We get it, this happens every year (probably more then we know);
Monday morning at around 6:30 AM, police were called to a sidewalk about a half block from the Bishop Dudley Hospitality House. Police found a man in the snow who was unresponsive. Paramedics arrived and determined he had already died.
I will defend staff on one level, it is probably hard to be out looking around for these folks, but I’m sorry, how does this happen so close to your front doors?
Finland has a goal of ending homelessness by 2027! And don’t mock, they have reduced their homeless population down to a couple of thousand people already by using a program developed in the United States called ‘Housing First’.
We can make a bigger impact in Sioux Falls, because someone dying in the cold only a few steps from a shelter is unacceptable.
Editor’s Note; I did receive the tip about this Monday night and was checking sources yesterday before I posted.
We have a Housing First program in Sioux Falls called Minnehaha County Safe Home. It is a fantastic program that should be expanded.
Homeless are a crowd in this area. Camera coverage is not enough. How about a beat cops patrol? Bishop Dudley is by no means responsible for outside public space casualties. What they do is amazing full cost charity. Where are others? Oh, this time of year is a 2 week conference somewhere warm.
When you run a homeless shelter maybe you should check your parking lot during a winter storm from time to time, huh? It’s easy to criticize, but with every charity there is a corresponding duty which comes with it.
Rapid City has warming shelters set up (even special locations for those under the influence). There should be policies in place at certain temperature where designated overflow or backup locations can open their doors and volunteers round up people to get them inside. I realize it is complicated, but this situation is heartbreaking.
AB- The Salvation Army used to provide this but no one wanted to pony up to keep it open. Let’s face it, if you watch the Finland video, they link the success of the programming to spending a lot of taxpayer money on this, but as they point out, you save money in the long run not peeling these folks off the streets and you are actually HELPING people attain DIGNITY. Notice one approach is moving folks from a shelter setting to permanent housing within in 2-3 months! There are folks living in SF shelters that have been there a year or longer, this is unacceptable.