homelessness
After reading an email about Kevin Wolff's "Warning to Chapel Hill Residents", I was inspired by the response from the men of the IFC shelter to write an open letter to Mr. Wolff regarding his allegations about the danger of moving the men's shelter near Homestead Park.
Mr. Wolff:
Earlier this week, perennial Chapel Hill mayoral candidate Kevin Wolff disseminated a campaign flyer in the Homestead Park neighborhood telling parents that they should be very concerned about the men's transitional facility locating on Homestead Road, suggesting that when the shelter is located there "a child will be assaulted, molested, kidnapped, and/or killed in that park. It's not a matter of if this will happen... it is a matter of when." The full flyer can be read
here.
Homelessness in Chapel Hill is an issue that, unlike what happens in many communities, reaches headlines in our local media and often the agendas of our Town Council. However, as residents of Chapel Hill seek to safeguard business interests downtown, and as the worsening economic climate continues to find more and more in need, the topic has become increasingly contentious. In too many cases, our most needy citizens are seen as eyesores, barriers to business development and told to get out of town.
With local food pantries stretched to their limits and the current downtown shelter falling into decay, the Chapel Hill Town Council, after lengthy hearings and deliberations, approved the Inter-Faith Council (IFC) Men’s Community House Transitional Shelter Special Use Permit (SUP) in 2011 subject to the IFC satisfying several conditions, including the creation of a Good Neighbor Plan (GNP).
An e-mail from Eleanor Howe to the Chapel Hill Town Council:
Dear Mayor Kleinschmidt and members of the Town Council,
I am a member of the committee working to create a Good Neighbor Plan (GNP)
for the IFC’s new Community House at 1515 Martin Luther King Jr Blvd. As
such, I’m writing in response to a “guest column” in today’s Chapel
Hill News by Mark Peters, and because a status report on the committee’s
work to date is on the Council agenda for Sept. 26.
I take great exception to Mr. Peters’ characteristics of the GNP
committee as a “biased committee that lacks transparency.”
Check out this comment on the News and Observer article:
"The trouble at my downtown business all began when the police station moved out and the homeless shelter moved in. Downtown looks like hell. It is dirty and unkept. How about a program that pays some of these homeless to clean up the area they call "home"?
Good luck to the neighborhood this place is moving into. I actually have more homeless people using my property for a toilet or a bed than I did before the homeless shelter opened. Why? b/c they can get a meal, beg money, then go get drunk or high. They are then turned away from the shelter and end up crashing on the nearest "cozy" property.
Chapel Hill has put out the welcome mat to homeless and they are come in droves."
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