WARD 5 COUNCILMEMBER RICHARD FIMBRES APPLAUDS CONGRESSWOMAN ANN KIRKPATRICK FOR SUCCESSFUL EFFORTS TO OBTAIN 10,000 BLANKETS FOR VULNERABLE COMMUNITY MEMBERS
TUCSON - Councilmember Richard Fimbres applauds and thanks Arizona District 2 Congresswoman Ann Kirkpatrick for leading a successful effort to get 10,000 disaster blankets for the most vulnerable and homeless members of our community here in Tucson and Pima County,
Councilmember Fimbres was made aware of the blanket shortage situation in meetings with City staff. Staff informed the Councilmember that blankets, made available from the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) Homeless Blankets program, were being held up.
Councilmember Fimbres acted quickly, getting in contact with Congresswoman, Ann Kirkpatrick and her staff, requesting assistance to get the blankets to Tucson and Pima County.
Congresswoman Kirkpatrick’s office intervened with the Department of Defense, and have reported that DoD officials are ready to fill the order of 10,000 disaster blankets and are working with the Salvation Army of Tucson to coordinate delivery. These blankets are expected to be available to distribute in the community, through our outreach teams, within the next two weeks and will restock and augment the inventory that is currently being distributed.
"I want to thank Congresswoman Ann Kirkpatrick for her swift action to help get the needed 10,000 disaster blankets for Tucson and Pima County," said Councilmember Richard Fimbres. "These blankets will help our most vulnerable community members including our homeless population in Tucson and Pima County."
This was the second time in four years that Tucson faced a disaster blanket shortage.
In 2016, federal officials had diverted 10,000 emergency blankets from the city. Councilmember Fimbres worked with our Congressional delegation and the City’s federal lobbyists to resolve the delay. Federal officials sent 11,400 blankets to the City in late December 2016. Councilmember Fimbres also put out a community appeal, for which businesses and the community donated 4,000 new blankets to help out then.
“I want to thank our federal lobbyists Tracy Tucker, and Bracy, Tucker, Brown and Valanzano for their work on this important community matter,” said Councilmember Fimbres. “Through their work, we were able to get our allotment of blankets then and now.”
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