(Source: MIRS.news, Published 01/02/2024) Homelessness can evoke powerful images of filthy tents and unkempt beggars holding cardboard signs, but it is a complex problem that includes the balance of health and safety with helping those truly in need.
Rep. Emily E. Dievendorf (D-Lansing) introduced her “Homeless Bill of Rights” in July, which would codify some access to certain help for the homeless. The homeless are present in every densely populated city in Michigan, with encampments that can be unsightly, but not pose a danger.
“One of my favorite things I’ve read about homelessness and addressing it is that homelessness is not a personal problem, it’s a policy problem. If we’re not funding getting to the root of homelessness, then we aren’t creating the policy change that is necessary. That’s not going to continue to exist, but that is our choice we are making,” Dievendorf said.
There are also situations where those encampments become a safety risk, such as in certain Michigan Department of Transportation right of way areas, which MDOT spokesperson Jeff Cranson said was unique in terms of each situation.
“When safety concerns are identified because of damage to bridges or other infrastructure by fires or people crossing busy freeways, interchanges or other routes, complaints from members of the public, etc., MDOT officials work closely with local outreach agencies several days in advance of beginning any efforts to clear sites. There are instances that require emergency action because of safety concerns – fires near gas lines for instance,” Cranson said.
Dievendorf said clearing out camps at the drop of a dime wasn’t the best way to deal with the homeless population, because it just ended up scattering the people in the camps, who also usually end up losing whatever meager possessions they were able to gather.
The cleanup of a homeless encampment in Lansing under the Kalamazoo Street Bridge is a wrong way of going about a homeless camp cleanup, in Dievendorf's opinion. WLNS reported the collection of around 30 tents was cleared on Dec. 22. The Kalamazoo Street Bridge property is overseen by the city of Lansing.
“One of the most frustrating points of working on homelessness is that we know how to end homelessness, which is something we can’t say about almost any other issue. There are very few issues that we have a road map for ending it,” Dievendorf said.
The point is that substance abuse, mental illness, serious financial struggles or other financial burdens go beyond a person’s abilities. Dievendorf said it doesn’t help anyone when those people are upended because their location in proximity to social services or other resources that could help them was upended.
Dievendorf said it's best to transition unsheltered people to permanent housing gradually. That means making the places where they are residing safe, clean public spaces for not just the community members that are walking by, but the homeless too.
The state could help through promotion of urban design, which doesn't have to center on infrastructure and economic development. It has to ensure that the resources are aware of the people that need them and where those people are and where the most vulnerable people are.
“It has to ensure that the resources are aware of the people that need them and where those people are and where the most vulnerable people are,” Dievendorf said.
San Francisco addressed the homeless population by using all the resources available at the same time to pick up those who had fallen on hard times.
“What we need to recognize is, if we are uncomfortable with homelessness, we will find justification for why they can’t be in just about any place. At what point will we decide there is a space that they are allowed to coexist with us? What does that space look like?” Dievendorf asked.
The point is whatever that space looked like would need to be accepted by the rest of the people in the area, and ultimately that is where the tent stake was pinned. There was a problem with empathy and hypocrisy, because in the end, everyone could agree that homelessness was a problem that needed to be solved.
“We should at least be doing what is effective and what is effective is not hiding suffering. The most counterproductive way to address homelessness is to pretend it isn't there or to treat people that remind us of their struggle as outcasts. That is the shortest route to perpetuating a solvable problem,” Dievendorf said.
