The sarcasm in this blogs title can be reinforced by focusing on the term "Homeless Community." The newly enforced 'camping ban' is uprooting communities of homeless people and relocating them to more hospitable living arrangements, as deemed by the City Council, the Colorado Springs Police Department, or the City appointed homeless advocacy group run by Bob Holmes. Including moving 46 of them out of town (According to Rick Montanez of KKTV News).
The City's "Homeless Outreach Team" plans to have many of these illegal camps cleaned up by the end of the week. Rick Montanez also discusses in his news story that the options for much of the homeless community are easily accessible and have plenty of room. If you're interested in seeing/reading the entire piece please click on KKTV below (because the rest of the content is going to be my own personal opinion about the current situation, that's a disclaimer so that you can distinguish who to direct your comments at!): KKTV
The question I would like to pose is what purpose does cleaning up homeless camps serve? Does it make OUR community better? Does it increase the scenic nature of already ugly highway roadsides? Will it help us feel more safe at night knowing that those darn homeless people are in a motel or in someone else's city (there was a ton of sarcasm in there, your sarcometer should be off the charts right now)? Or is it just another excuse for us to force a solution on a group of people who do not fit the social mold that we have worked so hard to create?
In my personal dealings with members of the homeless community, the general consensus is just that: they as if they have been stigmatized and in many cases ostracized from a mainstream community to which they once belonged: the working class. These are the individuals who are homeless by circumstance and not by choice and jump at the opportunity to pull themselves up by their boot straps and rejoin the rest of us.
While that description covers the vast majority of the homeless community there are those who do not want to find a job, get an apartment and spend the rest of their days working just to make ends meet. These are the individuals we are harming through our camping ban. They are everyday people like you and me who refuse to believe in the "punch clock promise" and are content to live off the land, yet smart enough to do it in close proximity to edible food and medical care. Why do we feel its our need or right to disrupt their way of living.
I personally have been blessed to have a job I enjoy that gives me the ability to: pay my bills, drive my car, shop at the grocery store, give to charity and maintain the quality of living I chose. The key to that is that those are the choices I made. Why is it not okay to chose a different way of living that doesn't harm other people. Do we truly think that if we hide our cities homeless in shelters, motels, detox and sober living facilities that we will create individuals who think, act and feel the same as we do? I would venture to say that these "feel good" measures that our beloved City Council has created will do more harm than good. I can see (not in my magic crystal ball, but in my rational mind) increased violence at shelters, overcrowded detox facilities and another 6 month process of how to solve the issues that the camping ban has created.
You may be asking yourself what motivation does this guy have to write about homelessness? The truth of the matter is that as a long time resident of downtown Colorado Springs I have had the opportunity to interact with the homeless community on a daily basis. I have been blessed to meet some amazing people over the years who just so happened to be homeless. My experiences are so vast and interesting that they would be worthy of their own blog. What sparked my latest sadness regarding the issues we're discussing was the "cleanup" of a camp on the Northwest corner of Cimarron and I25 yesterday. As I watched volunteers gathering up people's personal belongings while CSPD officers stood watch with hands on hips I found myself moved to the point of tears. My tears were not just for the individuals whose sole belongings were being disturbed but for the community that our city leaders are responsible for alienating and degrading. Every man, woman and child is deserving of their dignity and it pains me to see government sponsored disregard for human dignity.
If you like, dislike, or even hate this blog please comment and let me know what you think! This is our community and all opinions are welcomed. If you feel like I missed any major issues or would care to voice your own thoughts or opinions please do so. This is a sensitive subject that affects our community and this is an opportunity for you voice to be heard.
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This is a pretty common procedure in SLC, though we don't have an area of town like the one you're describing where a tent city has popped up. Twice a year, right before the semi-annual LDS conferences, the majority of homeless people in Downtown SLC are rounded up and given bus tickets to the next major town, so the city will look clean for all of its visitors. Aside from this approach, generally speaking, SLC has a really incredible amount of homeless advocacy agencies, ranging from The Road Home, Catholic soup kitchens, The Rescue Mission which runs a men's and women's biblically-based rehab with vocational training, Volunteers of America, a free medical clinic and a Homeless Youth Outreach Center. All of these agencies have congregated in an industrial portion of downtown, so logically, there are more homeless people in that area. In recent years, many of the old industrial buildings in that area have been modified into high cost condos for the hipster elite. Now, these new and economically productive residents of the neighborhood are demanding that their neighborhood be "taken back" from the rogue vagabonds who prevent them from feeling safe while they walk down their street at night. In response, the city has chosen to forgo their leasing arrangements for many of these non-profits. It's pretty disgusting.
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