An unhoused neighbor Cody, 39, recently divorced, who attends mutual aid food distributions believes a subsidized program of easily accessible outdoor lockers for those without stable shelter would be a great idea going forward.
“If they would give us lockers so we could all go to work and store our stuff somewhere where we know it’s not going to be stolen. So I can go to work peacefully and realize, ‘hey, my stuff is still going to be there when I get off work,’” he said.
“That’s comforting. You know how hard it is to go to work, come back, and your blankets stolen, and it’s cold. It’s hard, and then you got to find another blanket,” he added.
He says a public charging station would also be helpful for those in his predicament.
“You need a phone to go to work and better your life and do these things,” he said.
These types of programs exist elsewhere in the county, organized by churches, local governments or non profits, and can be set up at very low costs.
Why not use an empty plot of Jacobs land sitting idle for years which could be a designated base for non profits wanting to help, as a go to spot for healthy food, drop-offs and pickups for laundry, coffee and conversations, a locker area, a charging center, a free clothes market and a non uniformed rotating social worker on hand? There could be occasional free haircut days, and why not add a few bathrooms and showers?
With a minimal budget, it could do worlds of good, and help people get back on a path toward being housed.
We could have used the former Record Street shelter for these purposes, as a low-cost city alternative to the county’s intimidating and not very welcoming Cares Campus, as a hub for volunteers to help, but elected council members have decided to sell it instead to developers.
