Mr. HUFF: You know, that’s a big fallacy that these guys don’t want to work. The largest percentage of the guys out here will work in a hot second if you’ve got a job for them. We just did a convention a week ago. I took 14 “homies” to the Sands Hotel and the people who hired them were coming up to me going, “My God Cody, these guys work harder than anybody we’ve seen out here.”
SEVERSON: Meanwhile, the city says it plans to introduce a new feeding ordinance the courts will uphold.
Ms. ROWLAND: Las Vegas is a complex city. We are completely dependent on tourism, and we are dependent on an image that we sell to the tourists who come here. And clearly when your economy is based on the functioning of gambling of casinos and of the tourist industry, a visible face of poverty is not something that’s good for business.
Mayor GOODMAN: We’re in a balancing act here. This isn’t just a one way street to take care of the homeless. The homeless are part of the community. But, I’ve got residents who live in our community whose quality of life has been destroyed in part.
SEVERSON: It’s a balancing act between the needs of the homeless, the conscience of those who want to feed them, and the wishes of others who just don’t want them around.
Of course they will work, earning enough to spend the evening with a 40 oz. or a crack pipe, maybe in a motel room, maybe under a bridge, maybe in a public shelter. It’s a lifestyle, by and large spent getting what work one can, eating out of soup kitchens, dumpsters, or shelters where you sleep, and so on. It’s about doing what you want, when you want, how you want. The AA folks say that addiction is “self-will run rampant”, and that’s a pretty good explanation for the 85% correlation of homelessness with alcoholism and/or drug addiction (both treatable diseases, remember).
Many years ago, I was working at a large shelter during a three day winter storm. Some guys built them a fire and tent behind a concrete wall nearby, refusing to come inside since they would have to follow rules and take their turns on things. We took them coffee and checked on them, and they were ok, but the fact is that these are stubborn, self-willed people and if that’s who they want to be, that’s fine,I guess. But they don’t have the right to degrade the neighborhood (or the Las Vegas strip) or parks or other public places by panhandling, urinating in public, sleep on benches, and so on. That costs working people their jobs and the rest of us decent public places.
This is, in one way, complex, and in another way, very simple. Many years ago, homeless addicts were institutionalized, either in state facilities or private places (in my town, it was “the Goat Farm”, don’t ask my why). Of course, these places were over-crowded, dirty, and ripe for the sort of pity journalism and misery literature we Americans revel in. So we dismantled all of that – I worked for the mental health system through part of that process. There is much to be said in favor or having done so, but we ought to be admitting to ourselves that much does not go in it’s favor and take an honest look at these folks, without the tawdry sentimentalism expressed by the ACLU in this article.
But the modern laws are almost always laws made to affect the governed class, but not the governing. We have public-house licensing laws, but not sumptuary laws. That is to say, we have laws against the festivity and hospitality of the poor, but no laws against the festivity and hospitality of the rich.
-G. K. Chesterton, Heretics
Kendall, thanks for posting this! As I write Richard(age 76) is in Cripple Creek, walking the streets, knocking on doors, handing out Easter cards with an invitation to attend church at St. Andrew’s. Cripple Creek is one of the two towns in Colorado that has legalized gamgling. It’s newest casino(the big one, with the helicopter port on the roof for shuttling gamblers between Las Vagas and cripple Creek) is now hiring. The casinos pay about $8.00 an hour, but never allow anyone to work a full 40 hours or to keep their job long enough to receive any kind of benefits. They allow gambling on credit cards so we have about 150 families in this county who have lost everything to the casinos. This combination of circumstances means that the people who most need help can’t even qualify for a Habitat for Humanity house.
Comodities are handed out on Fridays at the Aspen Mine Center (a defunct casino) and the lines are long. Poverty there is abundant, but invisible unless you walk the back streets and alleys as Richard has been doing for the past week. By 1:30 p.m. today he will have knocked on the door of every residence in Cripple Creek, next week he will do the same in the neighboring town of Victor.
These towns are at an elevation of 9500 – 10,500 ft. and the winter has been severe, and , yes, there are homeless people living however and wherever they can…just not on the same scale as in Las Vegas. I have no answer to the big problem, except to help one by one the people God puts in my path.
Words Matter writes: [blockquote]Many years ago, homeless addicts were institutionalized, either in state facilities or private places (in my town, it was “the Goat Farmâ€, don’t ask my why). Of course, these places were over-crowded, dirty, and ripe for the sort of pity journalism and misery literature we Americans revel in. So we dismantled all of that -…[/blockquote]…and what? Simply chose to ignore them in hopes that they would either die in their addictions or go away? Tawdry sentimentalism aside, consider this: we are all of us addicts, if only to our own “sin-of-choice”; some of us are blessed with the resources to hide our addictions. Others, not so much. Consider also, please, that not all homeless are addicts. And consider as well what it is God calls each of us to do for “the least of these”.
Perhaps next time, West Coast Cleric, you will read the entire comment before you add your two cents. We dismantled the state hospitals and “goat farms” in favor of community services, which were largely underfunded. I ran a program for mentally ill homeless folks for awhile and retain an interest in those folks. Sadly, that program was itself dismantled, as were other services to homeless folks with mental illness. I’ve known more than a few in a personal way through a friend who hires them for labor. So perhaps I know a bit more than a preacher. Probably arrogant of me to think such a thing, but there it is. At any rate, the best of services will not change the fact that people make choices and some people will chose to live in shelters, under bridges, or wherever, rather than accept responsibility and structure.
As a recovering alcoholic, I am quite well aware of sins-of-choice. You are correct – only 85% of them are addicted. But you really need to make up your mind: if we are all addicts, then obviously your claim that not all homeless are addicts is false.