gtobe

One of the things the Stewpot does is provide volunteers who SS allows to represent some of these people to avoid that from happening. They help them find housing and keep their bills paid. I think SS mandates it with some in order for them to receive benefits. Unfortunately that is not the case for many and they get taken advantage of too often which contributes to or causes their homelessness.

Sorry, NOT the fault of the building owners.

No, what I am saying is that it is the fault of the owner or The Stewpot. It is the fault of our system. I have a brother who is mentally ill and the family can do nothing with him. If he ends up on the street there is nothing we or the public can do about it. We can't force him into a mental hospital because the law does not allow that. Too often they are left to fend for themselves in their own sick way or they end up in prison. They don't have a normal thinking process so how can we blame someone who has no idea what they are doing is not normal? They don't know what normal is.

JG is correct. Too many of these people you ridicule are mentally ill turned out on the street to fend for themselves. ACLU made sure we can't force them into care so there is the dilemma. No one in their right mind would want to live like that.

Having The Stewpot across the street and homeless people in the area needing services is just laying the blame on someone else. The owner has failed to properly maintain the building, wants too much money for the property but wants to blame the homeless for their failure. The January 22 coverage found at the DMN site says "The list of building code violations at the property fill a full page and fire code violations fill another."

For those of you who would like to help, the Dallas International Street Church is making every effort to bring their building into compliance so they can reopen and continue to help many of the unfortunate souls needing love, acceptance, food and shelter. They need volunteer help, supplies and cash donations to do this. Their web site is http://www.kdministries.org/

Not big enough is BULL! When to advertise nationwide that you are opening a wonderful new center with great services and free meals and get this - NO RULES, every predator in the country is going to show up along with many homeless from out of town looking for better services. Many of the local homeless came with hope but when they are afraid to stay there or could not get the services they were promised because of the crowds you know there is a problem. So management makes the bright decision to start cleaning the place up when winter arrives. Great timing guys. It was out of control from the get go and now many of our Dallas chronic homeless are back on the street without meals because they have banned street feeding! They call that success? For who? Remember this article: http://www.dallasobserver.com/2008-05... With a no-hassles approach to panhandlers, Dallas' new shelter hopes to kill homelessness with kindness What happened guys?

Considering all of the big press they had with opening this facility it is mind blowing to hear it is going south in a few short months. Is it time for a management change or is it the city screwing it up? Someone must be held accountable for this mess!

What might surprise you is the large number of panhandlers who are NOT homeless. These folks make a career out of panhandling and go home to their comfortable bed at night. Yes the individual might have a drinking or drug habit but do not assume he or she is homeless.

Read the article again guys and also about Housing First. These are DISABLED homeless people who have no hope of finding affordable housing on the small income they have. They are no longer homeless because they now have housing! I know one of the individuals who was lucky enough to get an apartment arranged by CDM and he is a great guy. Unable to work due to his disability, there was no way he would have been able to get off the street without assistance.

An employee of Gamestop told me that they are switching their assistant managers to exempt during the peak sales period to avoid OT pay. They will switch them back to hourly after the first of year. That sounds like another lawsuit fixing to happen to me. Corporate America strikes again!

Someone has started a Dallas homeless blog The Streets of Big D

http://thestreetsofbigd.blogspot.com/

CC your column is linked and posted on this blog. Not much conversation yet but they have been keeping up with the recent headlines. It looks like a good start.

That 10% that you see and fear Rick are no more if as dangerous then the general population. Just read the papers and watch the news. We are not safe anywhere and that includes the homeless.

Gosh Rick, you do have a heart after all! Nice post and very good points made. What needs to be done CAN be done with local community involvement. That means business, political, Church and neighborhood efforts to get the job done. The money is there but with NIMBY blocking and poor perceptions of the homeless population, little progress is being made.