Homelessness

Criticized spending a quarter-million dollars on surveillance while unhoused residents were swept and left vulnerable; supported housing investments instead.

Named the five men killed and said housing, not surveillance or sweeps, would have kept them alive.

Thanked partners who help keep people housed, said the region must share service burdens, and announced her school board campaign.

Criticized delays on the mod pod shelters and opposed the Iran resolution, arguing Iran cannot be allowed nuclear weapons and the federal government should handle the war.

A newly homeless resident described his home being red-tagged after a police entry, break-ins since, and asked the city to help people repair and keep their homes.

Emotional testimony about a homeless woman who died after repeated encampment sweeps; blamed city policies and asked Council to create a casework fund named in her memory ('Myra').

Said high parking fees push him away from downtown and argued the city's homelessness approach 'kills homeless people,' urging sanctioned encampments and safe parking.

Wanted urgency on the data center moratorium and the ModPod project, warned winter could arrive without housing in place, and endorsed a housing-first approach.

The Michigan Country director helped bring the voting rights resolution, then raised the plight of unhoused neighbors and pointed to Missoula, Montana's sanctioned camping model.

A volunteer, he criticized the city's handling of Tent City residents at the Causeway Bay hotel but said he's coming around to the Nova mod pod project, asking for a pause on sweeps until it's running.

He called for a moratorium on camp sweeps and a sanctioned place for unhoused residents to go, citing a documentary on Oakland's encampment clearances.

He supported the data center moratorium citing water and energy impacts, and asked the council to press the state for homelessness resources.

A lifelong resident and formerly homeless man urged council to represent everyone and reject arbitrary limits on people seeking housing, drawing on his own years under bridges and in shelter.

Thanked Council for the motel extension but asked for indefinite extensions until permanent housing is in place, and invited members to visit the motel.

A decade-long homeless advocate who says shelters and beds aren't working — she asked Council to shift toward an exit-focused model measuring permanent exits from homelessness.

Thanked council members who visited the Causeway Bay motel and urged Lansing to become a leader on homelessness and community care.

Women's Center worker furious the city relied on nonprofits and volunteers during the cold snap instead of opening City Hall; demanded permanent funded housing solutions.

An unhoused resident who described being arrested in Old Town and criticized shelter treatment, also joking about school start times and a river cleanup.

Congratulated new members and the new leadership team, said she had backed Ryan Kost for president, and urged caution on homelessness — noting the community's help for people displaced from the JAJ property but warning there may be nowhere for roughly 50 hotel residents to go in four weeks.

A concerned resident urged the council to keep working on permanent housing for homeless people, calling it urgent in the cold weather.

Urged the council to provide stability, expand the mod pods meetings into a monthly homelessness task force, and give weekly updates on residents relocated to the Causeway Bay hotel.