Lodi mayor suggests signs to discourage people from giving food or money to the homeless
LODI – Lodi city leaders are trying to find new ways to help the area's growing homeless population, with the community's help.
Last year, Lodi's point-in-time count found that over 400 people are experiencing homelessness within the city. Now, city leaders getting creative when it comes to helping them – and the mayor thinks it could be as simple as a sign.
Helping over enabling: That's the main message the City of Lodi and its Access Center want the community to know when it comes to one of the area's most vulnerable populations.
"Here in Lodi, we have a lot of organizations with the same heart, same focus, and all coming together to work at this," said Johnny Coughran, director of the Lodi Access Center.
Coughran has dedicated his life to service.
"It's giving people an opportunity to get back on their feet, and this is a step towards either transitional living or housing," Coughran said.
But with a growing population, the challenge has been connecting the homeless with services –while warning others about the wrong ways to help.
"If we did put up some signages for around the city of Lodi on city property for letting people know what the Access Center is, maybe even a QR code that people can visit, help, donate, etc.," said Mayor Cameron Bregman during a recent council meeting. "And of course, maybe putting on it that, you know, please don't feed individuals."
The signs would be posted around the city, pointing people to the best place to get services – the Access Center, which Coughran is a fan of.
"What that does is it cuts off enabling," Coughran said. "And we're, we're all for helping, and enabling can be counterproductive to that help."
Within the next year, the Access Center has plans on expanding its current facility to house 100 beds with more services – all to help those in need.
