The next morning, you drive downtown to check out the clinic site and interview Jennifer Longhurst, the director of New Day Homeless Shelter. She says her organization regrets giving up this location, but she is now finalizing plans for a new location only two miles from the current site. Longhurst invites you to attend a meeting of the shelter’s board members the next night so you can learn more. You gladly accept the invitation.
On your way out of the shelter, you engage in a conversation with a middle-age woman and her friend, who are both homeless. They tell you how distressed they are to see that their shelter will be moving somewhere else, and say they are against the City Centre Urgent Care project. Curious about the conversation, a younger man joins you. In excited tones, he tells you he is glad to hear about the new clinic. After all, he says, there are no others in the downtown area, and his family may need urgent care sometime. You make careful mental notes of this information.
All three community residents agree to let you interview them for the news release. Once you are back at the office, you place a call to Ken Jorgenson, Beldaire’s director of Zoning and Planning. He fills you in on more project details and enthusiastically expresses his support for the project, which has been developed in partnership with the Beldaire Community Redevelopment Council.