One of the guys, I won’t reveal his name so as not to embarrass him, about the stupid idea that will be explored here, joined our normal gathering of local downtown “Good Fellows” at the coffee shop as we do every Tuesday morning. He says, “I got an idea I want to float by y’all.” (Y’all, spoken like a man that’s spent too much time in the south, maybe Southern Florida, maybe Miami/Ft.Lauderdale.)
“I’ve been thinking about what should be done with the Genesee Tower building.” (Again, for those that don’t know or haven’t been reading this bloggy, thingy or whatever you call this: In short, our local City government has been saddled for a payment, mandated through the State Courts, of 8.4 million dollars to the Genesee Tower property owners, who originally paid fifty thousand dollars for the building a couple of years ago.)
One of the local businessmen that regularly attends our little impromptu gathering, tried to squash the topic by reminding us, “We figured out the Tower thing last week. We’re turning it into a men’s club.”
Not to be discouraged, our recently repatriated Flintoid continued, “Well, I talked that idea over with the wife and well, she didn’t really take to that idea.”
“You told your wife?!” as the look of dismay and broken trust covered each man’s face.
“She’ll tell my wife and she’ll tell another and by the end of the day they’ll all have heard. Might as well kiss the “Big Lobowski Men’s Group” goodbye, you’ve just killed it, dude!
Another of the guys bravely piped in, “I got to be honest with you, I got so excited about the men’s club idea that I told my wife.” He hung his head down, “Let’s just say the excitement pretty well died, especially when it came bedtime. If you know what I mean.”
“Ahhh, go ahead and tell us. I got to confess I told my wife too. She told me if we were going to start a men’s club then she and the girls are going to start a women’s only club, called “PeePee’s.”
In a way that only a half breed Northern/Southern boy can speak, either real slow or real fast, our returning Flintiod, sped fast through his idea.
“Turn the Genesee Tower into a homeless shelter! Last year, in Flint, almost three thousand people were recognized as homeless and it’s growing, a majority of them are housed by other means than shelters. The average number of “shelter living” homeless is near around fifteen hundred. Flint has about five, stable shelters. We take all their residents and staff; consolidate ‘em into one building. That way all the shelters won’t be scratching for the same dollars to keep their doors open. All the funding will go into one administration, all the people into one building, all the staff from the shelters consolidated into one place. No more having individual shelters holding mortgages or paying rent at multiple locations. All the energies into one place not being spread it all over town. No more duplication of resources!”
“Ho, slow down, hold your horses!” one of the guys, doing a bad imitation of a urban cowboy, says. “Homeless people all over the streets of Downtown?!”
“Naa, dude” he continued, “they’ll all be busy working or training or going to school. We already have a bunch of training facilities around town helping to find schooling and funding for education. We also start a Day Labor and job placement staff inside the facility. These people are not homeless because they want to be. They’ve got skills. Many of them are no different then us. We’re all just a couple of missed pay checks or a pink slip away from loosing our homes too!
Question; “What about panhandling and crime?”
“We outlaw panhandling. As for crime, do you know how many prisoners come out of jail, homeless? What better way to monitor and rehabilitate them and to keep then out of the circumstance that got them into trouble in the first place.
Plus again, there is no reason why they need to be on the streets, they’ll have classes to attend, jobs to work, chores to do, community service hours to fulfill, curfews and nightly activities.
I understand that some of the religious organization might not be on board with this idea but, we let them hold events within the facility, heck, they’re going to be apart of running the place. I don’t see any problem with religious groups holding services there. It builds moral strength, principled thinking and encouragement.
By consolidations all the staff from all the shelters means each of the residents will get personal mentoring and guidance. That will help keep the residents focused and let’s councilors keep their jobs too.”
A skeptic protests; “Pie in the sky, you don’t understand that the staff and management teams are not going to give up the power they have over their organization. Too much politicking, even if they have an altruistic heart for the mission.”
“We make ‘em do it. We’ve got Metro Community Development already here in place, through the State mandate. They can oversee the organization. We take all the shelter managers and staffs from each of their departments: guidance counseling, mentoring, training developers, community service organizers, marketing (grant writing and donations), food service, housekeeping and we take each group individually into a room, tell them what we’re going to do and then leave, locking the door behind us, waiting until they come together with a plan on how they’re going to make it happen.
Once you have the peoples’ will to do something, it’s going to happen.”
Consolidation of services: Some smart politician is going to get ahead of this idea, and the people are going to follow.
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