pages: CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-09-12.pdf, 7
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CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities | 2018-09-12 | 7 | COMMISSION ON DISABILITY MEETING MINUTES Wednesday September 12, 2018 6:30 p.m. Commissioner Lisa Hall: He's done so much and as you know he's working with the Food Bank and we have many of our clients that come to the food bank are homeless. Doug Biggs: Yep. Commissioner Lisa Hall: And just yesterday it really got me. I was going to the laundromat up off Park Street and a lady came up to me and her gentleman friend came up to me and said, "She would like to talk to you." And she was in a wheelchair and she's homeless, and she asked me, because she saw my sign on my car and she asked me if I could help her in any way, like refer her. So that kind of brought it home for me, because I do have the Food Bank and everything, and I was like, "I know there's 211" but I was like Just as an FYI. What I did is I went home, I wrote pertinent numbers and made it on a piece of paper and made copies to keep in my car for when I run into people or anybody that asks, even at the Food Bank or whatever, because that really got to me, I felt very helpless with this woman, and she was obviously in desperate need and she was a resident of Alameda, she used to live on Lincoln Avenue. So it was very distressing. But also being disabled and a senior, I understand that I could be one, a couple of months away from being homeless, because as, in just the last two months, it's interesting you say Central Avenue Three families were evicted out of 470 Central for no other reason other than money. Commissioner Lisa Hall: And that's why we're trying to fight, the homeless epidemic is definitely here in Alameda, and because it's everywhere and this is the problem we have. I understand, and I can't say thank you so much for doing this because I know it's something we desperately need, just like the warming center we hope we can also put together. Because if you are a senior or a disabled person and you're on a fixed income, right off the bat, if you lose your place, you cannot qualify pretty much for anything because the realtors and the apartment owners and everyone, they basically want you to make at least two times your salary. And if you're on disability, you don't. You're in a fix income. So you can't. There's not even anywhere you could actually go to say, unless you happen to know somebody or something like that, you can't even apply to rent somewhere else because you don't qualify. So this is another thing that's so needed for, especially with our disabled and our seniors. Our seniors are struggling. I mean we see them every week coming to get food and they're doing the tradeoff, "I can't afford my pills this month or my housing" or whatever. So keep going dear, you do it. Doug Biggs: Thank you. Commissioner Lisa Hall: Thank you. Doug Biggs: Thank you. Chair Elizabeth Kenny: My question was actually covered by Commissioner Roloff. I just have a little bit of a finer point on it, is the definition of homeless. Because I often have clients who may have several family members who they can couch surf with and they won't qualify under this. So under the HUD definition of homeless. And even though they don't have a home. Doug Biggs: Right. 09/12/18 Page 7 of 16 | CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-09-12.pdf |