Re: Two wins! [winter shelter in Seattle]

Tom Boland (wgcp@earthlink.net)
Thu, 22 Oct 1998 19:48:36 -0400 

Congratulations to you and WHEEL members on a job well done, Anitra!  Your
recent protest encampment seems to have brought Seattle City government to
the bargaining table.  You have won some important concessions, but I'm
sure that you know that the struggle is far from over.

Get all promises in writing, framed in legally binding terms.  And don't
just watch the _promises_, watch the _delivery_.  Make sure they allocate
_funds_ for whatever they promise.

And let them know that WHEEL and your allies will keep up the pressure
until promises _are_ delivered.  [If they think you will go away or accept
less than they promised, they may not deliver much.]

And remember not to settle for _temporary_ "shelter" alone.  Make
_permenent_ and resident-managed "homes for all" a reality in Seattle, the
USA and worldwide!

Seeking peaceful means to homeless peoples' aims. -- Tom Boland

>I had a wonderful morning.  I got the news that the Pioneer Square
>committee voted Yes to allow Winter Response to use the Tashiro Building;
>they will move in there tonight, and the fifty men and women from SafeHaven
>shelter (displaced by condo development) will move into the First United
>Methodist Church that Winter Response has been using.
>
>AND we of WHEEL met with the services planning the new Evening Referral
>System for homeless women.  They had been planning to go into a small
>available space which was going to cost too much, not serve enough women,
>make the existing system even *more* complicated instead of simpler, and
>was definitely off-track from the goals set by the Community Planning
>Sessions.
>
>And we won there!  Our insistence uncovered another and better option that
>everybody is now very excited about.  I can't give any details right now
>until it "goes through channels",  but it's looking good.  And two of the
>service providers at the table openly thanked WHEEL for keeping the group
>focused on "our ideals".
>
>_________
>WRITE ON!
>~~ Anitra
>http://www.speakeasy.org/~anitra/projects.html for a full list of websites
>and webrings because if I list them all here, you will be SO mad at me ...

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