[Peace-discuss] NG article today on Safe Haven

[E. Wayne Johnson]

I'll help campaign for who ever is running against Karen Foster.


On 7/31/2009 11:57 AM, Karen Medina wrote:
> 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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>>
>>      
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