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16 <br />BASIC NEEDS <br />▪ Consistent housing and direct transportation to services for cohorts of individuals guided <br />by basic needs coordinators/navigators. <br />▪ Clothing, laundry services <br />▪ Shower, grooming <br />▪ Showers and laundry (food and clothing banks already exist) <br />▪ Laundry service and shower area that are free drop-in services. <br />▪ Basic needs <br />▪ Meeting basic needs <br />COMMUNICATION <br />▪ Intentional outreach—assessment, referrals, delivery of services, transitional support <br />▪ Educating the public on demographics, abilities, capacity <br />▪ Community gatherings/meetings <br />▪ Focus on preventing homelessness by preventing social stigma. <br /> <br />Question 5: Previous priorities have included increasing affordable <br />housing, increasing shelter and other support services, preventing <br />homelessness, improving the homeless response system, and expanding <br />community engagement, awareness, and education. Are these still <br />priorities or have they shifted? <br />People with Lived Experience: Generally, participants didn’t disagree that these are priorities, <br />but they would like to see more progress in them. It was mentioned that there’s been limited <br />increase in affordable housing (Spurling Court) and there are still wait lists everywhere. They also <br />expressed that addressing barriers, especially stigma, needs to be a priority. There was also some <br />discussion about price gouging leading to high rents and there being more housing out there than <br />people are aware of. <br />• “There are a lot of things missing from the priorities. I do think it really heavily needs to <br />be worked on. I do see some improvement, but believe there needs to be more action put <br />in.” <br />• “My personal opinion is that the only increase in affordable housing (which is a really big <br />one) in the last five years has been Spurling Court.” <br />• “I think there’s a lot more housing available here than anyone is leading to believe…. a <br />lot of it is being price gouged to keep people in poverty out of it.” <br />Service Providers: Participants discussed trespassing people being a concern and that maybe <br />community fatigue with the issue has something to do with it. People who are trespassed from the <br />cold weather shelter often end up getting into jail. Participants suggested coming up with an <br />alternative to jail. Also discussed was having more information about services available and <br />addressing people who have pets. <br />• “Several people who have crossed my path have been trespassed here, there, and <br />everywhere. I fully understand why that may have happened, but something has made this <br />person react or act the way they do. There still has to be a place for someone.”