[Peace-discuss] NG article today on Safe Haven

[Jenifer Cartwright]

Neighbors' complaints of drug and alcohol use by Tent Community members were denied by those at last week's CCC meeting. However, one thing that struck me as a negative was the no drinking and drugging w/in a one-block radius policy of the Tent Community. A more reassuring policy would be no drug or alcohol use while living in the TC, period. The current policy suggests that alcohol or drug use is okay so long as it's kept at least one block away from the TC. 
Just a tho't.
 --Jenifer 

--- On Sun, 7/19/09, Karen Medina <kmedina67 at gmail.com> wrote:


From: Karen Medina <kmedina67 at gmail.com>
Subject: [Peace-discuss] NG article today on Safe Haven
To: "Peace-discuss List" <Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net>
Date: Sunday, July 19, 2009, 1:15 PM


I know several people in AWARE don't take the NG. But are interested
in the Safe Haven situation...

News-Gazette article this morning:
Tent city's organizers confident they'll find a new home
By Mike Monson
Sunday July 19, 2009

CHAMPAIGN – They haven't found a new home yet, but the organizers
behind the Safe Haven Tent Community still have big future plans that
go way beyond pitching several tents in a backyard.

The several-week-old tent community for the homeless was established
several weeks ago in the back yard of the Catholic Worker House, 317
S. Randolph St., C. The city of Champaign says the encampment of eight
to 10 homeless people is in violation of the city's zoning ordinance.
And the Catholic Worker House, which shuts down for the month of
August, has informed the residents that they must be out by July 31.

But Abby Harmon, one of the organizers behind the tent community, says
she is confident they'll find a new home.

"We've sent out letters to 150 churches in Champaign, Urbana and
Rantoul requesting refuge while we work with the city," she said.

Harmon and fellow organizers Michael Parkinson and Jesse Masengale
have a vision for Safe Haven that they're now planning to lay out to
skeptical city officials.

They've asked the city to lease an unspecified vacant city lot to Safe
Haven to allow the homeless community to relocate at a more suitable
site.

If they can get a city lot and the city council agrees to revise its
zoning ordinance, Safe Haven organizers say they will work to:

– Eventually ditch the tents and install semi-permanent housing with
heat to help homeless residents survive the winter.

– Expand Safe Haven's capacity up to 25 people.

– Create communal bathroom and kitchen facilities with electricity,
and even add gardens where homeless people can grow their own food.

"The idea of a tent city seems very radical at first blush, but when
you begin to dig into the ideas, you understand it's just a different
model for providing services to the homeless," said Harmon, a graduate
student in landscape architecture at the University of Illinois.

"It's a model that is consumer-driven, cost-effective and successful
at transitioning people off the streets and into permanent housing,"
she said.

Harmon said she and former Urbana alderwoman Danielle Chynoweth will
meet Saturday with council members Deborah Frank Feinen and Karen
Foster to explain the group's vision. She said paperwork is being
prepared to create a not-for-profit organization, to be called Safe
Haven Inc., that would act as a service provider to the people living
in the community.

Safe Haven would likely be governed by a village council made up of
residents and organizers, Harmon said.

But Foster and Feinen remain skeptical.

Foster said she thinks Champaign officials need to check with cities
that have hosted tent communities.

"I think we're just getting one side," she said.

Feinen said she's reluctant to comment before the meeting, but she
noted that "there are lots of social service needs in the city."

"Prioritizing those needs and affording them, after we cut our budget
by $6 million, is something the city council will have to struggle
with," she said.

Semi-permanent housing for the homeless has been tried, and worked, in
a number of cities, according to Harmon.

A former homeless community in Los Angeles, called Dome Village, used
small domes, with 314 square feet of living space, to house residents.
Each dome housed two unrelated adults or small families. Dome Village
had about 20 domes on one and one-third acres, before it closed in
October 2006 after 13 years.

Another possibility for semi-permanent housing is a "tiny house"
developed by the Emily Carr Design College in Vancouver, Canada, that
provides 64 square feet of living space and costs about $1,500, Harmon
said.

Parkinson, also a Safe Haven organizer, said he thinks the concept
will work. He's a 2009 UI graduate with a bachelor's degree in urban
and regional planning.

"Everything we're working on seems very feasible both in the short and
long term," he said. "There's nothing too pie in the sky to this idea.
It's worked before and it's worked well."

A Safe Haven village would differ significantly from the TIMES Center,
a transitional living facility for homeless adult men located at 70 E.
Washington St., C, according to Harmon.

The TIMES Center has 70 beds for homeless single men and currently has
about 10 vacant beds, according to TIMES Center Supervisor Jason
Greenly.

"The TIMES Center is a transitional living center; you have to come
into a program," Harmon said. "It's very structured and that sort of
structure doesn't work for everybody."

Four current residents of Safe Haven have been banned from the TIMES
Center for periods varying from 90 days to one year due to rules
violations, she said. Safe Haven would rely more on "a peer support
network" instead of case management to transition residents into
permanent housing.

The TIMES Center's Greenly said his facility does develop a service
plan with goals for each resident, with "all our goals focusing on not
being homeless."

"It's fair to say people may not want to work within the shelter
system," he said. "You've got to play ball."

Safe Haven organizers also say they want the community to be based in
Champaign, despite the fact that Urbana, with a more liberal city
council and mayor, might be more politically receptive.

"The people living in the tent community have resided in Champaign,"
Harmon said. "They call Champaign home, and we'd like for them to
continue to call Champaign home."
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