I saw an article about the renovation of a Masonic Temple in Downtown Kalamazoo on the M-live page. I think our Masonic Temple downtown would be a great place to turn into a hotel like in Kalamazoo. I hope our other Temple in Old Town turns our looking as nice as the Kalamazoo building.
Looks like the city has finally lost patience with the Back 40 crowd and will be clearing it using COVID transmission as cover. This is the land behind the properties on the east side of Larch between Saginaw and Shiawassee. I remember years ago they were going to go tear down the camp. I can't remember if they did it and the residents came back, or if they backed off at the last minute. Personally, I'm fairly ambivalent, though my gut is to always a hands-off approach unless the rough-livers are being a serious harm to other communities or themselves. As far as I'm concerned, they've been very quiet in recent years.
LANSING — City officials say they eventually plan to clear a homeless encampment in Lansing, citing concerns about health issues there, including trash, unsupervised fires, and human waste.
That goes against guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that caution against breaking up homeless camps when individualized housing is not available.
The conditions at the encampment, in a vacant lot at the corner of North Larch Street and East Saginaw Highway, are "inhumane" and "unsafe" enough to merit clearing people out despite that guidance, said Kim Coleman, Lansing's Director of Human Relations and Community Services.
Coleman said the city doesn't have a deadline for clearing the camp, but that she wants people to relocate "as soon as possible" to shelters or other housing.
Other's note the that the reason given is pretty bogus given the kind of pandemic we're experiencing where the more space the better.
Shelters in Lansing have beds available, Coleman said, although in many cases those facilities are sleeping multiple people to a room in spaced out arrangements. That's not equal to having "individual housing," which the CDC recommends as a condition for breaking up homeless camps.
"Clearing encampments can cause people to disperse throughout the community and break connections with service providers," the guidance says. "This increases the potential for infectious disease spread."
Chris Pruett knows the challenges of homelessness firsthand. He has an apartment now, but spent years living on the streets, often sleeping in a woodlot or under an overhang downtown.
"My question is, Why now?" Pruett said of plans to break up the Back 40. "Why now in the middle of a pandemic?"
In April, Coleman said that, although the city was strongly encouraging people to come inside to shelters, officials did not plan to break up camps like the Back 40 unless violence or other safety issues arose.
There are many solutions for homelessness in general but when it comes down to individual people or cases like this it can be difficult to do the right thing for them and the neighborhood. One thing could be civilizing the camp into more of a "free economic refugee campground" with sanitary facilities for toilets and showers etc. It would be how we treat refugees in other countries why not here? I have never heard of this camp before, it seems to be out of sight and to have been there for some time so what is the big deal now I wonder? All people need a place to just be. If the camp needs to be cleared then I think the city should offer another better place to camp for these folks that don't want to go to a shelter. Whatever we do, I think we don't have to be cruel. A more innovative and charitable approach to this would be better than just saying, there are beds in the shelters go there!
Yes, it seems cold and heartless. It's out of touch with social distancing and the CDC's recommendations. The city wants them gone and to not be "their problem" anymore. Homelessness is a symptom of the larger inequalities in our system and poor access to care (education, safety, healthcare, financial, addiction, food, and more).
The article mentions that Eyde owns the land. I'm surprised Eyde is not being fined for not taking care of the property or paying to help clean it up. Seems the city is doing Eyde's dirty work. At this point, Eyde should donate the land to the city for a park and then they city can stop spending time, money, and resources on to help one of the riches land owners in the area.
I'm glad you brought up that last paragraph. It seems to me that there must be something in the works for the land for them to all of a sudden be so eager to remove the residents. BTW, it does look like the city fined them for trash on the property on the 4th and last year, and weeds/grass in 2014. But with a company with their kind of resources, I imagine the fines aren't big enough for them to care.
Look, if they were doing this and promising to put those into transition housing that want that, I'd be more understanding. But this current plan doesn't make sense at the current time. There is something more to this than the city feigning concern for their wellbeing. Seriously, we've had at least 19 murders in town this year - at least 7 in the last month; this might be a record. The city needs to concentrate on THAT and not with a community that it minding its business literally out-of-sight in the Back 40 and in the woods south of Kircher Field.
Anyway, here is the land the Eydes own; part of the Back 40 - the northern most end - is owned by someone else.
Before Virg declined to run for re-election, he was involved with the Eydes in putting up an affordable housing apartment building here, but it never happened. It looks like the Eydes moved that project to the Chief Cart lot. It makes me wonder if they have even more housing still planned for this site.
I plan to write to the Mayor about this subject, meanwhile, they could put some portapotties a trash dumpster and some fire rings out there just to help a little. Why would this be such an outrageous idea is a good question? This could be a good place for a tiny house community, small individual homes with a central kitchen, bath, and laundry in a central community building.
This seems like a poor location for market price housing in Lansing, so why not build something there that helps people?
I finally called about the sewer fumes that have been very strong these past few weeks. The city called back and explained that the fumes are a result of parts of the system being open while the sewer pipe lining is going on. This allows air to flow into the pipes pushing the sewer fumes up out of the manholes behind my building. They can not do anything about it until the construction is over. I hope that will be soon I could smell it in my apartment the other night! I was glad to hear it was not some sort of spill or leak into the river causing the bad smell.
Oh, the housing they are building in this area wouldn't be market-rate. It's going to be senior apartments and subsidized/income-restricted housing. Still, if that's the plan for the Back 40, they need to be upfront about it.
I've been wondering what that foul smell is. Every single time I'm on Cedar where 496 goes above it I smell it. I'm glad you looked into it, and I'm glad to hear it's not something broken rather sewer construction. It is foul, foul stuff.
I agree about the crime lately needing to be a focus. My house was the victim of a random(ish, probably meant for the neighbor) driveby and my, questionable rental neighbor who trashed a house, was murdered a week later. This was a quiet neighborhood. I can't get over the uptick in murders this last year. Very concerning.
I'm mixed about the back 40, but they're clearly doing next to nothing when when it comes to major crimes. I didn't even know that area existed until the article and I regularly drive by thar area!
I'd rather see them get help, which isn't so religious based, discriminatory and corrupt but thats hard to come by.
Wait, your's was the house on the news about the morning drive-by a few days ago?! Like everywhere, I heard violent crime had gotten bad by the late-80's, here, but we'd largely fixed it by the end of the 90's. We had another homicide a day or two ago bringing us to 20. That has to be a record, right. I was able to find was between 2005 to 2019 was that we've averaged 10 a year, and that's thrown off by 2007 when we had a serial killer; we're literally double the average this year. Anyone able to find any states for the late-80's/early-90's?
Comments
Lansing plans to clear 'Back 40' homeless camp, citing health issues
Other's note the that the reason given is pretty bogus given the kind of pandemic we're experiencing where the more space the better.
The article mentions that Eyde owns the land. I'm surprised Eyde is not being fined for not taking care of the property or paying to help clean it up. Seems the city is doing Eyde's dirty work. At this point, Eyde should donate the land to the city for a park and then they city can stop spending time, money, and resources on to help one of the riches land owners in the area.
Look, if they were doing this and promising to put those into transition housing that want that, I'd be more understanding. But this current plan doesn't make sense at the current time. There is something more to this than the city feigning concern for their wellbeing. Seriously, we've had at least 19 murders in town this year - at least 7 in the last month; this might be a record. The city needs to concentrate on THAT and not with a community that it minding its business literally out-of-sight in the Back 40 and in the woods south of Kircher Field.
Anyway, here is the land the Eydes own; part of the Back 40 - the northern most end - is owned by someone else.
Before Virg declined to run for re-election, he was involved with the Eydes in putting up an affordable housing apartment building here, but it never happened. It looks like the Eydes moved that project to the Chief Cart lot. It makes me wonder if they have even more housing still planned for this site.
This seems like a poor location for market price housing in Lansing, so why not build something there that helps people?
I've been wondering what that foul smell is. Every single time I'm on Cedar where 496 goes above it I smell it. I'm glad you looked into it, and I'm glad to hear it's not something broken rather sewer construction. It is foul, foul stuff.
I'm mixed about the back 40, but they're clearly doing next to nothing when when it comes to major crimes. I didn't even know that area existed until the article and I regularly drive by thar area!
I'd rather see them get help, which isn't so religious based, discriminatory and corrupt but thats hard to come by.