04/11/08:Debate Here Over Homeless Takes Hostile Turn - Madison-area Urban Ministry
Debate Here Over Homeless Takes Hostile Turn
The Capital Times :: METRO :: C1
Friday, April 11, 2008
Pat Schneider
Even as advocates for Madison's homeless population are challenging the larger community to join their battle against the causes of homelessness, anger about the presence of homeless people is bubbling from several quarters.
Service providers, activists and the formerly homeless stood in solidarity in the food pantry of the Community Action Coalition Thursday and, through the local media, challenged Madison to meet the homeless with compassion and work for economic and social justice.
"Our social compact is fraying," Linda Ketcham, director of Madison-area Urban Ministry, told a line of news cameras and reporters. The community, led by people of faith, has a responsibility to address the poverty that leads to homelessness, she said.
The news conference was called in response to increasingly hostile public debate over how the city treats homeless people, a dispute magnified by the Madison Police Department's implication that transients may have been involved in two homicides in recent weeks.
"We must face the fact that poverty does exist in Madison," said Richard Wildermuth, president of the CAC board of directors, who once was homeless himself. "The solution is individual commitment and collective action."
The city's welcoming attitude has attracted more homeless people, and some beggars are becoming increasingly aggressive, police Lt. Joe Balles told The Associated Press.
"We've kind of institutionalized an enabling environment downtown for this transient population to grow unchecked," Balles said. "They are downtown preying largely off of that student population and really preying off a lot of our good compassion as Madisonians. In a way, they are taking advantage of us."
That certainly was a dominant sentiment on The Capital Times' online forum that grew out of a story this newspaper ran on Thursday about the efforts of advocates for the homeless to counter scapegoating. And David Blaska, a former Dane County Board member who now writes a Daily Page blog that earlier had criticized the way the city deals with homeless people, jumped back in on Thursday by writing "Oh no. Now I have gone and done it. I have offended some of Madison's most fragile sensibilities. The 'homeless advocates' are in a snit."
Asked what the group planned to do about inflammatory media depictions of the homeless, like those of blogger Blaska who has called for the resurrection of the workhouse for "vagrants," Ketcham replied: "First and foremost, we'll pray for them."
A public planning meeting on strategies to fight homelessness will be held at 4 p.m. Tuesday at the Social Justice Center, 1202 Williamson St.
The Capital Times :: METRO :: C1
Friday, April 11, 2008
Pat Schneider
Even as advocates for Madison's homeless population are challenging the larger community to join their battle against the causes of homelessness, anger about the presence of homeless people is bubbling from several quarters.
Service providers, activists and the formerly homeless stood in solidarity in the food pantry of the Community Action Coalition Thursday and, through the local media, challenged Madison to meet the homeless with compassion and work for economic and social justice.
"Our social compact is fraying," Linda Ketcham, director of Madison-area Urban Ministry, told a line of news cameras and reporters. The community, led by people of faith, has a responsibility to address the poverty that leads to homelessness, she said.
The news conference was called in response to increasingly hostile public debate over how the city treats homeless people, a dispute magnified by the Madison Police Department's implication that transients may have been involved in two homicides in recent weeks.
"We must face the fact that poverty does exist in Madison," said Richard Wildermuth, president of the CAC board of directors, who once was homeless himself. "The solution is individual commitment and collective action."
The city's welcoming attitude has attracted more homeless people, and some beggars are becoming increasingly aggressive, police Lt. Joe Balles told The Associated Press.
"We've kind of institutionalized an enabling environment downtown for this transient population to grow unchecked," Balles said. "They are downtown preying largely off of that student population and really preying off a lot of our good compassion as Madisonians. In a way, they are taking advantage of us."
That certainly was a dominant sentiment on The Capital Times' online forum that grew out of a story this newspaper ran on Thursday about the efforts of advocates for the homeless to counter scapegoating. And David Blaska, a former Dane County Board member who now writes a Daily Page blog that earlier had criticized the way the city deals with homeless people, jumped back in on Thursday by writing "Oh no. Now I have gone and done it. I have offended some of Madison's most fragile sensibilities. The 'homeless advocates' are in a snit."
Asked what the group planned to do about inflammatory media depictions of the homeless, like those of blogger Blaska who has called for the resurrection of the workhouse for "vagrants," Ketcham replied: "First and foremost, we'll pray for them."
A public planning meeting on strategies to fight homelessness will be held at 4 p.m. Tuesday at the Social Justice Center, 1202 Williamson St.
Submitted by wnpj on Fri, 04/25/2008 - 3:45pm.