Dover blue ribbon panel on homelessness delivers recommendations

The mayor's blue ribbon panel on homelessness has delivered their recommendations on how to address homelessness in the Dover area.

Back in Janurary, Mayor Robin Christiansen  created  a blue ribbon commission as a response to the growing problem of homelessness in Dover.

The panel agreed that the goal of the group would be to make recommendations leading to the end of homelessness.

After meeting for a few months, the commission recommended  increasing resources such as case and financial management, creating facilities to accommodate  more individuals,  and creating a new task force that will work with local groups to carry out those recommendations.

Mayor Robin Christiansen says the task force's priority would be looking into permanent housing solutions for homeless individuals.

"When you have a permanent address first, people know who you are. You have an identity and they can identify the issues and services that you need. And that's one of the major goals of that report, and that's what we are going to focus in on as well as the other recommendations they made," says Mayor Christiansen.

Mayor Christiansen says this new task force will be formed by 17 community members, and he's expecting to have a report of their recommendations by the end of September.

For a full copy of the recommendations made by the  mayor's blue ribbon panel on homelessnes  click here.