SLT nixes idea of rec center as homeless facility
By Kathryn Reed
The South Lake Tahoe Recreation Center is off the table as a resource for the homeless to stay warm during the winter.
That was the direction the City Council took Tuesday after much discussion and a presentation by the Tahoe Homeless Coalition.
A group of individuals has come together to establish a warm room that would be open Nov. 1-April 30 between 8:30pm and 6:30am. It would be for adults without pets.
The coalition came to the council Sept. 1 with the goal of securing access to the rec center on select nights through the winter season for people to seek refuge from the cold. It would not be open every night, but only when the temperature was projected to reach a certain level.
Councilwoman Wendy David was the only member who wanted the rec center to be used in this manner. (Councilmember Tom Davis was absent until the afternoon budget presentation.) The other three believe there would be a conflict between users, didn’t want people kicked out into the cold at dawn, and had other concerns.
All four, though, agreed there is a need for a warm room. They also support using a city facility if appropriate. Councilman Austin Sass even advocated for using taxpayer money to house the people in a $20/night hotel when needed.
The council ultimately decided to appoint Councilmembers JoAnn Conner and David to a committee to work with the homeless coalition to find an answer.
Representatives from Temple Bat Yam and Unity at the Lake spoke of offering their facilities as a backup to the rec center, but had their own constraints for not being able to use their facilities on a regular basis.
In other action:
· The council voted to create a policy where money could be given to nonprofits on a case-by-case basis for economic development and political advocacy. Cash cannot be given to social organizations. The vote was 3-1, with Conner voting no.
· The council adopted a policy to decide who will be inducted into the Champions Plaza at Lakeview Commons. The Parks and Recreation Commission will be the panel making the decision based on the criteria and an application that must be submitted. Individual or team names will be etched on paving stones. Still to be determined is the funding source for the bricks.
· The idea of a key for the city was brought forward, but died for lack of desire to move forward.
· Sept. 19 is the city’s 50th anniversary parade from Al Tahoe Boulevard to the Y. The two southbound lanes of Highway 50 will be used. Sept. 4 at 5pm is now the deadline to apply. There are more than 50 entities participating – including walking groups, floats and vehicles. The theme is Past, Present and Future.
· Nov. 11 is the city’s gala at Lake Tahoe Resort Hotel. The city is putting in $15,000 to lower the cost to about $65 per ticket. It’s expected 250 people will attend. A book about the city’s first 50 years is being created by Bona Fide Books in Meyers; cost is $25.
Use taxpayer money to put homeless in hotels?! I don’t think so Austin. So happy the rec center rejected this. The high sierras is not a place to live if you don’t have a home. It’s that simple. People working 50 hours a week struggle to live here and we’re supposed to give handouts to lazy drug addicts? Not gonna happen.
Tahoe Homeless Coalition: Take them into your OWN homes and stop trying to use our hard earned money to house these free loaders. Yes, this is nowhere to be in winter without a home. They are not contributing ANYTHING….only taking from those stupid enough to believe their far fetched BS.
Winter chill comes and they will slither down to P-Ville and other places. If they aren’t smart enough to get out of here when winter comes, then they will get what they deserve. It’s common sense people.
The council voted to create a policy where money could be given to nonprofits on a case-by-case basis for economic development and political advocacy.— This is not a good thing
How is it okay for the city to spend tax dollars for “political advocacy”? How is that even legal?
For “warming” they need to go where it is warm, to other places that have the services in place. These days being homeless is a choice with all of the welfare billions being paid out. The truth is there is no excuse for it except mental illness and addiction which should be treated with some of those billions in state treatment centers. All who receive free welfare should be drug tested and checked for being here legally and made to work picking up trash or similar. If there is no incentive to get off welfare and to not be homeless the numbers will continue to rise.
“If you build it, they will come.” Remember that.
no ‘warming shelter’. hard to believe this potential use of my tax money is even a discussion. no giving my tax money to ‘non profits’ on a case by case basis. recall if this happens…
The airport
Thanks Local you took the words from my mouth. The council chamber might be more appropriate.
Thank God they did not approve putting the homeless in our wonderful public rec center. When they put the mental health (drug/alcohol rehab) folks at the senior center – that was bad enough… made the senior community uncomfortable & scared to be at the senior center. Lesson learned… don’t mesh the problem into community centers that are functioning for the “best use” of the tax-paying public. I know I would not go to the rec center if the homeless camp was there. Keep these places safe!
If there are real issues (mother w/child with nowhere to go), the County will usually issue temporary housing vouchers.
Any of you ostriches want to begin a discussion on how Trickle On Economics has resulted in turning the USofA into a third world country? Between our outrageous levels of incarceration in the land of the free to the legions of ‘homeless’-many of whom suffer from moderate to severe mental issues to the culture of minimum wage part time jobs(yeah-make them work at Bass and Co. or McDonald’s, cuz ya know it does a 63 year old guy with no clean clothes GOOD to don a corporate wage slave uniform and smile through his broken teef and ask if you’d like french fries with your burger) so he can take home 150.00 a week and spend it all on a rathole motel room just so he can get up tomorrow and do it all again.
We’ve ALL bought into the corporate lie(“In the bar in the Senate, in the alley, pimpin’ dreams of riches for everybody…something for nothing, new lamps for old…and the streets will be PLATINUM!, never mind gold, well hey, pass it on. Misplaced your faith and the Candyman’s gone…” From the song “Candyman’s Gone’ on the album ‘the Trouble With Normal”.
I get it, Irish..homeless are often dirty, unkempt, rude and scary. Addicted, diseased. But they are human first, and Americans. Often veteran’s or the children of dysfunctional homes.
So now that the CEOs the politicians and the Pentagon have fleeced the f*ck out of this great nation and left us with the bill while proclaiming their innocence you a-hole’s-most of whom have sold their Soul’s for Mammon-have the chickensh!t audacity to lay the cause and cure on those least able and most victimized by a culture that has sold their dreams and their DNA for profit?
So let’s start a serious conversation that goes beyond ‘not in my town’ or ‘why don’t you let them stay at your house? ‘ and look at the HISTORY of how we got here and what we can do moving forward. Or, do you wanna get out yer guns and use them for target practice?
History and the Creator will judge you far more harshly than I.
Why is it when the shtf, you claim we ALL bought the idea? Yet when somebody calls attention to the lie, you shoot ’em down in a heartbeat?
You don’t get to have it both ways.
Trickle down economics was an idea from the 1980s. It never happened. We’ve had control by your ‘Progressives’ for 25 years, at least. All the money trickles UP to the Feds and their corporate cronies . This is what you’ve wanted. Now you’ve got it. And you still want more.
Hmmmm: before you comment put the bottle down. That made ZERO sense. As usual.
Homeless people at the rec center? Even having that on the table and seriously discussed is cause for concern. This ski town can’t be everything to everybody. The winter has traditionally swept these people out of town every year. Let’s keep it that way.
Transients are just that, here today and gone when the fist storm hits and they are always traveling with rare exceptions. The problem is, as much as anything, a bunch of newly elected people with the tax payer’s check book thinking they can use it to solve choices people have made that made them live on the streets by providing more ways for them to do it and stay longer in a place with no services for them to begin with. The real help is to get them to use their welfare benefits for housing in some govt. housing project someplace in some area that has their services in place.
Thanks to Temple Bat Yam and Unity at the Lake for showing up and acknowledging the problem. Where are the representatives of the other faith communities in this town? Apparently they are standing in de-niel- and I don’t mean the river in Egypt.
Isee, many of the local churches feed people on a regular basis. But most churches, unlike government, do not want to foster dependence and keep people living in untenable situations. Churches try to help people who want help. A hand-up, not a hand-out, if you will.
They ARE helping the needy. Whether they boast about it or not, as your politicians do.
Around Christmas I use to buy McDonald’s gift certificates in give them instead of money. The people truly in need liked them the drug addicts grumbled.
Sunriser2 poison them with McDonalds? Nice idea! Thinking outside the box my man!
Liberule: Mikki-D’s probably doesn’t poison them as much as their drug habits, but as crappy as their food is, it might be better than their alcohol and drugs. Just a slower death is all. Clogged arteries 101 class.
We just need to stop enabling these tree trolls and with any luck, they will move elsewhere…..as long as they are not catered to here.
Saw another free loader fraud at Raley’s today. He was clean and dressed in clean clothes holding a sign that said “Homeless. Need help”. I call BS once again and wish the lazy idiots in the city would do something about it. I can’t stand pulling in to my grocery store and have to pass these free loading lazy a$$ fools. Disgusting!!
LOL Liberule!
I often wondered what McDonald’s thought about having them in their restaurant, then I remembered they all show-up there to use the bathroom in the morning.
Kitty crap AOWM