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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2015-1201 Documents Submitted at Mtg S A~ COMMUNITY, ,RESOURCECENTER, A Partnership Between Options for Homeless Residents of Ashland and ACCESS.; 4qq -,qq 572 Clover Lane Ashland, OR 97520 1 572 Clover Lane 541-631-2235 acrc@accesshelps.org Hours of Operation: Monday through Friday 9 AM to 2 PM I~ ; r E f 4 7 `z Shower Trailer Tuesday 1 PM to 4 PM Ashland First United Methodist Church 175 N. Main Street Thursday 1:30 PM to 4:30 PM Ashland Emergency Food Bank 560 Clover Lane 2 ACTIVITY REPORT 02/2014- 02/2014m Activity Present 02/2015 1323 600 Number of individuals who have received services at ACRC. Each has filled out our intake form, "snapshot". Each is unique. 518 253 Number of people served who were not homeless 101 22 Families housed in Ashland who received rental and or utility assistance allowing them to remain housed in Ashland. Our total investment in this program has been $14,220 116 57 Number of Veterans served 60 27 Number of families housed. (Each family was literally homeless and living in a place not intended for human habitation: tent, auto, RV, under bushes, or in a shelter) 3726 1689 Number of services that provided clothing, camping gear, bus passes, rental assistance, housing, job search, etc. Many guests required more than one service. 8825 3685 Number of visits to ACRC including hospitality. Many of our guests require multiple visits to the center before a trust is built that allows them to ask for and accept services. 13 0 Ashland Jobs Match: Full and part-time work found, program began September 1, 2015. 2553 1028 Showers provided 751 325 Loads of laundry 178 65 Bus passes: donated by RVTD until July 1, 2014, since then ACRC has purchased "Helping Hands" passes from RVTD 116 48 Volunteers serving at ACRC 7166.5 3563 Volunteer hours served at ACRC 455 203 Donors to ACRC/OHRA 3 FINANCIAL REPORT 02/2014- 02/2014- Income Present 02/2015 $83,047.43 $36,696 Money donated to ACRC from community members. All of these funds go through and are recorded by OHRA. $95,500 $35,250 Dollars from charitable foundations: Access, Ashland Food Coop, Carpenter Foundation, Leighton Maxey Foundation, Soroptimist, Rotary, City of Ashland Social Services Grant 2016, and Ashland Jobs Match, Set Free Ministries. $71,288 $29,980 Value of in-kind donations from 280 community members including clothing, furniture, gear. The amount also includes volunteer labor in improving and maintaining the center and shower trailer. $100,000 $55,530 Dollars received from the city grant for operating expenses (rent, utilities, salaries; this amount does NOT include client services). Expenditures $61,288 $10,916 Value of goods distributed to guests. Dress for survival (cold weather gear), dress for success (employment ready clothing) and personal items. These prices are set by national standards of non profits. $19,500 $19,500 Purchase of shower trailer and truck. 2013 purchase not in 2014 budget. $31,334.67 $12,850 Dollars of direct support to our guests, includes rent and utility support, rent deposit assistance, short term shelter, emergency home repair, ID, emergency travel. This is OHRA's "Family Emergency Fund". $9,053 Salary for our Jobs Specialist/Navigator Tina Stevens (2015 SOU Graduate) $153,000 $70,508.82 Operation costs for center only, not including "direct support to guests". $193,387.67 $83,358.82 Total cost : operation costs and direct guest support $274,175.67 $113,774.82 Total Value including items given to guests and shower trailer 4 IN-KIND SUPPORT 02/2014- 02/2014- Professional Services Provided by Other Agencies or Volunteers at Present 02/2015 ACRC 305 hrs. 100 hrs. Dennis Goldstein, a retired attorney and advocate for homeless people 33hrs. 33hrs. Jackson County Mental Health Services 821 hrs. 386 hrs. Services directed toward Veterans by Access case managers and outreach workers, Easter Seals, Veteran Service Office (VSO) 352hrs. 88 hrs. Mental Health Services Provided by: Fredric Berger, Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW); Kay Hagen, LCSW; Ephriam Andrew, Drug and Alcohol Abuse and Crisis Counseling; Mike Thor, Certified Mental Health Professional 50hrs. 20 hrs. Maslow Project 02/2014- 02/2014- Partnering Organizations and Agencies Helping to Provide Services Present 02/2015 52 38 Number of agencies we have partnered with to provide services 15 10 Number of businesses who have contributed goods to support ACRC ACRC DATA COLLECTED USING SERVICE POINT Service Point is the licensed database system used to track services provided through federal funding sources. It is in use at ACCESS and ACRC. 5 u WIN To 2 S ; r -1 _ Nr + 1 £ c+ ti t L Ann.., 9' f ILIP i OIL s~. 6 to _rLi Provide Ashland Citizens with 4th Street Railroad Crossing First off, I thank you and the City for installing sidewalks at the Oak St. railroad crossing. It is really nice to no longer have to walk into this busy street to avoid having to climb over the tracks, especially after dark. Those with mobility issues or strollers must especially appreciate these new sidewalks. We are still badly in need of another pedestrian railroad crossing in the area just north of A St., however. The tracks between Oak Street and N. Mountain Avenue run for'/4 mile without a crossing. This is by far the longest distance between railroad crossings in the City-and being adjacent to the city center, we are talking about a prime location for pedestrians and bikers. Using myself as an example, a 4"' Street crossing would reduce my roundtrip walk to 0' and A Streets from north of the tracks by nine blocks. We need to open up this'/4 mile barrier. This is not a new issue. In 2001, 14 years ago, the City developed a plan using "Smart Development" principles for the area just north of the tracks called the Ashland Railroad Property Master Plan. The plan provided for a 4"' Street crossing of the tracks. In addition, in December 2010, a petition calling for a crossing in the area, signed by 91 area businesses, residents, and employees along with testimony from many of them, was presented to the Transportation Commission. The fact that the lots adjacent to the proposed 4"' Street crossing have not yet been developed should not prevent the City from providing Ashland's citizens reasonable access to their city center. After all, there is precedent just north of the tracks for requiring a pathway in an area still to be developed, as well as for landscaping on lots that still have no buildings. Working with ODOT, the City can make this happen. I invite all of you to visit the area in question, should you not have done so recently. Here is an area with a master plan in place ripe for development-no annexation, no retrofitting, no tear- downs necessary. This area could be a model of mixed-use, high density new construction meeting high energy conservation standards; of new approaches to landscaping and water use; of needed affordable housing-and provide great walking and biking within the City center. Isn't this want we all want? A railroad crossing here is likely a necessary prerequisite, however. For years the railroad and the city have turned a blind eye to the dozens if not hundreds of daily trespass crossings over the tracks between Oak Street and N. Mountain Avenue by pedestrians and cyclists. Now that trains have resumed travel through town, the local papers tell us citizens face fines of over $6000 and/or a year in jail for what has been going on for years without penalty. More fencing is being installed along the tracks and we are told trespassing enforcement will be ramped up. Surely Ashland can do better. Don't Ashland citizens deserve a badly needed pedestrian crossing rather than threats of jail time and steep fines? Now that the trains have returned, please make a pedestrian crossing here a priority. Please don't make Ashland citizens wait any longer. ry iYI~' Brats a~`~ rerc N u § s :6fi 3 5 ° f, i~h4rr4E;~r C> a~, -U ,W LL .av x. • vt a r . n" 3 N O II U 4 O As S V, L w p; T r Q ytrli ~ L firm ,v 4 Lfh a i' 1 „ N t h ~ f t`-{ r. ~ T jN (1 Lk)0.i A e,.r,w) ~I-Wtt,ll phi wo, To the Mayor and City Council of Ashland, Thank you to the Planning Commission for your hard work on this topic to bring this proposal to the City Council. Thank you too the City Council for hearing public testimony on this subject today. This is a subject that is very important to me. I have lived in and/or owned property in Ashland for the past 15 years. I have been a Medical Marijuana Grower in Ashland, licensed by the Oregon Health Authority by means of the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act for the past 5 years. I am here today because of the proposed regulations brought by the Planning Commission are potentially detrimental to the growers producing Marijuana and patients receiving safe, local, tax free access to medicine that helps with their ailments. By restricting how much and where we can grow, on top of what the state has already legislated, you will be pushing the local safe access to patient's cannabis outside of Ashland. If patients lose their growers because of new land use ordinances proposed by the Commission, patients will have to decide between paying retail prices at dispensaries or find new growers outside of Ashland. These are not easy options for sick people with ailments like cancer, Alzheimer's, chronic pain or seizures. I urge you today to not limit the outdoor production of Medical Marijuana. I have read the letters from the community complaining about the odors from their back porch or in their children's bedroom. I am here to tell you that in the 5 years I have been producing in Ashland, to my knowledge, I have not received a complaint from neighbors based on odor. I am confident that if I did, I would take the necessary steps to correct the issue, as I'm sure most would. Please give the community of growers the option to correct the complaints from neighbors. Outright restrictions are detrimental to the system that is already in place and working for so many. I feel that the Planning Commission is basing recommendation in part on these complaints and I would like you to take into account that these complaints represent a small fraction of the Medical Marijuana production in the city. Additionally I challenge the Commission to tell any Ashlander with a large vegetable garden that they need to grow fewer vegetables because their property is not intended for agricultural use, as they have suggested in their report. Please tailor the regulation to the complaints, allow time for correcting issues, and do not further restrict outdoor plant counts or enact garden setbacks. Finally, the Commission has recommended limitations on licensed commercial growing to 5,000-sqft from the state maximum of 10,000-sqft. I again challenge the Commission to explain how indoor Marijuana production appears to be a "land intensive use" and where they can reference reports describing 100,000-sqft operations with only a few employees. Based on the size of legal, medical grows I have seen, I cannot even imagine the workforce a 100,000-sqft, 2.3 acre indoor facility would employ. Not to mention the positive economic trickle down effect it would have on the local economy and added tax dollars to the OLCC funds. Funds that go to schools, mental health and drug services, police, cities, counties and the Oregon health authority. Because of limited space and zoning, I'm not sure that there ever would be a 10,000-sqft indoor production facility in Ashland. But by outright saying that it can't exist, limits the economic potential of the fastest growing industry in Oregon, and the United States. To recap, I urge the Council to vote against proposed ordinances limiting the number of outdoor medical plants, enacting garden setbacks and limiting square footage of licensed commercial production facilities beyond current state regulations.