Public commenter urges urgent local response to visible homelessness in Venice
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Summary
A Venice resident urged city and county officials to treat visible homelessness as an urgent problem, citing increased encampments and individual cases observed downtown and asking for coordinated, timely action.
At the joint meeting’s public‑comment period on May 16, resident Debbie Gerke urged city and county officials to take a more urgent approach to visible homelessness in Venice, describing repeated personal observations of people living in vehicles and on downtown streets.
"This is very personal to me," Gerke said, noting family experience with a homeless veteran. She described visible cases including a person living in a car near CVS and others who appear regularly downtown and said the issue needs a coordinated, urgent response beyond routine enforcement.
Gerke called for cooperative efforts among churches, nonprofits and the government to create support systems and directed the boards’ attention to the human and public‑safety aspects of increasing visible homelessness. Her remarks were a public comment and did not include a staff response or a proposed motion at the joint meeting.
No formal board action was taken during the meeting; the comment was registered in the public‑comment record.