For at least the past several years homeless people have been allowed to occupy areas at night around city hall in downtown Greensboro.
On Thursday, Sept. 16, Interim City Manager Chris Wilson sent out an email to city employees announcing that people would no longer be allowed occupy the ‘immediate premises’ of our buildings.”
Wilson states in the email, “Over the past several months you may have noticed that a number of residents experiencing homelessness have been utilizing the areas immediately surrounding City Hall. While we recognize that homelessness is a serious issue both in our community and around the country, we have received a number of complaints and we recognize that some of the use of our surrounding facility is unacceptable, to include discarding human waste and other hazardous items that present a safety risk to you all as employees and to the public.”
Wilson also states, “In response to your concerns and complaints, which are valid, you will soon see noticeable changes intended to address the unacceptable uses of City property. First, we will post signage indicating that items left on City property will be removed from our premises. Likewise, you will see an increase in security measures designed to educate those on City premises about appropriate usage of the areas immediately surrounding City property. Finally, and only where warranted, you will see enforcement of any applicable City ordinances or state laws designed to stop any persisting unacceptable uses and/or interactions.”
Many who frequent city hall have noticed that during the day sleeping bags and other items left under exterior stairwells and in other exterior areas that are protected from the elements. According to Wilson’s email this will no longer be tolerated.
Business owners downtown have complained for years about homeless people living in their doorways at night and about the same issues with “human waste and other hazardous items” that are be left behind.
With the city making the decision to enforce “any applicable City ordinances or state laws” that prohibit this kind of activity on municipal property, perhaps the city will extend similar enforcement efforts toward private property.
Mandate Mayor cannot stand reminders of the reality of what her city has become. Percecuting those that sleep outside and keep their sleeping bags dry on public property is exactly representative of our callous and hypocritical city leadership. For shame. How about instead of buying signs and sending our understaffed police force to remove people we just unlock some public restrooms and add a few trash cans. Smiley faced fascism in corporate owned city government …..it’s all about protecting the property values.
Send them to former councilwoman Kennedy’s home! Vaughn, Hightower, Johnson and Wells would surely welcome these poor people into their homes with open arm’s?
I suggest that the homeless be housed within and about the City Council chambers. The City is responsible for some of this mess.
Another suggestion is to designate an area for the homeless to gather, outdoors, and away from the city itself. All together then, they could be helped.
How can one be a resident if one is homeless?
Being a resident implies one resides at a given place, not one who simply flops down wherever.
Well, how does one specify the exact spot they are homeless at come election time! That’s important for some local races and federal house reps (NC Senators doen’t really make a difference, unless you believe that liberral BS about gerrymandering).
Exactly P-Nut! They are SQUATTERS and that in itself is illegal. Remove them promptly from the owner’s property whether it is public (taxpayers) or privately owned!
Would you like to make a wager on whether or not each one will be given a mail in ballot come November, 2022?
I have a farm and a few nicely kept trailers etc., are here and there outside the outer perimeters of my land. My liberal friends, who love to come out and shoot skeet and targets (ahem) , always comment on the “trailer trash” when I give them a tour of the farm. The liberals LOVE these farm tours and amuse me when they think I am a genius or Mrs. Dan’l Boone to know the difference between a maple and an oak tree. However it makes me very sad when they say those hurtful things about these nice and friendly people who have NEVER been a problem. My conservative friends never say anything at all about the trailers. Maybe, just an “Oh you have neighbors way back here!” We conservatives are less likely to forget our roots as most of us have survived at LEAST brief poverty. I ask the liberals just where do they expect these people to live, under a bridge? They get a bit embarrassed, but I think they really do consider underside of bridge residency acceptable rather than having to lay eyes on borderline poverty.
I thought I heard where there is alot of office space empty in the courthouse. Put them in there. Our wonderful politicians want us to deal with the problems but not them. Sad bunch running this city and county. Thugs in fact.
Well it didn’t take long for Council to turn on the homeless after Michelle Kennedy left. That would never have even been brought up when she was on Council. And now, as a City Employee she has absolutely no say about it. Greensboro has a tremendous homeless population and some of the best facilities to help them…Greensboro Urban Ministry, the IRC, etc. But they have to be clean of drugs and alcohol to take advantage of those resources. I think Council needs a dose of reality. Get them to go on a walk in the woods along the downtown greenway and they will experience sights they never thought existed here.
If they are “helping” them, then why are we seeing the same dudes on the street month after month? Help would seem to indicate that you actually “help” them no longer be homeless at some point. I mean, we have an agency actually called Partners Ending Homelessness, but I have yet to see them actually end anything.
The current (and previous) city Council created a large percentage of the homeless population in Greensboro by passing numerous so called social programs. Once the word passed that you could get free day housing, transportation, food, places to bath, clean clothes, charge free Assurance Smart phones and numerous other freebies, it was on! We had enough homeless to care for but council took taxpayers dollars and constantly created more social programs (free handouts) which made Greensboro a “homeless heaven”! Those who question where tax dollars were allocated for the past 10-15 years can check the expenses created/approved by City Council to get some facts!!
Companies who are looking for workers should go out on the streets and pick up these people and clean them up and put them to work. They can always work in restaurants serving food and cleaning the tables after diners leave the restaurant. And with the tips they can rent an apartment and live a better life. Its the duty for small business owners to help improve the downtown area and appreciate their workers and customers and ALL the persons who feel that downtown is their home. The small business owners should take responsible for the area around their business.
Martin, have you actually interacted with any of these folks? Most of them cannot exactly hold down a job, let alone interact with society on a daily basis. Most homeless suffer from mental illness raging from mild to severe. It is not my job as a small business owner to invite some crazy, dirty homeless guy into my shop and just hope that he doesn’t drop a deuce right in the middle of floor. Get real man. I will say that my fellow business owners need to stop catering to the homeless population. It just keeps them in the area. Make it like a desert, and once the gravy train dries up, they will move on.
Forcing the homeless to move from where they are to somewhere else just moves the problem to someone else’s doorstep.
I may have mentioned this; but one great thing about helping the homeless is that at the end of the day, you can drop them off anywhere.
Why not give them directions to the council members homes and give them free transportation and a cot and blanket.
City Council members should spend a night out on the street sleeping in a door way soo that they can understand the situation better like one of the Council members took a ride in a police car to see what the police experience is like. The “ride” seems to have taught them EVERYTHING they needed to know about the job of the policemen.