Please ask the Mayor to have the Urbana Community Development Commision's December 21st meeting regarding Urbana funding of "permenant support housing" with "low demand" criteria continually rebroadcast. This commision needs to open up talks further before any funding reccomendation.

Help for disabled, or families is a growing need.  How it is approached is important.  There are those that would support building shelters or apartments, services, with little requirement to particpate or leave.  That sounds like a BIG TAX HIKE for those trying to pay the mortgage for the long term.

What can we do to help our neighbors? Ask all hospitals operating as non-profits, refusing to pay property tax indefinately, to provide services other than emergency room to the homeless population.  They can do this at cost with little goverment regulation. Services such as addition treatment. They are currently legaly compelled to treat those in the ER at great cost to us all. Prevention lowers costs.

We can ask the Parkland College Board whose taxing district we are in, to provide free life skills and job training to those in shelters and such circumstance to all qualified that ask on constant basis.

We can ask that apartments owners with vacancies be given some incentive to rent on a temporary basis to address overflow from those who meet the strict criteria of the Women's Fund shelter or the Salvation Army.

Talking about big buildings, services just leaves others indefinately on the waiting list, and others with a tax bill that might put them in on a waiting list.

Andrea Antulov