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Homeless Plan in Columbia

krazeeboi

By krazeeboi
in Columbia

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Istvan Unincorporated Area

Istvan

Posted
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When is the last time you heard of a mugging in Columbia perpetrated by a homeless person? They're homeless, not criminals.

i haven't. maybe if you two would reread my post, where i say "hopefully," that'll continue, but i'm just saying that it's an area with potential targets (imbibed people walking home, IE, me.) i'll be sure to stick to more well lit areas with it going in...then again, i usually try to...at least when i'm not in my own neighborhood. i've stumbled around drunk in plenty of dodgy areas in bigger cities before, i didn't expect to have to be more alert in downtown Columbia.

but that's just me. hopefully all of my apprehension about putting a homeless center in my neighborhood (Vista/Downtown being a greater neighborhood) will just be overcautionary paranoia.

yes they're homeless, not criminals...but are you sure of that for all of them? how many want a few dollars so they can go get a rock of crack during the day and then come back to the Vista to sleep at night? who's going to do background checks? will more police patrol the area? will it have any effect?

there's a lot of people with money to pump into the Vista...including suburbanites, or your average person, who will be put off (or even more put off) by having more homeless people around. so they'll go to Five Points, Harbison, Devine St, or the Northeast instead...less money for Vista businesses, maybe some will close.

i want to see the Vista continue to boom...i see fewer people coming to the Vista if there's a homeless shelter in it, and that's bad in the long run.

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Istvan Unincorporated Area

Istvan

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^Remember, it's only for the winter.

The city should went with the Williams Building on the grounds of the Bull Street campus, if you ask me.

yeah, but it will still probably suck for those of us in or near the Vista, especially the businesses.

Bull Street campus sounds better, but again, lots of residential there...

anyway, i saw several homeless yesterday; none asked me for money, a few said hello, one guy jokingly posed for my camera.

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Captain Worley Burg

Captain Worley

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^That's ridiculous and it doesn't tackle the problem at hand. We need to help these people get back on their feet and become contributing members of society.

BTW, the trolleys are no longer in service.

That's why the trolleys would be available!

I really don't think you can help people that don't really want to change. It may not tackle the problem the way you'd like, but it would get them out of the area. It was done that way years ago and was quite effective.

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digihoop Unincorporated Area

digihoop

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That's why the trolleys would be available!

I really don't think you can help people that don't really want to change. It may not tackle the problem the way you'd like, but it would get them out of the area. It was done that way years ago and was quite effective.

Im not sure if you're serious or not but I doubt this would "work" long term. What happens when all cities start doing this? Another "push them onto someone else" idea is to move these folks into a nearby city. Perhaps the city could fund (entirely) a really nice facility in Lexington, or someplace outside of the city, to attract people. Probably another effective way at making Columbia's neighbors angry with us.

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Captain Worley Burg

Captain Worley

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Perfectly serious. Vagrancy wasn't tolerated in the past, and shouldn't be now. Columbia has become far too friendly an environment and should revert to the old ways of rousting them.

Seriously, back in the 70s the only place you saw them was right around the bus station because that's where the cops took them and told them they'd better be on the next one leaving.

Our society is becoming far too tolerant of poor behavior.

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TheSuperPope Whistle-Stop

TheSuperPope

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Usually I am an extremely liberal person... but seriously, I actually agree with captain here. Columbia is being waaaay too friendly to the homeless people. I stopped and actually talked to a homeless person yesterday in Finlay (I was actually interviewing him for my thesis at USC), and I was honestly surprised. He told me that he was an alcoholic, and had been for 15 years now, had only had 1 job in his entire life and was fired for drinking on the job, and had NO desire to get a new job. He actually stated that the city treated him too nicely and that homeless people get a pretty nice ride here with a place to sleep at night and food during the day, all while these classes to help them get on their feet hardly meet and rarely do any help.

And now that that rant is over... later on last night I was driving to the Cooper library and saw the same guy in the back seat of a cop car at the Gervais and Assembly. I had a little chuckle.

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waccamatt Town

waccamatt

Posted
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So the answer is to make life difficult for them?

I vehemently disagree with this tactic; I don't think you necessarily treat the homeless like kings and queens and take care of their every need, but to ship them out or stop helping them is not the answer in a civilized society. I believe you have to have a several-tiered approach; it's ok to have laws against loitering/vagrancy, but you must first identify their problems - alcoholism, for example, and treat them in a public facility. If they refuse to attempt to beat their problems and they continue to loiter and become vagrants then they go to jail if they don't attempt to become useful members of society. You bend over backwards to try to help them, however, and jail is only an option if they don't follow the law.

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Captain Worley Burg

Captain Worley

Posted
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"You bend over backwards to try to help them, however, and jail is only an option if they don't follow the law."

I think that's where we have a philosophical difference of sorts. I am a firm believer in helping yourself; I don't want the government, you, or anyone else helping me. Likewise, I don't want to see my tax dollars thrown away on people who do not want the help, or sure appear to feel that way.

Furthermore, they are NOT following the law. So you're saying they should go to jail, I say ship them out of here. I think my way is a better use of my tax dollars.

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waccamatt Town

waccamatt

Posted
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"You bend over backwards to try to help them, however, and jail is only an option if they don't follow the law."

I think that's where we have a philosophical difference of sorts. I am a firm believer in helping yourself; I don't want the government, you, or anyone else helping me. Likewise, I don't want to see my tax dollars thrown away on people who do not want the help, or sure appear to feel that way.

Furthermore, they are NOT following the law. So you're saying they should go to jail, I say ship them out of here. I think my way is a better use of my tax dollars.

By pawning them off on someone else?

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Spartan Gigalopolis

Spartan

Posted
Posted

I've heard that Atlanta and Charlotte have employed these tactics in the past (e.g., '96 Olympics).

Yeah its well known that Atlanta moved them out of the City during the Olympics. But they didnt ship them off, they made 'temporary' shelters for them outside of the city... at least that is my understanding of it.

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CorgiMatt Town

CorgiMatt

Posted
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Good op-ed piece about the city's "Lone Ranger" attitude towards rectifying the homeless situation. I certainly hope regional cooperation, initiated by the city, is in the cards (as it should already be).

City Council (Anne Sinlair) and the mayor have said they definitely want the other players at the table in the long run, but they had to act quickly to get people in out of the cold now, not two months from now. They couldn't wait for agreements on all the details, which would entail several meetings. The other players were quoted in the paper as saying they won't hold a grudge and will work with the city for a long-term solution. The State seems to have forgotten their own journalist's article about the situation. This is the first time, actually, that the city has taken the lead instead of relying on the cooperative ministry. All I ever heard was that the city didn't do enough for the homeless; now the paper is going to criticize them for stepping forward and taking the bull by the horns? Damned if you do and damned if you don't.

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krazeeboi Gigalopolis

krazeeboi

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I think one problem though is that the city hijacked the process that it recommended for dealing with the issue (establishing the Midlands Commission on Homelessness). Furthermore, why did all involved parties wait so late to act? If this was dealt with in a timely manner, there wouldn't have been a need for emergency shelters.

There's nothing wrong with the city taking the lead in certain respects, but when there's already an entity in place that has an expertise in a certain area, I think it's best to leave it to them--which is why the city had to peg someone from the cooperative ministry. That's one thing about Columbia's leadership I don't like: they want to put their hands on everything (i.e., CanalSide, city-owned convention center hotel, homeless shelters), even when it's obviously not the best thing to do.

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BrasilnSC Hamlet

BrasilnSC

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Here is a forwarded e-mail I received from the Congaree Vista Guild:

Last night we met with many representatives of the city to discuss the temporary homeless shelter at Senate and Park Streets. Here is what we learned.

There are two populations, those we already see on the streets, and the men who will be housed in the shelter. It

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  • 2 weeks later...
capitol places Crossroads

capitol places

Posted
Posted

Lets do the math on the new shelters. The State reports that the city has spent over $300,000 for the homeless shelter. I do not believe this even includes the OT for the police force to patrol the two locations. That probably adds over six figures more (lets use a VERY conservative $100,000 for discussion). Now I believe they can house 175 homeless people for 3 months. This is just housing and does not include food or other services. That is over $750 a month to house each homeless person. Absolutely of crazy.

The city needs to stop catering to the homeless and address the issues. I believe the homeless network know they have it easy in Columbia and it continues to grow. I have also heard rumors that the other cities and counties drop off their homeless people in Columbia.

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