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Editorial: Clearing out The Block

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

(Updated 3:00 am)

Greensboro police last week stepped up loitering enforcement and effectively cleared the place known as "The Block." Just like that.

Through a series of 30-minute patrols, officers shooed away the clusters of mostly men who routinely gather at the notorious hangout near the corner of South Elm and Eugene streets.

People who live in the neighborhood see The Block as a blight and a nuisance, if not a danger.

The owners of a nearby convenience store also blame The Block for panhandling, theft and fights on their premises. "If we only call the police once or twice in a day, that's a lucky day," the manager of the FastServ at Elm and Eugene, Sun Post, told the News & Record's Lorraine Ahearn last week.

Ron Surgeon, who once owned a McDonald's franchise at the same location, voiced similar concerns eight years ago.

What took the city so long?

The groups who congregate there also tend to be clients of the Greensboro Urban Ministry's soup kitchen and homeless shelter, as well as the HealthServe clinic. Most of them are addicted, unemployed or otherwise down on their luck.

The Block, of course, is only a symptom of other, tougher problems: homelessness, drug abuse (especially crack cocaine) and the state's failed mental health reform efforts, to name a few.

The opening of a revamped, county-funded substance-abuse treatment center on Wendover Avenue has been helpful but provides very limited bed space for crack addiction.

A planned new homeless day center at Murrow Boulevard and East Washington Street also should help. The county commissioners' pledge last week of $275,000 to help pay for the project should now allow construction to move forward.

The Block seems to have been around forever. But it drew renewed attention during a recent debate over the placement of artistic benches along a leg of the Downtown Greenway that passes through the area. Residents of the neighboring Warnersville community complained that the benches only made a bad situation worse, attracting more drug use, vagrancy and "lewd acts."

As the greenway project expands, says one advocate for the homeless, Michele Forrest, expect more harsh realities to be exposed to plainer view. A homeless camp in the Freeman Mill Road area lies in the path of the next leg of the greenway, she says.

As for the benches, they eventually were removed, though some people disputed allegations that they attracted unsavory behavior.

No one disputes the existence or impact of The Block.

Residents have a right to expect to live free of the daily nuisances, and worse, that came with it. But enforcement won't succeed in the long run without sustained attention to what drives people to street corners in the first place.

Until that happens, they simply will create a new Block somewhere else.

What do you think?

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Lakeshia

October 20, 2009 - 3:52 am EDT

Another whole group of folks totally unable to do for themselves -
This is a potential goldmine for some politician running for elective office - get these folks registered to vote and on Election Day provide all of them with transportation to the polls -

rightwingnemesis

October 20, 2009 - 8:00 am EDT

"Another whole group of folks totally unable to do for themselves -
This is a potential goldmine for some politician running for elective office - get these folks registered to vote and on Election Day provide all of them with transportation to the polls"

Ms. Lakeshia,
From your insensitive post, I assume you are 100% problem free. Congratulations!

Voice of Reason

October 20, 2009 - 11:17 am EDT

Perhaps she, like you and I, is not problem free. However, she's not creating one by being a homeless addict acting as a nuisance on the city. People don't get this way as a result of one or two incidents- its an ongoing thing, where friends and family have tried and tried, and ultimately given up on a person who has consistently let them down. I don't pity the leeches who populate "the Block," they've had plenty of chances. They've made their own beds.

Maybe most of us do have problems, but we don't stand around from sunup to sundown leaning on the same stretch of fence waiting for somebody else to solve them for us. And that's the difference.

Kesh

October 20, 2009 - 12:24 pm EDT

Amen!

Panacea

October 20, 2009 - 9:43 pm EDT

What's been overlooked here is that many of the homeless are mentally ill persons not on their meds. Many self medicate with drugs or alcohol.

The answer for the problem of homelessness is resources, including extensive inpatient and outpatient mental health care, drug rehab, and job training.

To say the homeless are "waiting for someone to solve their problem" oversimplifies the issue. Many homeless have no control over their mental illnesses: they didn't ask to be born bipolar or schitzophrenic. Many more homeless are honorable combat veterans suffering from traumatic brain injury or PTSD. I don't think vets should be dismissed as parasites after sacrificing their health for the security of our nation.

Ultimately, we have to ask ourselves a basic question: do we want to solve the problem of homelessness or not? If yes, then we have to treat the underlying problems and pull together as a community to help our unfortunate brothers and sisters. If the answer is no, then we can't complain about the problem we are unwilling to solve.

"Self reliance" is a grand American myth. No one survives outside the support of some sort of community or group: church, profession, family, clique, whatever you want to call it.

micheleforrest

October 20, 2009 - 10:58 pm EDT

"What's been overlooked here is that many of the homeless are mentally ill persons not on their meds. Many self medicate with drugs or alcohol. The answer for the problem of homelessness is resources, including extensive inpatient and outpatient mental health care, drug rehab, and job training."

True, but we don't have near enough treatment resources, and it's hard to get mentally stable or to stop drinking and drugging if you're sleeping outside. (We don't have enough housing assistance, either.) And the guys on the street tell me they don't need anymore job training, they just need jobs. It's hard to get one in this economy, though, particularly if you're homeless, or addicted, or have a criminal record. A lot of good guys with good skills never get a shot at a job. That's why a lot of them stood on that corner every day. It's not easy to get off the block. But it can be done. When I need help, my friends and family are there. We need to be the friends and family of the guys on the block. They've moved, but they're still hanging out. We can keep pushing them around, or we can get to know them, one-on-one, and try to help them reach home.

mundoqueganar

October 20, 2009 - 4:08 pm EDT

In a political/economic system that has no use for a significant section of the population, is anyone surprised that we also have police to dispose of the people for whom this system has no use? Just push them aside, sweep them under the rug. They're not people, after all, and if the people who drive by with their windows rolled up feel a little less guilt or fear (or whatever) on their way between Point A and Point B, well, isn't that what really matters?

You are a target for capitalist propaganda because you sit in the middle. The capitalist wants you to side with him and not with the poor because he's got everything to lose if you figure out his game. Adopting his beliefs and spouting them as your own is not "reason". It's a betrayal of your own and others' humanity.

micheleforrest

October 20, 2009 - 5:00 pm EDT

Lakeshia: There was a concerted effort during the last presidential election to sign up homeless folks to vote. The homeless people I know follow the news and politics and have strong opinions. They have every right to vote, and they should. However, I remain skeptical of the motivations of some of the get-out-the-voters who came to homeless events and did mass voter registration.

Voice of Reason: Homeless addicts standing on a visible street corner are a nuisance to a lot of people. And most of them did long ago burn their bridges with friends and family. But they weren't standing by that fence waiting for you to come solve their problems. Trust that. I know a lot of those guys, and if you're willing, I'd be glad to introduce you to some of them. Addiction sucks, but it's an illness. And unlike the people in my neighborhood. who have health insurance to pay for treatment and strong family and friend networks to provide support, those guys who were on the block don't have a lot of anything. They don't need your pity, though. Maybe a little bit of understanding. Again, I'd love to take you to meet some of them. They're good guys. You might be surprised. I don't think they need to be hanging out on the block drinking all day, either, but people get clean and sober when they're ready, and in the meantime, we all need to know that somebody cares.

mundoqueganar: You're welcome to your opinion, but here's mine: Anti-capitalist rants make me tired. You can sit behind a keyboard and engage in theoretical wars over political and economic philosophies, or, you can get out in the real world and make a real difference in the real lives of real people. And P.S.: Anti-capitalists always go after the cops, but the police in this town are strong allies in our outreach to the homeless. They are good to our homeless friends -- providing them with blankets, coats, boots, etc., and linking them to resources. They often work tirelessly to get homeless people help. My outreach partner and I consistently get more support from GPD in serving homeless people than we do from any homeless services agency. Don't talk smack about cops here. They're doing their job in enforcing the loitering ordinance on the block. And you have no idea what all else they're doing to help the homeless. But we do. And thank God for 'em.

Michele Forrest
http://chosenfast.com/
http://twitter.com/caramichele

Voice of Reason

October 20, 2009 - 6:08 pm EDT

Ms. Forrest,

I've met more of them than you might think, thank you very much. I deal with them on a daily basis, in fact, and when I do deal with them, they aren't good guys at all. And I disagree, they are waiting for folks to come by and solve their problems. Problems such as: who will give me change for booze and drugs, or who out here is an easy target that I can rob to buy booze or drugs. We do agree on one thing though, they don't need my pity.

micheleforrest

October 20, 2009 - 7:15 pm EDT

Go with me. I'm serious. Maybe you deal with them in a different setting. Go with me and hang out and see a different side of people. You have nothing to lose, and you just might gain something. The offer is always open.

micheleforrest

October 20, 2009 - 5:19 pm EDT

I blogged the editorial, with this note added:

The editorial says: "The groups who congregate there also tend to be clients of the Greensboro Urban Ministry’s soup kitchen and homeless shelter..." This is incorrect. While the guys on the block do eat at Potter's House (soup kitchen), none of them stay at Weaver House (homeless shelter). Greensboro Urban Ministry has a strict policy that any shelter guest found hanging out on the block gets kicked out. You won't find shelter guests on the block.

Good editorial. I appreciate the attention to the issues facing homeless folks in Greensboro.

Michele Forrest
http://chosenfast.com/
http://twitter.com/caramichele

mundoqueganar

October 21, 2009 - 9:03 am EDT

Michele,
You can speculate about what I do, and don't do, that's fine. It's cliche internet sparring, so devoid of any verifiability as to be meaningless. But let's keep it on the subject: the fact is, these cops that you praise had a job to do--clear off the undesireables--and they did it. That's something they do EVERY DAY, in some form or fashion, with regular humiliation and occasional violence. So who cares if some cop gave a guy a blanket? When the order came down, that same cop said, "Get off this corner." I doubt the guys on the block are "god blessing 'em" for that particular act of kindness.

Maybe the guys on the corner that you talk to don't tell you about how the cops treat them and the people they know. Maybe they don't trust you like that. Maybe you've never asked them. Maybe you've heard answers that you didn't like, and aren't talking about that. These are speculations of mine about you and your interactions on "the block". I can't say that they are true. But I can say that when the cops have a job to do, its people on the block that catch the raw end. And that is in the service of a system. You can call that theoretical, and it is. It is also true.

And frankly, if all you've got for a homeless person is a blanket (or a pair of boots, or a referral to services, or some other individualized, atomized response that avoids the root, systemic causes of poverty), you're not doing them any favors. You could be out there every day, winning (in your mind) the right to speculate about the person you're arguing with online, but making no difference whatsoever in the organized cruelty that capitalism creates.