Homeless Camping Bans Are Spreading. This Group Shaped the Bills.
BY: KRISTIAN HERNÁNDEZ – APRIL 8, 2022 12:00 AM
Think Tank Policy Replacing Compassion
Mercy-less, Kind-less, new governmental regulations and laws emerging to marginalize an entire people group to a Care-less desolate wasteland
Greetings,
I want to start this blog off a little differently today. This is a hot-button issue and getting hotter by the month. I want you to put away the noise surrounding the homeless and all their related issues. This article boils down to compassion versus no compassion, and whether you are a believer or not, compassion cannot be void in our lives.
Imagine for the short time that is required for reading this article that the homeless person is your brother, auntie, friend, or church friend, and then weigh which is better, mercy or no mercy.
Introduction
We need to look for the answers in these nuggets we just read. Camping bans that are being transacted into law from this Think Tank are as follows:
>Strict 6-month residency in the camp
>Cities fined if the camp are not taken down in 6 months
>Fines and Tickets for any other campsite
There has been a great pushback because it is a non-governmental agency policy-setting group that is outside the loop. It is a group that cares nothing for the homeless. They are not interested in ending homelessness. It is more money-based false solutions that do not work, and are short-sighted and punitive in nature. What to look for:
>Solutions that help people
>Answers that unburden local governments
>Policies that reduce expenses
Read with an eye toward looking for answers, long-term answers, and you will not find them in this article from the Think Tank. They are leading the way in a tough mental shift nationally, the shift toward compassionless criminalization of homelessness.
Let’s look at His word as we start today
Exodus 23: 2
You must not follow the crowd in wrongdoing, do not testify in a lawsuit and do not go along with a crowd to pervert justice, do not show favoritism to a poor person in his lawsuit
What say you…
Ain’t no beds, ain’t no shelters, ain’t no emergency beds, but you ain’t able to sleep where you drop either you must not sleep where you drop, no way, they will come for you
Men and women of our armed forces served this nation with honor and dignity, and it is a national moral dishonor to allow a veteran to struggle, live and die on the streets, time for change
Speaking out Against Policies
Here are 5 reasons experts in homeless intervention are speaking out against the Cicero Think Tank policies that are being enacted as laws:
>Against best-known practices
>Disregards local needs
>Cuts funding to cities that refuse Camps
>Does not reduce long-term, chronic homelessness
>Does not advocate for permanent solutions
>It may push the homeless deeper into hiding
The basic truth is this, homelessness, and the government as bedfellows and together the government makes money. However, the homeless are not helped to be self-sufficient. These new policies banning camping are no improvement.
The tickets, fines, court costs, jail all generate money, so therefore there is no true compassionate interest in ending homelessness. And the homeless are made only the more hopeless.
Advocates are concerned with the basic policies because there is no end game so to speak. Cicero is specific about Street Dwelling Homeless only and the Government sanctioned Camps, but nothing else. So, when 6 months are complete, camp is gone, now what? Is Cicero envisioning a camp to camp shuffle game or what is the answer?
Doing it Right
Colorado Collective Village, we can learn from this group of people who are working effectively with the homeless.
They have “Safe Space Camping,” a total of three in operation and there are no time limits for the individual to spend there. There is mental health and addiction counseling available if it is needed.
At the time of the article, they were caring for about 242 people in the camps. But what they have over Cicero is this, 42 persons have transitioned off the streets into Long Term Supportive housing.
Now Colorado has all the camping bans, and no street dwelling laws as most states, but they also have a healthy alternative that helps people off the streets, without the heavy hand that the Think Tank is trying to put into place,
Dealing with “Problems”
To Encounter or Undergo and experience, to have experience of, direct personal observation or participation
We all know what it is to ‘experience’ joy, happiness, grief, sorrow, loss, pain, and son, but do we have any idea at all what it is to experience homelessness? Remember every homeless person is a mom, a dad, a child, a teenager, a veteran, an uncle or an auntie, they have emotions, feelings, and humanity within them.
So, we experience the great joy of the birth of a grandchild let’s say, the homeless experience stuff we cannot imagine or even want to imagine. They are experiencing homelessness, the pain, sorrow, loss, grief, and anxiety of it every day 24 hours a day and then the storm comes with no help. What would you be experiencing? We cannot allow the humanity of the homeless to be driven away from them, that is the goal of the government. Lastly, when we experience something, good or bad, we have a community to draw upon to go through with us. When the homeless are experiencing the terrible struggles of homelessness they have a tiny, small community that is in constant fear, loneliness, and on the verge of hopelessness. Will we continue to allow them to “be experiencing” life alone?Neither group gets this major piece right, what about the other 35%?
I can absolutely 100% assure not all the homeless are addicts or mentally ill, so what about the 35% that are not?
Both Cicero and Colorado Collaborative speak at length of Mental Health and Substance Abuse, but that is not 100% of the homeless picture. There are about 50% to 65% of that group on the streets, and then you have the mixed mass of the 35% to 50% who are ignored.
What about the aged-out foster kid, what about the injured worker out of benefits, what about the car accident victim, the grieving parent, the domestic violence sufferer, and the list could go on, are we helping them? There is no shelter beds assigned to them, none.
Most interventions are focused on dealing with “Problems,” not Solutions and that has to change. Unless we have reduced life to Problems and if we have done that then we can no longer see People. But have we totally lost all compassion?
Please, Think About This
In the article, it speaks quite openly of many states that have already passed camping bans based on Cicero policies or are considering them. The carrot and the stick are how the Founder of the Institute refers to his policies. Do the people or the states need major ‘threats’ with so few ’promises’ when it comes to homelessness?
Again, you hear of the inhumane thoughts of leaving the addicted and mentally ill on the streets for decades, but you never hear of a solution outside of the six months. As well as hearing a lot about fines, rules, jail, tickets, and the like, where is the hope, help and justice?
Go to the article yourself and read the various states that have enacted this Think Tank policies as law and I can be very sure of this, homelessness has not improved in their states. How can it, it gives no plan outside of the strict 6-month camp plan, nothing, they care nothing for humans only for the money they are to receive when the plan is implemented.
Following in the Wrong Steps
Following the wrong footsteps, it is this, no long-term supportive housing combined with a strict 6-month residency in the camps. Footprints are tracks in time that lead us to a conclusion, good or bad. Cicero leads to one single conclusion; homelessness is a crime and should be dealt with as such.
How does this have a positive impact on homelessness? How does this help the people, the city, the state, or the community, how? Why do I ask this, because at the end of six months, everyone is out on the streets again, and the camp is destroyed, no questions asked, that is the law.
I must say this again, it is all throughout the article, they are simply focused on Mental Health and Addiction, but what about everybody else that is homeless, is there to be no help to get them back on their feet again? This set of Policies being passed into law carries no solutions, thus following the wrong steps.
Exodus 23 tells us the truth ‘we must not follow others in wrongdoing,” if these are doing wrong to the homeless then we must continue to look for better, more ethical solutions. Following others in wrong doing includes following others because of the almighty dollar being waved over the moral and right thing decisions, warning, consider your ways.
Conclusion
>Cicero brings entrepreneurial solutions to public/human problems, state-sanctioned camps for 6 months with severe restrictions, no solutions
>6 states are ‘eating the carrot’ to avoid the ‘stick’ currently, but fail to realize that the carrot is unable to sustain the long-term answer
>Homeless advocates are alarmed, against best practices, punish the homeless, and have no solutions
>Colorado Collaborative on the right course, right focus, transitioning the homeless, long term supportive housing
>This law has done nothing to help the homeless situation, says Samuels, and it is a shame that it is spreading to other states.”
CTA…
Answer this, Are the homeless people first or merely problems to be solved, merely numbers and statistics without hearts
Answer this, is punishing non-profits for the city’s failures the right course of action in the attempt to curb homelessenss
Answer this, is Cicero or Colorado Collective on the right track, humanity wise, allow your heart to breath first
Homelessness is a problem that will exist until we solve it, one single person at a time, think long and hard
Parting Words, Cicero or Colorado Collaborative, right or wrong, humane or inhumane, mercy or merciless, how do you see the camping bans and the people stuck in those camps?
I Say to you, the generic, everyday citizen look around with open eyes and be willing to be part of the solution and intervene whenever possible, there are humans not merely statistics and numbers. There is a moment in time just ahead of us when a door of opportunity will come and we must be ready, to help or hinder, what will your response be, God is watching. Finally, remember, that the homeless one could be your family, your brother, your cousin, or your mom, if had not been for God’s holy and mighty grace, so let’s act accordingly.
