Removal won’t help homelessness

I WAS OPTIMISTIC when I read the headline in this morning’s paper “Alliance proposes homeless solution.” Then I got to the third paragraph and saw that once again, the solution means moving folks living on our streets out of sight.

While I applaud any efforts to “seriously” care for people experiencing homelessness, I have to ask, “Who does this solution benefit?” As a long-time advocate for neighbors living on the streets, I have heard from people over and over that busing them far from town, such as to MDC or to the emergency winter shelter in the old jail, can be isolating and dehumanizing, triggering trauma for people who’ve been jailed for the crime of being homeless and removing them from the community they so desperately want to join.

Effective solutions to homelessness need to arise from the people experiencing this injustice working alongside the business community, the city and the fine agencies who work every day to move people from isolation and trauma to housing and community.

The proposal by HopeWorks to build comprehensive services and housing into a redesign at its location near Downtown is promising in that its location is where our suffering neighbors already live in conditions unimaginable to people who sleep in a bed every night. I urge the business community to join with the visioning of HopeWorks, Health Care for the Homeless, Steelbridge, Heading Home, the city, faith groups and other agencies to find a solution that welcomes people on the margins of our community into the heart of our community with love, resources and friendship that lift us all from despair to hope. AMY L. MALICK Albuquerque