To the editor:
The homeless in Lawrence certainly deserve a home of some sort, with protection from the elements and sanitary living conditions — at least not underneath the bridge.
The community shelter board is a dedicated collection of good people trying to solve an insolvable problem. Don’s Steakhouse was not the answer. You do not put a homeless shelter on the busiest entry into our city. What message does that send? Welcome to Lawrence!
The community shelter board now proposes a vacant building next to the Douglas County Jail. What message does that send? In the middle of a cornfield.
Where are these people going to eat? There are facilities downtown to feed them. How are they going to get there? There is no bus system to that area. You need to walk or ride a bide on K-10 highway to 23rd and Harper. Somebody is going to get killed. No grocery store, only a convenience store and liquor store one mile away. Do the math. They are going to be on the highway.
In a previous letter to the editor, I mentioned the property at Ninth and Delaware. As I’ve suggested before, redevelop that long-abandoned property. It’s on the bus route, near downtown, with services and employment agencies and churches, etc.
If the homeless are going to turn their lives around, they can’t do it in a cornfield on the way to Eudora. They need services unavailable out there. Our town, Lawrence, Kansas, hopefully is not redefining the term, “Home on the Range.”
Comments
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geekin_topekan (anonymous) says…
There is a certain type of homeless for whom this location would work. That would be, what I call the invisible homeless. Those homeless that are not sitting at 9th and Mass bumming change but are serving burgers and turning money over to a case worker for safe keeping or walking their kid to school before setting out to see if they can find any signs of the future for themselves.
The bums actually prefer to live under the bridge. Let me say that again. The bums actually prefer to live under the bridge. So they will always occupy downtown and live by the river. With the shelter clear out there, there will be more and more living downtown and under the bridge than before.
Unfortunately, in its present state the shelter offers no differentiation between the two groups and until Loring can find a location for the invisible homeless, the bums will continue to ruin everybody's prospects for cleaner, safer services, as the city only judges the high profile homeless.
The prospect of a mother pushing a stroller down the shoulder of K-10, or an elder walking with a cane does not seem ideal. So, only the perfectly able bodied homeless who have made it their mission to get off of the streets of Lawrence would benefit from this location.
Meatwad (anonymous) says…
geekin is right on with these comments. The current shelter and it's policies (not being a dry shelter, but a wet shelter---if a drunken person stumbles in late at night with a bottle of alcohol, the bottle is taken away, but when they leave in the morning to walk back downtown to panhandle, etc, their bottle is given back to them!), is enabling people with alcohol and drug addiction -- ruining the place for people who are not addicts, not 'lifestyle' homeless and just need some temporary shelter and help.
Meatwad (anonymous) says…
On K-10 doesn't seem ideal but as long as the shelter insists on being a 'wet' shelter, no one in Lawrence wants themselves or their family living anywhere near it. I would fight hard if it wanted to move to my neighborhood. It drops property values for anything around it. It increases crime - how many times have police been called to the current location? I'll bet that Dennis doesn't live anywhere near the 9th and Delaware location that he proposes. I'm also guessing he doesn't spend much time downtown being accosted on every corner by begging bums. They are ruining downtown. I propose that the shelter locate near Dennis' house. I'll bet he doesn't like that idea.
It needs to move to a location that is not so 'rewarding', not such 'prime real estate' for the lifestyle homeless. What bum or drug/alcohol addict wouldn't want to live a block from Mass Street where they can make money to support their habit? If the current shelter wasn't enabling them, they would choose another town or maybe decide it's time to make a change in their lifestyle. They also wouldn't keep calling their lifestyle homeless friends and telling them to move to Lawrence.
oneeye_wilbur (anonymous) says…
Until the city commission and the planning commission stop endorsing the plans to continue the services at 10th and Kentucky, the shelter is here to stay and to only get bigger.
I am truly surprised that the Oread Neighborhood group would support Neighborhoodmonies to be use for a sprinkler system at the 10th and Ky buidling, just as surprised that the other target neighborhoods who should be getting the money allow that money to be spent for a private owner's buidling.
ONA worries about boarding houses, but supports the continuation of a flop house at 10th and KY.
Why does the city commission continue year after year to allow Loring Henderson to pursue this program he has, a program which is lacking in substance.
Bring the barbs on but drunk is drunk and lazy is lazy. Mentalily ill is another thing, but the 10th and KY site has again been approved by the Planning Commission to keep on a ticking!
I am tired of hearing about one paycheck away, many people are but they aren't taking the current paycheck and drinking it up, a paycheck coming from SSI, housing connected with Bert Nash and other agenies, Why doesn't the JW write a real story about how much money some pay for rent, rent that includes utilities as well. Please JW find a reporter that will do it. Then let's see how much sympathy can be generated for 10th and KY or a shelter at any other place.
If the shelter is such a good idea, then no one would mind, surely, having it at Cordley with a nice kitchen to serve LINK meals from. How could anyone object to that community, sharing , and togetherness. A re adapative use of an old school still serving the community of intellects and downtrodden...
Lawrence is special, so special that the way it is going, it will be off the radar of businesses looking to come here, because of the looney decisions made on programs just as this shelter. How many years now has this discussion been going on?
Why does Mr. Barritt like the Poehler buidling better? Would it have been such a great idea if Harris had developed his "new urbanism" project in that area? That sure fell flat!
mr_right_wing (anonymous) says…
Let's make a rule that says all Lawrence hotels (yes, including the Eldridge) must put 2 'homeless' people in each vacant room.
Tell them they have to do this. Don't ask.
The obamassiah would be so proud of us!
Did_I_say_that (DIST) says…
"The homeless in Lawrence certainly deserve a home of some sort..."
No, those who work to have a home deserve homes. That is not to say that compassion may dictate providing shelter for those that have not earned a home.
"If the homeless are going to turn their lives around, they can’t do it in a cornfield on the way to Eudora. "
I am not so sure about that. That sounds like a quote that could be used at the twenty year celebration of the "Shelter in the Cornfield" in a made for TV movie titled, "On The Way To Eudora". It would have a sub-title, "The True Story of One Eye Wilbur."
devobrun (anonymous) says…
"The community shelter board is a dedicated collection of good people trying to solve an insolvable problem"
Is this a myth of Sisyphus letter?
You must feel bad.
I'm sorry you feel bad.
Solution to your feelings is to stop feeling.
Lower your awareness.
Your feelings won't help or hurt the homeless.
It just doesn't matter to the homeless what you feel.
There, feel better?
jafs (anonymous) says…
devo,
Even for you that's an absurd post.
The solution to suffering brought on by compassion is to simply become less compassionate?
What a lovely society we'd have if people followed that advice.
bearded_gnome (anonymous) says…
The homeless in Lawrence certainly deserve a home of some sort, with protection from the elements and sanitary living conditions — at least not underneath
the bridge.
---despite self-destructive choices? deserve?
this guy probably also thinks that universal,singlepayer, health care is in the constitution! lol!
the LTE writer is obviously unaware that the handouts and such here in Lawrence are *attracting* out-of-towners to Lawrence! they are *making the problem worse!*
please stop making people comfortable in their self-destruction.
in the real world, choices have consequences.