uh the lady with the the cart out by the mall.

Um she was another one that we work collaborative, get her in housing, and she wasn't you know, hindering the quality of life of the people out in West Toledo.

So we are making small progresses one at a time because there's not enough of um what I want to say crisis intervention team coordinators like me.

Um we have CIT officers that are running call to call to call.

30% uh mental health calls have gone up in the last four years.

That's a lot for the police to try to figure out what to do and get long-term solutions.

So I just wanted to share what what I do and how I work closely um with the homelessness board and how we're trying to think of solutions too.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you so much for your service, and this is a heavy subject, most definitely.

Councilwoman McPherson.

Thank you, Dr.

Jones.

Thank you for your report.

Yes, this I just sat here and told them, wow, this is doom and gloom.

This is not good because where's the answers?

What's the solutions?

Yeah, it it is way above my pay grade.

I mean, I think about the students that try to go to school every day, and at the end of the day, they don't know where they're gonna sleep at.

It's mind-blowing.

But I am I am hopeful because of people like you that are continuing to work and ask the question.

Um, and we've got to deal with this some kind of way to help those that are out there that need our help.

And so I hope that we can put our heads together and I piece by piece, and thank you, officer, for saying that.

It's one person at a time.

We can only do one at a time.

You you can't do this in groups.

It won't work because everybody is individual and their needs, even though some of us may look at them like, oh, those five are they're individuals, and their needs are totally different.

Um, let me say to my cousin Revan Cunningham out there, thank you, man at St.

Paul United Methodist Church for always opening up your door to the community in the times of emergency weather.

I want to thank you for that.

Um, and thank you.

We've gotten the postcards where people know where to go, we're passing them out when we have those emergency weathers.

And I just hope that those that are listening to this in our community will also come to the table.

I really hope that our churches will come to the table.

Um and assist us in this because it is not just city council, it is not just the Lucas County commissioners, it is not just the homeless board, it is not just mental health.

This is a everybody solve.

Um, and we've all got to come to the table and figure this thing out.

Um, I like the ideal of the um the restrooms.

Somebody some people may think that's a small thing, but it's a really big thing when you can go to the restroom.

Um and I see the overabundance that our uh that our bus station is getting because we feed the homeless every third Saturday, and the bus terminal is one of the places that we stop.

And it is overwhelming because that's a place where they can go in and stand in.

I thank TARDA and those that work there for allowing them to come in and sit and be warm for those times.

I think those at the Greyhound bus station and the train station because they allow them to come in there and sit and be warm for for the time being in our libraries.

But we've got to um we've got to do more.

So let's just all kind of put on our thinking caps and let's start having the conversations.

One person at a time, and um the needs are many, but I think we can do this if we put the people first and not us, thank God.

I'm blessed.

I have a place to stay.

But I think about the young people that have to deal with it on a daily basis.

I can't I can't.

Thank you.

Really quickly, just uh a couple comments.

Uh we'll be furthering the idea of the postcards with different resources, and we're working with the mental health board and some other folks to how do we differently get materials out for people to understand and know where to go, whether they have a phone, whether they don't.

Uh in regards to youth, we are working with the coalition on housing and homelessness in Ohio, and we'll be doing an um an exercise here in about a week and a half.

They'll be coming up to help us do um a youth uh service asset map uh process, and so that will help us better structure and be able to put in place some of the connections for the youth that are in play.

And we have affirmed with some HUD TA that there are supposed to be some additional funds specific to that 18 to 24 population and possibly for uh the homeless, uh the McKinney Vento definition of homelessness that the schools can use.

So we're gearing up for opportunities and trying to work through some data and pieces to ready ourselves to try to obtain some of those resources.

And um TARDA again, wonderful uh a good example of that conversation.

Uh they've asked and we're waiting on some feedback uh for us to help coordinate with uh several community folks so that their staff can have critical incident training so that they're better responding and capable to meet the needs of folks that are in front of them.

And I think that's something we need to look to expand to business owners and some other folks that might be helpful.

I think that's a good idea.

The training exactly.

Yeah, the training is for everybody because we all need to know how to at least respond to when we're dealing with somebody that is having a mental crisis.

Um I was in Cincinnati last week and I read an article or saw it on the news where um Cincinnati is opening up one of their schools that they closed for a homeless shelter for students.

I sent that to a couple of my colleagues, and I also sent it to Superintendent Durant to look at because um that's one of their ways that they're dealing with the student population.

Um we've got to get creative and think out the box.

So thank you very much.

Councilman Serranto.

Thank you.

Uh I really appreciate your presentation, Julie.

Um and we currently have some real challenges here, and I appreciate the officer uh comments also because um you're a very tough job.

You have uh a very unpopular job in America today, and it's very tough and always very challenging uh every time you're at work.

So we certainly appreciate all the things you're doing to help out the homeless uh of Toledo.

I'm just wondering, uh Councilwoman McPherson brought up schools.

You know, we have a lot of churches in Central Toledo that are closed.

And some of them have um facilities like rooms where you could set up cots, they have bathrooms, maybe locker rooms, showers, and I'm just wondering if we could if you've could communicate with some of these churches, the diocese of Toledo, for example, and see if what it would take to open them at night so people have a place to sleep, uh, even though it's on a cot, at least it would be a safe place.

Um at all of the libraries, which which really helps.

But I I thought of these churches, so many are closed.

And if we could uh help you approach maybe them and see what we could do, um, I know funding is always gonna be a problem, but uh it's vacant space that's closed up and nobody's using and at council councilwoman Gaddis and others are you know, we're trying to find a purpose for these historic churches, and I think maybe this might be something we can explore, you know, with the homeless board.

So I just wanted to throw that out.

And I appreciate that creativity um and not it it's an option.

I think one of the things we need to look at are how can we shore up and strengthen the existing system before we expand because the overhead costs of those type facilities really starts to escalate quickly, and our existing shelters are struggling to exist.

So if we start creating new, that's just more competition for funds that are already not there.

Okay.

Um this year, for instance, uh St.

Paul Shelter typically runs winter crisis that's helped through support of private donations and funding from the city.

Um that is one of the places where services have been cut.

It started several weeks late and it will close uh extra week early this year.

Typically it goes till March 15th.

It will close down on March 8th.

So we're also trying we're currently preparing for what's that impact with the crazy weather that we've had and the ups and downs, what's that going to look like because that's 35 to 45 people that have not been at the warming centers?

And so what is that stress and pressure gonna look like because we also have a cap of how many people that we we've figured out a number that makes sense and we can manage at St.

Paul's United Methodist Church, but once we hit that number, we have to find alternative solutions.

So I appreciate that and I appreciate the desire and understanding that we need to do that.

Um, but how can we on a cost-effective and return on investment?

How can we look at expanding some of the pieces we have in place?

I think might be the good first step.

And then if we can bring some things to the table to figure those pieces out, absolutely.

Are all the shelters doing some kind of fundraising?

Oh, yes.

Okay, because that's important to me.

Always always, okay.

Always.

I just you know, events and things that not just mailing out solicitations, but I'm thinking about events that they can get.

You know, we have so many um musical groups in Toledo that if we could get them to donate their services at a fundraiser or maybe do something down at Promenade Park, uh, I think we'd get a a lot of people that would show up to support that because it is important.

Uh you know, once in a while uh we see in the media um wonderful stories about people that were homeless and you know, living in a car, and and uh it's very heartwarming to see that they've had to change they've changed their lives.

And today they're they have a job, they have a place to stay, and so forth.

And I would add that um uh the former uh director of uh health for the state of Ohio, Dr.

Acton, uh at one time was homeless and lived in a car with their family, and today she's running for governor of Ohio.

So um there's hope, and we just have to keep learning and and thinking outside the box and trying to get people the help they need because it can really make a difference in their lives and for society.

Yeah.

So thank you.

There's currently some discussion.

I have a lot of staff that would like to bring Dr.

Act into town.

So thank you, and thank you, madam chair.

President Williams.

Thank you.

Um I think that we're here today to figure out the solution, and it's gonna be hard because the federal government actually cut the funding we win.

Uh so I think that this council probably will be charged with trying to urge the federal government to help.

Um their priorities have definitely shifted off with help uh in helping people into helping um millionaires.

So I think that uh and I think that's what we're for, right?

Uh right, Julie, I think so.

We need to figure out how we can urge the federal government letters.

We need to call, I mean, our senators, I don't know what they're gonna do because uh they're freshmen in this, so I don't know how we can get them, but telling them that we will support them if they fight for what's really important.

So I ran out uh dropout recovery school um in Central Toledo when I took it over, I had 47 students with pretty low enrollment, um, and uh 20 of those were homeless.

Um, and uh 20 of those were homeless.

Uh so definitely calling all cars.

But TPD actually has an asset on their team that I don't know if they know about uh again wrestle uh Tina Kavanaugh actually helped me house some of my kids at Arklow.

Um and she was supportive service, they had supportive services.

She's actually a police officer right now slash social worker.

Um she did some good work, uh, but uh and at by the end of that first school year, I had no homeless students.

Well, I had one, and he just didn't want to live in, and that's the one reality that some people don't want to live in four walls, so he didn't want to live in four walls.

There is a question that I had that was burning that we were looking into uh years ago was Tent City, and I know we don't have the funding to do that either with the wash stations, with the bathrooms, with that the problem was was where would it be because you always have these people come out?

We want to help, but we don't want it in our neighborhood.

Um so I think that was an issue that we had.

So I think once this uh Cheetos get out of office, um we could probably get this funding back if we get someone there.

Yes, I do I I speak to real.

I don't have time to play around.

Um once we get them out of office and get some going, I would definitely like to have some data to talk about where a tent city could be.

Um, because let's be clear, you have people that don't want to live in housing.

Um we don't we had I know there was a few areas in the state in in the country that had 10 cities that were actually functional.

Um, but I would like to dig into see how that would work because we will not always be this beat down with funding.

We are moving in the right direction to get things moving for people.

Um God doesn't put too much on us that we can't handle.

And right now, this is a learning experience that we have to take a hold of and learn from what is going on right now and how people are not caring about the poor because God gonna come get us if we don't start paying about caring about the poor.

Um and I don't want to be left not knowing what to do when we bounce back from this, because we will.

But I feel like this charge for council right now is to um urge our federal government to stop playing around with the millionaires and focus on the poor people because that's what we stand for in America is helping those that need help.

So I think that that's one thing that we can do is urge the federal government because our budget is trash all the way up and down.

Um the cuts that we have to make are severe and are hurting because of the trajectory of what's going on at the federal government.

So I I think that we can we need to start utilizing them people that's sitting in them seats, and we understand y'all freshmen, but it's time to get to work.

So um I would like this council to urge our senators and our house of representatives to actually help with the funding to help our homeless population because a lot of them didn't ask to be homeless.

So I think that's where we start at.

I think we need to really start urging our uh federal compadres or not compadres to get to work.

Thank you.

Thank you.

And actually that was gonna be my question.

What is the charge?

And I mean it is midterm, so that's an opportunity as well.

Um Councilwoman Craig.

Thank you, Chair, and thank you so much for that presentation.

Um I will say President Williams kind of talks about all the things that I was getting gearing up to talk about.

But I also did want to say, um, well, I want to ask.

So this is based on uh cuts from the federal government, obviously, but also from the state government.

Am I right about that?

There have been cuts from the state government, but those are really in relation to federal money that's funneled through because their money from the federal government was cut.

It's a secondary impact.

Okay.

And then you also sort of mentioned private donations are down as well.

Uh private donations are down in many sectors.

I mean, it's part of just the changing culture.

Uh folks that are aging that are typically the private givers, uh, younger populations give or contribute in different ways.

They're not the folks that will cut a monthly check.

Uh and we've seen a small up tech.

We do not fundraise at the board.

Uh we need to look at it and we're gonna have to consider it, but we have tried to stay out of that venue in order to allow our part the community partners that are providing the services to benefit from that.

And um, but we have had some folks with cover media coverage, et cetera, who've sent in some funds that we that are directed towards the warming centers and some of the specific services that are occurring.

So I think there's an opportunity and part of uh what we're trying to also do in the background is we're putting this information is getting some public facing information out that might help bring some folks forward uh who will contribute.

Okay.

And I know one of the things that you talked about was the cuts in the library hours that have you know kind of led people to go to the heart tartar hubs, and I want to say, you know, that's a direct result of state cuts that have been made, um, those cuts in hours.

So, you know, I think as we think about voting and elections in November, you know, we need to think about those services that are important to us and which legislators are voting to fund those services, and which are voting to make those cuts.

And you know, frankly, I always go back to that $600 million that's gonna go to a stadium that's funded by Ohio voters, and there are people that are sleeping on the streets and that you know need we need to bring in trailers so that they can have access to restrooms and so we have to think about what our priorities are here in our state.

So thank you very much for all you do.

I truly appreciate it.

Thank you.

If I may quickly um just to put a uh piece in your ear as as we move forward and identify opportunities, part of the opportunity when we talk about Tent City, when we talk about some of these solutions, the church options, a huge component of how and where we can find solutions is related to our very restrictive zoning uh code.

And so we have the opportunity with the program um to really have some input and to make some some impact and change and really think through how we could simplify things uh for again for our citizens, but also the landlords to incentivize and get them to do and be more active in our communities.

How can we make it easier on both sides as far as development, tiny homes, uh different options that that we could provide that are very successful in other communities, we cannot do here because we often run into zoning zoning issues.

I'm glad that you said that that was actually um a future meeting that I wanted to have talking about the zoning code alterations in in order to alleviate homelessness in a way.

Um so look out for that email pretty soon.

Um McPherson.

Thank you.

I want to make some alterations.

That's where I was going.

That was gonna be my next question, and I thought um molar out there because that's what I was wondering when I was asking the churches about just being a temporary uh temporary shelter or temporary housing space.

Um we used the Frederick Douglass Center last year where they could come in and just get warm.

And I think it was a 12-hour shift, something like that.

It was like eight to eight, eight p.m.

to eight a.m.

Is it different for different buildings or is it are you shaking your head?

Come on.

I I'm this is just a question because we've got to look at some of this and and she just said it with our zoning issues and so um how do we go through this or even can we because that was one of the questions that came up when I asked a couple of churches.

So I I don't want to misspeak.

Um but there are occupancy requirements that when you get it specific use for a building.

The church is different than housing.

So you I would say that temporary use sometimes can happen, but technically, if you were going to convert a church into a housing facility, there would there would be a significant cost to get that to get that permitted to be able to be a a housing facility.

Right, but just for a temporary part I don't know that would be a good idea.

Okay, so we need to it would be part of the building building code and would need like the building official to really explain that one.

Okay.

That's cool.

I see somebody else walking up.

Oh, are you come on?

Uh thank you for allowing me to speak.

I just wanted to add to that to the question that you're asking when it came to Frederick Douglass and such.

Really, that file fell under fire.

And we use the term warming center as a means to get around some of the codes which say they could not be a shelter.

And so at the Frederick Douglass Center or at the church, they can't sleep, they can't have pallets, they can't have beds, they can just essentially be there to stay warm without having the means of action being a true shelter.

Now there has been conversations about how we can move and get around that.

And I think, and I think Julie, you might have been part of those conversations at one point, Cherry Street Missions and others.

And so that's like an ongoing conversation and something we definitely need to pick back up.

Thank you.

Thank you.

So let's continue that conversation and make those alterations.

I'm missing with her with her word.

And thank you.

Thank you, Jim, also for coming up.

I you know, I didn't mean to put you on the spot, but you know, this when you got smarter people in the room, that's who you call them.

I I yeah, you're very welcome in yes.

I I think those the the biggest cost that you run into when you're converting a church, because the churches don't necessarily always require sprinkler systems.

And then when you have you're turning into a housing facility, it requires a sprinkler system, which is not cheap at all.

So that's the biggest challenge for for that.

But again, I'm not I'm not the expert, but I don't want to.

We're not gonna hold you to it.

Yep, thank you.

We won't hold you to it.

Thank you.

And Jim's staff have been at the table along with T uh Toledo Police at those same conversations and coming up with conversations, and uh they all of his staff email us regularly.

So I know he's vested in in solutions.

Yes.

And he it's been an asset to be able to have that collaboration, and I think that's part of what council can help us with.

Where are the other places where we can leverage the relationships to get the right information to figure out how to move forward?

Because it seems really easy to just pop open a house and say, come get warm, but if it was that easy, we would have already done it.

And so how do we overcome the barriers and the Right, and I and I thank her for saying that because that was the word that we use warming centers.

Yes.

We were not talking about shelters, we were just doing emergency warming centers.

I want that for the record, so don't nobody warming centers and it was temporary warming centers.

Um that it was not a shelter.

Thank you.

Thank you, Dr.

Jones, and thank you, Julie.

Right.

Um as of now, um, we're opening the floor to public comment.

If anybody had signed up to speak, you may do so now, and just state your name.

Good afternoon.

Uh my name is Sandra Desteno and I'm the director for 211.

I just wanted to add a little bit of context to these conversations uh due to what we see um coming in to the phone lines at 211.

Um if you want to know who's showing up to these warming centers, and we have to we have to be really careful.

We've got people um in power wheelchairs who come in at one percent battery.

Um we've uh had been dealing in 2025 with a woman who um was an older adult who got leukemia, which caused her to lose her job, which caused her to lose her apartment, and the med cab was coming to her apartment still, so she was in a tent outside of our apartment, so that she was able to continually access her chemotherapy.

Um last year while talking to a single mom in one of our shelters, um, she had teenagers and I wanted to know more about the barriers to work, and she said she couldn't get child care assistance because her teenager was a teenager, and so job and family services says that you can latchkey those kids.

You can't do that when you're living at a shelter.

She said it cost me $55 a day to work and I only make $40 a day.

Uh I had spoken with a nursing home who was trying to discharge a 65-year-old man who had who was working, had an apartment, um, had everything going for him, got into an accident last spring, um, needed long-term rehabilitative care um while in the nursing home, lost his apartment, his job, and everything because he had gotten into that car accident um and was being discharged to homelessness.

Who we're seeing showing up at our warming centers are people with developmental disabilities and older adults, people who have had histories of substance use often because of years of severe trauma.

The situations are complex.

Diversion is getting more difficult because every day, like Julie said, every day that we walk forward without meaningful assistance, anything for us to tell people on how to mitigate these issues makes everything more complex complicated.

Just this last six to eight months.

And they're getting more complicated all of the time.

One of the things Councilwoman McPherson talked about was uh getting getting creative like Cincinnati.

Um, and that is something that we do have to look at.

Five years ago, we could tell people go park at the Meyer parking lot because they're 24 hours or Kroger or go to this place, because there were 24-hour places that you could go and you could at least have some assurance of safety.

Now there's nothing.

We're constantly talking to people who are homeless with minor children, who are either trying to find someplace safely to look at or to park, or who don't even have the safety of a car to be able to uh keep them safe.

So we really um need something to tell people when they're calling.

When we know that this is a federal funding issue, when we know that ARPA dollars put 40 million dollars of rental assistance into the hands of Toledo ins, and we don't have anything like that.

We don't have any mainstream assistance for rental assistance.

Utilities are up, the rental the utility assistance is down.

So when we're talking about what the people are calling in about and what is spiraling them into these situations that are causing their homelessness, it is a lot of the prevention dollars that we've used to have that we sadly don't have anymore.

Um we're here also to be at the table to listen to um any um any solutions that anyone has and to help provide uh the data of what we're seeing because we do have a lot of that and the people are very much in need.

Thank you.

Thank you so much for that.

Um next up is Ann.

She just left.

And uh I guess our last person is Pastor.

Want to come up.

Good afternoon again, Pastor Leo Cunningham, uh St.

Paul's United Methodist Church.

I am also on the board of the marketplace for all people.

For those who do not know what that is, uh we started a Cyprus 501c3 based out of the church uh 10 years ago, this August.

That is free clothing, free food, uh open to anyone in the community, regardless of zip code, income status, every Friday worship service starts at 9.45, the marketplace opens at 10, goes until 11.45.

I've been there for now here in Toledo again for almost three years, and we see increases every week in who comes to the marketplace on a regular basis.

Just a few things here.

Uh once again sitting and listening, um, a conversation about what the charge is to the council.

I would suggest that your charge could be a both and uh to both pressure the state and the federal levels, and inspire the local constituents and businesses.

Same energy, different approach and tactic.

And uh to answer my my councilwoman cousin's question about a solution.

Um I don't think that there is going to be a solo solution.

Rather it's going to be multiple solutions.

For example the numerous partnerships that do exist.

So St.

Paul's United Methodist Church sits on what we like to call the border of downtown and uptown there at 12th and Madison.

Church is celebrating 190 years this year you'll get invites to the party that's happening in the fall.

That's how long we've been the church has been around longer than the city as a congregation.

But we're also working with the Uptown Business Association.

We're going to those meetings we're coming to the meetings for the continuum of care.

But we have also are now working with most people don't know this cats out of the bag we're working with Vistoula neighborhood association for some of the things that were happening there when the friendly center went away and the friendly center is a United Methodist affiliated organization.

So we were like there still needs to be some presence in Vestoula.

So we hired their program director Reggie Williams to come to the marketplace.

So we are in conversations with what will it look like to start doing parachute drops of the marketplace back into Vistoula.

What will it look like to leverage those partnerships that already have been established between the stool and other areas but if you think uptown business association and you think Vesto you're thinking about two completely different areas but they're now having for almost the last seven months conversations with each other because of the work the church has done and working collaborative collaboratively with sitting at those tables.

And so that's why that's why we're here and also I would like to say if anybody wants to come down and work a shift for the warming center last night we were night 52 and it was a short notice there was a a a change in the weather and we scrambled like within what two hours to get the building open and to figure out food because it needs to happen and we're still the only church in Lucas County doing this.

But there are people who are seeing the efforts and we're getting support from lots of places lots of partnerships um individuals who have never stepped foot inside of the church have responded to when we said we need to do breakfast we need to do dinner and to to be thankful for a a professor from Owens to to manage that the food chain system was was grateful was wonderful to see but to look on the list and to see the Jewish alliance federation do dinner one day and then the next day food not bombs do dinner the next day if I told you those two groups would work together you might not have known it but to see all these different organizations that have a care for this but if we don't build these bridges it's it's one of the solutions is going to be partnership.

It's going to be working together and and and to answer um councilmember's question um we can't have beds and cots inside the churches because there isn't a fire suppression system.

So people are are just there in the warming center um but those but those are some of the things um and we are as a denomination united Methodists we are having conversations on the district level and our conference level in other cities where United Methodist churches have worked to turn buildings into housing.

So that there's a project in Akron that they're working on there's a project in Columbus that just got started as well.

So those conversations are are happening internally with how do we take some of these buildings that that are no longer um houses of worship and to turn them what it did it take to chop them up and turn them into apartments or um those types of things so um great minds think alike.

So thank you so much.

Thank you for sharing that oh yeah I mean it's definitely a lot of conversation a lot of just heart within this situation this big big problem and as President Williams had mentioned you know it is not lasting forever but we have to be very strategic and smart about how we handle what the resources that we have now and just try to think of how to ex how to expand it but even if it's um even if it's just a little we just have to get a little bit creative with our existing um resources and really just your presentation brought to light just how everything is connected because when people think of homelessness it's just that population but they're not seeing okay it's affecting businesses the landlords aspect how housing in general because that's adding to the shortage especially if we lose those who are property owners everything is really connected and I think that's the the biggest takeaway that we need to see from this situation is that everything is connected and everybody is affected.

That's the main thing it is not an us versus them everybody can fall within this this category at any time especially right now with this economy um happening and actually that brings up uh just a thought of for those who are at risk of being homeless you know what does that even look like um and adding to that possible adding to that population because of things getting cut or expenses getting too high lack of assistance so that's another thing that feeds into this and we already are basically strained to where we're at right now so the this type of conversation this type of information is very important the main reason why we had this today was to bring this forth and just to let everybody know this is on our doorstep and what are we gonna do how can we just make the best of it per se lack of a better term but how can we handle this situation and is really talking about thinking outside that box as some of my colleagues have said with the churches and I wasn't even thinking about the right aids if we can do something with them for temporary places because it's not it's not going away so other than that if there's are there any other public comments yeah go ahead come come please state your name Emily Matthews the program manager for 211 and I just wanted to say a quick thank you for your support with the warming centers and everything over the last few months we are a model for all of Northwest Ohio.

Toledo has everyone else is looking at us I just had a presentation down in Allen County today and afterwards someone from the city came up and they said we want to understand how 211 is working alongside the city how you're what you're doing and how it how it helps and how it works.

We know that we need it and we see it and we understand and when we had the snow down here in Allen County a few weeks ago we had no idea what to do with warming centers.

So we have been able to kind of create this model that other places are also able to model off of and that's really important for the other areas that we cover.

I know our focus is to Little Lucas County but we wouldn't have been able to do all of this without your support and I've been working overnights at the the warming centers.

So I've seen firsthand how incredibly impactful it's been and um as Sandra mentioned these are people falling through the cracks of the system these are our folks with disabilities in wheelchairs that we've been able to connect with disability services that they didn't know existed in Lucas County.

So this has been able to get folks in front of us that otherwise would not be and build a level of trust and comfort with us that in the beginning some of the folks especially those with mental health issues it's it's a little hairy there sometimes you know 60 70 80 people in a room but the way that we've been able to de-escalate and just learn and understand the people right in front of us that we're working with obviously the shelter staff have that regularly but for more of the community to be able to experience it has been I think really important and really eye opening so if you folks haven't been to the warming centers we're gonna be open this weekend I would more than encourage you to come I've been presenting to Toledo Police Department and the fire and soon to be nine on one recently to help kind of bridge those gaps and help them understand so that we can support them in this whole effort as well and I think that it's going really well so I have so much hope and I'm just very grateful.

So thank you all.

Thank you.

That's my two one peeps United Way all all day all day all the work I love it I love it and that's the difference that we make is displayed here.

I think that you know we we have our charges we have our information you know we are understanding that we need to lean on each other for that support for the resources so at this point you know we just it's really time to get down to it and really dig into what we what we can do with what we have right now.