SMART ALEC | State and Municipal Action for Results Today SMART ALEC FLASHBACK Homeless Portlanders Testify to County Commission In 2016 as part of our Homeless and LowIncome Political Empowerment Pilot Program we worked with and empowered three homeless residents of downtown Portland Oregon to participate in the democratic process. In addition to holding workshops lunches and other discussions with our participants SMART ALEC provided transportation breakfast and small stipends to remove barriers to participation so that people experiencing homelessness could have a voice on two proposals for shelters that were pending before the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners. In a second round of comments before Multnomah County our participants addressed the overall impact of sleep deprivation that results from police harassment criminalization and being woken up in the middle of the night while sleeping in public places. BEST PRACTICE DECLARATION OF CLIMATE EMERGENCY SMART ALEC ATLANTA Georgia State and local governments ought to immediately consider and adopt legislation adopting a climate emergency as a predicate to substantive action to prevent reduce and mitigate climate change.