SHAME ON COLUMBIA SOUTH CAROLINA! THERE'S A NEED FOR SIX TIMES MORE SHELTER BEDS THAN THEY HAVE!

From the article:.

Police officers will now be assigned to patrol the city center and keep homeless people out. They will also be instructed to strictly enforce the city’s “quality of life” laws, including bans on loitering, public urination, and other violations. And just to ensure that no one slips through, the city will set up a hotline so local businesses and residents can report the presence of a homeless person to police..


In order to accommodate all the homeless people who will now be banned from downtown, the city will partner with a local charity to keep an emergency shelter on the outskirts of town open 24 hours a day. However, it’s unlikely the shelter, which can handle 240 guests, will be enough to handle the local homeless population, which numbers more than six times the available beds..

THINK PROGRESS article on COLUMBIA SOUTH CAROLINA'S CRIMINALIZATION OF THE HOMELESS


COLUMBIA NEEDS TO DO MORE RESEARCH AND LOOK AT WHAT OTHER PLACES ARE DOING TO POSITIVELY INTEGRATE THE HOMELESS AND POOR INTO SOCIETY. Though the shelter may be at the edge of town and keep the homeless rounded up and ghettoized, what exactly do they expect people to do all day, sit around and wait for death? Columbia needs to look into providing showers, feeds, and places to lock up possessions, legal assigned parking (check out Santa Barbara's program), homeless RV parks, and think outside the box for temporary shelters.