Just the kind of news homeless housing advocates need to hear....
To be sure, it is a real risk moving people from the street directly into a home like this.
Screening folks in the typical "rental" fashion goes out the window, since some of them won't be able to jump through many of the hoops successfully, whether from bad credit, arrest records, mental illness or general anti-social behavior (well, at least the folks I work with, anyway).
I can just about promise you that some of them are going to bring their bad habits and their reasons for being homeless in the first place right into the new home with them. If these problems aren't addressed, they will almost certainly continue.
As a result, its got to be up to the "landlords" to control the situation in and around their home. If folks are acting in ways considered "anti-social" in the neighborhood, then they ought to be asked to exit the home.
It's done all the time here in Nashville at halfway houses and group homes. People who live in many of these residences are not only required to follow the rules of the house but also to behave themselves accordingly when they are in the community or they risk being evicted.
I know some folks are going to cry "foul" and wonder how it is that I could ever advocate an eviction. Well first, its a matter of ethics and protection of the "greater good," really. If a few folks screw up and shut down through illegal and egregious conduct a potential safe haven for countless homeless people who might have come in over the course of the next 10 or so years, then shouldn't we stop these few before the many are harmed? So many of my homeless clients can't understand why it is they aren't given another chance. I tell them that people can stand being burned only so many times before their hearts become hardened....
And second, actually, I'm not advocating eviction. What I am advocating is housing that addresses these "high maintenance" people. Here in Nashville the home of last resort for folks who just can't seem to make it anywhere else is Fisk Court, and Fisk must address issues on about a daily basis that would have a typical renter immediately thrown out on their ear in a "regular" apartment complex. (check out the urban housing solutions website on Fisk Court for their own criteria regarding this property)
NIMBY is alive and well. Folks who invest a lot of time, money and effort into their property don't want it diminished by a group home that comes in and allows its members to run roughshod through the neighborhood. It doesn't take much to put a neighborhood on the warpath and the word about a "bad house" spreads like wildfire, making it increasingly difficult to make transitional housing available anywhere to the homeless as a result.
Why should the rest of the good, law abiding citizens who find themselves homeless have to suffer because of the behavior of a few? And knowing the potential for problems going in, shouldn't landlords be both keenly aware of and sensitive to complaints from the neighbors?
Ultimately however, it falls mostly on the backs of all of us to ensure that we give people every chance to make something of their lives in this country. We can't do that when we're criminalizing behavior that people must do in order to survive because of the conditions we've instituted to protect ourselves from...ourselves. We can't do that when our education system systematically denies those who have made mistakes and are now trying to turn their lives around. We can't do that when a person works 40 hours in a week and earns less than the poverty level. We can't do that when we can't even provide drug and alcohol treatment to people who ask for it. And we definitely can't do that when we spend the majority of our tax dollars on priorities other than our own health, education and wellbeing....
Published: Thursday, 20th March, 2008 10:35
Crack house owned by charity for homeless
By Lucy Thorne
(Reading, UK)
A CRACK house shut down by police this week belongs to a leading homeless charity.
And last night neighbours accused the Reading Single Homeless Project of moving “drug dealers and prostitutes” into their neighbourhood and making their lives a living nightmare.
Families say they have been too scared to let their children play in the street and have slammed RSHP for failing to control its tenants in the Catherine Street house in west Reading.
John Baldock, who has lived in the street for 42 years, said: “RSHP promised us they would sort it out but they have done nothing about it. They have let us down.
“My mother has lived here for 72 years and that was the worst it has been. There was drug dealing and prostitution going on and drug peddling was happening across the street from our house.
“We are all a little community and that house and its tenants have degraded the street.”
Another neighbour, who would not be named, said: “It has been a complete and utter nightmare.
“There have been drug dealers and prostitutes hanging around the house and people have found needles in the alleyways.
“We have been fighting this for ages and we have been bombarding the police and RSHP.”
She added: “We have now managed to get the house closed for three months and they have got to re-think who they put in there.
“Some people are down on their luck and we understand that. But we are the ones who are stuck with the problem.
“Hopefully from here on in we’ll get a bit of peace. If RSHP don’t sort it out we will not hesitate to go to its sponsors.”
Another neighbour, who only wanted to be known as Sharon, said: “You couldn’t let your kids out. There were fights, drugs and parties, you name it, it was happening there.
“I have two grandchildren aged five and two and it is a worry letting them grow up in a street where this is happening. I don’t think they should have a halfway house in this street, it is a quiet area.”
Police swooped on the house on Tuesday night after securing a crack house closure order from Reading magistrates.
Officers had already raided the house in January and found significant traces of Class A drugs, including cocaine, heroin and ecstasy, in all its rooms, which officers told the court were consistent with a bulk presence of these drugs and recent prolific usage.
PC Nick Girdler, Neighbourhood Specialist Officer for Oxford Road, told the court how residents described Catherine Street going from being clean and friendly to an area where children could no longer play without seeing drug deals and prostitutes plying for trade.
The house will be closed under the order for three months but residents have already vowed to fight any plans by RSHP to move in more tenants.
RSHP chief executive Ian Caren said: “RSHP regrets that the local neighbourhood has been affected by such anti-social behaviour.
“We informed the police when we became aware of the drug misuse in January. After 10 years of the house being a safe haven for people affected by homelessness, RSHP were saddened by recent events and when the eviction process dragged on we requested the closure of the property by the police.
“RSHP will continue working in partnership with the Neighbourhood Police team to increase public safety and confidence in the area.”
He said RSHP has a zero tolerance drugs policy and since last month had been using security guards to enforce it.
