The Groves Church has generously opened up their shower facilities for houseless neighbors to use on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 1-5PM and Saturdays from 2-6PM.
Sunnyside Winter Gear Drive for our Houseless Neighbors
January is a great time to clean out your closet—and your basement. What still brings you joy and what can you pass along to someone less fortunate? The Sunnyside Neighborhood Association encourages you to donate lightly used and even some new items for our Winter Gear Drive. People who are living outside, in particular, need rainproof clothing, boots, and coats to keep them dry and warm for the cold months ahead. Continue reading “Sunnyside Winter Gear Drive for our Houseless Neighbors”
SNA Community Safety & Livability Update
The members of the SNA Community Safety & Livability (CS&L) committee would like to extend our gratitude for the large turnout at the December 15th meeting. It’s very important to hear the concerns and needs of our community so that the committee can address and establish solutions to make the Sunnyside neighborhood safe and welcoming for all. A big thank you to Raven Drake, Street Roots Ambassador Program Manager, who shared valuable insights with us on how to do outreach and communicate with our growing population of houseless neighbors. In addition to meeting Raven at the December meeting, committee members attended an outreach training on December 26th guided by Raven and her team. We also want to thank both State Representative Rob Nosse for attending our meeting and Street Roots for the outreach training that helped us to learn more about how to navigate this growing concern.
Emergency Preparedness and the SNA Board
January’s SNA General Meeting will focus on preparedness. Part of this meeting will be dedicated to SNA Board members’ sharing their preparedness efforts. I will be moderating this meeting and I will ask Board members to share where they are on the preparedness continuum. Members of the Sunnyside NET (Neighborhood Emergency Team) will attend. If time allows, other Sunnyside residents may share their preparedness efforts. I hope that you will join us.
December SNA Notes and January Plans
The December SNA General Meeting began with a discussion of the impending end to the moratorium on rental evictions at the end of the year. For more information, please see the related article by Jessie Maran. The SNA would like to help those affected and would love input from neighbors on possible action(s). The meeting then redirected to the Buckman NA meeting featuring Marc Jolin, Director of the Joint Office on Homelessness. His office contracts with over 40 non-profit organizations to help alleviate homelessness and its effects. Like SNA, Marc expressed concern over the evictions of renters that is likely to occur over the coming months. Some of his other main points were: