Dear neighbors and friends, please help.

We need your help to immediately email our elected representatives to support a Joint Policy Statement on Homelessness.

Please submit your comments by 5:00 p.m. on Monday 4-13-20 to:

1. EDC Board of Supervisors, Clerk of the Board at edc.cob@edcgov.us, Subject Line: 4-14-2020; Agenda Item 25 Joint Policy on Homelessness, AND

2. Placerville City Clerk by email at roconnell@cityofplacerville.org, Subject line: 4-14-20 Agenda item 12.2 Joint Policy on Homelessness

Background:

There is a Joint Policy Statement on Homelessness coming before the Board of Supervisors and Placerville City Council this Tuesday, 4/14. It proposes that "the County and City shall work together to establish immediate solutions to reduce and work toward elimination of the homeless problem in our jurisdictions." The policy will authorize staff to immediately evaluate the feasibility of using the Placerville Armory and to explore other facilities as a Navigation Center with Support Services and Transitional Housing.

Here are some important points to support this proposal and counter the negative publicity about using the Armory:

1. The majority of the homeless neighbors in EDC are from EDC. They are not transient people, according to the most recent Point in Time Count.

2. Our County is in desperate need of a Navigation Center with Transitional Housing. Locations all over the state have done this. A recent visit to one in Marysville found it clean and well supervised. According to one of the Yuba County Board of Supervisors, the neighbors in the area reported no problems.

3. The Armory is not on Fairground Property and is the property of the State. It is being made available by the State of California only for housing and is not available for other purposes. If the Armory was chosen, the location is away from the Fairgrounds itself, it is fenced off and not even within view of New Morning or the Skate Park.

4. Providing services for the homeless has been found to protect the community from problems and makes the community a safer place. Sanitation services, mental health and substance abuse counseling can be provided when the unhoused population has housing. Studies have found that this approach can help people lift themselves out of homelessness.

5. The large number of homeless families and children in our community will be dramatically helped by finding solutions to this crisis.

6. Children attending events at the fairgrounds will not be adversely affected by a well supervised facility on an adjacent property that is separated by a fence.

Please share and forward this request so that we can get as many people as possible involved.

Thank you very much for your support of this important step for our community.

Frank Porter, Maureen Dion-Perry, Sean Frame

Homeless Advocacy Workgroup

We assisted Job’s Shelters of the Sierra (JSS) in outreach through asking our members to contact the board of supervisors regarding the disposition of the now-empty Placerville juvenile hall. The idea put forth by JSS was to turn the empty facility over to the Nomadic Shelter for use as a homeless shelter and a mental health facility. The fate of the facility will be decided at a later date.

An announcement from JSS:
A very big development: The Placerville City Police will begin working with the County Sheriff’s Department and their HOT (homeless outreach team) Team. Within the City of Placerville, the sheriff’s deputies will have a Placerville officer riding with them while they interact with the homeless. Their focus will be on the mentally changed and addicts who are destructive. Also they will assist the homeless population who are not destructive and need help. This is a great change and a sensible step in helping our local population without housing.

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Healthcare Workgroup

The Healthcare Workgroup continues to promote ‘Healthcare For All’ through outreach and house parties. On, May 20th, we were the featured presenters at Public Health’s ‘Access To Care’ monthly meeting where we showed the movie and answered the group’s questions about our work.

We are grateful to Public Health for their ongoing support and their recent sponsorship in printing 3,000 of the Sexual Health Resource wallet cards in English and 1,500 in Spanish. What is even more gratifying is that they kept half of them to distribute themselves!

The Workgroup will meet in July for updates on legislative activity and to strategize for future activities. Date and location to be announced.

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Immigration Rights Workgroup

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The immigration rights workgroup worked with St. Patrick’s Church and the IRC (International Rescue Committee) to help five people apply for citizenship. The IRC also worked with several other individuals who needed help with immigration issues. We are grateful for the work that the IRC does for the immigrant community.Every Monday and Wednesday we have a language exchange group, the number attending changes, but it’s a good way for us to get to know each other.

The immigration rights group is also tutoring school-age students. I hope more are willing to volunteer, since summer is a great time for students to catch up
or advance.

Please call to help us out! We need volunteers to assist with citizenship test prep classes. (Did you know that to become a citizen, an applicant must answer 100 questions in English?) We also need basic American history and government books. They should be either in Spanish or in simple English for a person whose second language is English.

Come join us! It’s very rewarding. Send a text to Becky Guinn, 530-903-0402.

Worker Solidarity Network Workgroup

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On May 19th our workgroup put on the General Meeting for the El Dorado Progressives. The meeting was focused on labor issues.

There were some very inspiring speakers! Ruth Ibarra, president of the Sacramento Chapter of the Coalition of Labor Union Women and John Reimann, labor activist and editor of Oakland Socialist. EDP members from the Worker Solidarity Network spoke also and shared their stories on why unions were so important to them.

A big focus of the meeting was the ongoing struggle of farm workers in San Quintin, Baja California, Mexico, who grow strawberries for Driscoll's and the ongoing boycott of Driscoll Berries. People attending the meeting were provided with letters about the Driscoll boycott they could send to the major grocery corporations asking them to honor the boycott and remove Driscoll berries from their shelves.

The meeting was thought provoking and well taken; attendees stayed long after the meeting engaged in conversation.

Two days after the meeting, members of the Worker Solidarity Network teamed with other members of El Dorado Progressives to organize and attend an urgent protest at the downtown courthouse about the continuing rightwing attack on the right of women to control their own bodies.

Protesters stood in the rain making their voices heard loud and clear! While we received negative comments from a few, overall the citizens of Placerville were very supportive of the protest, especially young people and older women. We received many honks of support and thumbs up from people driving by.

It was a very active few days for our Worker Solidarity Network group.

Greetings from your new Tri-Chairs

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A big thank you to Sean Frame, our founder and outgoing Chair, for all that he has done to birth EDP and grow our group for the past two years. We truly wish him the best in his continued service for Congressional District 4 and his campaign to unseat Tom McClintock and truly represent our values in Washington, DC. His work has been amazing and has brought growth, meaning, and joy to what we are doing.

We have a lot going on and, if you’re not already involved up to your ears, we hope that you will consider getting involved with one of our workgroups. They are doing important work and are fun.

Our active groups right now are:

Civil Rights Now!, Immigrant Rights, Workers Rights, Healthcare and Reproductive Health, and Protecting the Environment. And a new workgroup is starting up on Affordable Housing and Homelessness.

To join one, visit our sign-up form or contact one of us through the EDP email address (link).

Mark your calendar for April 14 at 3 pm for our next meeting with presentations on: voters in El Dorado County, the need for rent stabilization in trailer parks, and healthcare. The details can be found here and here. Bring a friend!

We are stronger together and we have more fun together!

Maureen Dion-Perry, Kristy McKay, and Sarah Saunders