In a disappointing turn of events, South Bend's Mayor James Mueller vetoed the Common Council's Resolution 20-22 for the Homeless on Thursday. In response to the veto, I am posting the public comments I made to the Common Council last Monday. I wrote this quickly and in conversational tone, so forgive any errors. Please continue to share our petition to demand immediate action in service to our most vulnerable. Link: https://www.change.org/Mueller-TakeActionNow

Public Comments July 13th, 2020:

"My name is Araquel Bloss, resident of South Bend. Since the Mayor’s decision to forcibly remove the houseless residents living in the tent city on the corner of Michigan and Monroe, a month and a half has passed. For those not living on the soon-to-be-closed Doulos Church program, there has been no PPE provided by the city, no COVID contact tracing done by the local health department, no hand-washing stations provided, no water provided, no port-a-potties provided, and no meeting of the Houseless Task Force as promised on the CC meeting the night on May 26th. The City of South Bend has lacked both initiative and leadership in addressing the growing public call to provide solutions to the inhumane and unsanitary conditions in which our houseless live and in which few alternatives are available, if any.

According to the HUD website, this year, in 2020, the City of South Bend was awarded an ESG (Emergency Shelter Grant) of 1 million dollars, in addition, to the CARES ACT monies given to the city specifically to care for houseless populations during COVID. We are nearly 6 months into the COVID pandemic and have no coordinated, fully comprehensive containment plan to shelter and care for our most vulnerable, the houseless. The federal dollars earmarked for emergency shelter and outreach of our houseless, through HUD and CARES, were intended to be spent for immediate needs, not held for a year of committee meetings, nor given to the United Way to be distributed in any other way.

As many in our country have learned during the COVID pandemic, the value of people is not dependent upon the size of their salary, job title, or education level, the strength of our communities lies in our valuing and caring for each and for each to care for one another. In my time volunteering at the Winter Weather Amnesty, I met disabled veterans, women and children, elderly, young residents, those suffering mental illness, addiction, those suffering life setbacks, lack of housing, empty wallets, and those broken hearted. It’s a common misunderstanding that the street homeless are chronically homeless, that is not true. Statistically, only 17% of the homeless are chronically homeless. The vast majority of residents you see living in tents and on the street, are a direct consequence of local lack of affordable housing, transitional housing, low barrier shelter beds, and street outreach.

So, I ask the Common Council and the Mayor to consider those people who would utilize an emergency shelter location which includes women and children fleeing incidents of domestic violence, veterans waiting for their benefits, elderly who can’t afford housing on their SSI, those unable to make sound decisions independently. Specifically, I ask the Common Council to consider the pregnant women, women and children, and families with children – who without this shelter, can be separated by CPS. This is the most egregious consequence of the city’s long-standing neglect of our houseless community – the separation of children from their parents. I ask the Common Council to pass this resolution to encourage the Mayor to lift further delays in opening a shelter – and for COVID prevention, containment, and care, for all the men and women who are unsheltered or who may become unsheltered, and most especially – the women, children, and vulnerable family units – for all our residents are valuable but children are certainly our future, and their family unit is first and foremost, their home. Please vote to protect our unsheltered and do so quickly."