I really appreciated the thoughtful comments from the member who talked about the social determinants of health, but also pointed out that the social determinants of safety are related, if not the same. Working with folks in the community and different agencies supporting those who are human trafficking survivors—who are the first to say that a shelter is not an appropriate place for them, that there are layers to the needs. Transitional housing or supportive housing or whatever we want to call it needs to be appropriate for the need, and that just doesn’t exist in my community and in most.

When we don’t have the housing that’s needed, when we are forcing people back into harm—when I had heard from the interim police chief a while back, he said “We can move people that are in the parks, but we can’t give them housing.” When there’s such a need in our community for safety, why don’t we see that in this bill, and why don’t we hear that from this government?