Thank you, Braden Williams

Braden,

 

I remember you! Isn't this you in the middle of the attached selfie? If not, let me know.

 

First, thank you for writing and participating in government, sharing your thoughts. That's part of how government works.

 

Second, there's a famous saying that "great minds think alike". In this case, perhaps it's also that observant people see the same issues (homelessness and unemployment benefits combined with lots of job opening) and arrive at similar ideas to solve the same issues. 

 

We have all seen "help wanted" signs in many stores and restaurants and have seen shortened business hours in some cases because the businesses cannot find enough employees to work. Part of that is problem may be when people are at home receiving dollars from unemployment when they could be working. We believe that if a person can find reasonable work, they should take the job instead of receiving unemployment benefits.

 

The legislature saw the same issue that you see. At the Capitol, we just passed an unemployment bill that cuts unemployment benefits from 26 weeks to 16 weeks. Many legislators believe like you that this should be enough time to get a job and take care of themselves and their families.  We want to have a "safety net" for people when unexpected things happen, such as losing a job. As Governor Reynolds said, we just don't want the safety net to become a cushy hammock and let people get comfortable using unemployment dollars that come from taxpayers when they could be working. 

 

Finally, there are multiple reasons a person might be homeless, such as mental illness. If that's the case, then we should help them get treatment. However, as you point out, jobs are available if a person has the will and desire to work. And if they are not sick or disabled, then they should be working and not receiving money that taxpayers fund.

We all came together and went to Braden's house and washed cars. We advertised on Instagram and that brought a lot of people to come. We ended up washing about 7 cars and making around 200 dollars. We were very happy with how much money we made. We all worked together to bring the soap and buckets and Braden had the hose. Then on Saturday Braden and Tyler bought the socks and brought them to the homeless in between their baseball game. We hope to buy around 100 pairs of socks which can make a big difference in the homeless people's lives.

I was very surprised at how the project turned out. We made a lot more money than I thought. We were hoping for like 50 dollars and we made about 200. This meant that kids could make a difference in our community. We are very happy with how this project went. We raised a lot of money and gave a lot of socks to the homeless. Even though Senator Bacon did not respond to our email I still believe that if you get a lot of people together and can make a big difference in our community.