RSS
Home
Not in my back yard
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
Jim Martin
Resources for homeless individuals and families are often hampered by not only a lack of government funding, but also by society’s distaste for having anything like a shelter in their neighborhood. The old saying, “Not in my backyard” most often applies here. For this reason, most shelters are in a less favorable part of town. A concerted effort is made to “hide” the problem from the part of the population who still has a home.
Today’s homeless are not all “skid row bums”. Those kind of homeless still do exist, and one can fully understand why society would want that hidden from view, tucked away in the shadows of the town or city. And perhaps shelters still need to be maintained which house those kinds of people.
But in 2009 there is a drastic increase in homelessness of individuals who are good and upstanding people who have simply been adversely affected by today’s economy. For this reason, and for those individuals, shelters need to be located in a better area of town. They need to be built in areas that are easily accessible to transportation, medical services, jobs, employment agencies, county offices, the unemployment office, churches and schools. Being sheltered in an area where one is afraid for their safety while walking the streets is not a good thing. If anything can discourage someone from looking for work or another place to live, its having to walk to some place, wondering if they will be mugged or worse, during the walk.
Putting shelters in more affluent areas of town is not putting the homeless situation “in your face” but it is not hiding it in the mysterious shadows of society either. Perhaps by bringing it more to light, and having the general public deal with it, it may not only bring about change in how the problem is handled, but if nothing else, when the need for the shelter has passed, the building becomes usable for other purposes.
If shelters were located in good neighborhoods, you can bet the farm that more people would get involved in helping homeless people get back on their feet. The community involvement would swell so that they can say they did something better than take the “not in my backyard” approach, but instead alleviated the need for a shelter being in their backyard.
The homeless problem is a government created debacle. It is kind of like FEMA’s slow response to Katrina and the good citizens of New Orleans. Now it is up to Obama to reverse the tide, and get the States and Feds involved in taking care of the homeless. However, that seems like a low priority for the administration, so it becomes a civic and neighborhood responsibility to help out.
The failed economy though, has also hit agencies like The United Way and The Salvation Army. Their donations are down, so the help they can offer is down by a like percentage. When even agencies like that have to cut their funding, we’re not just in a recession, we’re in a depression the likes of which this country has not seen since 1929.
Click here to return to the list
Related Articles:
Add a Comment
