“Elizabeth Link, the city’s urban designer, created the landscape design for the park. Downtown Greensboro Inc. set in motion the plan to upgrade the park. Link and Ed Wolverton, president of Downtown Greensboro, were on hand for the plan’s unveiling.

Wolverton created a small task force from nearby businesses to get ideas for the design and said Wednesday that there was considerable debate over whether to include benches in the park.

They decided against it, partly because of the added cost, and because the benches would have to be stabilized in the ground, which might interfere with fiber optic cables running beneath the land.

But another reason was over concerns that homeless people would take over the benches and the park itself, making it undesirable for pedestrians. That’s a constant problem throughout downtown.”

Maybe that shouldn’t have surprised me, but it did. I thought Greensboro was a town known for not discriminating against people. But I guess it’s still OK to discriminate against homeless people. Here’s the thing, though. A public park is public. That means that anyone can use it. DGI is worried about pedestrians. Most homeless people are pedestrians. Homeless people have a right to sit on benches, just like anyone else.

DGI is either going to have to accept that there will always be homeless people downtown, or they need to find a way to move services elsewhere. The homeless shelters, soup kitchen, day center, mental health center, health clinic, free meal sites, library, bus depot and more are all downtown. Unless shelter and services for homeless people are moved elsewhere, there will always be homeless people downtown. And they are and will continue to be members of the public, and entitled to use any public facilities. And they shouldn’t be discriminated against. For shame, DGI.

Update: Discussion at Ed Cone’s blog.

Linda, Kenneth, Sharon, Victoria, Boyd, Wayne, Johnny, Vernon and "unknown"

December 21st is National Homeless Persons’ Memorial Day. Locally, AmeriCorps Partnership to End Homelessness sponsored the Greensboro Homeless Memorial Walk from the Interactive Resource Center on East Washington Street to Grace Community Church on West Lee Street, where a Memorial Service was held at 6:15pm.

On the stage were a row of empty chairs with the names of those who died homeless in Greensboro in 2011 — Linda, Kenneth, Sharon, Victoria, Boyd, Wayne, Johnny, Vernon — along with a chair marked “unknown”, representing others we may not have known about. The empty chairs represent the dinner guests who are no longer with us there at the Wednesday night meal, but who we remember and honor at this yearly service.

Mayor Perkins, accompanied by Councilwoman Abuzuaiter, reads the proclamation.

Mayor Robbie Perkins, accompanied on the podium at Grace by City Council Member Marikay Abuzuaiter, read a proclamation declaring the day Homeless Persons’ Memorial Day in Greensboro. Both Mayor Perkins and Mrs. Abuzuaiter participated in the earlier Memorial Walk, as well. The service included music; the story, in poetry, of formerly-homeless outreach worker Melissa Gayle; and a message by Grace’s Shepherding Pastor Will Dungee. Following the memorial service, Grace’s weekly Community Fellowship Dinner was served to 200+ homeless and hungry guests.

image credit: Matt from London on Flickr

Each year since 1990, on December 21st, which is on or near the first day of winter and the longest night of the year, the National Coalition for the Homeless (NCH) has sponsored National Homeless Persons’ Memorial Day. This is a time to remember our homeless friends who have died while experiencing homelessness and an opportunity to bring attention to the ongoing reality and tragedy of homelessness in our nation.

Communities across the nation hold events to commemorate National Homeless Persons’ Memorial Day. Here are some events in Greensboro on Wednesday, December 21st that you can be involved in:

NHPMD 2009

Flying Signs:

Update: Sign flying is canceled.   This takes a lot of planning, and the forecast still says rain, so we’ve decided to go ahead and call this one off and focus on the later activities instead. Weather permitting*, members of the StreetWatch homeless outreach team and friends will hold informational signs at major intersections in Greensboro during the morning and afternoon on December 21. If you’d like to join us, please contact me here.

Memorial Walk

• Begins at 4:45pm at the Interactive Resource Center at 407 E. Washington St. and continues on to S. Elm St. and then to W. Lee St.
• Ends at Grace Community Church at 643 W. Lee St.

View Route for Homeless Memorial Walk in a larger map

Memorial Service

The memorial service will be held at Grace Community Church, 643 W. Lee St., at 6:15pm. Grace’s weekly Wednesday Community Fellowship Dinner for the homeless and hungry will follow the service.

On the menu: turkey, mashed potatoes, dressing, green beans, cranberry sauce and a dinner roll.

Shuttles will provide transportation for dinner guests. Shuttles will run every 15 minutes, picking up from the Interactive Resource Center, Greensboro Urban Ministry and Center City Park, beginning at 10:45am and ending at 2:45pm. The last shuttle will return guests to those locations at 3:15pm.

Anna Freiberg, co-owner of Bender’s Tavern, is continuing a tradition started by her parents in 1981. They owned the original Ham’s on Friendly Avenue, now closed, which previously served the annual Christmas meal.

Frieberg has plenty of volunteers lined up for the Christmas meal, but if you’d like to help, here are some other ways to be involved:

• Make a financial donation through the Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro. (Write a check or give securely online.)
• Donate an item to be given to a dinner guest on Christmas Day. Items needed: new, unused toiletries; new or gently used hats, gloves, scarves and toys. Please bring your donation to Bender’s Tavern.

“[Rashad Young] said he would also find a campus setting for the homeless facilities. Young said it didn’t make any sense to have the night shelter and other facilities a couple of miles from the day shelter. He said that having the homeless shelter right along one of the main entrances to the city was also not ideal. Young said that he created a campus for services in Dayton and, although it was controversial, it worked.”

via Rashad Young Plays Dictator For A Day

View Some of the places homeless people go in Greensboro, NC in a larger map

The problem that I see with the “homeless campus” idea is that many of the places that homeless people go frequently are government agencies or facilities, which are currently quite spread out (check out DSS, SSA and DMV on the map, for example) and which aren’t likely to move closer to one another in order to benefit homeless people. Free meals sites are mostly at churches, which also aren’t likely to move. And the IRC (homeless day center) is located in a donated facility.

I understand the concern about having the city’s primary homeless services provider located at a major intersection on a major artery leading into downtown Greensboro. “The block” at Lee and Eugene, as it’s known on the street, is infamous for the motley collection of day laborers, drinkers and colorful characters who hang out there daily. The city regularly launches initiatives to sweep them away, but within no time, they’re back. The night shelter’s rules forbid residents to hang out on the block, but the noon meal at the soup kitchen, open to everyone, seems to be quite a draw.

Perhaps if the time comes that the parcel of land there at Lee and Eugene becomes valuable enough to the City or to developers, an arrangement can be made to buy or to swap land so that the Greensboro Urban Ministry campus, and perhaps the IRC day center, and maybe other homeless service providers, can be moved to a location that would allow for more services in one place, and for a larger shelter (much needed!). I’ve heard rumors through the years that this was actually a plan, but if so, it hasn’t yet come to fruition.

But there’s the unspoken: mental illness, alcoholism, addiction, trauma, family dysfunction. Obtaining or maintaining a job or housing is difficult (and out of reach for some). A number of folks I’ve seen just this week are newly released from jail or prison. Their chances for jobs and housing seem to rise and fall with the economy.

I think of the words a homeless friend once said to me, “If we could get a job, we’d have one.” And another, referencing Greensboro’s wealth of free meal sites and dearth of affordable housing, “We appreciate the food. But you can’t cover up with a chicken wing.” True word.

>> Related post: “Urgent needs for our ministry to unsheltered homeless people: Please help!”

A ribbon cutting ceremony was held on Wednesday to open “The Journey House”. The “Journey House” is a place for young women to transition from foster care into the world. The facility will provide life-skills programs that will help the women to be successful in their lives.The non-profit agency, I Am Now, Inc, received the donated home from a Greensboro resident who wants to remain anonymous. The home is located on Rocky Knoll Circle in Greensboro. ‘I Am Now’ is an organization devoted to helping homeless youth in the Triad.

via Greensboro Homeowner Donates House To Non-Profit at digtriad.com

If you’re receiving government assistance of any kind:

1. Be grateful!
2. Spend it on what it’s intended for.

It’s a blessing to be offered help when you need it (how well I know this — and I’m thankful), but the blessing turns to bitterness if you misuse it.

Via Guarino.

Previously: here and here.

There is an age-old debate over alcoholism: is the problem in the sufferer’s head — something that can be overcome through willpower, spirituality or talk therapy, perhaps — or is it a physical disease, one that needs continuing medical treatment in much the same way as, say, diabetes or epilepsy?

Increasingly, the medical establishment is putting its weight behind the physical diagnosis. In the latest evidence, 10 medical institutions have just introduced the first accredited residency programs in addiction medicine, where doctors who have completed medical school and a primary residency will be able to spend a year studying the relationship between addiction and brain chemistry.

“This is a first step toward bringing recognition, respectability and rigor to addiction medicine,” said David Withers, who oversees the new residency program at the Marworth Alcohol and Chemical Dependency Treatment Center in Waverly, Pa.

>> Read all of Rethinking Addiction’s Roots, and Its Treatment via New York Times.

Biscuit

Lucy

My beloved dog, Bettie May, has helped me get through surgeries, medical procedures, depression, anxiety and lots of hard times! I can’t imagine not having her with me. Same with homeless people. They love and need their pets, just like the rest of us.

Biscuit and Lucy are sweet and much-loved dogs who live with their respective owners in homeless camps in Greensboro. Both dogs need to be spayed, have vet visits and get flea and heartworm medication. Homeless people need the love and support of their dogs, but they’re not usually in a position to pay vet bills. If you’d like to help Biscuit and Lucy, or you know someone who can, please contact me via the comments below or at info@chosenfast.com.

Thank you!