Both Sides Taking Aim at One Another and Missing Their Mark
Cristal M Clark
The homeless issues are never ending it seems, I just watched some jacked up guy on what I would assume is meth try to start an argument with a man just trying to walk home. It’s ridiculous.
Recently homeless advocates were rather unfairly taking aim at the City of Denver, Whilst Denver took aim right back, both groups missing their mark, completely.
Per Grant Francis with Mutual Aid, the group asserts that the City of Denver unfairly targets events that generates any kind of income for the city, so right before a big event, the city does a sweep and gets rid of the homeless tent cities, I noticed that Grant failed to mention the part about the homeless preferring to build tent cities near major events, heavily trafficked areas and the like. Anyway, the City of Denver asserts that simply is untrue, they tend to target the areas with the larger homeless population, the larger camps make it impossible for the foot traffic leading to the event navigate safely.
Both sides are wrong and both sides are right here. Sometimes it’s as if a homeless encampment is allowed to grow as big as some due just in an effort to support an agenda or idea. That is on both sides honestly. Whatsmore is that the city removed almost three tons of trash and over 200 pounds of propane. Which does not to include the improperly disposed of needles and human waste from the encampment they had to clean up recently near Coors Field.
Let’s be clear, do you think that it is welcoming or even good advertising for visitors of the city to be walking to a game and watch a homeless guy jack off in a busy intersection(true story a friend of mine was in town visiting for a Rockies game and got quite an eyeful strolling to the game), or is it that advocates want people to see someone taking a crap on the sidewalk where everyone is walking, shoot up or smoke meth or crack in the same area? How about being harassed because that happens all of the time by the homeless.
No, because if you live here, you see this all of the time, why would the city want to advertise that of course they need to clean things up a bit before a big game. It does not take an idiot to figure that one out.
Now the city does have tiny home villages, we have our safe outdoor spaces, as well as vouchers for hotels and motels when that’s necessary. If people can get vouchers, their seems to be a lot of confusion about them, some homeless will tell you that they didn’t know they could get a voucher whilst others will tell you that every time they try to get one from the many organisations that offer them, they have none. So that’s obviously a huge disconnect. The problem with the tiny little villages and safe outdoor spaces are that they have curfews, limits on guests and they are not near the more heavily populated areas, where the homeless like to be so that they can panhandle or rob people, get access to illegal drugs and sit around high and drunk all goddamn day. That is the elephant in the room many advocates don’t like to publicly discuss yet they are quick to point their little fingers at the naughty city now aren’t they?
Last year, Housekeys Action Network Denver did a “poll” of the homeless, the first ever of its kind and learned what the homeless say the issues are.
One of the biggest issues in the report was that we have all of these so called agencies and groups that get funding and are here to help the homeless, they are here to help them get into long term housing, they are here to assist with addiction recovery, to help them find resources and to help the homeless obtain stable work. Yet, for many these groups are not helping so what the fuck? I just saw an email from Stout Street the other day asking for donations, monetary no less and according to a report many of the homeless who sought out help with Stout Street, never received it and it had been years for help. Years, not days, not weeks but years. That’s a joke and we all know that it is. Someone is getting the money that should be going to the homeless and it’s not the homeless.
Access to city and state services took a hit in the report, many had issues getting food stamps, health care, bus passes.
Roughly 17% of the respondents said that they could afford nothing and needed housing to be free, but the rest could afford something but it wasn’t much, they couldn’t afford rents even low income. Meaning it had to be near free rent. But even if and when they do get a job and housing some lose the housing within a year because of rent hikes. We love to talk about affordable housing but the affordability is for a limited time only you see. A local news station did a story recently about a woman who is in affordable housing and her rent went up so high after a year of living in her affordable housing unit that she was about to be homeless again.
Affordable housing is temporary for many as landlords don’t give a fuck.
But here’s what gets me most many that were polled expressed a want for freedom and community. That freedom being that they did not want housing that had things like substance free, no drugs, no curfews, a guest policy, they don’t want to be forced to take medication or get therapy. Yet they want free housing. Look mates how many apartments do you know that would allow for you to have unlimited guests in a single day, homeless or not?
So as you see the issue is on both sides and advocates are not quick to talk about the issues from their side. Denver has a goal of cleaning up the problem within 5 years, I personally do not see that happening because to clean it up you need to understand it. Our leadership does not understand it and from what I can tell neither to the advocate groups. You can look at other cities to see what they are doing but the homeless here currently, aside from some long timers are a much different group than they were 5 years ago.
I say this a lot and I know it is not popular. The homeless that truly want help should get it but in normal society, we all have parameters around our day to day lives, from when we have to start work, to what we can wear to work, to obeying traffic laws, not walking out of the store with something without paying for it. Is putting parameters around homeless housing the worst idea? No, as it leads the way to them becoming contributing members of society.
For those that don’t want to clean up, that want to continue to lie, cheat, steal, rob, put them in jail.
For those that will never be able to hold a job, who are so far gone mentally and trust me we have our fair share here, institutionalise them. At least they will be safe from harm and properly cared for and medicated.
Either way you shake it up, it is a tax burden for us all.
Cristal M Clark
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