Should more be done to help Eastern Iowa’s homeless?
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Drugs, alcohol and mental illness are leading factors in what makes Iowa City’s homeless issue so visible to the public, said Ryan Turner, a former homeless resident still living in Iowa City.
The city’s only homeless shelter, Shelter House, does not allow people who have been abusing substances to stay at the facility, which is one reason why many people choose to live on the streets.
“There are those who have drug and alcohol issues that don’t really want to go to Shelter House,” said Tom Markus, city manager.
The 70-bed Shelter House, 429 Southgate Ave., typically runs at capacity. Guests often are turned away or placed on a waiting list because the facility cannot handle the demand, executive director Crissy Canganelli said.
Johnson County ranks fifth out of Iowa’s six largest counties in the percentage of residents that are homeless, according to a recent study provided by the city.
Transients can be found setting up camp all throughout the city on some of the seasons coldest nights. In late January, a KCRG/Gazette investigation found people spending the night at the downtown post office, on a bench on the ped mall and inside a local gas station. There also was evidence of a homeless camp underneath the Summit Street bridge, about a mile from downtown.
Do you think more should be done to help Eastern Iowa’s homeless residents?
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The answer is simple. Find out where there family is and fly them back there. it worked for NY, it can work here.
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=8206940&page=1
Can’t believe I’m citing something that Bloomberg maintained that I agree with.
Many, probably most, of the poor and homeless in Cedar Rapids are long time residents whose family has also been here in Cedar Rapids for several generations. Where are you going to fly them?
Prove it. Otherwise, you’re just throwing up meaningless cliches like RXXXXXX, with no facts to back it up.
Cliches ? Where are the cliches ( look up the definition ) ? Did you mean “claims” ?
I say it because I have spent time helping at a mission that serves the poor. I’ve seen it for myself. Why don’t you spend some time helping the poor? Why don’t you prove your implied claim that most of the poor come from elsewhere?
So, you don’t actually have anything to base this on, other than the small bubble you spend a few hours a month volunteering for at some time in your life? I serve lunch at the salvation army, so I see the folks that live in my neighborhood when they come in for food.
Fly them to a warmer climate.
There are programs for people that need help overcoming drinking, drugs and mental illness. Not to mention shelters, food programs, and churches.
In a related article, I.C. police are pictured trying to help a homeless man and he refuses. So if that is the case, it most certainly is their choice to remain homeless.
Lastly, GET A JOB!
There you have it, it’s just that simple – just get a job ! No matter that jobs are in short supply, no matter that some people because of “psychological” problems or personality defects are unemployable, if only they would just “get a job” they wouldn’t be homeless (do you think most homeless are in that predicament by choice?) except by choice (in the idealistic World).
What is it with this idea to fly them somewhere else? It’s come up twice now. Interestingly, the suggestions come from people who claim to support “freedom and liberty”. What freedom and liberty would poor people receive if they re forced, against their will, to relocate to another state? Is freedom and liberty only for wealthy people? Didn’t I read somewhere about all people being created equally?
Rich, Why does everything have to be so literal with you? No one really means to dump the homeless elsewhere, but if they did, wouldn’t you prefer the beaches of the south to the winters of the north? Have a nice day.
PUHLEASE, the same party that strove to make people dependent on the gov’t is now whining about flying people somewhere? Take a look at the article. The plane ticket costs a lot less than paying for their support here in IA.
Sue,
You said “Fly them to a warmer climate.” How are we supposed to take that statement? It says what it says what it says.
Do you really think dumping people from Iowa in Texas or Florida or Alabama or California is going to help anybody. Do you think the people of those warmer states would appreciate having a bunch of shiftless Iowans dumped on them?
Besides, I don’t think it’s legal. Has something to do with the unconstitutionality of the old vagrancy laws.
And those programs you listed. They’re underfunded, understaffed, long waiting lists.
Got any other suggestions?
If the homeless are a burden to Cedar Rapids the answer is to move them someplace else — that’s solving the problem ? What specific places in the US have a shortage of homeless people and have expressed “please send me your homeless” ?
I clicked on Abernathy’s link. Turns out the Crisis Center in Iowa City oversees a similar program. NYC paid for plane tickets home. Iowa City will provide a Greyhound bus ticket or money toward car repairs for people stranded here.
Abernathy mis-characterised NYC’s ticket home efforts. If homeless people are stranded in New York, if they have a place to go and want to go there, the City will provide them the means to go.
“A society is judged by how it treats is weakest members”. It’s hard to attribute this quote to any one person since many people, from Ghandi to Churchhill to Truman to Pope John Paul II, have said variations of this.
Regardless of who you attribute this quote to, Cedar Rapids should be judged harshly. I’ve been involved in some work for a mission that cares for the poor in our city. It’s shameful how little support we, as a people, are providing.
The claims about alcohol and drugs are overstated. There are many drug and alcohol free people who are suffering in poverty and homelessness due to no fault of their own.
” It’s shameful how little support we, as a people, are providing.”
Lead the way brother! I look forward to reading about you in the Gazette for letting a homeless family live with you until they get back on their feet. Other than that you can chastise and boo hoo all you want, it doesn’t mean a thing, since you’re just talking smack.
Again…right down party lines….but what is also odd that right down party lines these bleeding heart libs care more about animals than they do mankind…collecting money for animal shelters,,,,lobbing congress for more habitat,rules,regulation….if half that effort was placed on the homeless we might see some change…but of coarse lets not forget that libs hate to spend their own money …..it’s the thought that counts….
“libs hate to spend their own money …..it’s the thought that counts….”
Now, that’s funny, because it’s true.
To quote Margaret Thatcher; “They [socialists] always run out of other people’s money. It’s quite a characteristic of them.”
Where do you get the idea that i, or anyone else cares more about animals than people? Yes, I care about animals, but I care much more about people. Virtually everyone I know cares more about people than animals, but they also care about animals.
You and people like you are something else. You have no compassion and you feel no concern about people less fortunate than you. Then, you probably go to church and feel good about yourself for doing God’s work. I suggest you read what Christ had to say about caring for the poor.
(fill text) Well said. (fill text)
Greer,
I’ve been told that the way a person treats animals is a good indication of how that person will treat people. Online we have no way of knowing how any given individual actually behaves offline, but I would wager that what they say is a good place to start.
I don’t know why donating time and money to the local animal shelter would make one a hypocrite, socialist, someone of whom Maggie Thatcher (as if any sane person would care what that batty old woman–is she still alive?–would have to say about what goes on in Iowa–assuming she would even know where it is) would not approve. Nor am I able to figure out why supporting an animal shelter means that an individual does not support a people shelter.
Makes no sense.
As for spending other people’s money, I know the history of the local charities that support the homeless in Iowa City. They all start out in the early 70s as projects of the Iowa City Consultation of Religious Communities. Shelter House, the Crisis Center, the Food Bank, Free Lunch, Free Clinic, Salvation Army are private non-profits supported by volunteers, private donations, and government grants—for which they have to appy. None of them are funded by any permanent tax payer supported budget line.
That is the safety net for Johnson County’s homeless and near homeless. The alternative is the County Jail which is 100% taxpayer funded. Is this the taxpayer saving money the proponents of “fly them elsewhere and dump them” are proposing?