Correspondence - #62 and HA#3 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Orozco, Norma From: Tim Johnson <tjohnson@jlkrllp.com> Sent: Monday, June 20, 2022 2:09 PM To: eComment; Sarmiento, Vicente; Lopez, Jessie; Hernandez, Johnathan; Bacerra, Phil; Phan, Thai; Penaloza, David; Mendoza, Nelida Cc: Ridge, Kristine; Mendoza, Steven; Brown, Judson; Carvalho, Sonia R. Subject: WISEPIace- Council Agenda Item #62 &#3 of Housing Authority Agenda (6/21/22) Mayor and Council (cc City Manager Ridge,Asst City Manager Mendoza, City Atty Carvalho and Housing Div Mgr Brown)...At Tuesday's council meeting you will be considering whether to support a project at WISEPLace in agenda items#62& Housing Authority#3. As a City of Santa Ana resident, I urge you to support this project. Even though I am now part of the WISEPIace Board and obviously in full support of this project, I have not always been at the same place I am at now. I remember when I used to think that the way to solve homelessness was a law enforcement based process for our local population that was struggling with housing...or just move them somewhere else so we did not have to see them instead of truly helping them. I may have even thought about writing a letter to this council opposing a project like this at one point in my past. However, I am now in full support of this project and other solutions in our city that takes on the merits of permanent supportive housing with wrap around services. My thoughts began to change and I started on this journey when I heard Judson Brown speak at a Com-Link meeting probably 5 years +/-or so ago...and then advanced after digging into the UCI cost study on homelessness (as a CPA,the finances speak to me) and further solidified my position after attending many United Way/Dr. David Snow presentations on the causes and costs associated with those experiencing homelessness, and then also when I took place in the City's own point in time count showing up at the very chambers you are sitting in at least twice a month on a very early Saturday morning in the middle of tax season. I also write this to you as a resident that quite likely lives closer to the WISEPIace location than anyone on the council although I admittedly do now know where each of you live, but I am about%of a mile from WISEPIace. This project is in my back yard compared to most other stakeholders- I literally go by it most days of the week. I look back to that first presentation by Judson and am so thankful for the information he provided as well as so many others along the way. Judson,thank you for making that initial presentation I heard and the countless others that you likely do not know the impact you are making for those that are looking at you with inquisitive eyes and may not even know what questions to even ask...you and the entire team with the city that devotes time for those seeking adequate housing are making a difference. As one councilmember said at a prior meeting, so many will come out and say very strongly that that the city (and specifically those who cast votes like you do) needs to do more for those struggling with housing yet when a good project is before the council, no one says "YES, SUPPORT THIS PROJECT." Well, I am here as a resident and one that has come before you many times saying that we need to do more...YES, SUPPORT THIS PROJECT! Your yes vote will show that you also see projects like this as part of the solution. I not only support this project because I support WISEPIace but also because as a resident of our Santa Ana community, I realize that we need to continue to take positive steps to help those who are the most vulnerable among us. Quite simply,those that receive assistance from WISEPIace are far better off than they otherwise would be on the streets or a congregate shelter. Because of the population that WISEPIace serves, unaccompanied women, I do not want to think about the struggles they would have living on the streets, but I have to think about those experiences that they would have but we can do something about that by supporting this project. At the beginning of my journey on realizing how we should be tackling this issue, I asked my then 11ish year old daughter what she thought that the solution to homelessness was...she looked at me as only a pre-teen can and snarkily told me "Duh dad, it is so obviously...it is literally in the name. HOMELESS...if you don't want someone to be homeless, you get them in a home." From the mouths of children often come the best answers to complex problems. We as 1