Jump to content

Homeless in Heartside


GRDadof3

Recommended Posts

You still haven't answered these questions????

If the homeless care so much about their neighborhood why then do they...

-pee on it?

-throw empty liqour bottles in it?( a group I'm involved with was started to clean Heartside Park for the families that want to use it)

-smash windows of businesses that bother them?(that's when a deal was reached with the police and the mayor)

-shoot up in the neighborhood?(yes I've found many dirty needles)

-lures 'johns' in the neighborhood and have sex with them?(just check the reports)

-harass and threaten their fellow neighbors?

I guess they're excused because they're homeless.

I'm all for a helping hand....it needs to be in place, but...

You can say your're helping to solve the homeless problem, or however you want to justify it, but really you're just enabling.

I know there are a lot of homeless people who are nothing like the people we're complaining about, but some of you need to realize that they're not all what you want them to be...just soft, cuddley, people that need someone to care.

We're not complaining about the hard working families that need a helping hand, they're not the ones keeping development stagnant is this area.

Link to comment
Share on other sites


  • Replies 110
  • Created
  • Last Reply

I was hoping for some more serious thoughts from people but a lot of them were not on the mark. By the way I don't think it is appropriate to post pictures of individual homeless people on the internet without their consent, they are still people.

I wasn't just bemoaning the homeless people, I was actually complaining about the leadership of the missions, churchs, companies, government for not coming up with a real solution. A real solution does not equal just moving or otherwise hiding the homeless. It involves engaging the problem fully on a regional level to provide the positive solutions for the homeless and then making sure those solutions are a right fit for the community. Clearly chruches and the missions have a role in the subject that must be maintained, a government could never in any way fill the uplifting or spiritual role they need. That being said I would like to see each leading member of the community solve the part of the homeless issue that they can solve.

1) Missions retain the area as a role for homeless mentally ill, working families on hard times, teenagers, kids, etc. However as a gateway role only except when it comes to homeless that can be rehabilitated and returned to self sustainability. The missions would primarily refer and evaluate the homeless to the proper care source and be the human face on the communities real effort to address the issue.

2) A Local Authority (like a regional government authorized office) that can provide ALL the mental and health resources the mentally ill homeless need whether it be medical care, hospital, etc.. Lets face it, the State gave up this role and will never have the resources or political will to do this for decades to come.

3) Churches to provide volunteers that spend quality time associating with the homeless to make sure the homeless do not remain cut off from the community and provide possitive roles at the missions and hospitals etc..

In this role the Missions could actually be a positive member of Heartside and encourage development. This way the homeless people that have mental health needs that are the cause of the negative image have the support they need and would not be in the area upon initial evaluation by the Missions. Then the only homeless that remain in the area on would be the women, children, familes, or others that are just in need of short term assistance (several months to a year).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Our community is currently working within a 10-year plan to end homelessness (launched one year ago), put together under the auspices of the county's Housing Continuum of Care (now known as the Coalition to End Homelessness). This was made in a year-long planning process with the input of City and County officials, agency representatives, consumers of services, and other interested individuals in targeted focus groups (I was in the focus group concerned with persons who have physical/mental health issues). Basically, the jist of the plan is to focus resources on prevention of homelessness through greater availability of financial assistance with eviction prevention, more permanent supportive housing resources (subsidized housing with support services such as counseling, mental health/substance abuse treatment, and case management available) and increased units of housing affordable to our most materially poor citizens. The plan emphasizes the mindset of Housing First--where permanent housing is the focus of resources (whether it's eviction prevention or housing subsidies) as opposed to putting people in shelters. However, there will always be a need for shelters, the plan is to drastically reduce shelter utilization.

I've forwarded the link to this thread to some of the Coalition leadership. You can check out the Plan to End Homelessness at www.grahcoc.org. (Go to Vision Process Documents on the sidebar, then click on Vision to End Homelessness, Final Document to read the report in it's entirety). It's pretty fascinating reading...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...

Well...

http://www.mlive.com/news/grpress/index.ss....xml&coll=6

The news didn't sit well with customers gathered around a table in Casey's Restaurant: The longtime Heartside fixture serving residents in the low-income neighborhood is being forced to close at the end of this month due to drug dealing in and around its location.

"What's gonna happen to all these people down here?" asked Phyllis VanDuinen, a regular at Casey's, 327 S. Division Ave. "All these people sitting in here, they come in here to drink coffee and find some peace of mind."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As a paramedic in this city for 6 years now I've become very familier with "these people" and this area. It is one of the greatest drags on the EMS/Fire and Hospital systems in this city. Not even mentioning the fact that we aren't paid for any of the service to this community (which just jacks up the rates that you and I pay for EMS and ER service.)

One of the big reasons, I believe, we have such a problem here compared to other cities is that the police department has washed their hands of the issue. In most cities public drunkeness is a crime. Be drunk in public, pee on a store owner's doorstep and you go to jail. In Grand Rapids, the police chief (pre-Dolan) determined that this is a medical problem. Now when someone hangs out in public, intoxicated, being disruptive, etc and somebody complains, an ambulance is called. This diverts fire and EMS resources from legit emergencies, and ties up ER beds and staff. Because they're intoxicated they're taken right back to a bed while you wait in the waiting room and pay for his service. Meanwhile he sleeps it off (sometimes 6+ hours) in a nice clean, warm bed, with all the food and drink he wants. It's a really good gig! We get called multiple times an HOUR to the same locations in Heartside for people who just want to go to the ER for free food and bed during the times the missions aren't serving.

These people are smart...they do something at the missions to get themselves banned. Now we have no option. The mission won't take them, and the Police won't take them, so the EMS and Hospital systems are the only choice.

Just recently I had a guy pull down his pants and crap all over the entrance to the nice condos on Ionia (Urban House?) What was the Police resonse? "He's intoxicated..we can't take him." So rather than be punished he was rewarded by a free ride to the ER, free food, free warm bed, free clothes to wear home, and a free medical check up.

This certainly does nothing but encourage the problem.

There really is two types of "homeless" in the area. Some of these guys are great. One was mentioned previously in this thread. These individuals don't cause any trouble, don't abuse our services and are great company if you have time to kill.

The rest though are absolute scumbags. They can be the most demanding, and the most rude people you'll ever meet. They absolutely demand the system bend over backwards to serve their every wish and need. Myself and my partner have been assaulted more times than I can count by these people.

After working in this area for awhile I can tell you the people that cause the problems are not those who are just down and out and need a little short term help to get back on their feet and be productive members of society. There are those types of people but the ones that cause the problems have no intentions of getting out of there. This is their life. They bounce from low income apartment, to low income apartment, to Mel Trotter, to Guiding light, to the hospital and back. They get three meals a day, a warm bed, free medical care, and frankly, enjoy the life.

So yes, these individuals will continue to hinder business in the area.

The solution? It seems to me that criminalizing public drunkeness would help somewhat. Most people don't enjoy dealing w/ Law Enforcement, courts, and jails. It might help to at least push the problem away from the doorsteps and public areas. I don't know. The City of Grand Rapids is unique though in refusing to handle these disruptive people.

Regarding our "compassion" in Grand Rapids...people come to GR from all over the country, seriously, because they know about the abundance of resources in GR. I can't tell you how many people I've treated that are from out of the area. They saved up bus money to come to GR for the resources we have here. They come from other states to drain your resources.

Be careful in your criticism of the suburban churches. Their Sunday morning meeting location may be in the suburbs but that doesn't mean the other 6 days of the week they don't have significant outreach into the inner city. ResLife, for example, runs "Streetlight" in Heartside and a huge ministry into the inner city spanish speaking communities of GR and Holland. On weeknights in the summer you see people, who may worship in a beautiful suburban sancuatry on Sunday, out in Heartside cooking dinner on the sidewalk and working one - on - one with this population. A latte on Sunday may be followed by a Coke in Heartside on Tuesday. :alc:

Also...take the Mental Illness stats for a grain of salt. Most of this is a diagnoses of depression/anxiety or other relatively minor condition. You'll probably find higher stats amongst suburban housewives! These aren't all helpless "Mental cases" that should be, or even could meet the criteria to be, in a Mental Hospital.

Just my .02 from working the streets of GR. :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This way out of my bailiwick of expertise, but here's an article you might find interesting:

Homeless program cut emergency-care costs Article Last Updated: 12/10/2006 12:32:06 AM MST

A new study of a housing program for Denver's homeless shows that the initiative lowered costs for emergency services paid by the public. The study is the first evaluation of "Housing First," a program that is part of Mayor John Hickenlooper's 10-year plan to end homelessness.

Participants in the housing program were evaluated two years before and two years after entering the program. The study found "significant reductions" in costs for emergency-room care, inpatient hospitalization, detox, jail and emergency shelter.

The details of the report will be released Monday by the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless.

A 2005 Point in Time survey taken by the Denver Homeless Initiative found that 10,268 people were homeless in the city.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 8 months later...

Not to bring this thread back more than it already has but...

I live right across the road from Heartside Park in The Globe Apartments, from where I sit right now I look out of my window over into Heartside Park and what do I see at 10:57 PM? Homeless. It's much harder for many of you to comprehend how large of a situation it truely is until you spend extensive periods of time (especially nights) right down in the "Heart" of it. While it may not seem bad during the day at all come night they flock to the park, summer has to be the worst, during the hot summer nights I can't leave my window open due partially to the loud noise coming out of the park all night and the smell that will find its way over.

The situation is no different than it was one or even two years ago, it's the same number of people in this general area now as there was then. Quite frankly that bothers me, I love this area and what is being done with this area and it's not just Heartside that is seeing the worst of it, once you get off of the lighted streets of Ionia it doesn't get any prettier, there is constantly cars getting broken into, and varous other things that go on nightly. There is atleast two nights a week where later in the evening I walk up to the Shell station at Division & Wealthy with my roomate and it's not a pleasant site. You can't walk even five feet without seeing a homeless person sleeping somewhere or just sitting. They sneak into the Loose Leaf Loft at night and spend time in there, despite the constant police presence in this area the problem is only getting worse before it gets better.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It seems to me a lot of people are raising the point that the concentration of homeless people is what is causing trouble in Heartside. A couple of weeks ago I had dinner with some residents of Heartside (including some homeless) and when we were discussing possible solutions to the problems at hand, many of us agreed that it would be beneficial to spread the shelters and missions out around downtown. Completely phasing them out or moving them out of downtown didn't seem like a proper solution, and most of us agreed that placing the shelters and missions in different areas could help them "blend" in with other developments, reduce the number of confrontations between individuals, and would allow churches and other organizations in the vicinity get involved more easily.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It seems to me a lot of people are raising the point that the concentration of homeless people is what is causing trouble in Heartside. A couple of weeks ago I had dinner with some residents of Heartside (including some homeless) and when we were discussing possible solutions to the problems at hand, many of us agreed that it would be beneficial to spread the shelters and missions out around downtown. Completely phasing them out or moving them out of downtown didn't seem like a proper solution, and most of us agreed that placing the shelters and missions in different areas could help them "blend" in with other developments, reduce the number of confrontations between individuals, and would allow churches and other organizations in the vicinity get involved more easily.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.