[WestMALocals] Fwd: [AriseAction] Fwd: Quality of Whose Life?

Sun Sep 3 13:12:04 EDT 2006

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Michael Lindberg <michaellindberg at burntmail.com>
Date: Sep 1, 2006 5:55 PM
Subject: [AriseAction] Fwd: Quality of Whose Life?
To: "List, Arise Economic Justice" <AriseEJ at yahoogroups.com>
Cc: "List, Arise Peace and Solidarity Action" <AriseAction at yahoogroups.com>

News Valley Advocate
http://valleyadvocate.com/gbase/News/content?oid=oid:163246

Quality of Whose Life?
The problem of fixing Springfield's "homeless problem"

by Maureen Turner - August 31, 2006

It's ironic, Michaelann Bewsee says, that it was the
Springfield City Council's subcommittee on civil rights that
held a recent meeting to discuss the city's "homeless
problem." "They sure weren't there to talk about the civil
rights of homeless people," says Bewsee, of the social
justice activist group Arise.

Homelessness is a hot topic in the city these days. First
came reports of police taking pictures of homeless people at
the Warming Place shelter. Next came news of a proposed
policy that would prevent people staying at the shelter from
leaving after evening check-in. Meanwhile, city officials
and residents say they've had their fill of problems they
trace back to the homeless population, like public urination
and vagrancy.

While tensions have heated up recently, Bewsee says, "It's
been bad all summer." The day police came to the Warming
Place to photograph people was not an isolated incident, she
reports: she's heard from other people who have also been
stopped and photographed, and while police say compliance is
voluntary, these people say the officers told them, "It's
the law." The ACLU is looking into the matter, she adds.

Changing the check-in policy at the shelter is just another
example of homeless people being treated as second-class
citizens, critics say. Right now, people can sign up for a
bed in the evening, then return for a 10 p.m. curfew. That,
Bewsee says, means they can visit friends, go to AA
meetings, or get some fresh air on a warm summer night. The
proposed rule would require people to stay at the shelter
after check-in. ""Letting them loose at night'--that's the
phrase they used at City Council--like they're animals,"
Bewsee says.

Arise organized a vigil the day of the committee meeting to
protest the general assumption that equates being poor with
being a criminal. Just recently, Bewsee says, her sister
stopped at a convenience store and saw a homeless woman she
knows; as the two chatted, a police officer approached the
woman and told her, "Disappear, or I'll arrest you." And
while officials talk about problems like "aggressive
panhandling," Bewsee says, no one has produced evidence of
any increase in crimes.

Police department spokesperson Jennifer Flagg objects to
accusations that officers have been harassing people; the
SPD, she says, takes seriously the rights of everyone in the
city. At the same time, she says, it also takes seriously
its responsibility to make people feel safe in public
places. "I think that everyone can agree that bad behavior
is not acceptable," she says; homeless people, she adds, are
especially vulnerable to street crime.

Officers have been photographing people, Flagg says, as part
of an "informal census" to get an idea of how many people
are living on city streets; they also hope to identify
people who are chronic troublemakers, "certainly not people
who are law-abiding. Believe me when I tell you, we are not
looking to increase the number of people we're interacting
with."

City Councilor Dom Sarno, who called the recent meeting,
works in the South End, not far from the Warming Place. He
constantly hears complaints about--and personally
witnesses--things like bullying panhandlers and public
drunkenness, he says. He did not set up the meeting "to
antagonize the situation," he says, but to find ways the
city and advocates could work together.

Sarno says he's not scapegoating all homeless people, and
would like to see more services, like a day program and an
outreach van that could help people on the streets. At the
same time, he says, problems associated with homelessness
further degrade the quality of life in Springfield: "I'm
just as compassionate as the next person, but for the
goodness of the city, we can't become a dumping ground."

Bewsee is guardedly optimistic about the city's forthcoming
10-year plan to address homelessness; while she likes its
focus on providing people with permanent housing, she'd like
to see services like day programs, and more privacy in
shelters. Like many cities, she says, Springfield "wants to
control, contain, get rid of homelessness. It's such a big
problem--especially when no one looks at the real roots."

Use our contact form to write to Maureen Turner.

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