Wednesday, November 18, 2015

Minutes 11/17/15





November 17, 2015
Minutes

e
David Dahle, Chair
p
Woody Dukes
p
Brock Campbell
p
Michael Livingston,
Vice Chair
p
Bob Hanna
a
Diana Dettwyler
p
Erma Hoffman, Treasurer
e
Bruce Hoffman
p
Neal Kern
p
Sarah Owens, Sec’y
e
Rebekah Engle


p=present a=absent e=excused

Residents: Bill Holmstrom, Rick Yurt
Organizations: Maurice Anderson, First Congregational UCC and Salem Homeless Coalition; Simon Sandusky, Guest Services Manager, Union Gospel Mission, A.P. Walther, Salem Weekly, Verena Wessel, Northwest Human Services
City/County Representatives: Councilor Bennett, Officer Vanmeter; Gina Courson, Marion County Parole & Probation
Guests: Jeremy Mills, NEN; Cyndi Astley, Deputy Director, MWVCAA; Brent Demoe, Manager, Polk County Family and Community Outreach

The regular meeting of the CanDo Board of Directors was called to order at 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday, November 17, 2015, at the First Christian Church at 685 Marion Street NE, Salem. Michael Livingston was in the chair and Sarah Owens acted as secretary.

The agenda and the minutes of the October meeting were approved unanimously.

Deputy Courson reported the latest MCRI statistics and answered questions.

Councilor Bennett made announcements and stated that the City needed “to continue to work with the affordable housing issue”, saying that, in the 1970s, the City had a “very aggressive housing policy because the feds [at that time] had a very aggressive housing policy”, but not since then had either the City or the feds addressed the problem  adequately.  He said private developers were “few and far between for cities the size of Salem” and that the City would be considering the Salem Housing Authority’s proposal to  build affordable housing on part of the State Hospital’s North Campus.

Officer Vanmeter reported that SPD makes 5-6 drug/alcohol-related arrests per day under the Center St. Bridge near UGM.  As a consequence, Public Works Director Peter Fernandez and SPD had agreed it would be preferable to prevent the need for arrests at this location by better "environmental design", i.e., by fencing off the area under the bridge.  Both Public Works and SPD recognize that this course will merely send the problem behavior elsewhere.  No timeline was given, but it seemed from what was said that action was likely to be taken within the next 60 days.  

The board heard a presentation from Brent Demoe on developing the Dallas Academy Building model for co-locating social services for families in need, followed by a lively discussion on how it might be used to develop a similar resource center for homeless individuals living in downtown Salem.    


The Chair reminded everyone that the board had canceled the December meeting.

There being no other business before the board, the meeting of the Board of Directors adjourned at 7:02 p.m. 

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