Houselessness Community Forum (Tentatively 4/8)
THIS IS A DOT POLL | USE ALL OF THE 15 POINTS TO RANK OPTIONS
Given the amount of commotion around the resolution asking for a stop to, and alternative solution to, "sweeps" from the city police dept. it is obvious that this is a very important topic at this moment in economic history.
Sweeps do not solve the root issue of providing pathways to autonomous reintegration with society by providing low-barrier services, they simply add to the chaotic nature of living on the streets in a way that can be life-threatening (especially if a person's medications are confiscated and they can't make it all the way downtown to collect them fast enough).
It has also been deemed unconstitutional in quite a few cases: https://www.thestranger.com/slog/2016/10/13/24620200/doj-seattle-encampment-sweeps-legislation-recognizes-homeless-peoples-rights-must-be-respected
Across the country, displacement is on the rise, and with it comes a more precarious existence for many people, especially those who aren't able to cope with change easily, whether for financial, physical, or mental health reasons; the end result is the same: no good choices and a slide towards an early death.
This winter there was a great showing of community in Montavilla through the excellent network of neighbors that supported the Montavilla Emergency Warming Shelter. This dealt with the topic of crisis support by guaranteeing people two hot meals and a warm bed during bouts of freezing or inclement weather.
https://www.facebook.com/MontavillaEmergencyWarmingShelter/
What other topics, regarding livability, services, and programs, should be a part of the discussion around this issue in Montavilla for the upcoming event (tentatively scheduled 4/8)?
Please add/vote on options here: https://www.loomio.org/p/4PQ8Od09/houselessness-forum-topic-proposals
Jonathan Ogden Tue 13 Mar 2018 6:15PM
@evelynmac had brought up that a dot poll might not be the best option since not all neighbors were using all of their dots and it gives the ability to skew the options one way or another due to vote-splitting.
I had figured that maintaining the poll to have more dots than options would satisfy this, requiring re-voting from participants but this also keeps all members informed of added options.
Would it be better to take the input options from here and turn them into a ranked vote?
Sir Meow of Purrington Tue 13 Mar 2018 6:44PM
The dots give us the ability to prioritize our responses. We may not need as many dots tho. I prioritized mine. We should have a way to rank or prioritize them by importance. Not all options are necessarily equal. Perhaps outreach to those who only used a single do per votet would be a better approach. But then, they may have given each answer the same priority. We all have the same ability to skew the results, so there is parity in voting. The options we all choose will (and are) boiling ot the top. #keepthedots
Jonathan Ogden Tue 13 Mar 2018 6:55PM
That's fair, the goal would be to keep the upper quintile (top 20%) of the options, so I figured I'd let the number remain since vote splitting is a problem, but this really was more to get input as well as see what's popular. Dots allow for weighting a certain option that kind of fends off the idea of later added options taking it over (like a ranked vote).
Either way, this is just for the topics that will be covered so there's going to be some additions/subtractions for practical reasons (like nobody available having expertise on a subject).
Alex Tue 13 Mar 2018 7:00PM
I changed my vote bc I am doing this all from my phone on the go, and I think I understand the dot voting system a little better now. I think if nothing else it's a great way to get a pulse on what people in the neighborhood are actually feeling. Facebook is terrible for this kind of communication imo, and I tend to just sit conversations out on that forum. Also it seems like a great way to have an actual discussion without letting the process get totally sidelined by minutia as a tactic to halt any forward motion. As always, a work in progress.
Jonathan Ogden Tue 13 Mar 2018 7:02PM
Good to have your input!
Evelyn Mac Thu 15 Mar 2018 11:21PM
Ranking is beneficial but it seems it isn't representative of ranking over the whole group as much as just a few.
Jonathan Ogden Fri 16 Mar 2018 6:05PM
How do you mean exactly? Each person has an equal number of dots, the issue comes with vote splitting, but I would hope each individual weigh the most important thing to them to be a higher value (this lets me do things with the data to see what the Pareto breakdown is).
What would be a better capture method?
Evelyn Mac Sun 25 Mar 2018 1:25AM
The way the data is used is more of the issue. It cannot be read directly since it is not direct info. If 30 people vote and out of 30, only 5 people choose #1 but they use all their dots on 1 to 2 issues, it could be said that all 30 people believe issue #1 is the most important. This would not be true but the data is too complicated to say what issues are truly being chosen by the whole group. So I prefer a straight poll where 2 answers at most can be chosen by one voter.
MJ · Tue 13 Mar 2018 1:31AM
A similar idea but with the ownership principle and exchange of value implicit in the arrangement... https://www.facebook.com/CurbedDetroit/videos/1647172438638921/?multi_permalinks=724796427722379¬if_id=1520891361268530¬if_t=feedback_reaction_generic