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A News & Record article about homeless camps in the path of the Downtown Greenway elicited the usual negative comments about homeless people. One of those who responded with truth (and grace) was a friend of mine, who’s been homeless in the past. The only experts on homelessness are people who’ve been homeless. His comment was worth blogging:

Read more on Expert: Homelessness not a choice; your response is…

image credit: News-Record.com/Nelson Kepley

In the city’s path
Saturday, March 6, 2010
By Lorraine Ahearn

GREENSBORO – Two paths converged in a not-so-distant wood this week: the $26 million Downtown Greenway, and a longtime homeless “tent city” in its way.

Read more on “In the city’s path” — Homeless move for Greenway…

FOX8’s Roxanna Haynes came along with me and Derek Dunham on StreetWatch.

I wrote about the guys on the block (and more) for the News & Record: “When there’s nowhere to go,” by Michele Forrest; published Sunday, Nov. 1, 2009.  It’s online here, and reposted below:

On the block. Image credit: Michele Forrest / ChosenFast.com

My ministry partner, Audrie Keen, and I provide a street outreach to the homeless in Greensboro, and we’ve made a lot of friends along the way. We eat together, go to church together and have cookouts. Sometimes our homeless friends stay with us. We visit formerly homeless friends in their homes.

When we say “homeless friends,” we really mean friends.

Two Friday mornings ago, we visited “The Block” at Lee and South Eugene streets. It had been 11 days since my last visit, when we’d talked about the artistic bench installed, then removed, from along the new stretch of the Downtown Greenway in that area. Neighbors said the bench attracted drug addicts and prostitutes.

The guys on The Block dismissed that notion. One said: “The problem is not as serious as they say it is on the news. And the bench has nothing to do with it.”

Read more on When there’s nowhere to go…

FREE DENTAL CLINIC
Friday, November 6: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Saturday, November 7: 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

First Presbyterian Church
617 North Elm Street
Downtown Greensboro

Entrance to Clinic is on Greene Street, between Fisher Park Circle and Fisher Avenue. The GTA Route 3 bus stops at the intersection of Elm Street and Fisher Ave.

Read more on Free Dental Clinic: Nov 6 & 7…

Good editorial in today’s News & Record: “Clearing out The Block”:

Greensboro police last week stepped up loitering enforcement and effectively cleared the place known as “The Block.” Just like that.

Read more on N&R Editorial: Clearing out The Block…

My ministry partner took this photo at the entrance to the Greenway, near the block. Image credit: Audrie Keen

Two days ago, I wrote about “the block” at Lee and Eugene Streets being empty. The block is a long-time gathering spot where folks, many of them homeless, are known to loiter and drink. A friend, who catches a bus just down the sidewalk, had contacted me to tell me that police had cleared everybody out.

Read more on Did it take a Greenway to clear the block?…

"The block" at Lee & Eugene Streest; image credit: News & Record

A friend contacted me yesterday to tell me that police were no longer allowing people to stand on “the block,” a well-known and long-time gathering spot at the corner of Lee and Eugene Streets near the homeless shelter, soup kitchen and health clinic.  Traditionally, most of the people who stood out on the corner were homeless, and many of them spent their time on the block drinking. Today, I received reports from a number of sources with information about what may have led to the clearing of the block.

Read more on Alston meets with residents; Bellamy clears block; day center gets $275K…

“Whether they go is not an option; how and when they go is up to them.”

Audrie, Travis and I, headed into the Freeman Mill camps. Image credit: Mark Horvath

Read more on Greenway construction could raze homeless camps within a month…

Message from a friend today:

haha.. so i have been on the block today.. the fact is..the block isnt the block anymore. the police have taken their trash cans away, and have literally pulled up on the guys up there and told them that they cant stand in front of health serve or the sidewalk anymore. so whatever gpd did, it is taking an affect, bc everyone is talking about how they wont stand on the block anymore bc the popo literally sit across the street..i know its not funny to hear them talking about it..but i say its about damn time. there are alot of ppl who are happy now bc they can actually walk down the sidewalk. im not sure where everyone will be going now, besides the park downtown, and the library///but maybe just maybe, they can turn away from the bottle, and hanging outside all day…well thats the news i have for you…it looks so different up there, without all the guys standing there…

*Popo = police

Read more on Report: Police clearing the block — Greensboro’s homeless hangout…

image credit: Kuba Bozanowski

Jim Schlosser somehow fashions a heartwarming, aw-shucks tale from the life of Jack Fuquay, a homeless alcoholic who slept on a park bench in downtown  Greensboro in the 70’s, and died alone in a public toilet.  I guess we’re all supposed to feel good about Fuquay’s homelessness, alcoholism, tragic life, and lonely death because he was a “character” who spent his benefactor’s charitable contributions on milk instead of wine. Wow, I feel so… not uplifted.

Read more on Seen through rose-colored glasses: The life of a homeless alcoholic in Greensboro…

Cotton (image credit: YES! Weekly)

Brian Clarey visited the Freeman Mill homeless camps and wrote a powerful story for the 10/07/2009 edition of YES! Weekly. Read “Street Level” online here.

Read more on Downtown campground: Life inside the Freeman Mill homeless camp…