Has war been declared on the homeless? Should we fence off our parks, prevent people from getting food from food pantries and prevent them from parking their cars (homes) on the street?
I look around and see homeless and I see a problem. The problem I see, is that we live in a society that has haves and have-nots. We also live in a society where we have grown quite callous and indifferent to the needs of the poor. We live in a society where we often blame “them” for their situation and accuse them of enjoying “feeding off the system”. We live in a society where individuals have personal problems that cause them to do things that society frowns upon. We also live in a society that doesn’t want to look at these problems and try to solve them in a reasonable manner. That’s what I see.
Others look around, and what they see makes them uncomfortable. People are dirty, they have no place to put their trash, they have no place to go to the bathroom, they cook their food in the park or on the side of the road. And some have more serious alcohol and drug problems or mental health issues that cause other behaviors that are not acceptable, whether you live in an apartment or own your home or if you are homeless. Many of these folks just don’t want to see humans that are worse off than them and they want the police to make it go away.
Where I work, the “car campers” all park their vehicles along E Wilson Street and they have done so for years. People clearly have all of their worldly possessions crammed into these vehicles and are living out of them. Sometimes you see grills, towels draped over the windows to block out the sun, a lawn chair set up to sit on and various other signs that this is their home. These same folks often use the phones or computers at the Tenant Resource Center and the bathrooms at the Social Justice Center. And when we form relationships with some of them, we sometimes help them find permanent housing. Sometimes their health problems make it so that they just need to come in and “enjoy” our air conditioning and rest a while in comfort. Sometimes things don’t go so well. Sometimes they steal our soda money. Sometimes their mental illness is too disruptive for our office environment. But its clear to me, these folks need assistance of various types. And each of them, as individuals, have different needs. It might be a place to get messages so they can find a job or place to live, it might be a computer to print off a resume, it might be help with a security deposit for their new place to live, it might some kitchen supplies for their new apartment, it might be money for a new id. Or, it might be mental health or alcohol and drug counseling. Or who knows what, but the only way we’re going to know, is if we talk to these people and find out what obstacles they are facing.
But what is the solution that some people are proposing? Make them get permits for their vehicles and if they don’t, they can get tickets for parking on the street. The kicker, they only want to give permits to people who have an address. And what will this accomplish? It will move them somewhere else, but it won’t solve the deeper issues that need to be addressed.
One neighborhood that is upset about the use of park space by the homeless wants to fence off portions of the park so that it can’t be used. It can’t be used by the homeless or anyone else. And it just moves the homeless out of their neighborhood and someplace else. It doesn’t solve the deeper issues that need to be addressed.
The most shocking, and disturbing suggestion actually came from an agency that is supposed to serve the homeless. This is what a recent email that was forwarded to me said:
I met with several members of the MPD yesterday. It was a good discussion. We talked about three basic strategies concerning the shelters and the parks, and to some extent the more recent problems with Carroll Street.
The objective is to try to change behavior. We talked about: (1) Making a significant effort to issue citations and arrest on the third citation for violations of the rules (this will require some significant police time but has worked elsewhere; (2) try to reduce food given to these persons for household use (from the food pantries) and the Drop-In Shelter; and (3) try to restrict access to alcohol.
I will make an effort to talk to some of the food pantries about giving food to those without addresses — but we may need some help in identifying these people either with photos or names to food pantry providers. I know the general rule is the food given by food pantries is not for on-site consumption and not allowing persons to simply take to the park and prepare it would seem to be consistent with that policy. I will also talk to Drop-In Shelter (DIS) staff about guests receiving food at the DIS. Typically we do really control whether a guest signs in, eats and then leaves. That is okay, but if the guest comes in, it counts against the guest’s 90 days. However, it was reported that a number of the persons on Carroll Street are just coming in for breakfast and not signing in, thereby getting unlimited time. We will try to eliminate that. For the most part, however, the major problem persons and problem areas do not involve the use our services.
That’s right, the solution to helping solve some of the issues with the homeless is to prevent them from getting food, and gasp, eating it in the park. Brilliant. That’s right, homeless shouldn’t be allowed to eat food in a park.
Another great piece of news. Starting November 1st, the men’s shelter will reduce the number of days that people can stay there per year from 90 to 60. They do let people stay if the temperature is 20 degrees or below with the wind chill factored in. They’re doing this to “relieve pressure on shelter usage”.
Is it just me, or is arresting, ticketing and starving the homeless not what you expect to be the response of our local government and non-profits?
We essentially have two ways to deal with this, the expensive/hard way or maybe with a teeny tiny bit of compassion. Let’s not just write these people off as anti-social degenerates. We can have the police deal with these issues, or we could get some non-law enforcement trained professionals that were on the streets trying to help solve the problem. Do you think the proposed approaches aren’t going to cost us all more money as we now house these folks in jails and have them go through court processes and have the police just chase them from place to place.
Wouldn’t two street outreach case managers go a lot further towards getting these folks out of these situations and likely be a whole lot cheaper?
