To the editor:
The question of a safe and decent place for human beings to sleep out of our extreme heat and sudden heavy downpours is not just the problem of Loring Henderson, Lawrence Community Shelter director and his dedicated staff and board. It is surely all of ours, most particularly our community leaders, who have now said “no” to a tent city and raised code concerns that ended the emergency use of the First Christian Church and sleeping in the LCS basement for the overflow from the Salvation Army shelter’s closing.
The liability is all of ours, that we pretend it’s safer for people to sleep in our streets and alleys, and that we somehow blame the one welcoming location for its extreme inadequacies!
Surely in this town there is a safe and adequate place for those strangers in our midst to sleep, many of whom suffer from mental and physical disabilities. Securing it and opening it to those without any place at all to be is all of our urgent responsibility.
Comments
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vertigo (Jesse Crittenden) says…
Feel free to let them sleep at your place.
xbusguy (chris Ogle) says…
Hilda- As Ed Dutton always stated so clearly: " A program for the poor, is a poor program."
What he meant was to help them help themselves, not to help them remain where they are. Maybe we should follow his advice.
Newell_Post (anonymous) says…
Hilda:
It's really much, much safer for them to sleep in San Diego's streets and alleys. The climate is also much more conducive to outdoor living.
journeymanstation (anonymous) says…
Maybe most of you are ignorant. To the plight of the mentally ill,and those with physical impairments. Not to even mention how the cycle of homelessness works. I have read a lot of blogs on this issue. I really can not believe how undedicated you people really are. I do believe most of you have to be m.r.
bearded_gnome (anonymous) says…
oh,
did the city leaders bring up the code violations at the LINK site, or did the First Christian board members themselves? this lte starts to sound like a creeping smear.
Hilda,
get out of the enabling, you're only making it easier for many to stay in self-distructive lifestyles.
furthermore, the "open shelter," AKA the drunken/druggy shelter has turned many who would've supported your position against you, because of the nature of that population. it does seem to attract some of the same from out of town, not what we want. it has a very negative impact on the image of downtown, and the enjoyment people get from going downtown.
***
JS says:
works. I have read a lot of blogs on this issue. I really can not believe how undedicated you people really are. I do believe most of you have to be m.r.
"undedicated?" huh? uneducated, like you? just keep on excusing people their self-destructive choices, making them comfortable in their self-destruction. that reeeeeeeeally helps, doesn't it?
some people in lawrence have died of being homeless; nobody came along and expected them to do better.
journeymanstation (anonymous) says…
Sorry bg I have a masters, working on jd. When I am done here I will more than likely seek another masters from brown. I also have personal experience in this subject.
I am guessing your still trying to finish your under grad bg. You think you learned enough in life, and should comment on everything. Even when you do not understand what your talking about. You feeling the need to exert ideas. Though you truly have not a clue of what your speaking about. I will also guess you sit, and think about half the dumb crap you have said during the course of the day. Wishing you hadn't said.
uncleandyt (anonymous) says…
Great letter, Hilda, thank you
Some people care, too many don't. And then we have the freaks on here who don't seem to care about much more than offering their cruel opinions. To help, or not to help...that is the question.
Informed (anonymous) says…
You may be working on a jd, journeymanstation, but it looks like your master's, your bachelor's and even your high school education have all failed you. For all of your degrees, you have learned squat.
gl0ck0wn3r (anonymous) says…
I assume Hilda has several homeless people hanging at her place in the a/c, right?
journeymanstation (anonymous) says…
Truly uniformed should be the proper name for you, or misinformed. I will bet I would know more on the subject than you. Have you dealt with any of the problems of being homeless, mental health, or physical impairments? I have, and all of these things are one big cycle. Would you understand the needs to treat, and educate the homeless, mentally ill, or the physically impaired? What amount of time have you donated to even offer emotional support.?
As for my education Ia m doing quit well thank you. I may miss spell a lot of the time. Thanks to the neuropathy I have to live with. Serving in defense of are nation. I will make a guess you wouldn't even do that much for your community.
So what can you say you have done selflessly for your community supposedly informed?
Informed (anonymous) says…
Yo, journey, I never said that you didn't know more about "the subject" than I do. Parenthetically, I assume that "the subject" refers to homelessness and not your parade of supposed degrees.
Not that it's really any of your business, but here is a partial list of some of the things I have done for this (my) community: cooked for LINK, served meals for LINK, delivered Meals on Wheels, been involved in the Family Promise program, purchased food for several food pantries in town, been involved with Headquarters... Shall I go on? So, you can see that I am slightly qualified to speak to the issue of homelessness in this town. I am always willing to help those who want a hand up. I am quite reluctant to do so for those simply looking for a handout.
wordgenie8 (anonymous) says…
At all costs spare strangers your incompetence and ignorance. Don't approach people you don't know on the basis of bigoted, pejudiced assumptions, but help, yes, through dignified, socially established channls if you have the competence and empathy and insight to truly make a contribution. I believe housing should be a fundamental human right and that the lack thereof is due more to structural than individual failings. Individuals should not terrorize others on the public streets by messing with strangers in order to broadcast to the world what helpful people they are though. Competent, decent people don't conduct themselves in this way. This is big G the ego going around announcing itself to the world and wreaking destruction on the way, and no educated or sensitive person should be forced to deal with it. Per Martin Luther King too, "True Compassion is more than flinging a coin at a beggar; it is not haphazard or superficial. It comes to see that an edifice that produces beggars needs restructuring. "
wordgenie8 (anonymous) says…
Let's please stop insultingly lumping "the homeless," the mentally ill," or "the physically impaired" into such big, generalized groups. This is labelling people on the basis of presumptuously assumed, superficial characteristics and can be very dehumanizing and inhumane. It seems to be a huge issue with a majority of people I meet in Lawrence--they want to slap a quick label on you that in their clueless judgment you deserve and then patronizingly proceed to treat you that way. Helpful, supportive human interaction doesn't happen that way
by a longshot. Maybe people who need to see themselves as heroes at the expense of treating others like helpless losers behave this way, but the civilized and caring and cultured don't.
bearded_gnome (anonymous) says…
Journeymanstation:
I am guessing your still trying to finish your under grad bg. You think you learned enough in life, and should comment on everything. Even when you do not
understand what your talking about. You feeling the need to exert ideas. Though you truly have not a clue of what your speaking about. I will also guess
you sit, and think about half the dumb crap you have said during the course of the day. Wishing you hadn't said.
okay Journey, 1st, I hold an M.A. from KU, and have studies beyond that. second, I've written much the same about this topic on these comment threads for *several years* without regret (how quaint of you to infer there!). and, I'm probably *older than you are* too.
I've never called others "M.R." as you have, and it makes your claim of education *all* suspect.
furthermore, I was reacting to your bizarro use of "undedicated" in your previous post; many of us care about the homeless but *oppose* the system of easy handouts that attract more out-of-towners, reinforce self-destruction, and maintain people in their bad choices. "undedicated" implies that there's no place for opposition. in fact, it begins to seem rather fascist.
"feeling the need to exert ideas," what? again, bizarro mode. no, my mind is well exercised daily. I think yours needs an airing-out.
here's an idea, you want constructive ideas?
*limited shelter space, so limit who gets it: only people with some provable local history or connection. limit the shelter to people who *aren't drunk or on drugs. Only give shelter space to people who can show they're trying to turn their lives around.
the out-of-towners hit the road, the bums don't get help and support to continue their self-destruction, and the people who really need the help get it because it isn't wasted on the bums.
wanna call me an M.R. again mr. elitist liberal wacko?
Left_handed (anonymous) says…
Journeymanstation,
How did you earn a master's when you can barely write a complete sentence, let alone string three coherent thoughts together?
My late, wise father once told me that "education means you learn more and more about less and less, until eventually you know everything about nothing."
Reminds me of someone.............
journeymanstation (anonymous) says…
I have gotten my degree , and continuing education with a lot of help. I also have other things I am doing like watching, and moving currencies. Paying to the markets. I should say taking care of the trust. I also have been taking care of 2 elderly, and then going to class. I also some how I fit work in there.
Supposed degrees? I don't mind if you question it. Your doubts are yours.
If you really believed in giving a hand up in life. Excuse me deserving of a hand up. Who deserves that hand up? Has not everyone at some point gotten a hand up? If it was being given a job. Grants for an education. A loan, or even a credit card ect... No matter what you do in life you are being helped (a hand up). What makes anyone more deserving than any other person? Even if you think you have worked for everything you have. Someone chose to let you get this far at sometime in your life. Another form of a hand.
Do you believe you could become wealthy during your life? Only if the people who already have the wealth can give you the hand up to achieve wealth. Only if they want you to get there. Without their help ( hand up). You will not be aloud in the club. Really you need someone above your economic status to give you a hand up.
So what is the difference between you, and someone who is homeless, mentally ill, physically unable, Alcoholic, drug addict ( by the way the symptoms of the last two mirror the symptoms of mental illness). Are you saying your a better person? Your more deserving, and why?
journeymanstation (anonymous) says…
I forgot arrogance is easy to hide ones short falls, and to make ones self feel better. With the false idea one self is better than someone else
journeymanstation (anonymous) says…
Hmmm I think barry you, and I touched on 2 of the 7 deadly sins. So progressive wasn't it?
xbusguy (chris Ogle) says…
If anyone needs it, I have a PHD (post hole digger)...... It is a good one too.
journeymanstation (anonymous) says…
Barry since this is finally getting fun. Cast the first stone.
Gootsie (anonymous) says…
boys boys boys take your fight out to the alley
rodentgirl16 (anonymous) says…
"Truly uniformed?" I don't understand. Was Informed wearing a real uniform? JD my hide. I seriously doubt you would have made it past the LSAT writing section, let alone the rest of the exam.
gl0ck0wn3r (anonymous) says…
So... party at Hilda's? Perhaps someone ought to print up some cards with her address, package them with some T money and give them out up and down Mass Street.
Lynn731 (anonymous) says…
Feel free to take them to the next job fair. Thank you, Lynn
alicenevada (anonymous) says…
Thank goodness there will be no tent city to further exacerbate this problem. I was walking downtown with my three year old niece last week to go to the park. We decided to walk on the sidewalk behind the storefronts on the west side of Mass, between 8th and 9th. We got all the way to the end, behind the cheese shop and had to squeeze past a homeless guy, passed out on the bench of a picnic table, gaping mouth open, dried blood all over his face.
Seriously. Do these homeless advocates think I am supposed to shake this dude out of his drunken coma, take him to my home around my kids, clean him up, feed him and give him a bed?
If they are so concerned about guys like this, why don't they patrol these areas where they congregate and help them? Stop blaming people like me who feel that these people present a serious threat to families and children.