king center

the city council meeting to review funding for the king center (the main shelter in town) was last night. pretty frustrating meeting for a variety of reasons. to begin, yesterday on the front page of the newspaper, there was a statement saying the meeting had been cancelled, which was only half true. the meeting was not cancelled, only they pushed back the decision for the king center to next week, only slightly coincidential is the fact that next tuesday is the national homeless coalition meeting, so many advocates will be out of town. either way, about 50 tacomans went down to the meeting, sat through all of the agenda items, until the citizens forum. there were many people who stood up to defend the necessity of emergency shelter, including some of the guests who 'live' at the king center. the meeting ended with the city council promising that they were not intending to shut down the king center and leave the homeless with nowhere to go, without providing an alternative. though i must say, their arguments weren't very convincing. it seemed like an 'it's not my fault, it's their fault' defense. everything that was being said was contradictory to what i know the homeless are experincing. i can only hope and continue to argue that the city needs to take responsibility to limit gentrification in downtown tacoma as well as provide for it's most vulnerable citizens.