Local group seeks creation of winter homeless shelter
Published Thursday, September 18, 2008
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Stumble It!FAIRBANKS — After operating the weekend soup kitchen at Immaculate Conception Catholic Church for the past few years, Cindy Fields said she’s exasperated with the thought of another homeless person having to survive a bitter Alaska winter.
Fields and a handful of volunteers from St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church, Immaculate Conception Catholic Church and the First Presbyterian Church of Fairbanks are hosting a summit, open to the public, to talk about a winter homeless shelter.
“No one in their right mind would choose to sleep in a snow bank,” Fields said.
The idea is to create a “damp” shelter to help with chronic inebriates who are often victims of hypothermia and even death from exposure.
The idea for a damp shelter would allow those who might be intoxicated to have a place that would keep them out of extreme temperatures and in a safer location. Most shelters in town will not accept intoxicated tenants, which often leaves a large portion of homeless on the streets even at 40 below.
“We’re in fear for those who have to survive with the coming winter,” Fields said. “It’s frightening and unforgivable, and we as a community should be doing better.”
Fields is inviting community officials and members of the public to the meeting Saturday at 1 p.m. in the Chena River Convention Center at 109 Clay St.
“We have a lot of community service, but I don’t think we’re all doing the full ball of wax yet,” she said. “We need the community to get on board with this.”
On Friday night, the ecumenical, faith-based group will be hosting a vigil to honor and remember homeless who have died from exposure in downtown Fairbanks.
“These are people who have really fallen through the cracks, and they’re invisible to many people in town,” she said.
Candles will be sent down the river in memory of them as well as flowers and condolences to family and friends of those who have died.
“We’re coming together in solidarity and hoping to reconcile those less fortunate who have died from exposure,” Fields said.
The vigil will be held outside on the Chena River waterfront in the parking lot of Immaculate Conception Catholic Church off the north end of Cushman Street.
The ceremony begins at 7:30 p.m., and the public is welcome and encouraged to attend.
Fields is coordinating the event and has invited bagpipe players and other musicians to participate in the ceremony.
“On Friday, we’re going to honor and respect (the homeless who have died) and cherish their memory, and then on Saturday we’re coming together as good thinkers to find a short-term solution.”
For more information, contact Cindy Fields at Immaculate Conception Catholic Church at 456-4918.
Community Discussion
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We already pay a big price "to help with chronic inebriates". When does it end? Maybe Doyon and TCC will chip in a few million.
James at some point we need to stop looking at dollar signs and tieing them with racial themes. Cindy is with the church, not Doyon or TCC or the good ol boys club; the Church. She admits right up front that it is not the long term answer it is a step of faith to show some people that might feel like they are less in society and just need some one to show a sign. Perhaps reading comments like yours made them feel that way, who knows.
How can some one make it to rehab tomorrow if they dont make it through today? That is where she is coming from, from what I can see any way, and that makes her something special. Thanks Cindy.
I used to be a chronic inebriate.It is sad when one of us dies. However, us drunks die from heart failure, stumbling in front of a truck, falling into the river, ect. If the paper put the true "cause of death", (alcholisim) you'ld be amazed. I've been sober several years now, and looking back the only motivation i had to sober up was to get warm. Drunks die there is no stoping that. It's my opinion that by creating a "damp" shelter you'ld be enableing them (us)thus depriving them the chance to really seek help
With all the jobs out here and the big dividend payment each person got or will get, there is no reason to be homeless. This is a life that they have chosen.
Is this so they can get something else for free???
The worst thing you can do with a drunk is to become an enabler. There are plenty of people that need help that are trying to better themselves, why waste time and resorces on those who dont even try? Look at what we have done with drunk drivers, are there less of them now? No, we just found a way to make money off of them, sort of like the tabaco tax.
Wife 228: Okay. First of all, people do not become addicted so that they can "get something for free." People become addicted to cope with a pain or great loss; exposure to addiction as a "family norm" is a risk factor for youth, and many people use alcohol to cope with an untreated mental illness. And yes, people are "rolling in the dough" now that dividends have come in...yet chronically homeless or inebriated people are often beaten, robbed, conned or otherwise cheated out of their great wealth, and so the option of staying in the Ritz is out.
Offering a safe place to stay is far different from enabling, especially in a community where treatment and housing options are in short supply or non-existent for some of our homeless.
Jona, I am glad that you are sober...and safe! You are an inspiration to others.
What's with all these heartless comments? if you don't want to help, fine. But why in the world would you want to actively push suffering? You sound like you advocate sending these people out on ice floes because in your mind they are useless - not helping you make a buck. Get out of the way and let these people do what they are doing. God bless them for caring. We are put on earth to help others, and not to consider ourselves to be better than they are.
Having worked with those who were inflicted with an addiction, it was soon realized that no matter what one tried to help them with, that until they, themselves realized they have a problem and truly WANT help in overcoming that addiction will it happen. They must come to terms in 'owning' ones self and 'owning' their self power to pull themselves up out of the 'gutter'.
Bugger is right, the worst thing one can do is 'enable' any who has an addiction. Thus becoming the enabler.
Jona is also right, providing a 'damp shelter' will not help the underlining problem one has.
What Cindy and others are trying to achieve in 'waking' up the community as a whole, and giving those with the addiction a place of warmth, is truly a step in their faith that maybe, just maybe, one will be saved from dying and have new hope.
Alaska's elements are very unforgiving to those who are are prepared and unprepared. As a community, ask yourselves if you also can be that unforgiving.
Thanks Cindy for your efforts and the heads up. i will be there at the candlelight ceremony and at the meeting on Saturday. The rest of you negative people, stay home on your computers and keep on looking for people to strike down. There's billions out there..i'm sure you'll be busy. in the meantime, those here locally in our town will be trying to help others.
Jona, Bravo to you. I agree with your clear statement of enabling. Cindy has a heart of gold but her efforts are mis-directed, as you so eloquently stated.
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First of all i would not call it enabling, A shelter should have been put up years ago,There will always be people who use the system and then there are the few who just need a warm/safe place to stay somewhere they can count on being there night after night, So they can think about other things rather than where am i gonna go next to keep warm, look at the shelter they have in anchorage.
How can we help the JUST homeless and not the drunks who wander all over downtown as well? Why is it okay to help one group who chose a lifestyle or do not seek to better them selves through a work program, etc but then turn around and say we shouldn't help those who are drunk; being enablers.
How do we know that with maybe a day or two worth of shelter won't show them that there is a better option than stumbling from bar to bar, liq store to liq store? Just like those who are temporary homeless who need help with some free meals and a place to say to get back on there feet, some drunks may be the same.
Yes we all know that there are some, or maybe a majority of some who abuse there dividends they are givin quarterly, monthly and yearly and spend most of there time wandering around consuming copious amounts of alcohol and/or drugs. BUT not all do. Some just fall into a trap that is VERY hard to get out of. You nay sayers seem to think there are people just walking around down there waving flyers with suitcases full of clean clothes and a job offer telling them here's the way out. It doesn't work like that.
How do you figure out who is a constant drunk and someone who will never get out of the trap of alcoholism and homelessness? You can't, at least not initally. But for those who just need a help up, we can't turn out backs on them.
Kudo's to Cindy, all the recovering alcoholics and those faith based groups willing to band together to try and make a difference.
ESTE- You are awesome
it's not enabling. it's helping. sometimes that little show of help is all a person needs to get the boost they need to sober up and change their lives. why cruel and heartless people condemn their own "species" is beyond me but Thank God for people like Cindy who spearheaded this effort and God help those who will continue to come up with solutions and help. If there is no hope, there is nothing at all. Peanuthead-i pray that nobody ever tells you that you're not fit for life. God help you!
Should've never changed the bar hours.
GO CINDY! You have my support! Process of naturally selection??? I would love to see you out there trying to survive in the middle of winter in a snow bank--all warm in your house casting the first stone. Have lunch at one of soup kitchens sometime. Get to know the people you believe are not worhty of living.
james, wife 228, etc. What is wrong with you?? How miserable and lonely and depressed must YOU be? We need shelters for idiots like you to run your heads into padded walls!! Why be negative about a group trying to help others? AND WHAT DO YOU PAY FOR NOW? Oh yeah...you are on welfare and you complain that some folks might get some assistance??? Wife228 how was the welfare check you got from the state? You like the energy welfare added in? WOW! Sometimes, I am so ashamed of this community. I know most of us are not as stupid as james and this woman who clearly is miserable, but come on! And Peanut user...how darwin of you! If only you were educated in life! Come on Fairbanks...get those welfare checks out you all just got and do some good with them!!! If you cant pay your bills without the dividend...how are you different from these homeless folks??? Oh yeah...republicans need welfare checks to pay their debts!!
"Get to know the people you believe are not worhty of living."
So wait, putting a face to it will somehow act as an "appeal to pity" (which is a logical fallacy)?
As I said elsewhere, life is what you make it, and those who can't deal shouldn't be dragged along by those who somehow feel that helping those who are beyond help gives them purpose in life, purpose which they so desperately seek.
Why? Why should they be helped? What's a single logical reason for spending effort on someone who clearly is incapable of living?
And please, don't give me the religious line! If God wanted them to live, he would have given them everything they need to succeed in life. Oh wait, God did give them everything they need! They CHOOSE to not utilize what they were given by God.
Just because I know a bums name, the sad puppy look in his eyes, and see the misery that one can't really call existence anymore, I should feel compelled to do whatever I can to clean him up and send him on his way? A way that will inevitably lead back to where I found him? I think not!
People can do whatever they want with their time and money, I just hope that no public funding goes to those who made the CHOICE to suck at living.
HA! Poor peanut...alone and poor and bitter. You need God and a welfare check huh! So sad. I will personally help you back to college if you want to go!! You loney person. GOD! What a joke!
Well, Pi (irrational, but well rounded), if you would bother to look at some of my previous posts, you'd find that I do not believe in God. I merely mentioned God because that's the most common argument invoked on these blogs. If one does believe in God, then one can not argue that God has treated those folks unfairly, for God is fair, and supplied all with the same potential.
I am not poor either, I am upper middle class, and I took the PFD and invested it, like I did with all my previous PFDs. Lehman and AIG going down shaved off very little of my investment, which just shows that one can make educated choices and limit one's risk.
I am not a Republican, and I am not a Democrat. I wouldn't vote for Palin, I am pro-choice and pro-guns, I am for benefits for domestic partners, and I believe that people should have the expectation of privacy and protection from government in their own home. I believe in small government, and full funding for education. I am for captial punishment, and for tougher prison terms (ideally work camps, lots of road repairs need to be done) for parole violators.
So where does that leave you in your not all that creative argument that I am poor, bitter, lonely, and need God? Dead in the water ..., oops ..., well, you can always try again, but please, just for entertainment value, try and be more clever.
Peanut-
Whatever happened to "LIFE, liberty & the pursuit of happiness" ? We all do have a state-given right to live.
I only wish there were some way to attach conditions to the shelter, like community service or something.
The right to live doesn't mean that life will be forced upon you if you can't handle it on your own. I have the right to carry a concealed firearm, but I make the CHOICE to not carry it most of the time. Those who let themselves go made a CHOICE to not exercise their right to life.
peanut head, try to save some of your strength to squeeze your sorry self back into your shell.....please... for the rest of us who have some human compassion.
Oh I was waiting for someone to mention the righteousness of compassion, and I was quite surprised that we went as far as we did without someone mentioning it.
Yes, compassion is a good argument indeed. However, compassion is not the answer to the question asked. Compassion merely describes the desire to help to alleviate someone's suffering. Compassion is the reason why you feel the need to help. Compassion is not the answer to the question for what reason the inept should be helped.
Basically what you are saying is that the reason to help them is because you want to help someone who is in a position like they are in. That's incidentally totally different from sljones was saying. Jones said "get to know them", implying that once you know them, you would want to help them, not necessarily out of compassion, but out of a different emotion that is based on the connection you make once you get to know them.
Still, let's keep with the compassion theme. How much compassion is there to prolonging the agony? You believe that a shelter is the compassionate thing to do, people don't have to freeze to death, yet their lives remain agonizingly miserable. If they were to freeze to death, their lives would be over, as would their suffering be.
The underlying issue is that most people view death as bad or horrible, when in fact death is value free. It is natural to die. Some die sooner than others, some too soon, some not soon enough, but everyone dies. Those who can't manage life too die at some point, no amount of compassion will change that.
Anyone can end up in a situation that makes life miserable, but the mentally strong will find a way to get out of that situation and move on, those who lack such mental fortitude will be sucked into misery deeper and deeper, and will never come out of it, ever, no matter how much effort is spent on them.
You want to be compassionate? Don't give those folks a place to sleep, but come up with a plan that puts their life back on track if they follow it, AND let them go if they choose to not take advantage of that one last opportunity presented to them.
I'm shocked that anyone could be so heartless.There are people out there that use the system and then there are those who need it.I'm for it If the make treatment mandatory.And offer mental health aid to them.
PeanutUser:I'm pro choice as well and I could see them making some offender's work out side of the jails but in all honesty you scare me.Life may be what we make of it but that is no excuse to let them die.What about all those mental unstable people who get thrown out of instautions meant to help them.Would you leave them out there to die as well.
Belive it or not we all have the right to life.Now it can be furstrating to see people who you assume have thrown everything away.It does not mean they made a choice to do so.There are meany who can't handle what has happened to them in their life.You don't get to chose for them.
"Why? Why should they be helped? What's a single logical reason for spending effort on someone who clearly is incapable of living?"
Because they are human.Because they were born just like me and you.Logical reason 1 they are human beings no matter how they live.
2 Murder and self muder is illegal.3 they are some one's son/daughter
brother/sister,mother/father and we try to keep our familys alive.
4 This is not some third world nation who doesnt care about it's people.And because they are ours to keep.
And logic does not play a part in human emotions.Itis horrable that there are people dieing in snow banks.And truthfully I'd rather see charity going where it should.Here first all other places come last.We need to fix our problums before sending aid elsewhere.
Treatment,mental health evals and treatment and see if they can get back on there feet.!
lol, don't even pay attention to "james" and "wife228", they are simple cowards who just pop on here to puke their racist crap and then they run and hide because they are too scared to defend their beliefs.
People like them don't matter in society, they're probably on welfare actually anyway because I can't see how they could have enough brainpower to hold a job down, but then again you can't discriminate against "special needs" people.
Everyone guess what! I'm a recovering addict and I have been home-less, and there were people that cared enough about me and help me get where I'm I now have a home and a job. I have met Dr.s, Bankers,drug counselors that were out there they could have been your mom ,dad ,sisters or brothers.and if you think for one minute that it won't happen to you you need to wake up.
If you help one out of a thousand you have done alot I want to praise Cindy and everyone that gives her a hand.
I figured it out. Peanut is a liar! There you have it. It is a BSer and trying to create a persona becuase it has none in real life. Dont take it seriously. It is poor and bitter and now it has created on here the life and personality it wants. Just laugh at it. It is not real. HA! It had me going those first few posts. Poor thing. It needs a hug!
"There are meany who can't handle what has happened to them in their life.You don't get to chose for them."
silverwindrune, what you wrote there is exactly my point. I don't get to make the choice for them, and for that matter neither do you. Yet somehow it's acceptable if the do-gooders make a choice for someone on their behalf, yet those who just want things to go their natural way are evil.
Not all life is equally worthy.
Before everyone get's upset about that statement, think about it for a minute. You watch two people drown, no one else is there to help, one of them is someone you love, the other person is a stranger, you can only save one, the other one will die. Whom do you save? Yes, the odd one out will save the stranger, but most everyone will save the person they love. Value to life is assigned, and one life is valued more than another.
How about two people are drowning, one is 80-years-old, one is 8-years-old, you can only save one. Which one do you save?
We don't want to think about that not all life is worth the same, but in reality that is absolutely true. To Americans an American life is worth more than an Iraqi life. To Russians a Russian life will be worth more.
Along the same line of thought, there are people worth saving, and then there are those who are lost, and no amount of effort and goodwill will be able to return them to a "normal" life. Maintaining life for those who are capable but unwilling to maintain it themselves is wasted time and effort no matter from which angle one looks at it.
hey nut head....we are trying to give them a path, a way out....hope. compassion comes from the heart, which we all know you don't have so quit typing from the dictionary. your words are empty, just like your soul. are you even human? what are you? i am shocked that you don't hear yourself and how cruel you sound....but you need a brain or some feelings for that..so i'll throw in the towel on you. you are beyond help. the homeless people, on the other hand, can be helped.
see...there goes poor lonely peanut again. It really needs a hug!!! Poor thing!! Just laugh at it! Probably an outsider at heart and hopefully it will move back from where it came
It's nice to see the church doing some substantial community charitable work. They don't do near as much of that as they used to. The government has instituted so many entitlement programs that they have taken over the good community support that the church used to be responsible for. (I say church here in the general sense, meaning all church's. I'm not singling any particular church or denomination. It has been a cultural shift over the last couple of decades.)
Yes but is it right to just watch them die.Sometimes all it takes is knowing some one cares.Who are you to deny them that.To know some one care about you can be the diffrence in staying as is or making the change to do some thing else.
Then there is the fact that these same people have some one some where who does care but has no clue where they are.And dieing in a snow bank is not the best thing in the world.What you are saying is just let them die.How do you walk away from another person who could be you.
"But for the grace of god GO I."Never have i not thought of this.Any one can fall down.But it take a really good and decent person to help them back up.
As for some of them dealing with mental illness.Deperssion can happen to anyone and it can be a long hard road to getting rid of or finding a balenceing point.Meny do fall into self medacation so by treating both sides of it you have a better chance of helping them back on their feet.
To those who have made it Good for you.Hopefully we can offer the same to others in need.
Well said AKbyChoice
This story and the comments it has instigated here are a sad reality of our community. I can appreciate what the church has in mind, and encourage them to find ways to help with the inebriate/homeless problem, however I hope they keep in mind that people who are under the influence are likely to victimize or be victims of each other. I'm not stating this as fact, but only make my observation from all the police blotters I've read over the years. Hopefully they can figure out how they will avoid these problems and also enabling people further with their addictions at the same time.
I don't believe in God, but the merit of this project is what has my support. One can only hope that if anyone on this board was in a dire situation, that someone would come along to at least try and help them.
A lot of us, myself included, pride ourselves on being a part of a community that helps one another. If someone is stuck in a ditch at 50 below, do you just drive by? If a you see someone being beaten in a parking lot, do you just let it go? How many of us give money or places to sleep to people who are displaced by fire or flooding? Quite a few.
We always hear about how we as a country or a community are suffering from a lack or morals. We always hear how our values are going down the toilet. We always hear how people no longer have respect for human life. Why would I want to deny someone a warm place to sleep based off of the simple fact that I don't agree with how they do what they do? Isn't human life more important then money?
A lot of us work really hard to have a warm place to sleep and keep food on our tables, but I do not believe that the ability to LIVE should be taken away because some people are either unable or unwilling. If it goes to feeding someone or keeping them safe for a night, I can think of a lot worse places that my tax or personal money can go.
like I said mandatory treatment for both cause will help.
Well said kornmonkiedotcom.Very well said!!!!!
Peanut user -
You've got way too much time on your hands.
I can see peanuts view on the subject but lets go another route,if the people want help i say while there getting help they have to stay clean and attend some sort of counseling and work traing program to show they want to better them selves and if they don't follow the programs that are set up they lose it all,of course i'm the kind of person that thinks people on welfare should have to take drug tests to get there check considering i have to do my job.
peanut is not real!!!! It is making arguments to keep it all going! Stop paying attention to it and maybe it will go away! Move back to the states or hold its breath for 5 min! We should be so lucky!
athabascannookfan, it's nice that once you ran out of arguments, you resulted to personal attacks, you should consider going into politics, you'd fit in just fine with our Alaskan crowd.
The bottom line is that some people can't be helped, and that those who insist on doing so anyway are engaged in a futile effort. I will agree that you and anyone else can do whatever they want with their time and resources. You want to spend it on the undeserving, who am I to stop you, but don't expect all around cheers either.
i didn't run out of arguments...i tire easily of deadbeats like you whom i deem helpless and not worth any effort. i don't see how i can even attempt to help you. you are way beyond help. did you say you were with satan? you sound like you fit right into his crowd. i'm an advocate for education and humanity but i'm not God or one of God's chosen but i am human. i am not expecting cheers or a pat on the back or any type of appreciation. i do it because i have a heart and i care, something you know nothing about, nor will you ever. Peace, though, i wish you peace. or something, you need all the good wishes going your way.
So let me get this straight ..., it's alright for you to designate someone beyond help, but you fault me for doing the same?
Ah the peanut spoke again. I AM SENDING YOU A HUG! Your poor little thing! There is counseling for people like you? Match.com works for some people too. I have a friend that used it. She is not alone anymore. You can get out there and make something of your life little nut. Come on! Smile! Dog loves you!
peanut head, crawl back under your rock and get some zzzs.
Peanutuser might hit on some odd thoughts but at least he's trying to make people think.
If they open a Shalter for them they need to make treatment madatory for it to truly work.
I may be mistaken but those who truly do not want help wont go it they make treatment mandatory but it would make sure those who want help can get it.
I just wrote a letter suggesting that the comunity as a whole do something to help them.Not that it's been printed.I'll voice the main thing here.
If all of the churches and the native corps band together and work together we could help all of those poor souls
If I could just add.... I would be more than happy to support a homeless shelter for them during the winter.... as long as I wasn't paying for it. The cure to not being homeless is being proactive and GETTING A JOB.
Don't take my hard earned money and shove it into the pockets of those who decide they are beyond it.
do the same thing the Rescue Mission does instead of church make it treatment.
James (and others - you know who you are),
There you go again! Good job looking out against all of the little brown people. You are surely goose-stepping your way to a better future for us all! Sig Heil! See you in hell, Adolf.
Godwin's Law is now enacted.
Addiction is a terrible thing. Who is to blame? Ultimately, the tobacco, pharmaceutical, and liquor industries for marketing addictive, genocidal substances. These industries are making vast profits off of human misery.
glow, see that's the kind of thing I do take issue with. Yes, the industry markets addictive substances, yet strangely the overwhelming majority of the population isn't addicted to those substances.
The responsibility lies with the individual. There is ultimately no one else to blame but the addict. Becoming addicted is a choice, staying addicted is a choice. "can't" lives on "won't"-street. Addicts can quit, most of them just don't have the mental fortitude it takes, it takes far less effort to stay addicted.
PI, you've got mail!
I have actually employed 3 of those inebriates that you see wandering around the city. Since being in Fairbanks we have had a total of 6 of these guys (3 died, all in winter and from alcohol)
At times, when they were fed up with living on the street, we gave them work, usually within 3 months they're back out there. They often come back to us for work, which we give them but they can't handle responsibilities for too long, that is the very nature of being homeless. They are addicts, they need help and those coins you throw at them are NOT helping. There is nothing you can do until they want to get help, this damp shelter is just to keep them alive through the winter.
It's awesome to see people in this world still care about the homeless - even if some are drunks! Homeless people are humans too - and while life is great for many of us - it's quite difficult for others. The point of this article is to inform those of us who care about it - that our help is needed. If you don't care to help - fine, but why must you be rude or judgemental of those who DO choose to care? This is not about money, this is not about fixing people for good, this is about HELPING PEOPLE so they don't freeze to death during our extremely cold winters!
It's reassuring to see that this subject brings out the "best" in people! I think that the local church's idea of helping those less fortunate then themselves is great. But please don't ask for our tax
money or Federal or State grants to fund this project, let the church
members fund this program !
A lively topic.... If you choose to help,good; if not, it is your choice. I do wonder at "On Friday, we’re going to honor and respect (the homeless who have died) and cherish their memory". We may remember them and even cherish them, but honor them? If you are too drunk or too stupid to get out of the cold, I am not going to honor you.
twingirl, peanut, James, wife228......I suspect you and your ilk would deny ANY aid to those afflicted by AIDS, to rape victims, to women (and their children) in crisis who need shelter, to victims of hurricanes, tsunamis and other natural disasters, or, for that matter, to ANYONE who is down on their luck, for whatever the reason. The inebriate issue is but a small microcosm of the tens of millions in the U.S. and billions around the world who need assistance to get their lives back in order.
You missed your callings, folks. You would have been exemplary soldiers working in one of Hitler's death camps or in Russia's Gulag.
okay lets leave hitler and Gulag out of this.
While a few have made comments that are not PC.Sme have been trying to make us think about the matter instead of reacting form emotions.
No one is saying withdraw sapport for many Charitys.I'm glad to see some one keeping the money here in town and not sending it over seas.We need to take care of our own before we help those poor souls over seas.
Toni Toni To honor these homeless oh my god you are forgetting a lot of them come from good families they are Vets, they are your brother , sisters moms and dad. You go out there and take 30 min and ask them where they come from, they are just like you and I they are lost. Some is offering to help The homeless people are not asking think about it
Again I hope they make treatment madatory for them.Even if it's AAA meetings to help them get over the addiction.Yes we need to help them but we also need to make sure they know that there is treatment for this.
For Peanut's earlier blog that I just read
"You want to be compassionate? Don't give those folks a place to sleep, but come up with a plan that puts their life back on track if they follow it, AND let them go if they choose to not take advantage of that one last opportunity presented to them."
this is the answer that's needed right now, to give a place to start the plan to put their life not necessarily back on track, because it may never have been on track in the first place -
Peanut and many other negative commentors obviously have never known the pains of being anywhere close to living in the shoes of the people that are not only needing our compassion, but need us to take action to do something about the issue - hooray Fairbanks for coming alive !
Q . Should
"a “damp” shelter to help with chronic inebriates
who are often victims of hypothermia and even death from exposure."
be built?
A . Yes, build a “damp” shelter.
After all,
we will have to give an account for our actions or lack of action.
The following words of Jesus come to mind:
Matthew 25:40
" 'I tell you the truth,
whatever you did
for one of the least of these brothers of mine,
you did for me.' "
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?sea...
i saw this program in south seattle that was run by the catholic services people. churches around the south end of seattle took turns to volunteer to be a host church for a month. homeless people could arrive at the church at 9pm. they could come sober or intoxicated. the only thing was that if you were too disruptive they banned you from any of the churches in the program. usually the members of the church would provide a little something to eat. the people would get a mat on the floor. come morning they could use the bathroom facilities to get themselves cleaned up for the day ahead. then by 8am or so they were turned out onto the street again. all this cost the general public very little and it probably saved quite a few lives and helped ease the burden on social services and first responder types. seattle isn't cold like fairbanks, but you can get hypothermia on a rainy seattle winter night real easy.
Polarmark that is wonderful to hear about it would be nice to see something like this til they can get the damp shalter up and running.
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