As the City of Ashland prepares to shift management of its homeless camping lawn to a nonprofit, the community wants to make sure longstanding problems are addressed.
Residents have raised concerns about the area known as the night lawn, behind the police station, where homeless folks can camp. They include overcrowding, lack of storage and safety.
The city is working on an agreement to transfer temporary management of the site to the local nonprofit Opportunities for Housing, Resources, and Assistance, or OHRA.
At a community meeting Thursday night, Executive Director Dan Cano told attendees that OHRA is taking its time to make a good plan.
"I don't have all the answers right now, but I do know that the way we do things, it's going to be thoughtful, and it's going to reflect some more information that I don't necessarily have right now," he said.
He said it’ll be eight to 10 weeks before OHRA takes over managing the site under a six-month pilot program, after which point it will be reassessed.
Meeting attendees said they wanted the site to be less crowded and have a plan for medical emergencies as well as more reliable water.
Chrystal Parker, who currently lives at the OHRA shelter, suggested hiring homeless folks in specific roles.
"The peer governed groupings that you can create, or the site ambassadors from lived experienced individuals, have you looked into the possibilities of that?" she said. "That could actually not only lower your own staffing costs if integrated right, but it could also give them the work experience, plus someone that they trust more to go to first before it has to escalate."
Attendee Echo Fields encouraged OHRA to take homeless people's' input into consideration.
"Success also has to be defined by the people who are on the lawn themselves," she said. "What’s their definition of what they need? What are their deliverables?"
OHRA is still working to gather input and finalize a plan, including soliciting feedback from homeless folks and other stakeholders. A memorandum of understanding with the city also has yet to be finalized.
Cano said they're exploring possibly getting platforms to raise tents off the ground, building better care for those with medical needs and potentially creating a separate area for women.
He also encouraged the community to get involved.
"We need people building capacity that we can't build ourselves," he said. "Really we can't do a lot of things because now we're the man. We have insurance. We have HR issues. We can get sued."
The Ashland City Council has had a series of discussions recently about its homeless services, including the night lawn and a building at 2200 Ashland St., which has been used as a shelter. The goal is to come up with a long-term plan to address the issue.
Meanwhile, Ashland resident Elizabeth Trinchero Adkisson is working to create a resilience hub with supplies and resources, both for homeless folks and the wider community.
"We want to be a village. I think it's in our genes," she said. "It's in our DNA to build community and to know our neighbors and to take care of each other."
A meeting for those interested in being involved will be held on Thursday, Aug. 13 at the Ashland library from 5-7 p.m.
