Role of Government is to
Level the Playing Field
by Clarence Schadegg
In
June, Minneapolis Mayor R. T. Rybak was one of four people who spoke
on mental health and homelessness at Wesley United Methodist Church.
As Mayor stated, “I worked with our faith communities
and they’ve been great partners. But I’ve made it very
clear that I think you cannot run a just society on bake sales and
passing the plate.”
“Almost half of the homeless population,” said Mayor
R. T. Rybak, “has a physical or mental disability. Most of
my work has been about ‘closing the gap on income’ and ‘on
accessibility.’ The Mayor’s office continues to work
with Minneapolis residents to increase job opportunities for those
who have cultural challenges, be they training or putting resources
into training.”
“Shelter is only a temporary situation,” said the Mayor. “And
having people long term in shelters is a failure in our ability to
get people into jobs and permanent housing. We’re launching
a ‘chronic long-term homelessness initiative,’ that will
focus on those key issues.”
The Mayor talked about two current programs that are an important
step in his vision and are already in place:
• Clare Apartments,
an affordable housing program for people who live with AIDS. It
is located at 929 Third Avenue NE., Minneapolis, MN.
• The Minneapolis Community Technical College (MCTC) nursing
program for single mothers. Graduates will get a job through the
MCTC program at Hennepin County Medical Center (HCMC), North Memorial
and Children’s hospital.
As part of his chronic long-term homelessness initiative Mayor Rybak
proposed:
• $100,000 be included
in his budget to hire a local coordinator to bring together multiple
partners to implement a comprehensive plan to end chronic homelessness
in Minneapolis.
The city will also ask Hennepin County to be an equal partner on
this project as it moves forward to coordinate with our state and
federal counterparts.
The Mayor stated that some people believe in the “idea that
putting people in a shelter is an end.” It is not. It’s
a band-aid. It covers up a failure of a society that is not providing
jobs and housing to those most in need. He added, “The massive
cuts from the state and federal governments, in social services,
have placed an additional burden on those most in need. It’s
wrong.”
According to the Mayor, “We need to try more opportunities
for specific populations. And the needs of a homeless person with
physical challenges are dramatically more difficult. The simple
idea of having a person at a shelter leave in the morning and come
back at night is difficult enough for most of the population.”
It is more dangerous for a homeless person with a disability who
carries money around from a cashed paycheck; and the danger is from
physical assault, robbery, and or serious injury. Are people who
seek housing in a shelter safe from robbery?
I am not homeless, but a person who wanted to rob me has followed
me to my home. A young person slapped me in the face as I walked
down the mall while I used my white cane. My wife was mugged at a
bus stop and the thief got away with her purse. Fortunately she was
not injured. We dealt with problems of forged checks for a year after
the incident, and it took us years to work through the emotional
scars of that attack.
About a month ago, a friend of mine was robbed at knifepoint; and
the robbers knocked his white cane from his hand. The thieves stole
his wallet, which was filled with money, a credit card, his social
security card and state identification card. If this can happen to
people who are not homeless, it can happen to homeless people with
a disability. What safety mechanisms are in place to educate and
protect disabled people from such incidents?
How are homeless people
safe from robbery, especially people with a disability who carry
money around from cashed paychecks? In the area of public safety,
according to Mayor Rybak, “we’ve
trained about a third of our police department in working with residents
with mental illness. We have some in our department who are specially
trained to work with people who have mental illness,” said
Mayor Rybak. “Eventually we will have the entire department
trained to have that (expertise).”
Like many people with
a disability, I use the public transportation system on a regular
basis. In a previous article, the Governor of Minnesota stated
that only poor people and the disabled ride buses. Mayor Rybak
was appalled at the Governor’s 2004 proposed Metropolitan
Transit cuts because such cuts hurt the people most in need. “I’m
pretty disgusted by people who said during the bus strike that they
saw no impact. Anyone who saw no impact during the bus strike wasn’t
paying attention.”
The Mayor is in favor
of a network of buses that go to all parts of this city. “I’ll
fight tooth and nail to keep that system. The bus is part of it,
the Light Rail is part of it, and Metro Mobility is obviously a
part of it. The role of government is to do everything it can do
to level the playing field.”
Like many city committees, the Disability Advisory Committee reports
to the Mayor about their work in such areas as education, transportation,
housing, employment and entertainment. One of the issues the Disability
Committee has been recently involved with is the open air cafes on
the Nicollet Mall. I like to use the outdoor cafes. However, I am
sometimes challenged as I navigate around cafe staff, chairs and
tables while workers set them up on the mall.
I’m pretty good with the use of a guide dog or white cane.
Someone who is blind and homeless may not have the kind of skills
I have, and that person will be more vulnerable to injury as he or
she travels around the outdoor cafes. There is still a lot of work
to do, and I am grateful to the Mayor and the Disability Committee
for what they’ve done. To contact the Mayor’s Office,
call 612-673-2100. The phone number for the Advisory Committee on
People with Disabilities is 612-673-3757 and the email is
peoplewithdisabilities@ci.minneapolis.mn.us.
