I was walking in my Upper Falls neighborhood this afternoon when a be-masked guy called me by name. It turned out to be Ward 5 City Councilor Bill Humphrey behind the mask.
He’s been on a one-man mission in recent days to get the word out about the city’s Emergency Housing Relief Program in Upper Falls. The program is aimed at helping renters meet their rent obligations during these trying times. Said Bill,”it’s challenging getting the word out to the people who most need it. The city doesn’t have a central list of all rental apartments though they do know this neighborhood does have a lot of rental apartments”.
So Bill decided to walk the neighborhood, talk to as many people as possible along the way and drop flyers wherever it looked like there may be rental apartments. He said he’s already distributed 100’s of flyers and spoken to lots of residents.
My hat’s off to Councilor Humphrey for taking on such a personal initiative to get the word out and get the job done. Well done Councilor!
Thank you, Councilor Humphrey!
Thanks, Jerry. I’ve distributed close to 400 at this point over the past 3 days. If any other City Councilors want to follow suit in their wards, I got my “target” list of likely rental units from the Planning and Assessors departments’ staffs, although it’s not perfect, and the city staff and administration also gave me a leaflet to distribute with the key info (at least in English — I know translation help is available for applicants but the turnaround time was too short I think to get translated leaflets unfortunately). I already ran through my first batch and had to make copies.
Well done, Councilor.
Bill thanks for your efforts in trying to get this information to those who may really need it. I think sometimes people forget in this day and age when we use electronic communication so much that just publishing info doesn’t mean that the intended recipient will have the resources or the luxury of time to seek out and access that info. Good job in taking initiative to go above and beyond by hitting the streets.