The meeting at
the Wharfinger today regarding the homeless issue had the building packed to
capacity. About 50 people had to stand outside until people exited and came in
one by one as people left, in accordance with the fire chief’s instructions.
Eureka Police Department and private security dealt with some polite people who
had RSVPed and arrested a small group of disruptive protestors led by the queen
of protest du jour Verbena aka Kim Starr.
Contrary to the perception in the media, the email had been
sent to mostly businesses, city and county asking them to forward it to anyone
interested. No one was being barred or banned and the drama outside the
building and the drums and annoying kazoo prevented most people from hearing
the speakers. There were also select quotes from the email taken out of context to incite.
The email is printed in its entirety below. Read it and make
up your own mind.
This group of professional “homeless” did not do any favors
to those really down on their luck. And they were disrespectful. This childish
behavior was continued by three unidentified women speakers who ignored the
rules of identifying themselves and all they did was berate Mr. Arkley and
disrupt other speakers. None of these speakers inside were homeless. Gotta love
it when people who do nothing concrete
to help others down on their luck yell and scream at others trying to achieve
something that may work and even better the situation.
Mr. Arkley spoke at the meeting and in his remarks mentioned
that “we are not going fix the root causes of homelessness”, and cited drug
issues, reuniting people with families as examples. “The goal tonight is to
create a process to find solutions.”
Unlike other places, we are unique, he said, we are a county
seat. A lot of money is dispersed from here. “Don’t blame the non-profits or
the Betty Chinn Center…we want to put a microscope on the Health and Human
Services and City budget. Half the people employed by the county are employed
by DHHS.” He said Board of Supervisors and City Council people are good people
working a thankless job. “They are not the enemy.”
Present at the meeting was a diverse crowd, business people,
youth, elderly, people I recognized from various organizations. Supervisors
Bass, Bohn and Fennell were in attendance, County CAO Phillip smith-Hanes, former
city manager David Tyson, Sheriff Mike Downey and Police Chief Murl Harpham.
The city council and manager are out of town for a conference.
The attendance was so great that the
building was packed to capacity. Clearly people wanted to talk and there were
some heartfelt testimonies. You had to be there. It might surprise you to know
who has been homeless and the story of
these individuals who are successful today was touching.
The disruptive crowd was a minority
and got booed. Perhaps it is time for a vocal minority to recognize people
would rather live in Arkleyville where they have a job, can afford a home and
feel safe and have hope for the future. People have compassion, they don’t want
to enable.
As one speaker put it, “can’t help
someone who doesn’t want help.”. Homelessness is due to many reasons, the
circumstances for each individual is different. Solutions are not simple, black
or white. There are people who do and people who gripe.
Meeting Regarding the
Homeless Issue
Warfinger Building
Eureka
Wednesday, September
18, 2013
5:30 PM
RSVP
Yes or No to sfuller@snsc.com
Please forward to your
friends who may also be interested
Dear All,
Our County and City are being taken over by the homeless. It seems as
though many of the policies being pursued by our County and City governments,
and certain not-for-profits, actually encourage the homeless to come here and
stay here. Free food, showers, clean clothes, assistance above state
averages, free housing, lax jail policies are just some of the attractive
programs and policies. Clearly, too much right has become wrong. We
have become a Mecca for the homeless and we all pay the price. Garbage or
dump fees from trash and discarded clothing left on streets, sidewalks, alleys
and private property have become “our” responsibility. Health and
environmental issues arise from the same public areas and private property
being freely used for urination and defecation, not to mention the aesthetics,
or lack of, from this behavior. The general public is not comfortable
walking in certain well known locations around our cities and county because
the homeless with their antics have taken over what should belong to, and be
enjoyed by, all of us.
I
feel as though we are like the frog in the boiling water. It has gotten
to the point where everybody knows that the homeless are a huge problem, but
nobody is doing anything. All of our businesses are being negatively
impacted. It is difficult to attract people to Eureka. Who wants to
be panhandled on the way to an interview for a job? What business owner
wants to invest in real estate that is negatively impacted by trash and
loitering?
I
think that it is time for us to get together and see if we can build a
consensus on how to deal with this issue. Specifically, I would like to
know what policies and programs can be cut that will reduce the number of
homeless. I often hear that if we don’t provide certain services to the
homeless, monies will be withheld by state and federal governments. While
some, especially government and certain not-for-profits, may consider this
dire, we need to make sure that elected officials understand that
while government may lose monies, our private businesses and households may
well be better off without the crime, environmental damage and monetary costs
that these additional monies attract. It will also be interesting to see
if the negative impacts of the homeless programs on local business and quality
of life for the community are monetarily weighed.
Folks, let’s take our area back and encourage our elected officials to take
steps that consider the overall negative impacts on all of us created by
enrolling in programs designed to “help” the homeless. I have no doubt
that when weighed against the loss of governmental revenue, the benefits to all
of us by rejecting the monies would dwarf the downside.
I would like to see if any of you would like to join a group that deals with
the most pressing issue that our area faces.
vty,
Rob
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