[Peace-discuss] Re: [Discuss] Letter to the Editor re: Save Haven

[Karen Medina]

Very very good letter Danielle.

I am very ashamed of my hometown, Champaign.

We will pay dearly for every refusal to acknowledge the poor.
If only we can help the Champaign City Council see that it will cost
more in the long run.

-karen medina

On Thu, Jul 16, 2009 at 9:48 AM, Ricky Baldwin<baldwinricky at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Excellent letter!
>
> Happy Bastille Day - but it's still a day of mourning for Urbana if it's
> your anniversary of resigning.
>
> Ricky

> --- On Tue, 7/14/09, Danielle Chynoweth <chyn at ojctech.com> wrote:
> Hi friends - Today is the one year anniversary of my resignation from
> council - happy Bastille Day!  Here is a Letter to the Editor I just
> submitted. - Danielle
>
> The homeless are forced to break the law since the shelters are full and it
> is illegal to panhandle in Champaign or to camp outside in either city.
>
> Thousands have lost their jobs in Champaign County in the worst depression since my grandparents were children. The condemnation of Gateway and Autumn Glen apartments have put hundreds out of homes. Champaign refuses to fund the Township, which provides relief to the poorest of the poor, and sanctions discrimination against section 8 voucher holders, creating further barriers to housing.
>
> So the homeless have done what any sensible person would do: they have taken responsibility for meeting their own needs by creating Safe Haven, a tent community outside the Catholic Worker House which provides a safe, clean, and democratically run living space.
>
> Amidst this housing emergency, the City of Champaign proceeds with business as usual, demanding that Save Haven get off the property by July 17th or face $750 in fines per day.  The homeless are simply supposed to disappear into the ether so we can crawl back into our collective denial.
>
> Removal of the tent community will not stop a single law from being broken.
> It will simply make the violations less visible, put the safety of the
> homeless at risk, and increase public health problems.
>
> We are not alone and there are solutions within our reach.
>
> Tent Communities are cropping up in dozens of cities in the US. Olympia
> changed its laws to let tent cities stay on church property for up to 90
> days with a public hearing to allow for neighbor’s input. California’s
> Governor arranged for Sacramento’s tent city to use the state fairgrounds –
> a smart reuse of existing land.  Dignity Village in Portland, rents public
> land from the city, is run democratically, requires residents to contribute
> labor each week, and provides its own 24 hour security.
>
> The City of Champaign should provide a city owned lot to relocate the tent
> community instead of wishing this Hooverville away.  The causes are not
> going away, so neither will the consequences.