Dec 25, 2022
No Rest for the Wicked
This one’s for both Dubuque’s and Chattanooga‘s homelessness haters
It’s good I’m not surrounded by a bevy of Christmas celebrators on this, the day Christians recognize the birth of Jesus and the rest of the population ride on his robe tails. Don’t feel sorry for me. I’m with beloved family and a sweet dog, and I’m warm, safe and well fed, unlike millions of others across the land.
My friend Jeff Lenhart, manager at the Dubuque Rescue Mission, just shared an article about his city’s (mis)handling of people experiencing homelessness on the streets of Dubuque, the “Masterpiece of the Mississippi.” Needless to say, it didn’t please me. Nor, I’d guess, will it please the relative small handful of unsheltered folks living on the streets.
Instead of implementing the recommendations of city council months ago, to have a social worker accompany police officers when they deal with someone on the streets violating the new restrictive ordinances, City Hall has evidently stalled. According to today’s article in the TelegraphHerald,
Even if council members then were to direct funding from the current fiscal year’s budget into the program, Steger said hiring for and coordinating the program would still take several months and likely not begin until July.
“You still need to hire somebody and get everything into the right position,” she said. “That’s going to take several months to do.”
However, Steger said the city still is taking other steps to assist the local homeless population, including working with local organizations to find emergency housing if needed, providing funding to staff the area’s coordinated entry hotline, which connects people experiencing homelessness with local resources, and conducting street outreach to people reported to be living outside.
Myths vs Reality
Yeah, “find emergency housing,” “connecting with resources,” “coordinated entry hotline,” “street outreach,” all sound good. But truth be told, none of those “approaches” are that effective. The unsuspecting public goes on with their business, thinking all is under control. It’s not.
Dubuque has been wrestling with doing the right thing for people who don’t fit into the community’s narrow offering of homelessness services. This city, like every other one across the country, has seen a surge of people living on the streets. Visible homelessness causes duress and, as weather gets colder, it creates a dilemma. Be kind or be mean?
I’ve been to DBQ several times and am willing to go again if needed to stop them from imposing harsh and deadly policies to keep people from visibly sleeping in the downtown area. They need a reality check.
Another City, Another Hateful Approach
I recently traveled to Chattanooga to see what the heck was going on there — why the newly-elected Hamilton County DA Coty Wamp kicked out upwards of 700 kids and adults from their rooms that they paid for and left them hanging?
Wamp went far beyond the lethargic leaders in DBQ, sending in sheriffs unannounced, guns unholstered, at 6:00 am, giving all just 4 hours to pack up and get out— disabled persons, parents with infants and small kids, traumatized adults — all desperate for a place to stay, without resources, most without cars, money or options.
What these cities have in common —staff with a genuine lack of compassion, and an even more serious lack of understanding about homelessness. Elected boards — city councils and county commissioners — seem powerless while the staff take tried and failed approaches to rid their streets of what I’m sure in private conversations get labeled as “eyesores.”
Beyond “eyesores,” DA Wamp painted those she kicked out as “child molesters” in a email to county commissioners, decrying the help both county and city officials provided to help pay for motel rooms for those ousted. The news report quoted Wamp,
“I’d prefer, as a taxpayer, to not be paying for two months of free hotel rooms for child molesters,” she wrote Tuesday. “I’d prefer, as a taxpayer, to not be paying for two months of free hotel rooms for adults with extensive criminal histories.”
Debate on Dubuque’s approach to homelessness flared up back in October, when the council quickly voted to support changes in ordinances to give police more muscle in dealing with visible homelessness. Move ’em out, send ’em away, would be an adequate summary.
Coty Wamp oozed faux kindness and compassion in her email to the commissioners when she said,
I also wish that we would focus our resources on the children and placing them in permanent housing, rather than housing criminal offenders.
Time for Truth vs. Myth
In Washington, DC on Wednesday for an inspiring Memorial Blanket event, I interviewed a director of a state’s 2–1–1 system. In theory, this system will connect people with assistance needed in an emergency — utility cutoffs, evictions, etc. In reality, she admitted, that demand for help far exceeded actual resources available. What that means is a fast track to homelessness with little help available. Such is the same with the “coordinated entry” system cities proclaim as their approach to homelessness. If these systems worked, we’d not have so many desperate people.
The “popular” myth about homelessness: it’s all drugs, alcohol and mental illness. That ignores the vast systemic causes of homelessness that can begin from childhood. My “Other Stuff” chart illustrates many of these issues that pile onto those without the wherewithal to fend off life’s upheaval.
When things fall apart, because of a childhood filled with trauma-inducing abuse, a string of bad breaks as an adult, or any of the seemingly endless ways life gets upended, homelessness can happen. When it does, scant meaningful help is available, now more than ever. (For you thinking you know people who clawed their way through hard times in yesteryear, it’s way different now. Trust me.)
Both cities think they can sweep the problem away. But, with our national failure to truly address homelessness, every community has a steady “flow” of people landing on the streets. For many reasons. This won’t be fixed by further uprooting those without homes.
As I keep reminding policymakers, ignoring family homelessness, as has happened since I entered this challenging field in the mid-80s, will guarantee more homeless adults to take the place of those removed from view.
Look in the eyes of kids who have nowhere to live. Like this little 2-year-old. Realize that by not helping her and her family to overcome their dire circumstances that led to homelessness, she will likely be living on the streets in 10 or so years. You good with that? Because that’s the reality.
