I parked in the Civic Center garage every day for the better part of 30 years. I became accustomed to the homeless men and women who spent nights and frigid days in its darkest and dankest corners and stairwells.
They were sleeping or sleeping one off, often resting their heads on plastic bags that contained everything they owned. The garage people are “chronically homeless” — not runaways or folks who’ve been evicted or find themselves on the streets after a domestic argument, but people whose lives have been filled with trauma which they escape through drugs, alcohol, and mental illness.
Like most garage patrons, I learned to avert my eyes — sidestepping suffering that I could not relieve with a kind word or a few bucks.
Then last October, Monroe County evicted the homeless from the garage. The garage was no home, but as immediately became clear, the community had no other place for these folks to call home, either.
The 40 or so people who took shelter in the garage soon set up a tent city — “Sanctuary Village” — in Washington Square Park. The encampment later moved to South Avenue, under the expressway bridge.
The city, citing unsanitary conditions and the risk of fire, shut the village down days before Christmas and then, following a meeting between Mayor Lovely Warren and several homeless advocates, allowed it to reopen with the promise of better oversight. All parties promise to seek a permanent solution.
I have long said that the county’s inability or refusal to find a safe haven for this admittedly hard-to-help population is a disgrace. Surely there is an answer. I still feel that way, but I can see it’s complicated.
The city, county, and several service providers agreed in 2007 to a 10-year plan to end homelessness (they’re not going to make that deadline), and several subsequent efforts have focused on delivering critical services to the various homeless populations. It’s not as if no one cares.
Sister Grace Miller, director of the Hudson Avenue House of Mercy, has been an outspoken advocate for the homeless for nearly 30 years. The House of Mercy is the shelter of last resort, accepting people who won’t accept the rules other shelters impose. Some are using drugs or alcohol and are not seeking treatment for substance abuse or mental illness.
“We need a shelter where health providers can come in and work with them, but it is not going to happen overnight,” Miller says. “You have to build a relationship with people.”
“This is a downtown population,” she says, and there should be a place downtown for people who are not ready to seek help — a place they can stay as long as they need to.
Michael Hennessy, director of the Open Door Mission, says that many chronically homeless are not ready to face the depth of their problems and to seek help to change their lives. But he says that the closing of the garage, the eventual closing of Sanctuary Village, or the onset of very cold weather “can compel some of them to take that first step.”
The mission offers a “first step” option, Hennessy says. If someone makes an appointment to get an ID (most homeless don’t have one), or to meet with the social services department or a counselor, you get a bed for two weeks. Take another step, he says, and you get two more weeks.
“We can’t force people to act,” Hennessy says. But a lot of these guys haven’t scored a win in decades, he says, and once they re-learn how, they like it and they keep going.
I can’t argue with that. But both Miller and Hennessy say there is a critical shortage of beds in residential rehab and mental health care facilities for those asking for help.
I don’t see an easy answer, but I don’t see any answer that doesn’t include a permanent downtown shelter for those who — whether or not they are ready to seek help — need a place to stay.
Former D&C and City writer Mark Hare is filling in while Mary Anna Towler is on vacation.
This article appears in Dec 31, 2014 – Jan 6, 2015.
Rochester has a housing issue from homeless, to affordable living, and on and on. There is a lack of innovation going on. A homeless village where it was set to be a skate park at one time is absurd. This location is ideal for a skate park yet such is dashed. The subway used to house the homeless but not its an urban tour destination that still lays undeveloped. There is a lot of undeveloped and under developed in the city. Then there is the fill in of the inner loop instead of doing a tunnel as Boston and other cities have done.
Rochester is a hot mess… Yet we have resources we should turn to. Like Cornell University and other Colleges that have architectural programs could easily solve homeless housing. Forget Pike and the construction firms we have who want huge profits. Lets turn to students and professors to develop housing and to rezone Rochester. We have homes filled with asbestos, lead paint,inefficient mechanicals, and are out dated. Lets get rid of such. Bring in RIT students and professors to collaborate with other Universities to provide diverse efficient and innovative housing for our City. With the understanding that we need to coexist with the Diversity we have. Neighborhoods that are a solar co op as is in DC and other cities, linked into a Geothermal co op, metal roofing and hardie board siding so that fires don’t spread house to house, and such other innovations to make living affordable. This way we can have resources to share with homeless shelter co op style housing. Tiny homes and small homes are in now and we as a community should pioneer this by taking down abandoned housing stock to build tiny and small home communities where less is more. Build brownstone and row housing for middle class families. Build condo’s and Townhomes for empty nesters. Revive neighborhoods via culture centers. Such as lil havana, chinatown, and such so that heritage can be built, explored, and enjoyed. Repurpose old factories or tear them down and rebuild. Build up our water front properties for high end housing so we have tax income coming in. Issue permits so we can have street vendors, street performers, and street exhibits so that jobs are created and to attract people downtown or into cultural neighborhoods.
Also transition employment to be flexible so that part time jobs offer health care or dental and vision so that people can be offered 2 part time jobs where one offers health and the other offers dental and vision so that there is diversity of employment options beyond full time shift work or 9 to 5, 8 to 4, 7 to 3 full time day shifts. So this way we have neighborhoods alive with people being able to securely afford a home and to invest in their home.
Neighborhoods with schools, parks, shopping, and such in walking distance… infrastructure for every neighborhood. Festivals, block parties, and such community events that is meant for the community to come together and not to draw in tourism as park ave and corn hill festivals are. Make housing affordable and break away from slum lords who are from california or some other state who don’t care about community. The City allowing this is what has destroyed our City. Lets set our city as one tolerant of each other be ye homeless, a struggling college student, young professional, empty nester, disabled, or what ever. That the city is the place to flock to to start home ownership be it starter home, homeless housing, family housing, empty nester housing, and such. If we fail we will be more like detroit. If we area success then we will grow. It is a risk we need to take.