I’ve heard about similar actions in other places. One reason that’s been given is that the food providers don’t have proper training to handle food safely, and I believe that there’s something to that.
Another reason which is usually not given is the fact that if you offer free food, more and more homeless will show up regularly. Having a large group of homeless people in a public park pretty much guarantees that other people will find the park undesirable to visit during feeding hours, no matter how well behaved the homeless are.
I do have to wonder why this feeding program is taking place in a public park, rather than at the various churches that run and support the program.
The reason is that the churches are generally in the suburbs, and the homeless generally hang out downtown. You’d have to bus the homeless out to the suburbs, then back again, which would get a lot more expensive.
And as far as your second point, most of the homeless are mentally ill. Sweeping them under the rug doesn’t deal with the problem. They’re still crazy, whether or not you feed them.
Eh, seems like if that were the case here, they could just call the Church and tell them that, and then the Church could decide to go have someone get trained or not. The weird “double secret probation” angle is the main reason people are pissed off here. There may well be a valid reason for the change in the rules, but then why not…say what it is?
Eh, I imagine the cost of a breakfast sandwich isn’t really much more then bus fare, and they’re only given out once a week. I doubt its really worth it for homeless people to relocate to down-town Raleigh for a one-dollar sandwich once a week. As dropzone says, their giving out the food downtown because that’s already where homeless people tend to congregate, the homeless people aren’t congregating there to get a sandwich.
armedmonkey I think you should have given credit to the person who wrote that about feeding wildlife. Yeah, I know you think its funny, but I don’t and others might not either.
Back when I worked for a library, an organization was feeding the homeless by the fountain on the way inside. Everyone thought it was a good thing except for the parts where the library users were afraid to walk past all the people eating their free food. The trash was also a big problem, there were trash cans available but they weren’t used very often and the paper bowls and plastic spoons covered the lawn every day.
A lot of people got upset about the decision to kick them out, “How could you not be willing to feed the hungry, you evil people!!!”
I think that feeding hungry people and critters is a very good thing. I donate money to the homeless shelters and I do my part to deal with homeless critters.
My point is that sometimes the good works that people do causes problems, so maybe they should use their own facilities to do this instead of expecting that everyone will be happy with the litter and crowds.
The city spokesman says the police were enforcing an ordinance, but I see no cite, quote, or mention of its content. Nor anything to suggest the reporter asked and was stonewalled. Bad reporter!
I don’t think anybody dismisses the practicality and logistics here. And I am not inclined to exaggerate the gestures of comfortable suburban Christians as some sort of dollar store sainthood. But they give a shit, and that matters or it doesn’t. I’m with does.
I know full well that even if i threw my whole genius into it and every moment of my life remaining, I wouldn’t make a dent, I wouldn’t even scratch the polish on the dent. But its not really about major sacrifices from the holy, its about tiny accumulated sacrifices on the part of the ordinary. Can’t say that will fix everything, dunno, but I’m pretty sure we can do a damned sight better, enough of us give a shit.
But what especially chaps my hide is the anonymity. Everybody who did this knew it stunk, and everybody pretended it was somebody else. Crazy and homeless, sure, but they had something to look forward to that morning, and then suddenly they didn’t. That’s just plain mean. And that either matters or it doesn’t, and I’m with does.
I could argue that the people who were afraid to be near homeless people for even a few minutes, as if they were all diseased or ax crazy, were the actual problem.
The trash, though, is indeed an issue. The organization should’ve been cleaning that up, not just leaving it there for somebody else to take care of.
I agree with your first point, but while I was homeless, I learned how to walk like a wolf, not like a sheep. As in “fuck with me and I will hurt you.”
Many people don’t know how to do that and a crowd of mostly mentally ill people are scary to them.
It was the litter that got the city to make them move out. And something about food handling standards.
Its been a long time since that. One of the things I do now is to grab up all of the free soap and shampoo at the hotel rooms and give it to the homeless shelter. I also take the free samples of dog food and hand them out as well.
Nobody should have to be hungry in this country. Soap and dog food is secondary, but so important to people who have nothing.
Raleigh apparently charges $800 a day for staging a public event in the park. The justification is the city has to usually pay workers overtime for cleaning up after events.
The charitable groups point out that these laws were supposedly written for things like music festivals and street fairs which draw large crowds. They say that their homeless meals have never drawn large crowds and they’ve always cleaned up after them and the laws were never enforced on them. Then around a month ago, the police began enforcing them with nobody apparently able or willing to explain why the change occurred.
Most likely they will discover to their astonishment that it was signed by a low-level temp worker who had no business nor authority to do any such thing. Extra irony points: they’ve already been fired, and now they are homeless.
Sort of like The Gift of the Magi, but mean and bitter.
I imagine that, besides the absolute PR shitstorm this has been and will probably continue to be, that at least a few of the people at the churches in question have connections to the powers-that-be in Raleigh. That’s one more way they can achieve the goal of cleaning out their desk in the Choose-Your-Own-Adventure book of their life.
Piss off your boss’s boss’s boss’s wife? Turn to page 75!
Create a national media shitstorm that ruins your boss’s entire month? Also turn to page 75!
I live in Raleigh and know people involved with the organizations that conduct these weekend meals.
The Mayor and a City Councilman attended the meal that was served today and vowed that no arrests would be made. They met with some of the organizers and told them that there would be a special session of the Council this week to discuss the issue and figure out a solution. Meals will be able to continue in the meantime. The mayor:
Just a couple things - the groups that serve the meals are made of of both religious and secular organizations. Their objective is that people are fed, without any obligation. Moore Square, where this is all taking place, is a gathering place for many homeless people in the city. It’s right downtown, near the bus station. The organizations helping to feed the people are not generally located nearby.
This afternoon, after the blog post linked in the OP had been making its rounds, many people went down to where they were feeding people, including the local Occupy group, to observe and wage a little protest. My favorite sign: “If Pat can hand out cookies, why can’t I?” (the governor’s mansion is just a few blocks from Moore Square).