[00:00:15] Speaker A: Good evening and welcome to the local news. Today is Thursday, November 20th. I'm Gabriel Zucker reporting for KMED. In tonight's news, Humboldt Supes warn of devastating Hunger and Homelessness impacts Fortuna City Council Approves Hiring freeze to help offset recent Salary increase for the police force Mckinleyville Community Service District Award $1 million grant for McKinleyville Community Forest stay tuned. These stories and more. Coming up.
[00:00:40] Speaker B: Redwood Community Radio acknowledges that its transmitter sites are located on the unceded territory of the Sinkion, Wailaki, Wiat, Wilcote and Kato people. We honor ancestors past, present and emerging and acknowledge the ongoing cultural, spiritual and physical connection that these tribes have to this region.
[00:01:00] Speaker A: A proclamation seeking to raise awareness on local hunger and homelessness spurred an in depth discussion on the issues at this week's Humboldt County Board of Supervisors meeting. Daniel mintz reports.
[00:01:10] Speaker C: Proclaiming November 16 to 23 as hunger and Homeless Awareness Week, Humboldt County's Board of Supervisors updated a situation described as a crisis that the state and the county are increasingly left to deal with on their own.
The persistent issues of food and housing insecurity and forecasts of harder times ahead were discussed by supervisors at their Nov. 18 meeting.
They approved a proclamation that says 18% of the county's residents are below the poverty rate and 16.7% face food insecurity.
The proclamation encourages the community to work on addressing the shortage of affordable housing for low income residents and to, quote, encourage support for the organizations committed to sheltering and providing supportive services.
One of those organizations is Affordable Homeless Housing Alternatives and its president, Nessie Wade said the challenges are intensifying and the state must invest more money to address them.
[00:02:17] Speaker D: The figures for homelessness and hunger are staggering and the prospects for our future with respect to budget cuts and things that we're facing now based on federal dollars, make it look pretty bleak in our future and cut from 80 to 30%, a 50% reduction. That's huge for us. And it impacts permanent supportive housing which has been used now for getting most of our folks into housing.
The state needs to vest more in housing. 2%. Less than 2% of the general fund goes to housing for the state. We really need the state to step up and we need to work better and put more input and pressure on housing and community development so we can open up different kinds of housing types that we need. We need social housing, we need cooperative housing, we need small footprint houses. We need to do a lot of things that need to be incentivized, need to be funded.
[00:03:17] Speaker C: Wade called for formation of a hunger and Homelessness Task Force Supervisor Steve Madrone noted that a majority of the board declined to adopt an anti camping law at a previous meeting and instead chose to form a compassionate assistance committee to strategize ways to help people.
But it will be difficult without help from higher authorities like the federal government.
Carly Robbins of the Food for People Food bank said the recent interruption of food stamp funding had profound impact and changes will continue for the worse.
[00:03:54] Speaker D: Frankly, this has been a challenging year for anyone doing food security work. From the cuts we've seen to just the last few weeks of folks losing benefits, it's pretty dramatic and I really only see it going farther in that direction. Pretty soon, federal changes to policy will have significant impacts on how Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Programs are administered.
[00:04:14] Speaker A: Who's eligible.
[00:04:15] Speaker D: These shifts are going to place more burden on states, counties, our hardworking assistors, our entire team at DHHS who are working hard to make sure folks have CalFresh and ultimately it's going to kick people off of the program and that's going to put more burden on food banks, food pantries and NGOs doing this kind of work.
Just for a little snapshot, when SNAP benefit delays were announced, we saw 40% increase at the food bank immediately.
And that's a capacity that we weren't built to see all at once. And if we see this trend continue, that's a lot more than what we're built to offer.
[00:04:49] Speaker C: Supervisor Michelle Bushnell credited the presence of housing and food programs in southern Humboldt's remote communities, but said, people are struggling and the anxiety now is just astronomical.
Robert Ward of the county's Department of Health and Services gave an update on federal level funding, including its shift away from permanent supportive housing. Supervisor Natalie Arroyo summarized the situation by saying, a really large percentage of our funding is at risk for providing stable permanent supportive housing.
The strongest statement was made by Supervisor Mike Wilson.
He described federal housing related funding changes as catastrophic, which together with food assistance cuts, demonstrates cruel intent.
[00:05:37] Speaker A: During the shutdown, this administration chose to block SNAP funding for 42 million Americans after a lower court ruled that they must release the fundings. With no justification, no policy rationale, no explanation, this administration went to the Supreme Court to ask them to rule to reverse the previous ruling so they continue to withhold food assistance and even demand states claw back already distributed funds.
When you work to harm millions of people with no reason, the conclusion is obvious that cruelty is the point.
Make no mistake, we see it. It's right in front of our eyes.
[00:06:16] Speaker C: Prefacing his comments, Wilson said, quote, we recognize that this is hunger and homeless awareness week. But there is a larger crisis unfolding in real time and it's going to have devastating consequences on our most vulnerable people in Eureka. For KMUD News, this is Daniel Mintz.
[00:06:39] Speaker A: This week it was announced that the McKinleyville Community Service District had been awarded $1 million in congressionally directed spending to use towards the community forest in McKinleyville. The grant was secured thanks to congressman Jared Huffman and will be used to help keep the community forest accessible and safe. KMUD news talked to Kirsten Messmer, the parks and recreation director, and Pat Kafari, the park's general manager. They explained the grant process, the impact the grant will have, and went to some of the projects the grant will hopefully go towards.
[00:07:05] Speaker E: So we applied for.
Our board secretary did all the paperwork for us, but applied for federal funding through Huffman and his team.
And so we kind of. It's been a long time, but waiting to hear if we got.
[00:07:27] Speaker F: Had to.
[00:07:27] Speaker E: Go through both appropriations committees. And then ultimately also it was pending whether or not it'd be signed into the law. So on Thursday of last week is when we got the notification that it did go, it did finally get signed.
And we should be hearing more about how to spend the funds and all of that within the next four to six weeks.
[00:07:55] Speaker A: McKinleyville is the largest unincorporated town in Humboldt county, and the community forest is a big part of the community. The parks and recreation department does not receive a lot of funding through the year and the grant gave them a breath of fresh air.
[00:08:07] Speaker E: Our parks and rec department is small, but we're mighty. So we don't get all of the same kind of tax dollars from like sales tax and things like that that other cities do for some of our recreation programming.
So we really have to be smart with our budget. And so this is going to give us a huge step forward where if we didn't get this, we'd be looking at some of these projects would be a more of a five year term before we probably had the funding to do them. That being said, so some of the things that we want to see this money be able to go towards are some of our immediate needs are there's a couple erosion issues that we have with two of the creeks crossings over two of the creeks in the forest that we'd love to be able to kind of tackle at least the planning piece of that. So we know how much in grant money we need to go for to put in bridges. If we can't do that with this, the fund, if we can at least get the design and planning of that done, that'd be awesome.
We will also want to be able to improve the access area so we have safe access points. Right now, the main access point is off of Murray Road, what we call our upper kind of Murray Road parking area. That's basically a gravel kind of lot up there. We do have an easement at the end of first street that goes through someone else's private property, part of the forest.
And then that easement, though, we do have in place. So down the line, we'd love to be able to put a road on there and put a parking lot on our property at the end of the easement.
So planning for that, the design plan for that as well, are things that we are projects that we see as priorities for us, for our community to be able to get out there.
We also want to make sure that we are wildfire resilient. Because the forest really does come up.
[00:10:17] Speaker F: To the edge of town.
[00:10:18] Speaker E: So we're right up against neighborhoods and backyards and want to make sure that we have a safe and healthy forest and that emergency crews can get out there if they need to as well.
[00:10:32] Speaker A: According to Messmer, the community forest was acquired in January of 2024.
[00:10:37] Speaker E: We're just barely coming up on two years of. Of it being publicly owned by us. And after we acquired the property, we had to go through the process of creating rules and regulations for the property, also for the forest committee. So we do have a McKinleyville Community Forest Committee that meets monthly.
They so the process to even form that took a few months and getting people on the committee.
Right now we have 14 community members and some staff on that committee. And there are two subcommittees now at this point, because the committee realized how big and broad of a project this community forest is going to be. So there's two subcommittees that also meet monthly. All of these meetings are public meetings, which is awesome because we're getting to hear from the public what they want and what their priorities are.
[00:11:33] Speaker A: Messmer and Khafari ended the interview by thanking Congressman Huffman and his team. They added that they set up a fund through the Humboldt area Foundation, which makes donations a tax deductible. To donate, go to the Humboldt area Foundation website and search McKinleyville Community Forest Fund.
On November 17, Fortuna City Council approved a hiring freeze for positions that receive funding through the general fund.
This was in response to a wage increase for police officers. KMUD News was able to talk to Amy Nelson, the city manager for the city of Fortuna. She explained the need for A hiring freeze because the police force is understaffed, underfunded, and have wages that are significantly less than other local jurisdictions.
[00:12:15] Speaker F: So the City of Fortuna's police department has three vacant police officer positions, and these positions have been vacant for a significant period of time.
In addition, the police department, as documented in an April 21 staff report, are experiencing wages that are significantly below other local jurisdictions, making it very difficult for the city of Fortuna to recruit and retain police officers and sergeants.
So these vacancies and these recruitment and retention issues have recently led to overtime hours, up to over 70 hours in a pay period for a single officer. And that long term is completely unsustainable and puts police officer safety and the community safety at risk because it's very important that officers are healthy and well when they're making split second life inside death decisions.
So the City Council decided to address these wage disparity issues in hopes of recruiting and retaining officers. And I should just mention that retention of experienced officers is really important.
And that's something that the city of Fortuna has struggled with. And very recently a lot of our more seasoned officers have been recruited by other local agencies. And so increasing wages was an attempt to hopefully recruit and retain officers and sergeants. So one of the ways that the city can afford to do that, because the city does not have new ongoing revenue, is to institute a hiring freeze. And that means natural staff attrition will allow for salary savings and that salary savings can be used for the wage increases.
This also means, though, that other city services will be impacted, impacted as staff attrition happens. So departments like Parks and Recreation and Public Works, particularly streets, will likely be impacted because of the hiring freeze.
[00:14:37] Speaker A: Nelson explained there will be some exceptions to this hiring freeze will most likely be a case by case basis, except for the police force and part time staff in parks and recreation.
[00:14:46] Speaker F: So as staff vacancies occur, a department can bring an exception to the hiring freeze to the City Council. And that would be for essential or critical positions. But there are automatic exemptions for police officers and sergeants because that hiring freeze for those positions would defeat the purpose of the wage increases on their behalf. And then also there is an automatic exemption for the Parks and Recreation part time staff because those part time staff service hotshots, which is youth basketball and then the youth break camps, and also typically those positions are offset by the cost of enrolling in those programs.
[00:15:29] Speaker A: Nelson expects the hiring freeze to mainly impact parks and recreation over time.
[00:15:35] Speaker F: The long term effects of a hiring freeze will at some point in time impact, parks and recreation particularly. I would believe park maintenance will be reduced. I also believe streets will also be impacted. The cleanliness of city streets will be impacted because those positions are funded through the general fund.
[00:15:57] Speaker A: To help offset the wage increase, Fortuna is going to use part of a $1.5 million CalPERS payment to reduce interest costs, which on top of the hiring freeze and the reduction in employees will help afford the wage increase for the police force.
[00:16:10] Speaker F: There is an unfunded liability that exists in the CalPERS retirement system for the City of Fortuna and so if we make an additional payment, such as the initial payment on principal, the interest will be reduced over time. And so the City of Fortuna will make a $1.5 million payment to CalPERS and that will reduce that ongoing interest charge to the City of fortuna by approximately 106,000. We actually just got information from CalPERS that this will actually reduce the unfunded liability charge by 130,000. That's good news.
[00:16:49] Speaker A: The hiring freeze will continue until it is ended by the City Council, nelson said. There is no timetable for this freeze. The police department is actively recruiting for the three vacant positions Humboldt County Public Work Roads will be conducting two different road pavement projects this week.
Construction on Beechwood is happening today, November 20th through Friday, November 21st. The construction will take place between Ridgewood Drive and Briarwood between 7am and 5pm According to Rachel Capistrano, an analyst with Humboldt County Roads explained on a phone call with KMUD News that this work is to repave the roads.
[00:17:25] Speaker G: We call this grinding and paving. It's where our contractors grind and basically take the entire top of the road off and then we do a fresh overlay of pavement.
[00:17:38] Speaker A: The construction should not create too much traffic. According to Capistrano, the only part of the road that is closed is the parking on either side of the street, which should cause maybe just a couple minutes of traffic. The other road project happening this week is Carson Wood Road.
[00:17:50] Speaker G: Carson Wood Road will begin on Friday, November 21st from 7am to they're expecting possibly to 7pm it just depends on how the weather holds out and depending on traffic. Carson Wood Road is actually a one lay road so we do expect some heavy delays. It is just hard to say depending how far our contractors get and depending if community members need to get in and out, but you could see potential 15 to 20 minutes.
[00:18:27] Speaker A: Humboldt County Public Works are going to make sure everyone is safe during the project.
[00:18:30] Speaker G: There will be traffic controllers and flaggers with signs making sure traffic can get in and out. But because it is a one lane road, we will advise people to either leave as early as they can throughout the day before we begin or expect to just delays throughout the day, just depending where contractors are moving along.
[00:18:57] Speaker A: Next week, construction will begin on east street starting Monday, November 24th through the 26th from the Eureka City Limit street to Spruce Street. Construction will be ongoing between 7am and 5pm to stay updated on Humboldt County Road updates, follow their Facebook page at Humboldt County Public Workroads or sign up for the county
[email protected] Road in State News ICE action in West Oakland Leads to Secure School Protocol Mayor Lee says Oakland stands with immigrants KPFA's Kaya Niza reports.
[00:19:30] Speaker H: Following community reports of possible immigration activity in the East Bay, the Oakland Unified School District issued a message to families confirming that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were seen in West Oakland near 31st street and Market Street. The district said all children were safe. Hoover elementary implemented its Secure School protocol because of its proximity to the reported ICE activity. A teacher at Hoover elementary, who identified herself only as Ms. Ortiz, told KPFA the situation was under control and that students were safe. She said. A growing number of community members began gathering outside the campus to protest the ICE presence. KPFA spoke with several of those protesters, including Char, who preferred to use only her first name and is with Parent Voice's Oakland First.
[00:20:13] Speaker B: Like being a mom, me, I'm a protector and just knowing like if my child didn't see me after school, knowing I'm picking them up, I know my children would freak out. And so like trying to take families and using this area right where children go is like you're in a vulnerable space. And taking kids, taking parents away from their children is really like scary scary on a child for a child I know, like looking at my children is scary for a parent. You're taking me for my kid who's gonna pick him up. All these things run through my head, right? Like, even outside of the fact that they're detaining me, I'm thinking all those things.
[00:20:46] Speaker A: So.
[00:20:46] Speaker B: But like as parents, we have to protect ourselves and our children.
And so that's why Parent Voices is out here right now. Oh, we gonna fight and we out here.
[00:20:54] Speaker F: My name is Quinn. I'm a parent of children at Malcolm X elementary School in Berkeley. And when I heard that ICE was spotted near Hoover Elementary, I felt the need to come out because if I showed up near Malcolm X, I'd want people to come out too.
[00:21:07] Speaker H: My name is Daniel Hurwitz Goodman I'm a resident of East Oakland and I'm here because it's important to keep our neighbors safe from state sanctioned violence, which we're seeing certainly an uptick right now. And if history teaches us anything, it's that showing up when that happens is the only way to slow it down or stop it. Oakland City Council member Carol Fife posted to social media saying that the protesters.
[00:21:33] Speaker B: Presence worked according to the neighbors, that there were too many white people that were around to detain this parent. Too many white people. So white people, thank you for being a part of this struggle.
[00:21:50] Speaker H: That was Oakland City Council member Carol Fife. She explained that when a father arrived to drop off his child at school, ICE agents attempted to arrest him. The man fled in his vehicle and crashed into another parents parked van totaling both vehicles.
[00:22:05] Speaker B: So a person, this is what allegedly happened, was dropping their kid off at school and was targeted by ice and it led to what you see that's happening right here.
[00:22:17] Speaker H: ICE is believed to have been conducting a targeted operation, but details remain unclear and no arrests have been reported.
[00:22:23] Speaker B: They wouldn't tell a course. It's the same story that we're hearing across the country. They wouldn't identify themselves.
They were masked.
[00:22:30] Speaker H: Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee issued a statement saying, quote, we were made aware of reports of federal immigration enforcement activity in the vicinity of local schools in West Oakland this morning. We immediately contacted our community partners, Oakland Unified School District and the Oakland Police Department. We are still gathering information, but here's what I want to reiterate to our immigrant community. Oakland stands firmly with you. This is who we are and what we believe. You are not alone and we will not be intimidated by federal operations designed to create fear and division. Close quote. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, music teacher Jordan Baxter Stern at Hoover elementary reported the volunteers who patrolled the area during student drop off and pickup times spotted two black unmarked SUVs lingering outside the campus around 8am the volunteers began filming the vehicles and immediately alerted school officials.
Stern said the school's principal approached the vehicles to ask who the men were and to ask them to leave. The officers in the SUVs allegedly told the principal they were police.
When Stern began to follow their car, he said one of the officers exited and brandished a weapon. For KPFA News, I'm Kai Niza.
[00:23:38] Speaker A: In National Native News, Ryan Bull reads today's headlines.
[00:23:43] Speaker I: This is National Native News. I'm Bryan Bowles sitting in Frantonia Gonzales. Hundreds of evacuees from western Alaska are staying in Anchorage hotels after last month's storms. Destroyed their homes. Alona Knighton with the Alaska desk spoke to a few families who are adjusting to their new daily lives so far away from everything they know.
[00:24:03] Speaker J: Eli Schengen's room at the Wingate Hotel in Anchorage is crowded. On one bed, she sits with her two year old daughter. Her partner sits on another while their children play nearby.
Schengen and her family are among around 650 evacuees from Western Alaska who are staying in Anchorage after being displaced by a devastating storm last month. State and federal agencies are working to rebuild the affected villages, but for many, returning before winter is not an option.
[00:24:35] Speaker D: Moving here with our family is okay, but it's not okay. I want to go home.
[00:24:41] Speaker J: For Schengen's nine year old daughter, Caitlyn, that means homeschooling, so she can help her parents take care of her siblings. Schengen says the family gets breakfast every day, but the hotel room has no kitchen, so they order fast food for the remaining meals.
[00:24:55] Speaker D: They are used to home cooked meals all the time. They're used to the native food and stuff, what we eat.
[00:25:02] Speaker J: Juliet Tutuk Stone is Kipnik's police officer and another evacuee. She is staying at the Aspen Hotel in Anchorage along with her two adult sons and young grandsons. Each family in their own room.
[00:25:14] Speaker E: It was going to be like heartbreaking if they didn't come with me, stone says.
[00:25:19] Speaker J: The hotel provides them with free meals and snacks. She takes buses to go to the store and to play bingo, and her grandsons attend the Yupik Immersion program at College Gate Elementary School. Her son, Alexei Ahunkathak Stone, says they're.
[00:25:33] Speaker H: Enjoying their stay here.
[00:25:34] Speaker E: It's not fun for me, that's for.
[00:25:36] Speaker H: Sure, because it's not my kind of life.
[00:25:38] Speaker F: My life was subsistence.
[00:25:40] Speaker J: Back at the Wingate, Schengen says her family has been looking at apartments already. They even filled out paperwork to receive assistance for rent.
[00:25:48] Speaker D: But some of us are tired of waiting.
[00:25:50] Speaker J: The family especially liked a two bedroom apartment they looked at, Schengen says. It was big enough for the older children to share their own room.
[00:25:58] Speaker D: My family will be happy. I'll be happy because I'll be able to cook my family food.
[00:26:03] Speaker J: Schengen already knows what their first meal will be, a rice dish baked in an oven with meat and seasonings, she says. That will be enough for the whole family. In Anchorage, I am Ilona Knighton.
[00:26:15] Speaker I: More than 100 winter items and more than $15,000 were collected this week during a winter coat drive at the National Congress of American Indians annual convention in Seattle. Attendees brought in new coats and other cold weather essentials, from gloves to scarves to hats. The items will help support unsheltered Native people in the city and will also benefit evacuees in Alaska affected by last month's devastating storm. The Seattle Indian Health Board was among organizations that teamed up with NCAI on the coat drive. Abigail echohawk is the Executive vice president of the health board.
[00:26:49] Speaker B: It's really important for us as Native people to come when we come to areas and we think about how we contribute not just to the local economies but to the people itself. And so here in Seattle we have a very large unhoused population. Native people in the Seattle area are 10 times more likely than non Hispanic white to live unhoused on the streets of Seattle. And organizations like the Seattle Indian Health Board United Indians of All Tribes. We work with a lot of these relatives. Having a coat drive really allows us to get some really high quality nice things out to our communities, both our unhoused relatives and also for our youth and folks who are in need of a nice warm coat in a cold Seattle winter.
[00:27:33] Speaker I: Echo Hawk says distribution of the winter items will begin as soon as her organization receives the donations for from NCAI this is National Native News. I'm Brian Bowell.
[00:27:59] Speaker E: Native Voice one, the Native American Radio Network.
[00:28:05] Speaker A: That's all for tonight's broadcast. Thanks for listening. Thanks to our engineer Patricia Tinkler, and thanks to our reporters Kai Aniza and Brian Bol. KMUD News is online. You can find us on kmud.org and now streaming on most podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify, where you can download our stories and newscasts for offline listening during your rural commutes. You can also follow us on social media. If you have any questions or suggestions, you can give us a call at 707-923-2605 or send an email to newsamed.org Redwood Community Radio, Inc. Is funded by Press Forward, the national movement to strengthen communities by reinvigorating local news. Learn more at PressForward News.
[00:28:43] Speaker E: Reporting for KMUD, I'm Gabriel Zuckerberg.
Sam.
