Ann Arbor struggles with homeless influx
City tries to balance services with surge in panhandling, tent camps
...The number of homeless in Washtenaw County jumped from 4,212 in 2008 to 4,618 last year, according to the Shelter Association of Washtenaw County. A quarter of them are from outside the county, said the association.
The influx contributed to a panhandling problem that grew so severe this summer that the police chief labeled it the "No. 1 crime," and the City Council assembled a task force to study it....
...Officers had long been familiar with the homeless from seeing the same faces day after day. In the past few years, however, new people began appearing, Adams said.
Questioning by police found the new people hailed from Detroit, Flint, Jackson and Grand Rapids, officers said.
"A lot are from southeast Michigan," Adams said.
Some of the homeless became emboldened after the city eliminated downtown police patrols for budgetary reasons, area merchants said.
In the spring, the homeless began aggressively asking people for handouts, blocking their path, following them, sometimes grabbing them, the merchants said. They violated a panhandling ordinance by approaching people in outdoor restaurants, movie lines and near ATMs...
....The homeless who have come to Ann Arbor say it's nothing like other cities they've lived in.
They marvel at the Delonis Center, which, besides offering a place to sleep, provides a health clinic with doctors and case workers who help them find work and medical services.
Gabriel, 45, who has lived all over the United States, rattled off a list of services he receives at Delonis or other parts of the city.
An alcoholic who suffers from depression, he came to Ann Arbor four years ago after being in prison for a drunken-driving conviction. "This place was a blessing," he said about Delonis.
Another homeless man, Tim Johnson, 45, was a former handyman from Belleville.
Living on the streets of Ann Arbor for the past year, he said people who stayed at homeless shelters in Detroit were shocked by what they found in Ann Arbor.
Residents' possessions were stolen all the time in Detroit, they said. The Ann Arbor shelter was safer, cleaner and better organized, they said.....
From The Detroit News:
http://detnews.com/article/20101015/...#ixzz12lPynGdy
