Warm and Cuddly

Posted by George Lippencott November 16, 2009 at 12:03 p.m.

Since moving here we have been very impressed with the commitment of the community to those less fortunate. There seems to be a group supporting just about any human need imaginable from battered women to our homeless. Our faith based community is very active as is our secular elements.

We as a community are again revisiting our support for the homeless. There has been consistent pressure to move our shelter from downtown. The shelter has responded by finding a location that is away from most commercial activity and about as removed as possible from residential locations. The move also enables additional services to include accommodating homeless families in a better setting.

Unfortunately, no location exists where there will not be some impact on somebody. The impact voiced about the chosen location raises issues as to transitory actions by the homeless themselves. I know the city is attempting to address panhandling in downtown. Good luck as most jurisdictions trying that have been defeated by the courts. Everyone pretty much has a right to go where they may and do as they will within the law. The new shelter location will only improve the situation for all of us.

The real question here is whether our community is willing to help the homeless. Admittedly, some of them are a long way from the warm and cuddly single moms with babies that we help with other programs. So is the nature of homelessness. However, it is just plain naive to assume if we do not help the homeless they will go away. Most of those receiving shelter are local. They will not go away; they will just find less regulated and more dispersed locations to occupy. In that circumstance, we will lose almost all possibility of helping them escape the trap they are in.

I defy anyone to find a better available location for a shelter. Lacking such a find the chosen location is about as good as we will get. We need to support the shelter as it seeks zoning approval by communicating to our commissioners our support for helping the homeless. Warm and Cuddly they are not; but they need our help just the same!

Copy and paste the link:

LJWorld.com doesn’t necessarily condone the comments here, nor does it review every post. Read our full policy. Also, read about banned accounts and harassing comments.