As most of us go about our business in Plainfield, we pass others whose only business is survival. They may get their clothes from metal collection boxes, their food from church kitchens, their shelter from abandoned buildings. Often we only notice them when they turn up in the news as bodies found after fires or, as in Mark Spivey's article today, the object of police response.
The two men who apparently got in a knife fight over squatting rights are not unusual, even though they are described as living practically next door to police headquarters. Just steps from City Hall there are others in abandoned or boarded buildings on East Sixth Street and Park & Seventh.. Officials at City Hall have instituted use of a key to the men's room to keep them out, and other public places such as the library have had damage to their sinks and toilets by homeless people.
The most extreme example I have seen was a man who lived in a bicycle box on Municipal Lot 7 before police removed him and the box a few years ago. There were squatters in the "Telephone Building" next to the main train station that is now being converted to apartments. The former office building on the southwest corner of Park & Seventh has been stripped of salable metal by squatters who keep finding ways to get in.
I can just imagine that other neighborhoods across the city have the same problem with homeless people in their midst. There is just not enough cheap, single-room or congregate housing for this population. Shelters either have too many rules to suit some or may even be risky places to stay. At present, homeless people are mainly left to themselves to get by as best they can, alerting each other to resources and trying to be "family" for each other.
Plainfield politicians often rail against the city's perceived use as a "dumping ground" for people with various needs, but most urban centers (as Plainfield is designated by the state) have a spectrum of population that includes temporarily or chronically homeless people. They get public attention at intervals, such as when a count is conducted, but day to day they are largely invisible.
If you know of a homeless person and want to help, here is a starting point.
--Bernice
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Bernice, Again a well written thoughtful piece. I admire your skill and dedication to keeping us informed of what is in our community from your eyes. What can be done? Take away liquor, drugs and tobacco would be a huge benefit to the physical and mental health of this group ... but we all know being a hall monitor does not work. A mentally ill person thinks you are trying to hurt them when you are actually trying to help.
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