No-camping ordinance causing some homeless to 'freak out'

[kentuck]

http://www.gazette.com/articles/camping-93983-ordinance-police.html

<snip>

Colorado Springs Police Officer Dan McCormack figured it was inevitable: If City Council approved a no-camping ordinance, he’d soon hear from irate residents wondering why the homeless camps around town hadn’t disappeared overnight, and he’d have to reassure anxious campers they weren’t in imminent danger of being evicted.

Sure enough, his hunch was right.

<snip>
Because the ordinance won’t take effect for at least 24 days, McCormack said the emphasis now is on working with campers to get them into programs or find them other options for leaving homelessness behind. And even when the ordinance takes effect, punishment is not the goal, he said.

<snip>
Lyn Harwell, director of programs for Springs Rescue Mission, noted that the nonprofit plans to expand capacity in its one-year residential New Life recovery program, and will send some participants to the camps to tell people about it.

Bob Holmes, executive director of Homeward Pikes Peak, also said this week that the El Pomar Foundation was providing a $100,000 for housing assistance, should the ordinance pass.

McCormack said the ordinance is starting to wake some campers up to the idea that they need to find help.
One hardcore camper, a convicted sex offender, said after Tuesday’s vote that he wasn’t causing problems and just wanted to be left alone to live outside. On Wednesday, after McCormack talked to him about a Denver program that would accept sex offenders, he reconsidered.


“You have to offer up choices to them: ‘Let’s talk and find solutions for you — but you have to be a partner in that,’” McCormack said.

[niyad]

1. city council here doesn't want to "find solutions" , they want the homeless gone, period.

this city has a low priority for social services, for the actual needs of the people here--all their efforts go to attracting fundy churches, businesses, and keeping the usoc happy (to the tune of 45 MILLION dollars the city doesn't have)

the citizens of this community, at least a lot of them, are pretty much the same. they don't want taxes, they don't want any kinds of services, they want to live in a total free-market paradise.

there are many vacant buildings here that could be utilized for the homeless, including an empty usoc building. will council consider this? HELL NO.

this community is practically the laughing stock of the entire world for the draconian cuts to what few services the city did provide. between fungus (aka focus on the family), new life, doug bruce, doug lamborn, and a host of others, this community is pretty much of a joke, and a very bad one at that.

[vadawg]

2. i wonder what the solution is if a community on masse decides that they dont want all the services

provided by a local government, should a community be free to decide if they want to totally cut taxes to the bone and have a minimal level of services. I already live in a community which dosent get many services from the county outside of police and the schools and a trash collection facility and most prefer it that way...

[lonestarnot]

4. A good solution for the filibuster!

;)

[niyad]

6. unlike other industrialized countries, unlike places where people realize that community means ALL

the community, not just the rich, where it is understood that we all have to look out for each other, this community (with some very notable exceptions, none of whom, however, are in government or positions of authority) thinks very much like scrooge before the visits from the spirits.

the city can give millions to the usoc, can give tax breaks worth millions to the few businesses it can attract these days, can encourage even more tax-free fundy churches to be here, but forgets that it is here to serve all the people. some days, it is thoroughly depressing.

[vadawg]

10. question still stands, what if the community votes this way and wants it this way

how far can you make a community go if the voters dont want to fund stuff.. You think this stuff only happens in rich areas, there are lots of communities throughout the world that want nothing more than to have minimal government in their lives for better or worse..

[Trillo]

13. Like it or not, part of the community were the campers,

and I wonder what kind of representation they had on the council.

[vadawg]

14. probuably very little, as they would constitute a small number of the community

in fact they would be lucky to have any representation at all, most times especially in transient camps there is none.

[depakid]

3. Sounds like a prescription for dystopia

Should make for some interesting sociological studies.

[JVS]

5. I thought CS was supposed to be a libertarian paradise? Govt should stay out of people's camping

[niyad]

7. as was pointed out in a thread here a couple of days ago, this "libertarian paradise" is subsidized

by the government, particularly with the large military presence here. the issue isn't about camping, it is about dealing with a very severe problem of the homeless, and not actually being willing to do anything constructive about it.

[asjr]

8. God Bless America! Now let us pray!

[area51]

9. To solve the problem of homelessness,

all we have to do is create a law forcing people to rent an apt. or a house. I mean, that works so well for lack of affordability in healthcare. Oh, wait .... :think:

Need I say, </sarcasm>

[happy_liberal]

11. What is going on in Colorado?!

Homeless people fined, Jailed, for SLEEPING in Boulder, CO
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7524851

[freeplessinseattle]

12. sheer genuis. I'd almost laugh if it wasn't so sad n/t