This originally was to be a 3 part series, but is rapidly becoming more, based on what is happening in the community and the feedback I am getting. I have alternative locations for a homeless shelter that should be good choices for both residents and homeless, and I will reveal those as this series progresses.
Any discussion of the homeless must include who are they, where do they come from, and why are they homeless. It is estimated that a good percentage of the homeless are ex-military, a percentage that may be 25% or more. Many are said to be people with mental illness, now roaming the streets as state mental facilities have been downsized or closed. Many are homeless on either a short or long term because of job loss or reduced income, loss of house, domestic dispute, and various other reasons. Not all are adults. I remember a grad student in social work telling me of her study of homeless children in our region, and it numbered over 1000. I found that hard to comprehend. About 15%, a shelter director told me, want to be homeless and are unchangeable. They choose to be that way and all that can be done is to provide food and shelter. Unfortunately, no one really knows the true demographics of our homeless though a physical search and census was done recently. But there is no way to find all the homeless because, well, they are homeless and nomadic.
It is our heart felt desire to help those among us that need help. Our state is a great per capita contributor to charities, and our churches and civic groups provide much material and manpower to good causes. It may be that because we are a poor state nationally that we are all closer to those that need, can see the need first hand, and find sympathy and support easier to give. But because we are a poor state nationally in per capita income, we may also find we do not have much tolerance with those that abuse our good nature, nor continue to play upon our charity selfishly, as those of us that earn must work harder than the average American to make ends meet. This is where the root of the shelter problem comes from, mixing those who earn and want to help with those that do not.
Not all homeless are lazy and bad, and not all Wall St. bankers are crooks, but how can you tell which? I was approached (panhandled some would say) one evening in 5 Points, as happens quite frequently to me. The fellow asked me for $2 and then said “You know me”. I looked closer and yes I did. He worked at a place I eat regularly. He needed the $2 to have enough for the shelter that night. We talked for a very few minutes (I was in a hurry) and he explained that he is homeless sometimes when he cannot have enough for a cheap place and to meet expenses. He has been working at the same place for 2 years and needs the job and wants to keep it so he begged me not to mention his situation to his employer. His fear was that he would get fired if found out. I gave him $2 and have not mentioned it to his employer nor said anything of our conversation to him since. There are families, both complete and broken, that live in cars or worse, finding places to bathe as they can, and getting their children to school without anyone knowing. Or getting them in low cost/free daycare while they work. It is a rough life, very rough with danger involved, yet they work through it, always trying to do better for their children,
On the other hand, there are those with drug habits, mental illness and other problems roaming our streets. They panhandle, sometimes getting hundreds a day, only to spend it all on drugs. I knew 2 guys like that. They told me what they could make a day, and I immediately considered changing careers. They went on to blow it all on drugs, never saving any. They had stolen from family and were not welcome, only being allowed once in a while during special occasions. They also got in fights with other homeless that attempted or succeeded in stealing from them. (Stealing from other homeless by homeless is also a problem. You may have seen the article in The State recently of the almost homeless man who collects cans to pay his bills. He has to hide his stash as a homeless guy may will him and steal his daily collections.) The one I knew best appeared one day with a couple of front teeth missing.
Panhandling is a major problem where I work, on Main St. (though not so bad right now with the construction going on and the pedestrian traffic down), and to a lesser extent the Vista. I must be a panhandler magnet as I get hit many times a day, even to the point of guys trying to flag my moving car down to ask me for money, as one did earlier in the Food Lion parking lot as I this evening. To me it is only annoying, but to others it may be threatening, especially to females, and more especially to those with children in tow. With me they may argue, but I will tell them once they get annoying and doggedly persistent, where to get off. Unfortunately, this may not be the situation for a female. In this case, especially if a woman has children with her, a panhandler can be threatening, and a woman may give him money quickly to get him away. Easy marks, and panhandlers know this. So women stay away from those areas that are threatening and go to malls and other places they find safe. Panhandlers taking advantage of the weak angers me greatly. I recently decided that if I witness it I will not only confront the panhandler to leave, but ask he return the money. Panhandlers may bluster and threaten, but if you stand your ground, especially in a visible location, they will back down. However, I see most of these guys, and a few gals, quite often, so we know each other. That keeps most from trying to intimidate me like they do others.
But they do try intimidation. One restaurant tells me they come in the door and demand food. It does intimidate some of the girls, so the guys have to come from the kitchen and run the bum off. Another fellow told me the same thing happens at his place where they did come in and ask for food at the door in front of patrons. For a while he helped, but it got so out of hand they quit. Now, he says, they run in the door and grab a handful of the free peanuts in a bucket by the door and run out.
They try other ways, such as my car ran out of gas about two miles away and my wife and kids are in it and I am trying to get to_____ to start a new job in the morning and I need a few bucks for gas, or something similar. Before I knew this was a scam, I would offer a buck or two. Then I got wise and offered instead to get some gas and drive him to his car. Never any acceptance of my offer, though I did have one lady who said she needed kerosene for her heater take my offer, so we got kerosene and took it back to her place. One friend got the I need diapers for my baby at the checkout counter at Eckerd’s. She felt sorry and offered to buy the lady some, so the lady came back with the most expensive brand before my friend could get some from the rack. My friend was taken back but bought them. Then she went outside, drove her car across the street, and waited. Within a few minutes the lady came back to the store with the diapers. My friend went in to find the lady trying to get a refund. Let’s say the lady never got her refund, and the manager told my friend that it happens all the time.
I hear someone out there saying Joseph, you are making all homeless to be panhandlers and bums. No, but not all Wall St. bankers are crooks, but how do you tell? The problem is the old Adam and Eve problem: one person does something wrong and a whole lot of innocent people get branded and punished. When one homeless person plants a load of his fecal matter on my threshold (it happened about two weeks ago), I am enraged. It is bad enough that we clean out behind the dumpster one day and find it again the next, but in front of my door? College students urinate everywhere, homeless defecate. My tenants see them going behind the dumpster. They also leave clothing and other material behind it. Some sleep behind it. One crazy fellow I found living there, actually sleeping under the dumpster. He had to be on something because some days he thought he was Superman and almost jumped from my balcony. He would scream at people passing by and periodically tried to intimidate me, threatening force. I would threaten him back to get him to quit with me and those passing by. He went to jail often, which was probably a blessing to him: three hots and a cot.
Which brings up another problem. Our city is already understaffed in the police department, so dealing with homeless is a strain on the staff and the budget. One cop sees a guy in the fountain collecting pennies, washing clothes, or bathing. He confronts the man. Another cop comes arrives as back up. Soon the paddy wagon arrives to haul off the man. So we have 3 cops and three vehicles tied up, and an already understaffed force. The offender is taken to jail, and that costs the city. He goes to court and that costs the city. But he can’t pay the fine, so back to jail, and that costs again. Unfortunately, the arresting officer has to go to court to testify, taking an officer off the street. Of all the police I have spoken with, not one wants the shelter in downtown or anywhere near town. They tell me other cities give their homeless a one way ticket to Columbia, something I cannot confirm nor deny. They often have to look the other way when sleeping and loitering laws are being broken or all they would be doing is hauling homeless to jail every night, all night long, neglecting other problems that may arise at the same time. Take a look at Finlay Park, King Park, and other parks around town some evening. When you only have 5 or 6 officers in the south region on at night, and there are a dozen homeless sleeping and pooping in public areas, what are you going to do? Ignore the homeless and keep an eye on the neighborhoods, that’s what.
Trying to mix residents and homeless is an explosive situation. Parading the homeless out every morning in one of Columbia’s most visible locations is not only humiliating, but could get my friend fired if his employer saw him. The Main St. location is wrong, and the river location is not as acceptable as it was years ago when I first proposed it. It could have been, but with the residential and business closing in around, it creates another potentially toxic mix. A better location would be on Beltline in one of the old, abandoned car dealerships. That is where the Cooperative Ministries is, a wonderful helping organization that cares for homeless and others. It makes more sense to put those that need and those that provide together.
In the meantime, the group that is trying to make the Main St. shelter a reality needs to stop and truly address the problem. They are following their hearts, but also letting their hearts, not their heads, lead them. We must solve problems, not take actions that assuage some group’s guilt, or create an artificial warm and fuzzy feeling of goodness. To mix residents and homeless creates a unspoken anger and seething, boiling relentlessly below the surface, as well as a fear in residents.
In the next installment I will address opportunities, responsibilities, the general unspoken opinion of the public, and another one or two possibly excellent locations for a homeless shelter, if I can fit it all into a semi-compact newsletter.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment