Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcoming Omaha Mayor Jean Stouther back to the program. Mayor,
Good morning, Good to have you back.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Good morning. I think we do need to build that
Oma Dome though, don't you with this whether we've been
having Yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
If that's possible, right on that and you can add
that to the project.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
You fixed that?
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Not possible, But wouldn't that be nice.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
If you fixed that?
Speaker 3 (00:19):
You're going to win the election?
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Yeah, same time. Yesterday morning, we talked with one of
your challengers, Mike McDonald. Controversy erupted after some of his
comments about Omaha's homeless services director over the weekend. While
we were talking with Mike yesterday, you texted and said,
he's lying. What would you like to say?
Speaker 2 (00:39):
He absolutely was lying, And you know the problem is
he stuck his foot in his mouth at its event
last Saturday. He slandered someone he has never met. He
called her a DEI hire and citied fire on day
one because she doesn't accomplish anything, and unbeknownst to him,
she's sitting right in front of him, and the guy
(00:59):
doesn't have the tegrity to say he was wrong. Number one,
she was hired because of her qualifications, not DEI or
because she was a woman. As well as every city
application in employee we all have job descriptions that job
did too. They're posted, they're interviewed. I had one hundred
(01:20):
and eighteen applications for the homeless service coordinator, interviewed six
to eight. So she was hired because of her qualifications.
She wasn't a DEI higher. After he said that on
the weekend, it exploded on social media and at first
his team was denying he even said it, and then
when they found out it was recorded, then they said, oh, yeah,
(01:42):
well he said it, but he didn't mean she was
hired because she was a woman DEI. She was hired
because she was hired with federal money. He said that
on your show yesterday for the first two years.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
But that was COVID money, right, that was it was
our for.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Money, nothing to do with DEI. And when COVID hit,
I assembled a group of community leaders to advise me
on what community needs were and one thing they identified
is there was going to be a lot more homeless
because a loss of jobs. So we thought this was important.
We hired her because of I mean, using COVID money.
It had nothing to do with DEI. At all and
(02:19):
when he said she hasn't accomplished anything that is wrong.
She has been in this position two years, and in
two years, over three hundred people in families she has
helped get into shelter and get the services that they need.
He says on your show yesterday that he's going to
build some sort of massive FEMA encampment or concentration camp.
(02:41):
We don't want to be like Seattle. Seattle tried that
and it was a disaster. Now the numbers he was
using yesterday are also totally wrong. He kept on saying
repeatedly that there's been a twelve hundred percent increase in homelessness.
Now he was using that number from twenty thirteen. She's
(03:02):
only been in this job two years, not since twenty thirteen.
But if you actually look at the count he is
referring to, that is a count that HUD does. They're
required to do it every January. And just let me
give you the numbers, because the numbers in this community
are so low. In twenty thirteen, the actual number with
(03:22):
the HUD count was one four hundred and seventy six.
Now in twenty twenty four, it was one thousand, six
hundred and nine that's one hundred and thirty three increase
of people that are homeless since twenty thirteen. That's a
nine percent increase, not twelve hundred percent increase. And that
(03:43):
theme account includes all homeless, meaning in shelters, in transitional housing,
and unsheltered. He kept on talking about those that are
intense under bridges and in dumpsters. That count, he was
referring to, is all homeless, including those in shelters. And
here's what else he totally missed didn't know, I guess
(04:05):
and tried to confuse your your listeners, is that count
is done on three counties, that is Douglas, Sarpi and Pottawatamee.
So he is blaming me and my homeless director for
an increase in homeless population, and he's using numbers from Douglas,
Sarpie and Potawatamee.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
Well, the number numbers mayor that his sites are from
housing and urban development, that state Omaha, Omaha the fastest
growing unsheltered homeless population in the nation. And then he
goes to the twelve thousand.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Twelve Here, Yeah, the HUD is three counties, it's Douglas,
Sarpy and Potawatamee. And of that count that's sixteen hundred
and nine in twenty twenty four count that was that
what the unsheltered was. Because I said it's a total
amount of homelessness. The unsheltered were two hundred and twenty
(04:59):
in three counties. Fifty eight percent of that was inwaame
So you know, he's blaming us for what is happening
in three other counties.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
Is the metro area.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
Let's go ahead and just make Iowa or ninety fourth
county and after worry.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
About all right, Really, I mean, you know, he's trying
to blame me, and he's trying to blame camera for
things that are happening in other counties. Fifty eight percent
of those homeless that had said we're in Pottawatamee. And
Mike McDonald needs to be reminded that Omaha is in Douglas.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
A couple of.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
Take this discussion and the issue to a larger level
on that is, what is the city's responsibility in dealing
with a homeless crisis. My contention all along has been
if you create a public agency that will attract homeless
people to your community because they know there are guaranteed
services for them, what is your broad policy plan to
(05:55):
not only address the homeless prime problem in Douglas County
specifically Omaha, but what about just the future of homeless
the issue of homeless people in the community which are
at a safety risk, of public safety risk, and most
assuredly in their case, a health risk.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
Well, let's talk about public safety first, if we can,
because he kept on talking about public safety yesterday. Let's
talk about public safety. What Mike McDonald did in the
legislature about voting to let early release of violent prisoners
and repeat offenders. He voted for parole for child molesters
and other violent criminals. He voted for lighter sentences for
(06:35):
drug felonies like meth, heroin and cocaine. I'll take my
record on public safety against Mike McDonald's any day. Now,
let's talk about what you just said is these public
entities are departments for the homeless. We don't have that.
That's why I hired her. She's a person that has
one assistant that is out on the street every day.
(06:57):
My goal is to work with those agents, thees that
we already have, like the Sienna Francis House, like a
street outreach, like Together, like another agency called Heel. We
work with all of those public nonprofits and agencies to
get the help that the homeless needs.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
So you don't believe, you don't believe that we should
have an infrastructure in place that provides publicly supported services
for the homeless.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
I don't think what Mike McDonald said is to create
some big concentration camp and move all the homeless there,
like they tried in Seattle. That would be a disaster.
What we are trying to do is get these folks,
and the number in Omaha is relatively small. I gave
it to you a few minutes ago. Look compared to
other major cities our size, get them the help they
(07:51):
need to get out of that homeless situation. When he
was talking numbers yesterday, he was talking those that are
already in shelters, those that are in transitional housing, and
those that are homeless. The biggest rise in this area,
the three county and homeless in the Santa Francis House
Board was in my office just a few weeks ago.
It's chronic homeless. A lot of these people have the
(08:13):
ability to be in shelter that don't want to be
in shelter. A public entity, to say a public entity
would just attract more homeless. I don't think is correct
because if you said that, then you would have to say, well,
then we don't need shelters either, because that would just
attract more.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
I got to run. Thank you so much for the
time this morning. There's always lots more on this to come,
with Mayors Dothart, Mike McDonald and the other Cannadates as well.
It's seven forty.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Four Vital Community Intel for you every day.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
Gary Sadelemeyer and kfab's morning news
Welcoming Omaha Mayor Jean Stouther back to the program. Mayor,
Good morning, Good to have you back.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
Good morning. I think we do need to build that
Oma Dome though, don't you with this whether we've been
having Yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
If that's possible, right on that and you can add
that to the project.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
You fixed that?
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Not possible, But wouldn't that be nice.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
If you fixed that?
Speaker 3 (00:19):
You're going to win the election?
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Yeah, same time. Yesterday morning, we talked with one of
your challengers, Mike McDonald. Controversy erupted after some of his
comments about Omaha's homeless services director over the weekend. While
we were talking with Mike yesterday, you texted and said,
he's lying. What would you like to say?
Speaker 2 (00:39):
He absolutely was lying, And you know the problem is
he stuck his foot in his mouth at its event
last Saturday. He slandered someone he has never met. He
called her a DEI hire and citied fire on day
one because she doesn't accomplish anything, and unbeknownst to him,
she's sitting right in front of him, and the guy
(00:59):
doesn't have the tegrity to say he was wrong. Number one,
she was hired because of her qualifications, not DEI or
because she was a woman. As well as every city
application in employee we all have job descriptions that job
did too. They're posted, they're interviewed. I had one hundred
(01:20):
and eighteen applications for the homeless service coordinator, interviewed six
to eight. So she was hired because of her qualifications.
She wasn't a DEI higher. After he said that on
the weekend, it exploded on social media and at first
his team was denying he even said it, and then
when they found out it was recorded, then they said, oh, yeah,
(01:42):
well he said it, but he didn't mean she was
hired because she was a woman DEI. She was hired
because she was hired with federal money. He said that
on your show yesterday for the first two years.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
But that was COVID money, right, that was it was
our for.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Money, nothing to do with DEI. And when COVID hit,
I assembled a group of community leaders to advise me
on what community needs were and one thing they identified
is there was going to be a lot more homeless
because a loss of jobs. So we thought this was important.
We hired her because of I mean, using COVID money.
It had nothing to do with DEI. At all and
(02:19):
when he said she hasn't accomplished anything that is wrong.
She has been in this position two years, and in
two years, over three hundred people in families she has
helped get into shelter and get the services that they need.
He says on your show yesterday that he's going to
build some sort of massive FEMA encampment or concentration camp.
(02:41):
We don't want to be like Seattle. Seattle tried that
and it was a disaster. Now the numbers he was
using yesterday are also totally wrong. He kept on saying
repeatedly that there's been a twelve hundred percent increase in homelessness.
Now he was using that number from twenty thirteen. She's
(03:02):
only been in this job two years, not since twenty thirteen.
But if you actually look at the count he is
referring to, that is a count that HUD does. They're
required to do it every January. And just let me
give you the numbers, because the numbers in this community
are so low. In twenty thirteen, the actual number with
(03:22):
the HUD count was one four hundred and seventy six.
Now in twenty twenty four, it was one thousand, six
hundred and nine that's one hundred and thirty three increase
of people that are homeless since twenty thirteen. That's a
nine percent increase, not twelve hundred percent increase. And that
(03:43):
theme account includes all homeless, meaning in shelters, in transitional housing,
and unsheltered. He kept on talking about those that are
intense under bridges and in dumpsters. That count, he was
referring to, is all homeless, including those in shelters. And
here's what else he totally missed didn't know, I guess
(04:05):
and tried to confuse your your listeners, is that count
is done on three counties, that is Douglas, Sarpi and Pottawatamee.
So he is blaming me and my homeless director for
an increase in homeless population, and he's using numbers from Douglas,
Sarpie and Potawatamee.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
Well, the number numbers mayor that his sites are from
housing and urban development, that state Omaha, Omaha the fastest
growing unsheltered homeless population in the nation. And then he
goes to the twelve thousand.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Twelve Here, Yeah, the HUD is three counties, it's Douglas,
Sarpy and Potawatamee. And of that count that's sixteen hundred
and nine in twenty twenty four count that was that
what the unsheltered was. Because I said it's a total
amount of homelessness. The unsheltered were two hundred and twenty
(04:59):
in three counties. Fifty eight percent of that was inwaame
So you know, he's blaming us for what is happening
in three other counties.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
Is the metro area.
Speaker 3 (05:11):
Let's go ahead and just make Iowa or ninety fourth
county and after worry.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
About all right, Really, I mean, you know, he's trying
to blame me, and he's trying to blame camera for
things that are happening in other counties. Fifty eight percent
of those homeless that had said we're in Pottawatamee. And
Mike McDonald needs to be reminded that Omaha is in Douglas.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
A couple of.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
Take this discussion and the issue to a larger level
on that is, what is the city's responsibility in dealing
with a homeless crisis. My contention all along has been
if you create a public agency that will attract homeless
people to your community because they know there are guaranteed
services for them, what is your broad policy plan to
(05:55):
not only address the homeless prime problem in Douglas County
specifically Omaha, but what about just the future of homeless
the issue of homeless people in the community which are
at a safety risk, of public safety risk, and most
assuredly in their case, a health risk.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
Well, let's talk about public safety first, if we can,
because he kept on talking about public safety yesterday. Let's
talk about public safety. What Mike McDonald did in the
legislature about voting to let early release of violent prisoners
and repeat offenders. He voted for parole for child molesters
and other violent criminals. He voted for lighter sentences for
(06:35):
drug felonies like meth, heroin and cocaine. I'll take my
record on public safety against Mike McDonald's any day. Now,
let's talk about what you just said is these public
entities are departments for the homeless. We don't have that.
That's why I hired her. She's a person that has
one assistant that is out on the street every day.
(06:57):
My goal is to work with those agents, thees that
we already have, like the Sienna Francis House, like a
street outreach, like Together, like another agency called Heel. We
work with all of those public nonprofits and agencies to
get the help that the homeless needs.
Speaker 3 (07:19):
So you don't believe, you don't believe that we should
have an infrastructure in place that provides publicly supported services
for the homeless.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
I don't think what Mike McDonald said is to create
some big concentration camp and move all the homeless there,
like they tried in Seattle. That would be a disaster.
What we are trying to do is get these folks,
and the number in Omaha is relatively small. I gave
it to you a few minutes ago. Look compared to
other major cities our size, get them the help they
(07:51):
need to get out of that homeless situation. When he
was talking numbers yesterday, he was talking those that are
already in shelters, those that are in transitional housing, and
those that are homeless. The biggest rise in this area,
the three county and homeless in the Santa Francis House
Board was in my office just a few weeks ago.
It's chronic homeless. A lot of these people have the
(08:13):
ability to be in shelter that don't want to be
in shelter. A public entity, to say a public entity
would just attract more homeless. I don't think is correct
because if you said that, then you would have to say, well,
then we don't need shelters either, because that would just
attract more.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
I got to run. Thank you so much for the
time this morning. There's always lots more on this to come,
with Mayors Dothart, Mike McDonald and the other Cannadates as well.
It's seven forty.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Four Vital Community Intel for you every day.
Speaker 3 (08:42):
Gary Sadelemeyer and kfab's morning news
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