[Peace-discuss] NG article today on Safe Haven

[Karen Medina]

Do your neighbors NOT use drugs or alcohol?
-karen medina

On Sun, Jul 19, 2009 at 2:43 PM, Jenifer Cartwright<jencart13 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> 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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