This email came to me this morning and I thought it was a good summary of where we are at. Not my words, but someone experiencing it. From his perspective, things look really bleak going in to winter. Not necessarily new, but the promise of change, the hope of things getting better . . . may have made things worse for many.
As he typed it, minus the name, only because I hadn’t asked him if it was ok.
the permanent daytime resource center is on hold even though money has been set aside for buying a building or builoding on. Now, 1st United Methodist Church has suspeneded the shower program taht so many people were dependent upon. the only other place that offers showers is the Catholic Multi-Cultural Center. It only has one shower. We need more showers. A public shower would help a lot. Rome had public baths.
1st United Methodist Church one offered food to the homeless but now a permanent address is needed in order to get any. That defeats the purpose of giving food to the homeless. The bag lunches that they hand out are totally inadeguate.
There are no indoor toilets near the Capital and no overnight restaurants. The only place where the homeless can relieve themselves is the back alleys. More toilets would help, preferably near the Capital and other place where the homeless congregate, such as the Capital and East Washington Street.
The police routinely toss away the valuables of homeless persons because they have nowhere to put them. If storage lockers were to be made available, the homeless would not have to drag everything with them where ever they go. Bikes, backpacks, sleeping bags, food an clothing are regularly stolen.
We need a Homeless Bill of Rights so that the homeless know what rights and responabilities that they have. It would make enforcing the laws easier for the police and give the homeless a sense of safety.
There are no safe places for the homeless to sleep. They are capriciously and arbitarily herded from place to place with no clear place to legally sleep. I propose that safe havens be set up for sleeping and a police presence could deter crimes against the homeless.
If job training and job placement programs were set up the homeless could work their way out of poverty and contribut to the community instead of being a drain on its resources. That way everyone wins.
