Stop The Insanity

The definition of insanity is: “doing the same thing over and over while expecting different results.”

Too often this is what many cities are doing when it comes to dealing with their homeless crisis. As part of the insanity the blame is put back on the homeless themselves. In essence cities are chasing after dealing with the symptoms of homelessness rather than finding good solutions.

Case in point comes from my experience in my hometown. I’ll mask important names and details to protect the insane, but you will get the point.

Our town has a “creek” running through it that is more like a small river. It makes a pleasant place to be since locals raised funds to have a bike/walking path build that allows locals to wander for miles to experience the beauty and the serenity.

Of course it became an ideal place for the homeless to campout. It was close to town, gave some covering and privacy and beauty at the same time. But the beauty was quickly destroyed by left-behind garbage and fecal matter while the serenity for local residents was destroyed by fear of attack from a “deranged” homeless individual.

You can imagine the headlines in the local paper about the terrible conditions along the “creek.” There was a fairly regular clean-up local authorities undertook with much anger and lots of pictures to show the public how much garbage was collected and how much it cost to clean it up. It was a large amount done several times a year.

Once the area around the “creek” was cleaned up it didn’t take much time to fill up again.

Of course the City government passed laws making it illegal to camp along the “creek” with fines in an effort to stop the homeless from camping there. Whenever someone was caught they were told they couldn’t be there, but when asked where they could be the answer was “not here.” Of course “not here” isn’t a place. The offending party left to quickly return once the police were gone.

Being fairly new to the area and seeking to find ways to deal with homelessness (I eventually helped create a homeless program that housed up to 500 people a night in various locations in the area) I felt there had to be a better way. Rather than villainize the homeless and focus on the trash symptom I talked to the local Chief Of Police one day.

He was telling me how terrible the situation was along the “creek” and how the homeless were trashing it.

I asked him if there were any garbage cans along the walkway for the homeless to use. There weren’t. Besides, he remarked, they wouldn’t use them. I asked if there were any restrooms or outhouses the homeless could use rather than in the bushes along the pathway. He said there weren’t any, but they would just trash them.

To his point…many homeless individuals wouldn’t use trash cans or outhouses, but some would welcome it. I had met an older gentleman, for instance, who daily took his garbage in plastic bags to wherever he could find a garbage can. It was usually outside a local retail store. Not all the homeless can be said to be the same or want the same.

I asked the Chief of Police about where the homeless could be. He had no answer. I asked about having a designated campground for the homeless that was overseen by a trained staff and simple rules for order. He scoffed that it would never work and wouldn’t happen under his term of service.

It didn’t. The homeless were run off over and over. The trash built up over and over. The City paid a huge price for clean up over and over. The papers ran the same story over and over. Nothing changed. Homeless individuals were fined over and over. Courts were involved over and over. Homeless individuals didn’t show up for court cases since they had no address and didn’t get mail. They were no shows and now had more penalties and felonies accredited to them which created a huge barrier later to getting out of homelessness, finding a job and becoming assets to the community.

A new Chief of Police came into office. A new Sherriff came into office. Both wanted to stop the insanity and came to the organization I was leading and asked if we would oversee an official campground for the homeless. I was grateful, humbled and honored. Our staff was excited. It was taken to the local City Council for their approval. For over two hours local individuals took their turn explaining why having an official campground for the homeless was a terrible idea. They shared how it would destroy the neighbor around the campground. It would be an eyesore, a bed of crime, affect their children and wasn’t the right thing to do.

Fortunately our organization had a good reputation with the City and those on City Council were ready to “stop the insanity” of doing the same thing over and over.

They did. The campground started with 20 tents and quickly grew to housing over 100 people in phase one with a campground 2.0 started next door with 35 pallet structures housing the more “advanced” homeless individuals working with case management to find ways to step out of homelessness and back into society.

Needless to say that was many years ago and today that same campground is in a permanent location servicing hundreds of people every year in an orderly way.

What happened to the creek? It is all cleaned up. It is being used by local residents to walk and ride and enjoy a bit of paradise in the middle of the City. The costly clean-ups are few. There are garbage cans along the walkway. A local police team helps the homeless get into the campground rather than chase them to fine them for illegal camping.

The insanity has stopped.

Perhaps it is time to stop the insanity in your town.

By Chad McComas