New home for downtown homeless?

[Trailrider1951]

New home for downtown homeless?

A Houston church is finding it tough to forgive unholy acts by some congregates. It's an example of a larger problem that began when dozens of homeless people started gathering in one area near downtown.

At the Sacred Heart Co-Cathedral, folks have prayed a lot about this problem. Dozens of homeless have encamped under the Pierce elevated.


Vagrants allegedly threaten parishioners, try to steal offering boxes under prayer candles and even panhandle during mass.


"These are desperate acts of people," said Noel Cowart with the Downtown/Midtown Residents Association.


Noel Cowart lives nearby and says ever since the stadiums moved downtown and the park across from the Toyota Center was closed, the number of street people under the Pierce Elevated has grown to almost 200.



Link:
http://www.khou.com/topstories/stories/khou050105_mh_panhandlers.7e42b9bc.html


And the church parishioners have the gall to call themselves "Christians". Jesus wept.

[Bridget Burke]

1. Reading the whole article gives a different story.

Yes, there are far too many homeless living under the Pierce elevated. Most of them moved in when the downtown stadiums were built. Therefore, it's more the fault of the Astros & the Rockets than the Church.

The impact upon Sacred Heart Co-Cathedral was mentioned, but so was Noel Cowart, who lives in the neighborhood, and the manager of the nearby McDonald's. Nobody was saying "let's get rid of them!"

Councilman Michael Berry tells us he's looking for a solution within the city. But another group of homeless shelters, agencies and downtown organizations says it already has one and is about to present it.

"Immediately we hope to move them from the street to a stable environment," said Anthony Love, President/CEO of the Coalition for the Homeless. "Then once we get them from the street to a stable environment, assess them to be able to transition them to a more longer-term place of residence."

It's unclear how quickly the program will begin or how many homeless will move to temporary housing. But a similar idea worked ten years ago. Many hope it will this time, too.

The Sacred Heart congregation (with its strong Vietnamese contingent) has distributed food to the homeless. But you may not consider them "Christian"--they're Catholic.

[sam sarrha]

2. when you are invaded by a mob and you cant move, what do you do.

the mob scene is a product of the policies of Fascist corpro/government schemes to reap huge profits without considering the consequences of human and environmental suffering.

The Reich wing is in serious denial about how and why they do the things they do. They externalize their failings and the suffering of others. as my brother says.. "Anybody can go to college and/or get a good job.. if they dint they are lazy and deserve what they get."

i used to build food bank warehouses and homeless shelters. we had a program where our community action group owned the shelters, the churches provided some services,..but what we did was bill ourselves for use of the shelters. so the $50 a night went into the general homeless fund and we were able to use it to further help the folks with seasonal clothes clothes for work, car repair, we had dental volunteers and discounts with dentists, we has a free clothes closet.. toys for children.. and i acquired 500,000 pounds of surplus food every year and distributed it. we provided them with an address to get services and a phone number box for job search. people knew about us and notified us of work for people.

but today when there is basically nothing to help the disenfranchised, they are up shit creek.. there is no drug/alcohol rehab available over 1/3 the homeless. we are letting the Afghans ship out a bumper crop of heroin, we told the English troops to quit destroying the drug labs in afganistan... i wondered why we went in there in the first place.. for the Skag !!! we are really in for a HELL of time when that shit hits the streets. F'n junkies will be everywhere ..nothing of value will be safe.. muggings and murders will be up soon..