The Best Intentions….
City Staff have recently received inquiries regarding the re-development of a former nursing home as a homeless shelter. I must admit that I am not excited at the prospect of needed and well intentioned project negatively impacting a part of town the way another local shelter has. It saddens me greatly to think about the property values that have been wiped out over the last 20+ years on Avenue G. I used to get my haircut, my bike and car fixed, a convertible top sewed, bought groceries for my restaurant all on Ave G. I remember walking from school friend’s homes over to Ben Franklins. I sent my very first fax from Ramona Courts. Over time things changed, as is the norm, the biggest change, however, had a disproportionally devastating impact to the area. Locating of homeless shelter right in the middle of an established neighborhood and business district was in retrospect probably not the best idea. All one has to do is drive around the area to see its impact. While I would very much like to see a new homeless shelter in the area I sure hope that this same mistake is not made again. I would very much like reader feedback on this issue. Feel free to leave a comment on this blog or call/ email me. My email address is tony@tonyjeter.com.
Tags: Community Development, Homeless, Planning
May 8th, 2009 at 10:11 am
Tony,
I too remember what a nice area Avenue G was at one time. I would not want another area of town to suffer the same consequences that this area has. And there seems to be no turning back at this point as far as Ave G is concerned.
I’m sure the homeless shelter on Ave G was well intentioned and no one thought that the downgrading of that area would be the result. But obviously, we’ve all seen what has happened.
And isn’t this the normal modus operandi by government? City, county or federal. They think they can fix a problem only to make it much worse, and then they turn around and do the same thing again.
To do it again in another city neighborhood would be a disaster. Surely the City officials realize this. Or perhaps not!
After befriending a couple of residents at the shelter, I’ve come to realize that a lot of the people in this area are homeless by choice. They do not want to keep a job. Most are getting government subsidies and do not want to work because it decreases this subsidy. The homeless shelter we have now obviously does not better the quality of life for anyone.
I really wish our City leaders would look at how the Ave G situation has completely destroyed an area of town that holds very, very fond memories for most of the long time Temple residents and be smart enough to not do it again.
Please keep all us up to date on the situation.
Thanks for your blog!
May 9th, 2009 at 7:27 pm
Guns don’t kill people, people kill people. The same can be said of homeless shelters. When run by people that are professionals in the field of homelessness they are typically unnoticeable in the neighborhood. When they are run by people looking for a cheap labor pool, they are typically a disaster.
May 9th, 2009 at 11:24 pm
While I understand the concern about property values, where would you have a facility of this type? It needs to be centrally located because most of the people would not have any transportation. Are the suburbs an answer to your problem about property values. Retreat and insulate.
May 10th, 2009 at 7:35 pm
Great Comments! My next post will be on this topic.