Sedona, AZ– The following is a Letter to the Editor from Linda Martinez, of the Sedona Housing Advisory Group, addressing questions and concerns regarding the proposed use of the Cultural Park as a safe overnight parking area for the homeless Sedona workers living in their cars.
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7 Comments
What a sensible short-term solution. Thanks for clarifying, Linda.
It is not true that the homeless car park is “specifically for workers.” The eligibility requirements listed on the city website clearly state that “disabled” or “retired” people will be admitted. Public policy should not be justified by misleading statements. The lack of candor about the program is one reason people do not support it. The city has a bad record when it comes to programs designed to help homeless people. A grant to the Sedona Area Homeless Alliance was revoked last year because of “administrative problems” in the program. Sedona set up a “Code Blue” program last winter to give vouchers to homeless people on cold nights and not a single voucher was handed out. Now the city wants to spend a million dollars of public funds to set up a homeless car park in one of the last great open scenic sites of Sedona.
” Now the city wants to spend a million dollars of public funds to set up a homeless car park in one of the last great open scenic sites of Sedona.”
You do know you just blew your whole rant with this lie dont you?
From RR News-The city plans to fund the program using an Arizona Department of Housing grant for addressing homelessness.
Boone said that the grant had been awarded competitively based on the city’s program proposal.
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It is a grant, it is not the city paying millions of dollars. Why people are so worried? Do you live at the Hilton Vacation Club Sedona Summit?
This is temporary, and lets see if it truly helps. Now all you good Christians should be all for this, helping the homless and people who have less than you!
I said “public funds” not “city money.” I repeat the accurate statement: it is a million dollars of public funds that will be spent on this project. Public funds include state funds. The defense of the homeless parking lot generally relies on misleading comments like yours. The program would have more credibility if people were honest about it.
Dave,
my morning espresso shot just flew out my nose!
“Now all you good Christians should be all for this, helping the homless and people who have less than you!“
You know if it was a mega church, golf course, day spa or other resort they’d be all for it!
One really has to scratch their heads when it comes to M’erica’s beacon of democracy bullshit when most M’erican’s only care about themselves! All the lives we have wasted promoting that nonsense just to hand the country over to such haters and Putin Puppets is sickening!
They want a couple over priced over hyped concerts in lieu of helping our un housed workforce! Such a grand lot they be!
The stated city goal of this program is to provde the homeless who have jobs working at least 30 hours a week in the city of Sedona with this cultural park parking . Our state has made it clear to the city staff that to get state funding the city MUST also admit retired and disabled people to this parking area without regard to them having city jobs for any hours. No doubt such people outnumber those with 30 hour a week city jobs.
The people admitted to the program will have rules they must follow including not being permitted to keep their engines on ANY night to keep the cold out in freezing weather to or cool down in excessively hot weather unless they stay awake – thus giving the people in the cars at night two unhealthy choices.
All cars must leave the area by 8 AM each morning seven days a week even if the people are in no condition to face the traffic on 89A and/or they have no place to go except to illegally park in the city or forest.
Does any of that make good sense?
and the program is titled a ‘Safe Place to Park’ yet there is no evidence presented that people parking illegally at night in Sedona are being mugged. So what unsafe condition are we preventing?
There is mounting evidence that the public is mostly opposed to this program. Isn’t our city council supposed to represent the will of the majority of the public? Why hasn’t the city council done anything to find out the will of the majority?
Tahoe, Vail, Telleride, Park City, Steamboat Springs, Aspen, Jackson Hole, & Breckinridge, along with SB1350 & STRs have been brought up by the Sedona Housing Advisory group. Possible solutions to an amplified cause.