Thursday Nov. 7 – 6:30 pm – Omni Center
Things are getting exciting for Homeless Solutions folks. SEVERAL of us attended the Housing Crisis Task Force in October and heard from presenters and Task Force members how very hard it is to build low-income housing in our town.
The presenter was Brandon Scalion, of Countdown Properties LLC. Brandon successfully built a development of low-income apartments in Clarksville with warm help from city officials, staff and other partners. He came to Fayetteville thinking he’d do that for us too. What a beautiful idea. But …. after 4 months of fighting city hall, he had a different story. “If only those people would PRETEND they cared…” he said. You could hear in TF members voices that they were as shocked to learn the situation as we were.
The session was recorded and is posted on the Housing Crisis Task Force website already, so you can watch it if you’d like. Here’s the link:
https://www.fayetteville-ar.gov/4335/Mayors-Housing-Crisis-Task-Force
One telling response was watching all those developers on the TF nodding their heads in agreement as the presenter told his story. They’ve been there too, apparently.
At the upcoming Homeless Solutions meeting we’ll share some of what we heard and ponder what testimony would be most effective for the Task Force to hear in November. Some other opportunities for volunteering and taking action for homeless neighbors are coming up you’ll want to hear about too.
In addition, Gladys promised to tell the story of Built for Zero last time. It’s a story with impactful short videos that may be something we can participate in and advocate for.
Next question of course, is “What do we do about all this?” That’s the question of the day. Join us Nov. 7 to find out more!