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Camp Unity Focus Group Focus Group-Camp Unity Colleen: One of the things that we did at our last Task Force meeting is ask the members, what is it that they’d like to learn from those of you that are experiencing or have experienced homelessness? So I have some questions here. One of the questions, and I think we’ll save it for the end is, what do you think is important for the Task Force to know, or what do you want to just tell everybody, in terms of the work that we’re doing? The mission of the Task Force, or the charge, is to put together some recommendations for actions and ideas that there will probably be, and need to be, recommendations for actions that can be taken by multiple sectors of the community, not just our government. Because what we’re finding is that what government is able to really do is somewhat limited. So what our recommendation is for all our residents, for our businesses, for our churches, for our libraries, our service providers, things that maybe they could do differently, or more of, or stop doing; that kind of thing. So it’s really open, in terms of what kinds of recommendations that we come up with, except that we want them to be very focused on Redmond, and very actionable so that we can start to see improvement from all the perspectives, okay? So that’s kind of what we’re trying to do. Any questions before I ask you guys questions? Mike: I’ve got a question. My name’s Mike and I’d like to ask. You said you got lots of feedback from a Community meeting. What was the tenor of that meeting, and, specifically, neighbors around Camp Unity? What were the comments having to do with us, Camp Unity? Colleen: So I’ll do the best I can and ask either of you if you have a better recall. I don’t recall any specific mention of Camp Unity in any of the comments. But possibly, they could be there, but I don’t remember. I will say that the most prevalent comment in the concerns section were actual and perceived public safety concerns. So people that have had scary experiences, or people that are worried about having scary experiences, or feel intimidated, or just feel like the sense of the city is sort of changing, or their experience of the city is changing. So that was the most common of the concerns. Then, under the solutions or ideas, lots of stuff about needing more access to services. Why aren’t there places for people to live? How come we don’t have enough affordable housing? Those kinds of things. Those are sort of the overall changes. Al: I think, from what I’ve just observed walking through the other room, and just walking into the camp here, the concerns about safety, I don’t see the residents here as being the concern on the 85th Street area of Redmond. The people here don’t fit the look of the people on 85th Street that are the concerns of the businesses on 85th Street in the vicinity of the library. Like I said, they’re typically, guys eighteen to twenty-four, some of them quite fit. And like I said, in one instance on a Sunday morning, I called the police because there were some of them on one side of the street were calling the other guys’ names, calling them out to come fight or whatever. When you’ve got medical tenants and things of that sort in an area, they don’t like that. If their patients having to come and see that kind of thing going on, that’s a real negative. Colleen: Is that kind of what you were wondering, Mike? Mike: Yeah, they were there and I was curious if anyone in the vicinity of our Camp have any specific issues or problems that they’d experienced. And also, I mean, for a hundred people to show up, there must have been… Al: Well, most of the night, we were broke up into individual tables. Colleen: Right. Al: And maybe there were eight people at a table. Nobody at the table that I was at mentioned anything about Camp Unity. Gary: I’ll tell you. Mike, I explained that if it was a problem, that there’d be a permit fee of $2600 for a religious organization [inaudible] Camp Unity, that we needed to do something about that. I also explained that Camp Unity is a well- organized functioning entity. We need to do some coordination so that the camp can work with the other cities and other religious organizations. We need to find a place for you all to be able to move to. And those were the two comments I made. Colleen: That’s right, and now that you say that, I remember that and that is in the notes, and if you’re really interested, I’m happy to get a copy for you. Mike: No, well, that answers my question. Colleen: So, folks wanted to know why you’re here. Why are you at Camp Unity? And I’ll just let whoever wants to speak up. Male: I can start. I’ve known Allen for a while, and I moved from back in Dallas. And he moved up here about five or six years ago? Allen: Um-hmm. Male: He’s been asking me to come out, because the job that I was working, even though it was a steady job, it was just basically no room to expand and grow. So, I worked that job for eight years. And just last year, or June, July, something like that, I decided to come out. Well, I had to wait because my mom was sick, and she was getting a liver transplant so I waited another six, seven months before I came. And I came to Camp Unity, not knowing or expecting. Allen did explain to me what it was and it was an encampment, and whatever, which I have never experienced that, because we don’t really have that in Dallas. We just have Union Gospel Mission and the Salvation Army. And they don’t really put an emphasis on, it’s the homeless people and it’s everybody else. Colleen: Where were you staying in Dallas? Male: I stayed in like close to downtown. I did have an apartment and a roommate, and stuff like that. I had all the regular stuff, that people was like oh, you know, make a big thing about. I just felt like I was one of those rats that was on a spinner, and it’s just you running and just not going anywhere. So I decided to just say hey, if I can start over here, I can start over anywhere. So I came up here with no expectations with anything. I came to Camp Unity, and I met some pretty cool people, some good people, some bad people, just like it can be anywhere else. I saw the potential of what this place could be with the right leadership, and the right motivation and direction to go. I had an idea of how things and me and Allen talked about it and when we got the opportunity to do so, and use of getting rid of some people that was holding me back from moving forward, we had a vision and an idea of what Camp Unity could be. Which is on the road what we’re doing right now, as far as drugs, alcohol is not permitted, as we have no tolerance for it. And especially in leadership, to lead by example. I’m here, I don’t know how long I’ll be here, because I do have my own aspirations of things that I would like to do. Colleen: How long have you been here so far? Male: I’ve been here since August. Colleen: Since August, okay. Male: Yeah. But while I’m here, I’d like to keep it moving forward, as far as the reputation and the idea of people that we want here. I hate to say that we’re selective, but we have certain type of criteria that we look for when people come here. Because we call it the harmony of camp to keeping the morale and the harmony of camp basically in good standings. And for people when they see us, and when they come to the camp, they feel it. And they feel that people, even though we don’t always get along, it’s like a big family. But it’s more of a positive than it is of negatives. We had a group of kids come yesterday, and we gave them a tour. And it was awesome, and it was like they wanted to know, and Allen, basically, laid it down. It was like, the most important thing is family and people that you care about, and looking out for people that matter. It’s like I said, not everybody gets along here, because it happens, but people matter to each other. Like we have it where if you are out of the camp more than three days, we ask you to call in, just to let us know that you’re okay, and that you’re fine. We value that, because we do care about everybody that comes through our doors, has been here for a while, that can make a contribution to the camp and a contribution to the city and Redmond has been good to us.
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