Be it Ever So Humble...For the Next 90 Days

Charles Trentleman, one in a small stable of truly national-class writers within the Standard-Examiner staff, posted a fantastic article today which neatly addresses an issue that's rattled around Weber County Forum for a short while -- Ogden City's new "90-day motel kick-out ordinance." I think he frames the "two sides" of the issue nicely in this one, which I'll incorporate here in full:

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Wasatch Rambler: "Be it ever so humble, a motel may just be the best home"
Tuesday, September 6, 2005
By Charles Trentelman
Wasatch Rambler
ctrentelman@standard.net

Homelessness is bad enough, which is why the Ogden ordinance that limits people living in "motels" to 90-day stays is disturbing.

I say "motels" because the lodgings at issue are the ones tourists rarely visit, but people with no other homes often do.

I can see the city's point: Motels aren't permanent residences. They aren't built right, they're in the wrong part of town, they can attract people whose hobbies lean toward homemade pharmaceuticals.

These are not "class A" residents, although, I hasten to add, the motels also get many very nice people who are just struggling to get along.

And, consider: If you don't have first and last month's rent, a security deposit, and you don't mind a lot of traffic, some place that rents by the week might be the only option.

But . . .

Troy Vanderhule, the new director of St. Anne's Shelter, said it could add to his workload, but he agrees with the city policy.

"You've got to have boundaries," he said. A place where drug users and the perennially homeless can check in, with no enticement to improve, borders on enabling, he said.

Which is true. Then again, he said, arguing with himself, "What about people who try to pull it together?"

Denise Payton, director of the Women's Recovery Center in Davis Behavioral Health, deals with precisely those people.

For them, she said, the deck is stacked with an increasing number of restrictive laws. An ordinance like Ogden's is just another barrier.

"I can understand, they're trying to cut down on crime," she said, but finding homes for people going through substance abuse treatment, people who desperately need to live in a drug-free neighborhood, is getting harder. City ordinances that require background checks on renters, for example, have made her job infinitely worse.

"It's not just felons," Payton said. "It's 'Have you been convicted of any crime?' and they just toss it. They don't focus on this person who went through college after having a felony."

Many of her clients give up. A lot of apartments charge an application fee. "Why pay $25 just to be rejected?" she asked.

Which means they go where?

Vanderhule suggested transitional housing, and Payton called that "an awesome option, but who's going to invest in that?"

Really. Davis Behavioral Health is scrimping, St. Anne's is on life support and governments everywhere are broke.

But then what? It's politically popular to tell people with bad records to scram, but Payton said it's "just setting them up to go back to the same old crap, and then you insult them, saying they're not rehabable."

But they are, and want to be, rehabilitated. She has interviewed hundreds of women who went through her program. "Not a one of them said 'I want to dumpster dive and (be a) prostitute,' " she said.

Lacking any option, however, that's how too many end up.

Wasatch Rambler is the opinion of Charles Trentelman. You can reach him at 625-4232, or e-mail at ctrentelman@standard.net.

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When I say Trentelman "frames" the issue, I mean he sets forth the polar opposites within the locally-narrow humanitarian camp.

What he fails to consider in the "big picture," of course, is whether doggedly authoritarian (and possibly racist) forces within Ogden City government are engaged in another campaign to run "the wrong kind of people" out of town, and to ruin the private property owners who've filled a market niche to serve the needs of the under-classes.

I think the neoCON majority in Ogden City government should back off in this. Howbout you?

There's an election coming up in November, wherein councilpersons Jorgensen and Burdett will be running on their dismal humanitarian records.

I say we should send them packing.

I have some feathers.

Does anyone want to donate some tar?

Comments please, gentle readers!