Letters

Homeless should blame themselves

To the editor:

The “Homeless in Mobile” story was touching. It almost made me feel a bit of sympathy for those who are in a much lesser state than I am in.

Before I continue and explain why I used the word “almost,” let me clarify something. I am neither ashamed nor embarrassed to admit that I was homeless for little more than 18 months. I lived in boxcars and under bridges in Colorado Springs. I took daily showers in the area’s Red Cross shelter, and I ate at a soup kitchen. When I needed a bit of money, I either found odd jobs, or I sold my plasma.

I believe that I am more than qualified to write what you are about to read.

Experience has shown me that more than 90 percent of homeless people are on the streets because of nobody but themselves. They chose to leave their jobs because they thought that they deserved higher wages than what they qualified for – but at least they had jobs. They lost their homes because they felt it more necessary to party with their friends than to pay their monthly obligations to the landlord or the mortgage company. They developed mental instabilities because they chose to drop one-too-many hits of LSD or smoke crack pipes in abandoned buildings instead of enjoying the pleasures that a normal life has to offer.

In all my years, I have never met a homeless person who hadn’t devised a tale of what put him or her on the streets. They weave intricate stories telling what brought them to the point of homelessness in order to hide their shame, avoid arrest, and to gain access to government services and the services offered by places such as 15 Place.

Since the “Homeless in Mobile” story came out in the Lagniappe, the homeless in the area have become more aggressive in their presence around my restaurant and along Dauphin Street. This week alone, one homeless man alarmed one of my female customers as she was leaving the restaurant by pulling his penis from his pants and waving it at her.

There are now three homeless persons actively working the intersection of Dauphin and Conception Streets begging from people in the evenings (after the police vacate the police box in Bienville Square); three different men have approached me and another downtown business owner begging for our money as we were talking in front of our stores. And just this morning I arrived to my restaurant only to have to clean up the cardboard bedding that some homeless person left in my doorway from the night before.

They are homeless. They have lost everything in life, including their self-respect and the respect that they may once have had for others. They have absolutely nothing to lose by committing the disturbances and petty crimes that they commit within our community, and so much to gain: if they are arrested, they get a nice place to sleep for the night, out of the weather, and a meal to eat before they are released the next day.

That which 15 Place does for the homeless doesn’t seem to be helping them much at all, and it really doesn’t help this business community. I see the same people using the services of 15 Place these days that used their services when I opened my restaurant seven years ago. All 15 Place really does is act as a magnet drawing the homeless to the area.

When they feed the same homeless people day-after-day and year-after-year, they send a silent message to them that they do not have to find jobs and become responsible members of our community. In the process of doing so, they insult each and every working man and woman by silently saying that we are fools to work for a living when they are ready and willing to give us food for free.

For free? Of course. For as long as they can encourage people to use their services (even people that are not really homeless at all) then they can produce records which they submit to grant-issuing organizations so that they can qualify for more money.

An organization that was truly interested in helping the homeless would limit them to the number of times within a given year that they could take advantage of their services. Doing so would send a loud and clear message that help is available, but nobody gets a free ride through life.

This would help the less fortunate in dire times of need while simultaneously encouraging them to seek gainful employment before their benefits within the organization run out. And this would echo a resounding message along the corridors that homeless people trek from state to state that Mobile really does care about them, but this is not the place to plant roots in unless you are willing to become productive within our community.

Roy D. Pope, Jr.

Busaba’s Thai Cuisine, Inc.

Mobile

Thanks for Homeless story

Kevin and Daniel:

Thank you both so much for the very sensitive way in which you dealt with a very painful and often touchy subject.

And Kevin, thanks a lot for “peripatetic.” It has been a long time since I’ve read a grownup word in a local paper.

Lyn Manz-Walters

Director, 15 Place

Trimming out of control

Mr. Holbert:

Two weeks ago Aspludh Tree Service trimmed the oak tree on the corner of Common Street and Dauphin Street. Today, (May 13) RDA Tree Service trimmed the same tree. We called the Department of Urban Forestry for the City of Mobile. (No respones yet) We called Alabama Power and Light and they said RDA doesn’t cut for Alabama Power and Light. We called RDA and they said they are contracted to Alabama Power and Light. We called Alabama Power and Light and they said a supervisor will call us. (Not Yet!)

When I went outside with the digital camera one of the cutters in the bucket yelled to another “hey, he is taking pictures”. They lower both buckets and left. When Deb went up the street to take a picture of an RDA pick-up truck the driver moved it forward and backward, (I guess he thought it would blur the picture) But if these are honest, hard working crews why do they have a digital camera phobia?

I understand the three-year growth cutting but does Asplundh?

Then another company, RDA does the cuts a tree that show signs of being recently chopped up, like no new growth.. Isn’t that maybe six years.

Well the tree looks horrible and what’s even better is that these companies are following behind one another. No need to worry, right? Wrong!

Alabama Power and Light is paying two companies to do the same job one after the other. Who pays Alabama Power and Light? You, me and the readers. The cost may seem small for one company doing the same thing another recently did but, it adds up. If Alabama Power and Light had a meter for wasteful spending I have a feeling it would be spinning faster than my meter on a hot August day. But costs add up and so do mistakes.

High energy costs are effecting everyone and we are trying to reduce “energy cost” and being ignored. We have the spiral florescent light bulbs and make every effort conserve energy. We try to leave a small carbon footprint but, seems our toes are getting stepped on.

Ken Behr and Deb Chatham

Mobile

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