Wow, the Iowa City Council & the Iowa City Police Have Cleaned up the North Side of the Ped Mall!

Wow, what a change the Iowa City Council and the Iowa City Police Department have wrought on the north side of the Ped Mall! I wish I'd taken before and after photos. All I've got are after pictures.

When I previously wrote about City Councilor Terry Dickens' preoccupation with no more than what was right outside his doorstep (I'm standing by that statement, by the way), I didn't know how bad it was outside the doorstep of his jewelry store, Herteen & Stocker. I hadn't walked through the north side of the Ped Mall until I locked up my bike at the corner of Gilbert and Washington Streets outside the Commerce Center and couldn't find my bike key after removing it from my fanny pack prior to RAGBRAI.

I walked uptown to find my husband's Towncrest bus to get a ride home, and oh my goodness. There were people hanging out and also living at the northern side of the Ped Mall, and I had mixed feelings about it. It's true that we have homeless people living in our midst, but not all of them need to be homeless.

One transient, I know for a fact, blows his monthly disability check on "drugs and women," and lives on the street after living it up for a few days each month and running out of money. He should probably have someone managing his financial affairs for him so he could live in an apartment instead of on the Ped Mall, but he prefers to live the way he does. He refuses all offers of assistance. Don't think these people haven't been offered help, because they have been.

Gazette reporter Gregg Hennigan reported that Chrissy Canganelli, the Iowa City Shelter House executive director, said that the community should realign its services to help homeless people who refuse help.

As a former social worker who used to work with the homeless, I know that Ms. Canganelli of all people should know how difficult it is to help people who refuse help. She won't let intoxicated homeless people stay at Shelter House. So the city or the county is supposed to provide a "wet shelter"? They already do. It's called the Johnson County Jail, or as they'd like to call the new jail that keeps getting voted down, the "Justice" Center.

One third of the homeless are veterans, and 45% of those veterans are mentally ill; half have substance abuse issues. They are extremely resistant to intervention, as Chrissy Canganelli knows. They often self-medicate with alcohol and drugs. When I got the life stories of people with addiction problems, whether they were homeless or not, they typically were trying to numb themselves to memories of extreme trauma, either childhood trauma, combat trauma, or both. They were hurting and they wanted to forget, any way they could forget. My heart went out to them, but they're hard to help. I know a clinical psychologist, a relative of sorts, who worked for years with sexual abuse victims and told me, "Honestly, I'm relieved when they're in jail because at least I know where they are and know they're safe."

The suicide rate for sexual abuse victims is very high.

First, don't enable the homeless to pursue their addictions. Second, I know you have good intentions, but don't misunderstand what they need or want. Don't give them money or food. When I was downtown talking to police officers Colin Fowler and Dustin Carolan, Colin picked up a hot sandwich wrapped in paper that someone had given to a homeless man. The homeless man had already discarded the hot sandwich, uneaten, on the Ped Mall. Money wasted, food wasted.

Homeless people don't want people to give them food. They want money for cigarettes, drugs, and alcohol. They can get three square meals a day around town and they know where, so any money you give them will just go to buy their poison of choice and put them more at risk for arrest and incarceration.

The next time you feel the urge to give a homeless person money, plug change into one of the purple meters downtown (it's a parking meter painted purple on the Ped Mall). The money goes to the agencies that help the homeless without enabling the homeless to be more intoxicated, more vulnerable, and more likely to be victimized than they already are.

I was impressed with how nonconfrontational and reasonable Officers Fowler and Carolan were with those hanging out on the Ped Mall. They know who people are, they know what their habits are, and they talk to them as people, not suspects. I'm glad that these are two of the officers chosen for this daytime beat. I've known Officer Fowler for a long time. He's a cyclist and has always been honest, friendly, and trustworthy. Officer Carolan (pronounced "Carlyn" like the comedian) started in July, he said, and was Colin's partner for the day.

Colin said he feels like his job is more like social work than police work any more, and I think that's a change from the way the Iowa City Police Department used to operate. I'm not saying that that's the way police officers always operate, but with the homeless, a social worky, nonconfrontational approach is the way it should be. He and Dustin were talking to the folks on the bench before them, not arresting anybody.

As for the transient who pulled a knife on several people in the Ped Mall in mid-August 2013, can anyone honestly say with a straight face that they're sorry to see him in jail? He's been in prison before for stabbing one or more people. It's not like he's never followed through on his threats. Even the social workers who work with the homeless know he's dangerous. 

It was time for a clean-up. If you want to help, volunteer at the Crisis Center. Volunteer at the Shelter House. Donate food or money to the Crisis Center Food Bank. Donate to the Salvation Army. Donate to the Mid-Eastern Community Mental Health Clinic on College Street. Plug the purple meter on the Ped Mall. Don't just sit around and cry in your beer.