We Live To See Another Day

On Monday night City Council decided to delay voting on our conditional use permit for our tent city.
In poker there is a saying: a chip and a chair.
It’s the idea that as long as you have a place at the table and you have at least one chip you are still in the game.
There was a packed room at the City Council Chambers. And, as always, the stories were so incredibly beautiful.
Ohio.com wrote about it here: National law firm joins local man’s effort to keep homeless camp open in Akron
And WAKR invited me to talk about the meeting. You can hear that interview here: Sage Lewis: We Need New Solutions to Help the Homeless by WAKR/NewsTalkSports
Channel 3 news covered it here: Future of Akron’s ‘Tent City’ debated at council meeting | wkyc.com
Every chance we get to keep doing our work, we have to fight like hell to stay alive and find a path forward so we can keep doing our work.
We already have a house. We have a donor who has given us money to buy another house. We need to get houses to get people indoors. That’s our phase 2. Getting people into houses.
Houses are incredibly affordable right now. And they meet all requirements by the city and county and fire department of “human habitation.”
We just need to buy more time to generate the money and resources to buy up these houses.
I also believe we need to reach out to individual city council members to have a dialogue with them. These council meetings are not great places for talking together. They are just places where we all talk AT each other.
So for me, that’s where I’m headed now. Houses and talking WITH council members.
If you have an interest in talking with your council member I would LOVE that. You can find their contact information here: Council Members
As always, we would be nowhere without you. The fact remains: the voice of the people is powerful in America. You are incredible supporters. I am so honored and humbled by your never ending support of the homeless.
Thank you.