Can you ban people from a public building?

The next salvo from the mayor’s office is to institute a procedure to ban people from the city-county building like they do at the library or Lisa Link park. I think it raises a few questions.

QUESTIONS
Um, what if they vote in that building?

And, what if they want to attend a public meeting? Maybe one where they are discussing the removal of the benches in the building? Or new rules that allow them to be arrested for trespassing?

And, what if they want to use the veterans services in the building?

Or have to pick some one up from juvenile detention?

Or appear for a municipal court violation?

I could go on, but you get the point. Open meetings laws and constitutional rights to vote seem pretty important. Tho it does make me think, many libraries also serve as polling places and they might need to reconsider their policies. They do allow an appeal process, but it can take up to 60 days, if you were banned now, you would miss the primary and general election this spring.

There are other complications too. What staff would be in charge of banning people, city? county? Who would review those decisions? Who would serve as the appeals board? The City-County Liaison Committee?

I asked may of these questions at the City-County Liaison Committee last night because they had this issue on the agenda, but they didn’t have the library and Lisa Link policies (I gave them to them) and the Mayor’s office representative Sally Miley wasn’t there to discuss it, so it will be on the next agenda.

SOLUTIONS
Human Needs
They also asked me a few questions. They asked what we could do to address issues in the building. I suggested a few things.

– If you don’t like them using the first floor bathrooms to clean up, let them use the showers in the building – that are already there!
– If you don’t like seeing their bags and items they are carrying with them, let them use the lockers that are already in the building or install new ones.

The response to this is that they can’t allow the homeless to get too comfortable there and they don’t want to encourage that.

I explained that maybe they could do this in various areas around the city, at the new bike station and other public buildings so that it wasn’t concentrated in one area and that it would benefit bike riders and others who might want to use these facilities as well.

Hall pass?
They asked about solutions to allowing people in the building. I couldn’t think of anything except a sort of ridiculous idea of having people check in at the police department and get a “hall pass” to be in the building to do their business.

Services
They also asked about service solutions for folks? Should they have a social service worker stationed in the lobby?

I don’t really think so, mostly because there is no confidentiality for the people who might use any services.

I also had to point out that we should have services available now. We have an street team, we have social workers and programs that could be called on to address the issues. I also pointed out that perhaps if people don’t respond to one agency or staff person, they might respond to another. Perhaps it should be a cross agency team that works on the issue. I also pointed out that you can’t just work with Porchlight who primarily deals with men and need to include the Salvation Army who serves families and single women.

I also suggested that a “friendly security guard” or social worker/security guard who is in the building that gets to know folks, finds out what they need and tries to gets to know the people there and serves a a part of a team to find out if they want or need help. Plus, it makes people who are uncomfortable with the homeless feel safe. I was thinking of the model we had envisioned, but didn’t get played out, when we wanted Park Rangers who would provide information and outreach to people sleeping in the parks. I’m not sure I like the idea, but it would be worth a shot if implemented in a empathetic manner.

I don’t have all the answers, I’m not even a social worker and have no training, I’m an attorney by training, but I’m also a human being and can see there are more sensitive and empowering ways to deal with people who are “causing trouble”.

Why were the benches removed?
Poor Travis Miron from the county had to answer that question at the meeting. As politicians they were probably acutely aware of how few people would be voting absentee in these two weeks before the primary and how absurd that excuse was. His answer made me chuckle and made perfect sense. “We’re not in the habit of disobeying the police”. It goes to a point I often make, police often do things they don’t actually have the authority to do, but no one questions them. Makes sense, they carry guns and can arrest you.

RE THERE MORE HOMELESS? OR ARE THEY JUST IN OUR FACE
In this article by Pat Schneider, Captain Gloede tries to answer that question. Interesting. I’d much rather hear the answer from data and facts by agencies that deal with homelessness. I’ve asked for some data myself and am waiting to get it.

(By the way, he also attempts to justify his fear of people being trampled as the voters go to the polls. He was just playing it safe. ABSURD!)

On the other hand, why does it matter if we have more homeless than before? How many homeless people is an acceptable number? Is it okay when they are hidden away in the capitol basement? But not in the city-county building lobby?