[Mpls] housing czars vs listening to the people

[m1r3201 at aol.com]

Mayor Rybak announced a short time back that he is proposing that Cathy ten 
Broeke be his housing Czar on homelessness with that cost inserted into his 
2006 budget.

I certainly have nothing against Ms. ten Broeke. She is a very caring, 
committed person when it comes to her dedication to end homelessness.She herself has 
committed civil disobedience by sleeping out in the streets to dramatize the 
plight of those people who are criminalized for being forced to do this every 
night.

Yet the Mayor' s Chief of Police tried to institute a licensure of 
panhandlers and now the Mayor is talking about launching some sort of PR Campaign 
against panhandling.

This concens me as I do think very well-intentioned, committed people such as 
Ms. ten Broeke can be used in order to legitimize the behavior of political 
administrations.

i.e. Find a committed person, well-respected person in the community 
regarding homelessness, appoint them as your figure head to show you really want to 
end homelessness ...and then proceed as usual. They also can serve as a bastion 
against persons such as myself who would then dare to criticize or raise 
concerns.

The proceed- as- usual part in this case is Mayor Rybak's, yet- to- be- 
fully- disclosed anti-panhandling PR campaign. At least, it has not been disclosed 
to one group that certainly should be hearing about it...homeless persons. And 
I don't mean 2 or 3, I mean hundreds of them. It is way too easy to assume 
that just because a person is experiencing homelessness that "they" all think 
alike about  issues. That is why this current administration needs to change its 
attitude and thinking regarding homelessness.

When any effort, (be it licensing panhandling or the day to day harassment of 
persons experiencing homelessness.) it is not enought to refer to your 
appointed expert or a few advocates. The people who are impacted by such efforts 
must be heard from. That has yeet to happen in this City upon the part of this 
administration.
I have previously communicated to Ms. ten Broeke that my expectation is that 
she would let the Mayor know to include all at the table when it comes to the 
treatment of persons experiencing homelessness and I meant persons 
experiencing homelessness or who have experienced homelessness themselves. 

She assured me that the people she was most deeply impacted by during her 
paid work at St. Stephens Shelter were the men who used that shelter. If that is 
the case, I expect her to speak strongly to the Mayor to demand that those men 
and all others be heard from.

Saint Paul's Mayor or his aide regularly meet with persons experiencing 
homelessness....

Mayor Rybak should do this and one better: meet with a broad range in 
listening sessions across this city. To try to put into motion actions that 
definitely will impact a group that is consistently targeted with negative treatment 
and not reach out and speak with them is getting old.

Again, not all persons experiencing homelessness are panhandlers, but 
panhandling is not done because people want extra money for their European Vacation 
despite the hateful news stories and myths that keep popping up about this.

I must acknowledge that Ms. ten Broeke and I took a different path regarding 
homelessness...she has moved on to political appointments...I moved on to 
taking over with homeless persons federal properties that were required by law to 
be turned over to homeless persons. Both are legitimate means of organizing as 
long as the voices of people experiencing homelessness are heard loud and 
clear.

So, far, that just is not happening with this Mayor and with previous Mayors 
as well.

Margaret Hastings
Kingfield