Feeding homeless under Marion Street Bridge now illegal
Photo by Tim King
Officials with the city of Salem have stopped issuing permits that allow volunteers to feed homeless people under the Marion Street bridge in Salem. The city also banned the area as a homeless camping site, saying that the area has become dangerous and dirty and that crime and trash have plagued the area.
Political position 1
Praising the city’s move, Salem’s local newspaper The Statesman Journal, thanked city officials for taking the steps to clear out the Marion Bridge area, saying, “So we're relieved the city of Salem tried something different Tuesday when it cleared out a makeshift homeless camp of tents that had sprung up around the support beams of the Marion Street Bridge downtown.”
Political position 2
The city has agreed to offer social service providers to members of the homeless camp under the bridge, but services are insufficient. For example, Salem’s Union Gospel Mission currently provides help to men only. There is not a single facility in Salem that offers homeless women a safe place to spend the night. Also, the city requires temperatures to drop to dangerously low numbers before the city will allow warming shelters to open.
News of the real
All people have the right and responsibility to exercise their own will, independence, courage, time and money to help others. Criminalizing this most basic human function – compassion – is a striking form of dehumanization
Find out for YOURSELF at the
Homelessness Topic.
Political position 1
Praising the city’s move, Salem’s local newspaper The Statesman Journal, thanked city officials for taking the steps to clear out the Marion Bridge area, saying, “So we're relieved the city of Salem tried something different Tuesday when it cleared out a makeshift homeless camp of tents that had sprung up around the support beams of the Marion Street Bridge downtown.”
Political position 2
The city has agreed to offer social service providers to members of the homeless camp under the bridge, but services are insufficient. For example, Salem’s Union Gospel Mission currently provides help to men only. There is not a single facility in Salem that offers homeless women a safe place to spend the night. Also, the city requires temperatures to drop to dangerously low numbers before the city will allow warming shelters to open.
News of the real
All people have the right and responsibility to exercise their own will, independence, courage, time and money to help others. Criminalizing this most basic human function – compassion – is a striking form of dehumanization
Find out for YOURSELF at the
Homelessness Topic.
by Tim King