There’s a nice pair of conjoined articles in the News-Gazette this morning, indicating that at least some local officials are considering options for the Safe Haven Tent Community that extend beyond shutting them down completely. The first article is a feature about a pair of volunteers, Chris Watson and Craig Kreutzer, working with the tent community. Here’s the lede:
At a time of severe economic recession, Champaign city officials shouldn’t be so quick to dismiss tent cities as a partial solution to homelessness, say two residential advisers at the Catholic Worker House.
Here’s a grab from later in the article:
A number of communities, particularly in the Northwest, have passed ordinances allowing for tent cities under certain criteria. They include Olympia, Wash., which allows churches that meet certain zoning standards to host a tent city for up to 90 days. Champaign and Urbana should consider similar ordinance changes, Watson and Kreutzer said.
And an update from last night’s Champaign City Council meeting:
At Tuesday night’s city council meeting, Jesse Masengale, a resident of Safe Haven and one of its founders, asked the city to consider leasing a vacant city lot as a new home for Safe Haven. “We’re willing to move,” he said. “What we want from the city is a spot … We’re not looking for a bailout. We’re looking to help ourselves.” A number of residents, both pro and con, spoke to council members for over an hour during public participation.
The second article indicates that Safe Haven might get a reprieve by appealing the decision that they need to disband by this Friday, July 17, but that the Catholic Worker House is shutting down for August, so they’ll need to relocate by then, at the very least. Here’s a hopeful sign:
Champaign Planning Director Bruce Knight said that he has done some research and found that, while Champaign, Urbana and Champaign County’s zoning ordinances do not allow tent cities, other cities across the county have fashioned specific ordinances to permit them, such as in Portland, Ore., and Olympia, Wash.
And then Champaign Mayor Jerry Schweighart speaks up:
Schweighart said he supports shutting down the Safe Haven Tent Community.”I think it’s illegal and violates several codes,” he said.
While Urbana Mayor Laurel Prussing sounded a bit more accommodating:
Prussing, while not explicitly endorsing tent cities, said that the homeless “need some place to stay that’s safe. I think we should look at what the possibilities are for all of these people,” she said, mentioning that it is a traditional role for churches to help the needy. “If existing social services can’t help some people find housing, “we could look and see what other cities are doing,” Prussing said.
Kudos to Mike Monson for these hopeful articles.
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If you liked this article, you might also enjoy:
Heather Dillon’s Safe Haven series: Part 1; Part 2; Part 3
Neil Parthun of the Public i provided an update late last week