{"id":2442,"date":"2016-08-22T08:02:21","date_gmt":"2016-08-22T15:02:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/bench-debate-spurs-talks-to-help-homeless-inebriated-people\/"},"modified":"2016-08-22T08:02:21","modified_gmt":"2016-08-22T15:02:21","slug":"bench-debate-spurs-talks-to-help-homeless-inebriated-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/bench-debate-spurs-talks-to-help-homeless-inebriated-people\/","title":{"rendered":"Bench debate spurs talks to help homeless, inebriated people"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>KETCHIKAN \u2014<\/strong> Complaints about behavior at benches in Ketchikan have spurred a discussion about how the city can help homeless and inebriated residents.<\/p>\n<p>The Ketchikan Daily News reported Councilmember Bob Sivertsen recently directed city staff to create a task force to explore solutions.<\/p>\n<p>Ketchikan Gateway Borough officials discussed removing a street\u2019s planter box benches in response to complaints from area business owners.<\/p>\n<p>Councilmembers Julie Isom and Janalee Gage say taking the benches out would only shift the problem to other parts of the city.<\/p>\n<p>Several residents told council members they were in favor of helping homeless individuals and those with substance abuse issues rather than removing the benches.<\/p>\n<p>The City Council\u2019s next scheduled meeting is Sept. 1.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>KETCHIKAN \u2014 Complaints about behavior at benches in Ketchikan have spurred a discussion about how the city can help homeless and inebriated residents. The Ketchikan Daily <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/\">News<\/a> reported Councilmember Bob Sivertsen recently directed city staff to create a task force to explore solutions. Ketchikan Gateway Borough officials discussed removing a street\u2019s planter box benches in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[230],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-2442","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-state-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2442","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2442"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2442\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2442"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=2442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}