Just tried again to read the lengthy story in The State that begins thusly:
The longstanding debate of how to deal with downtown Columbia’s homeless population has flared again, this time triggered by a decision to stop feeding about 150 people evening meals at a downtown church.
Sunday was the last day after three years of being fed free suppers at 5 p.m. daily that homeless people could drop by Ebenezer Lutheran Church at 1301 Richland St. for a nighttime meal.
An agreement between the church and the Salvation Army expired Sunday just as arrangements to move the feeding program to another site fell apart in recent weeks – even after the church offered to extend the program until the end of the year…
… and I’m as confused as ever. In the sense of not being able to tell what’s going on well enough to form an opinion.
The saga of Columbia’s inability to cope with homelessness downtown has just gotten so complicated now that I don’t know whom to blame, whom to root for, or what to recommend we do next.
Anyone out there understand what’s going on better than I do? If so, I’d appreciate hearing from you…
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Maybe set up some tables in the Palmetto Compress building?
I guess it would be too “ironic” to use meal tax money to actually feed hungry people instead of buying old buildings.
Priorities…
$5 million would have those 150 people eating at Ruth Chris every night for years.
But why is the city funding meals for the homeless in the first place? Isn’t that what churches and the Salvation Army are for? But I can’t help but sit back, shake my head, and laugh at the stupidity that goes on in Columbia.
Or the State could involuntarily house the mentally ill and addicted at the Bull Street facility and give real support to those who are curable and hold those who are not.
Wanting to be homeless isn’t a crime. Neither is the way that both government and faith – based institutions have enabled the downtown homeless congregation. But it doesn’t mean either approach is alright. Poverty may be an economic condition, but homelessness is an altogether different story. It’s a choice – I’m just not sure that those doing the choosing have the competence necessary to make the choice.
However, I don’t know anything about this – except it is a completely broken situation.
The city is only an interim purchaser of PCW.
Until they aren’t.
So the city is now in the real estate business. The previous owners couldn’t sell it, now that the city owns it how much of a profit do they expect to earn on this property. If nothing, then how much did they invest to break even. Is the city going to pay the property taxes they’re now losing?
Kathryn,
At best, that means the City is the one taking the finacial loss. At worst, it’s a purgatory. All that is for sure is that Columbia will now find it even more difficult to tear down the structure.
That works for me.
I have confidence in the people working to make this happen. I back it with my tax dollars, and countless hours….
If it was such a good deal, why couldn’t those who wanted to save the building gather the funds to do so and remake the building into whatever they wanted?
This was a poor use of public funds. The squeaky wheel got the grease while the hungry people got the shaft.
So you’re okay with the city throwing tax dollars down the toilet. You just said you’re okay with the city buying property and selling it at a loss. You’re exactly the type of people that belong in Columbia and out of Lexington.
I couldn’t make heads or tails of the State article – had no idea what could or should be done in Columbia. I wonder how other comparable sized cities are handling their homeless population – any success stories out there?
We, as a society, and as a community, need to help the homeless. The faith community is not enough, nor is it fair to expect them to fix our problems.
There is some NIMBY at work, not that I, who also live in a neighborhood stressed by urban issues, fault them much.
I do not understand Cameron Runyan’s position on this…..
“We, as a society, and as a community, need to help the homeless”
Where in the city’s constitution or by-laws is that written?
It’s in the article right after Taxpayer Bail-Outs of Prominent Citizens, which is preceded by the article entitled Squandering the Most Public Resources for the Least Relevant Civic Undertakings. Immediately following is the article on Self-Serving Personnel Manipulations Necessitating the Fleecing of the Public.
I read that story and was confused as you are. Of course I only read it once. Maybe if I went back and read it a couple more times, I could figure out who is doing what and why.
It is a mess of a story.
It took twenty failed attempts to reuse the DuPre building in the Vista, but it is one of the anchors of the thriving Vista. It takes a certain kind of vision to successfully adaptively reuse property. People with such a track record are vying to develop PCW.
The homelessness issue is a lot tougher, but made easier by the absence of EW Cromartie, who blocked the “blue ribbon ” panel a few years back.
Yes, I am proudly a Columbia taxpayer. All y’all who don’t want to pay our taxes, please stay where you are. Plenty of people want to live here.
I made an editing change in that comment. In the second graf, it had said, The honelessness issue.
As typos go, I kind of liked it, though. I’m guessing “honelessness” is a failure to stay sharp…
Why didn’t autocorrect fix that one? Is honelessness a thing?
“thriving Vista”? Are you living in 2002? I drove past there twice a day and it’s starting to look run down and more like Main Street.
I don’t doubt Cromartie was part of the problem, but I don’t think a single person was responsible for this mess, he was just the one who got caught.
Where have these people who are vying to develop been up until now? I seriously doubt there are people lined up who hadn’t already tried with the previous owners. Spin it how you like, but it’s still a big unusable building that is now the responsibility of the city taxpayers to deal with.
Yeah, Columbia is apparently popular with the homeless and the other welfare recipients. Columbia is kind of the Section 8 city of South Carolina.
Section 8?
Do you mean that in the housing sense, or the military sense?
Housing… but either might work in this city. 4F.
Well, if you think the Vista is hurting, we are obviously in different realities. Urban Outfitters is only the latest retailer to open…..
I think it’s time to admit defeat in the war on poverty. I for one salute our new impoverished
overunderlords.http://bit.ly/10weQeG