HomeMy WebLinkAbout09-20-23 Public Comment - B. Goold - written statement for official recordFrom:Bill Goold
To:Agenda
Subject:[EXTERNAL]written statement for official record
Date:Tuesday, September 19, 2023 2:55:29 PM
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Written Statement of J. William (Bill) Goold to the Bozeman CityCommission
September 19, 2023
Good evening. My name is Bill Goold and I live in Apartment 8 at 2228Baxter Lane; Bozeman, Montana 59718. Also, I am a member of BozemanTenants United. I truly wish I didn’t feel compelled to go on record about thismatter.
But the sad fact is that not many years ago, it was routine public policy inBozeman to provide bus tickets to homeless people and send them to Butte. When I first learned about that practice, I was shocked by such a heartlessapproach to homelessness in our community, which chronically burdens ourmost vulnerable and impoverished residents. It sought to deal with unvarnishedpoverty in our midst by callously erasing it and exporting it elsewhere. Thatcourse of action was wrong then, just as this Draft Ordinance 2147 you arebeing asked to approve is wrong now. It is mean-spirited and misdirected.
I urge you to table this draft ordinance and then bury it once and for all. TheCity Commission, City Manager, and City Attorney need to go back to thedrawing board and put on your thinking caps. Surely, working together, youcan and must do better than this in relationship to our homeless neighbors.
Second, let’s not kid ourselves. This ordinance is not about so-called ‘urbancamping.’ That is a gross misnomer. Under the guise of public safety, it isabout cynically instituting a cruel, dehumanizing policy of rolling evictions. There I said it, rolling evictions.
If adopted, it would further displace working people who are struggling dailyto survive in Bozeman. It would require homeless people living in rickety RVs,vans, truck campers, and cars along our city streets to move every 5 days/morethan 70 times/year to another named street and place additional restrictions forthis use of public space. Violators would also be subject to serial $100 fines forfailure to comply, money they obviously don’t have.
This draft ordinance is a rushed, cynical, cowardly, unjust policy response toBozeman’s affordable housing crisis. Clever by half, it diverts public attentionand resources to criminalize a symptom, rather than deal head-on with the real,underlying problem. It is a betrayal of the warmth, caring, and humanity to befound in the character and heart of the vast majority of the people in Bozeman. It is unworthy of any more of our time or serious consideration.
We are all born into this world needing and craving a sense of place…somewhere to call home. Nobody wants to be a refugee. Let’s not make theimpoverished, vulnerable, and homeless in our midst into refugees constantlyhaving to move.