Manna has been an asset in addressing food insecurity in our community, but many Durango residents do not support the plan Manna has proposed to expand its building in the middle of a residential community.
Such expansion will draw even more homeless people to our neighborhoods, parks, and downtown Durango. Future services for the unhoused should not be near the center of town.
In addition, the Resource Center Manager position they propose was meant to be a full-time director, according to the Strategic Plan on Homelessness, not a dual-responsibility position performed by one of Manna’s employees who has other important duties to fulfill related to food distribution.
The salary of a full-time director as intended in the strategic plan should be funded by the city and the county, so the compromise of a shared position would not be necessary. Further, an appropriate location for the director, as well as for the supervised transitional community proposed by the Neighbors in Need Alliance, is the DeNier building in Bodo.
Linda HarrisDurango
