Poll: Thoughts On The City Closing The Sidewalks Around Larry Rice’s Homeless Shelter
The city’s efforts to address concerns raised by neighbors of Larry Rice’s New Life Evangelistic Center (NLEC), a homeless shelter, took a new twist recently.
Thursday morning [9/6], the city cleaned the streets and sidewalks and set up barricades on sidewalks, where large groups of homeless people have been camping. (KMOV: City moves up clean-up schedule downtown)
Below are a couple of pics I took that afternoon:
I posted the second pic to the UrbanReviewSTL Facebook page (link) and many comments came in — some glad the city finally took action and others defending Larry Rice and asking where the homeless are supposed to sleep with Lucas Park closed for renovations and now the sidewalks outside Rice’s shelter closed.
Given the divergent views on Facebook I knew this would make a good poll topic. The poll is in the right sidebar, the provided answers are presented in a random order.
— Steve Patterson
Closing the sidewalks is a temporary “solution.” Larry & Chris Rice have said publicly what goes on outside their facility is not their responsibility. So, women, men and children sleeping, eating, drinking, urinating and defecating on the sidewalks around NLEC are not NLEC’s problem? What about adult fights and adult drug use around NLEC?
Closing the sidewalks forced people that would have stayed on the sidewalk to go inside NLEC, or work with Bill Siedhoff to find housing elsewhere.
It’s hard to post here. The more characters I type the harder it is to type.
Anyway, the Slay administration took immediate action here. Long-term solutions are in the works. The most important thing we as a community can do is support getting social workers on the street, actually literally walking the streets, daily. They offer help. And the police must also do their job. Help and enforcement restrict enabling. Steve, why do we have a budget 1/6 the size of NLEC’s at the Bridge, yet we afford a social worker (Jamie) and NLEC has NONE. PS, who manages NLEC at night? The Rices and Rev. Redlick go home. Who stays the night and manages NLEC? Answer: “homeless” people the Rices have trained. That my friend, is crazy.
Correct. As much as Rice likes to portray himself as helping the homeless, he uses them as pawns in his own little power kingdom. If he really wanted to help, he would not require them to attend ‘religious’ services, wouldn’t be a bad neighbor, would have responsible people in charge of NLEC, and so on. At least the City of St. Louis is taking steps to correct the issue. Now the question is how do we get the surrounding communites to help out and stop the dumping?
Brad, you use a key word that is often forgotten in discussions of the homeless: enabling. Enabling is when you’re manipulated into ostensibly “helping” someone, when in reality you are actually aiding them in continuing their cycle of abuse, addiction, homelessness, etc. The Rices, I sincerely believe unknowingly, have become enablers.
Have to agree, along with giving cash to people holding cardboard signs along the sides of the road. The other half of the equation are suburban cities who are OK with “sending” their homeless “problems” into the city. Job loss, mental illness and drug abuse are not solely urban issues, and suburban areas need to do more than just buying one-way bus tickets!
How do you access the poll from your iPhone??
You have to switch from the mobile layout to the full layout, this option is at the bottom.
Got it. Thank you Steve.
Clearly the folks “living” outside of Mr. Rices’ shelter could not continue to do so. The stink was over powering, many of the people mentally ill and the conditions worse than squalor. It was dangerous for the people on the street and those passing by. Our sidewalks and parks are not dwellings and the answer to the homeless problem isn’t bending the rules to change that. Our government has a constitutional obligation to provide rule of law and they finally did so in this situation.
I feel sorry for the St.Louis Police, Bill Siedhoff and his staff that has to deal with this never ending “Drama”. NLEC, The Bridge,St,Pat`s it doesn`t matter, ( all these shelters, in their own ways are trying ) But, moving homeless from place to place all day and all night long, does not WORK. A group of homeless together always ends up in drinking, drugs,pee,and blood. To help homeless people you have to remove them from the shelter to shelter to street life. Put them in a new safe envirnoment, help them get work, show them kindness,and keep them away from the peer pressure. It has been done several times. It Works. There is just never the enough people to help. Fighting Homelessness is everyone`s Responseabilty ! Were are the churchs and the good men and women of God, that are willing to help their fellow human beings?
As a board member at The Bridge I know first hand the efforts taken to change their lives. We have social workers and occupational therapists on staff working everyday to get them employed and housed.
You are all self centered fools. You swore before God to uphold the Constitution, to protect and defend it. Now here you are denying these people their inalienable right to Liberty. What two faced bastards you are.
Which god would that be?
If we threw them in jail for being vagrants (like we used to), we’d be denying them their Liberty. People are told by the government every day where they cannot walk, where they cannot park, where they cannot take their guns, how fast they can drive and to bend over before they get on an airplane. Abuse the public realm and your “rights” can and should be restricted. You have other options, use them . . . .