Re: Restricting begging, outdoor feeding,

ARON KAY* (pieman@pieman.org)
Tue, 17 Nov 1998 04:58:19 -0500 

this is the blueprint of a police state!!!they cannot get away w/this at
all!especailly outdoor vending of newspapers which would violate the
first amendment....


Tom Boland wrote:
> 
> *******************************************************
> 3,000+ posts by or via homeless & ex-homeless people:
> HOMELESS PEOPLE'S NETWORK <http://aspin.asu.edu/hpn/>
> *******************************************************
> 
> Proponents of limits on panhandling, outdoor free meal programs and
> newspaper vending claim such restrictions aim to help "homeless people".
> 
> Do you agree?  Why or why not?
> 
> What's your opinion about "who" such restrictions aim to help?
> 
> For a case in point, see the article below:
> 
> http://www.azstarnet.com/public/dnews/126-6173.html
> FWD  Arizona Daily Star - Monday, 16 November 1998
> 
>   CITY LOOKS FOR "INTELLIGENT, REALISTIC' WAYS TO AID HOMELESS
>   By Jill Jorden Spitz
> 
> Transforming the Toole Avenue Homeless Facility from a meals program to a
> jobs program isn't the only way the city is dealing with homelessness in
> Tucson.
> 
> Several other programs and ideas are in the works. ``The city is making a
> more intelligent, coherent, realistic appraisal of how to understand the
> problem,'' said Councilman Steve Leal.
> 
> Among the initiatives:
> 
> * Discouraging churches and other groups from serving meals in downtown parks.
> 
> Neighbors have complained the impromptu soup kitchens attract homeless
> people to their parks and hurt their neighborhood quality of life.
> 
> * Considering the elimination of newspaper sales and begging in street medians.
> 
> Several people have been hit by cars while in the median, and two of them died.
> 
> Rather than selling papers in streets, hawkers would move to such
> high-traffic locations as shopping malls, office buildings and churches.
> 
> * Shutting down large homeless camps.
> 
> * Seeking additional federal grants for transitional and permanent housing.
> 
> * Increasing services on North Fourth Avenue.
> 
> Our Town Family Services, which works with homeless and runaway teens and
> young adults, recently won a three-year, $100,000-a-year federal street
> outreach grant to help young people on North Fourth Avenue.
> 
> The program will continue a city-funded pilot project this spring, during
> which social workers
> from Our Town and Open Inn interviewed homeless teens.
> 
> In three months, workers interviewed more than 500 young people. Of those,
> half were living in
> Tucson, rather than just passing through, and 65 percent were homeless more
> than six months - most for one to two years.
> 
> Most of the young people - 61 percent - were ages 18 to 25. Twenty-five
> percent were between 12 and 17 years old, 13 percent were older than 26 and
> 1 percent were younger than 12.
> 
> During the pilot program, two teens entered long-term shelters, two were
> reunited with their
> families, and many accepted health care, education, food or other help.
> 
> Most of the young people said they weren't interested in getting off the
> streets, but that's
> to be expected after the limited contact of an initial interview, said
> Kevin Jackson, Our Town's street outreach coordinator.
> 
> ``It takes a lengthy period of time to create rapport,'' he said.
> 
> Plus, he said, ``some of them are in the best situation they've been in,
> and that's pretty tragic.''
> 
> As part of the new grant program, at least two social workers will be on
> North Fourth Avenue four to six evenings per week. Besides offering help,
> social workers tell newcomers about laws banning aggressive panhandling and
> sitting or lying on sidewalks.
> 
> END FORWARD
> -
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-- 

ARON KAY......http://www.pieman.org 
              http://www.calyx.net/~pieman
           
IGNORANCE IS THE OPIATE OF THE MASSES
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