Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Omaha City Council met yesterday every Tuesday, and yesterday
was the public hearing on Councilman Brinker Harding's homeless Encampment Ordinance.
And it went on and on and on, counsel and
Hearting Joints. That's here in the studio. It was about
a three hour deal, right.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Good warning, Yes it was. It was a long day.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
And all of the advocacy organizations, of course, who opposed this,
they're all organized. The people who supported, I assume were
not organized. They're like, we had to do something about
the what's your takeaway from what happened yesterday?
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Well, first of all, I want to recap a little
bit is that you know, I introduced this ordinance to
address a growing problem in our city, and that's these encampments.
It's a public safety issue. It's a public health issue
both for the people in the encampments as well as
it was living in close proximity, the how the homes,
the parks, the businesses. And when I introduced it about
(00:59):
a month ago, I was asked by the Mayor's office
to hold off or delay the process, and I did
so because I said, look, I'm willing to work with
you or anyone to make this a better ordinance. And
so that's what I did. But after I did that,
you know what I got from the mayor's office crickets, nothing,
(01:20):
And I think it's you know, I look this. We
have a different mayor now, and I think I've seen
that this became a partisan issue and it should be
a non part of the problem. Yeah, So this democratic
marriage decided to use the homeless population as his pawn
(01:42):
to try to score political points. And I'm it's it's
interesting that. I mean, it became crystal clear to me,
and I use that word intentionally, thank you that he
had no intention of working with me, because after asking
me to pause the process and work with me, I
I heard nothing. But you know who did hear things
(02:03):
Democrat Pete Festerson, Democrat Danny Bagley. I was obviously kept
out of this because they wanted to make it a
political issue. They think that, you know, I was accused
of doing this for political reasons because I'm running for Congress.
Nothing could be further from the truth. I'm on the
city council today. I was re elected to be on
the city council, and for as long as I'm on
(02:25):
the city council. I'm going to work on those issues
that are important to the city.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
All right, So and this one is yeah, it is
you gotten bad man.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
This is the fundamental question to me, breaker and maybe
there's not an easy answer to it. And I believe
firmly that nine out of ten Omahans are compassionate about
people who are homeless, and are compassionate about the factors
that lead to homelessness, and are willing to be a
part of solving that part of it. But is this
(02:54):
community going to be a place that welcomes homeless people
and creates systems and projects that take care of homeless people,
or are we going to be a community that I
think deters homelessness? And at what point are we going
to stop taking care of homeless folks, which will only
(03:16):
grow the homeless population. If we were to build a
thousand home affordable apartments for homeless people tomorrow, we'll have
two thousand needs in a year. That's the problem. And
until the city Council and the mayor address this from
the root cause of whether we're going to make it
easy to be homeless in Omaha or we're going to
(03:38):
make it hard to be homeless in Omaha, the problem
will grow and grow and grow.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
Well, you're right, And what we do need to do though,
is at least now, we need to take action to
solve this issue today for the population that's here now,
and it's not Jim's and I think Sheriff Hansen said
a little bit about this yesterday and his letter that
we have to make sure that we understand that there
(04:03):
are a couple of things going on here. Part of
this is the homeless issue, but it's also these encampments.
I mean, we need to make sure that the people
who are in these situations get to the help that
they need. And we understand that there are people who
are never going to agree to do so. They you know,
some people just don't want the help. But we need
(04:26):
to make sure that we're taking care of these encampments
because again, these are public safety issues, they're public health issues.
And right now when we're taking you know, thirty days
plus to address the issue, if you have you know,
Garri or Jim, if you have relatives who are unfortunately
in this situation, do you want them to be subject
subjected to prostitution, sex trafficking, drug use, living in human
(04:52):
squalor for another thirty days. And now with this threshold,
this organization that the Mirror is apparently working with, says
that they can take care of it in seven to
ten days. Well, I spoke with the individual from Threshold
after the meeting yesterday, because again I wasn't briefed or
told about this until you know, Monday when they rolled
(05:12):
it out. But even seven to ten days, at least
in my estimation, I don't want my relative. I don't
want your relative living in those conditions for seven to
ten more days. We need to take care of this issue,
both for the benefit of those in the encampments as
well as the citizenry of Omaha.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
I believe this, and I'm happy to take all the
pushback against me from the left. The duty of the
leadership of any political body, in this case the city
of Omaha is to protective citizens. That's number one. And
if you've.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
Got including the homeless, that's yes.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
I'm not talking about abusing the homelessness, but as sheriff
answers that these places are dangerous and get you might
you might have kids walking from school, you might have
kids in the neighborhood. That to me is number one.
So next Tuesday is supposed to be the third reading
and maybe a vote. Will that happen because you'll lose,
(06:16):
probably right, it'll be four to three if it is.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
Well, yeah, I don't know what the vote would be
right now, but look, I say it at the top
of this, I'm going to say it at the end
of this too, and I'm going to say it so
that the Mayor's office hears it as well. I am
willing to sit down and talk with anyone about how
to make this a better ordinance because we need to
address the issue. That offer is still out there, so
(06:42):
I doubt something's probably going to happen within the next
five six days, but if it gets look, I'm all
for laying it over if we need to do it
so that we get the best solution out of this.
But we need to address the issue. It is imperative
that we not suppose the people in these encampments and
the citizenry of Omaha to these conditions.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
Well, to me, if the city gets involved, if we
create a government solution to this, the problem will only grow.
It has to be in the hands of the groups,
the private nonprofit groups who have rules and regulations about
living there, and then you make it uncomfortable to be
homeless in Omaha, because the more comfortable it is to
(07:26):
be here, the more the problem will grow, and then
it will become unmanageable.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
Hey, Brenker, thanks for coming in. Then we'll stay in
touch on this and keep an eye on next Tuesday.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
Appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
Jolson and Brenker harding here
The Omaha City Council met yesterday every Tuesday, and yesterday
was the public hearing on Councilman Brinker Harding's homeless Encampment Ordinance.
And it went on and on and on, counsel and
Hearting Joints. That's here in the studio. It was about
a three hour deal, right.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Good warning, Yes it was. It was a long day.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
And all of the advocacy organizations, of course, who opposed this,
they're all organized. The people who supported, I assume were
not organized. They're like, we had to do something about
the what's your takeaway from what happened yesterday?
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Well, first of all, I want to recap a little
bit is that you know, I introduced this ordinance to
address a growing problem in our city, and that's these encampments.
It's a public safety issue. It's a public health issue
both for the people in the encampments as well as
it was living in close proximity, the how the homes,
the parks, the businesses. And when I introduced it about
(00:59):
a month ago, I was asked by the Mayor's office
to hold off or delay the process, and I did
so because I said, look, I'm willing to work with
you or anyone to make this a better ordinance. And
so that's what I did. But after I did that,
you know what I got from the mayor's office crickets, nothing,
(01:20):
And I think it's you know, I look this. We
have a different mayor now, and I think I've seen
that this became a partisan issue and it should be
a non part of the problem. Yeah, So this democratic
marriage decided to use the homeless population as his pawn
(01:42):
to try to score political points. And I'm it's it's
interesting that. I mean, it became crystal clear to me,
and I use that word intentionally, thank you that he
had no intention of working with me, because after asking
me to pause the process and work with me, I
I heard nothing. But you know who did hear things
(02:03):
Democrat Pete Festerson, Democrat Danny Bagley. I was obviously kept
out of this because they wanted to make it a
political issue. They think that, you know, I was accused
of doing this for political reasons because I'm running for Congress.
Nothing could be further from the truth. I'm on the
city council today. I was re elected to be on
the city council, and for as long as I'm on
(02:25):
the city council. I'm going to work on those issues
that are important to the city.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
All right, So and this one is yeah, it is
you gotten bad man.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
This is the fundamental question to me, breaker and maybe
there's not an easy answer to it. And I believe
firmly that nine out of ten Omahans are compassionate about
people who are homeless, and are compassionate about the factors
that lead to homelessness, and are willing to be a
part of solving that part of it. But is this
(02:54):
community going to be a place that welcomes homeless people
and creates systems and projects that take care of homeless people,
or are we going to be a community that I
think deters homelessness? And at what point are we going
to stop taking care of homeless folks, which will only
(03:16):
grow the homeless population. If we were to build a
thousand home affordable apartments for homeless people tomorrow, we'll have
two thousand needs in a year. That's the problem. And
until the city Council and the mayor address this from
the root cause of whether we're going to make it
easy to be homeless in Omaha or we're going to
(03:38):
make it hard to be homeless in Omaha, the problem
will grow and grow and grow.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
Well, you're right, And what we do need to do though,
is at least now, we need to take action to
solve this issue today for the population that's here now,
and it's not Jim's and I think Sheriff Hansen said
a little bit about this yesterday and his letter that
we have to make sure that we understand that there
(04:03):
are a couple of things going on here. Part of
this is the homeless issue, but it's also these encampments.
I mean, we need to make sure that the people
who are in these situations get to the help that
they need. And we understand that there are people who
are never going to agree to do so. They you know,
some people just don't want the help. But we need
(04:26):
to make sure that we're taking care of these encampments
because again, these are public safety issues, they're public health issues.
And right now when we're taking you know, thirty days
plus to address the issue, if you have you know,
Garri or Jim, if you have relatives who are unfortunately
in this situation, do you want them to be subject
subjected to prostitution, sex trafficking, drug use, living in human
(04:52):
squalor for another thirty days. And now with this threshold,
this organization that the Mirror is apparently working with, says
that they can take care of it in seven to
ten days. Well, I spoke with the individual from Threshold
after the meeting yesterday, because again I wasn't briefed or
told about this until you know, Monday when they rolled
(05:12):
it out. But even seven to ten days, at least
in my estimation, I don't want my relative. I don't
want your relative living in those conditions for seven to
ten more days. We need to take care of this issue,
both for the benefit of those in the encampments as
well as the citizenry of Omaha.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
I believe this, and I'm happy to take all the
pushback against me from the left. The duty of the
leadership of any political body, in this case the city
of Omaha is to protective citizens. That's number one. And
if you've.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
Got including the homeless, that's yes.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
I'm not talking about abusing the homelessness, but as sheriff
answers that these places are dangerous and get you might
you might have kids walking from school, you might have
kids in the neighborhood. That to me is number one.
So next Tuesday is supposed to be the third reading
and maybe a vote. Will that happen because you'll lose,
(06:16):
probably right, it'll be four to three if it is.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
Well, yeah, I don't know what the vote would be
right now, but look, I say it at the top
of this, I'm going to say it at the end
of this too, and I'm going to say it so
that the Mayor's office hears it as well. I am
willing to sit down and talk with anyone about how
to make this a better ordinance because we need to
address the issue. That offer is still out there, so
(06:42):
I doubt something's probably going to happen within the next
five six days, but if it gets look, I'm all
for laying it over if we need to do it
so that we get the best solution out of this.
But we need to address the issue. It is imperative
that we not suppose the people in these encampments and
the citizenry of Omaha to these conditions.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
Well, to me, if the city gets involved, if we
create a government solution to this, the problem will only grow.
It has to be in the hands of the groups,
the private nonprofit groups who have rules and regulations about
living there, and then you make it uncomfortable to be
homeless in Omaha, because the more comfortable it is to
(07:26):
be here, the more the problem will grow, and then
it will become unmanageable.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
Hey, Brenker, thanks for coming in. Then we'll stay in
touch on this and keep an eye on next Tuesday.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
Appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
Jolson and Brenker harding here
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