[Peace-discuss] DI Editorial

[Abbilyn Harmon]

Supporters,

If you have not seen this article, I encourage you to read it and have
a small party within yourself :) and come out to have a real
celebration on Saturday at 3 pm to the Catholic Worker House!

Safe Haven

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Community Should Embrace Tent City

The Daily Illini Editorial Board
July 21st, 2009 - 4:00 AM

=0 A

Also See

Champaign’s tent cities cause controversy
"Tent City" controversy continues

Controversy has arisen in recent weeks over the status of a "tent
city" next to the Catholic Worker House on Randolph Street in
Champaign. Approximately ten homeless people have camped at the site
for several weeks.

The Worker House has told the members of the group, called Safe Haven,
that they must leave by the end of the month. This is due to the
facility closing in August along with the fact that the city claims
the tent community violates the city's zoning laws.

We recognize that the current location is not the best for the tent
community, bu t the city should allow the group to continue to camp in
another location. Homelessness is a serious local problem, and a tent
community is a sound and low-cost method of providing shelter to the
homeless in the short term.

According to a story in the News-Gazette Sunday, Champaign's City
Council is reluctant to embrace the idea of a tent community.
But given the city's limited options for homeless people, Safe Haven
is an opportunity that should be pursued.

Right now, Champaign has the TIMES shelter for men and a battered
woman's shelter. These facilities cannot accommodate everyone in the
target population, and the city has no shelters that accept entire
families. While long-term permanent housing would be ideal, the city
lacks the funds or the initiative at the moment to pursue that option.

If they are able to acquire a permanent site, Safe Haven's organizers
plan to expand their community to accommodate 25 people with heated
semi-permanent dwellings, and add communal bathroom and kitchen
facilities.

Such housing would be a great improvement for homeless people that are
currently forced to sleep outside and live without reliable access to
food and water. Similar communities have succeeded in other cities,
including Dome Village in Los Angeles, which operated for 13 years.
Semi-permanent housing is cheaper to maintain than shelters, and gives
residents a sense of independence and autonomy.

No one expects the tent community to solve the problem of
homelessness. But in a time of rising budget deficits and cuts to
social service programs, Champaign can't afford to wait for the
perfect solution.

The city council and its "expert" advisers have no right to tell
people with nowhere to sleep that the tent community is not good
enough without offering quality solutions.
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