It's a big problem around here. I just wish I had a big solution for it.
Over the past couple of years, Marquette has developed a...reputation's not quite the right word, but a “reputation” as a place where the homeless will come to hang out. The people of Marquette, being very fair and kindhearted, started a program called “Room at the Inn” around a decade and a half ago. Churches, on a rotating basis, would take in the homeless at night during the winter, just to get everyone out of the cold and into safety. That soon grew into the Room at the Inn shelter, which is open 24 hours a day year round, and gives those who are down on their luck a place to both have a little shelter and to regroup.
It's a program that works, and a program that was started with the best of intentions. Unfortunately, it's also a program that through no fault of its own has outgrown those best of intentions.
You see, word of Marquette's kindheartedness has spread and more and more homeless seem to make their way to Marquette to take advantage of it. Anecdotally (and I'm hoping this really isn't true, but you never know) it's said communities around the region are telling the homeless in their area to go to Marquette because “they'll take care of you”. Because of that, Room at the Inn is full on a nightly basis. Because the shelter has rules about their guests drinking or indulging in other bad behavior, not every homeless person who shows up is welcomed in.
That has led to scenes like this one in the church courtyard across the street from the station--
That's a homeless encampment, where five or six individuals gather on a nightly basis to drink and swear at the top of their lungs and do whatever else. I can leave work at 7 at night and see and hear them, and then come back at 730 the next morning to do something and they're still there, still drinking and still swearing at the top of their lungs. Several times the Marquette City Police have dispersed them, and several times they've regrouped.
It's a cycle that doesn't seem to want to be broken.
I have no idea how to tackle a problem like homelessness. I don't know if it can even be tackled without a systemic overhaul of the way we live in this country. And I know many homeless people are just down on their luck and need a place to stay while they're trying to get their lives back in order. That's why Room at the Inn was formed up here, and that's why it's helped so many people by giving them what they needed when they needed it.
But as for those who don't want help or are too far gone to even ask for it? I have no idea. I really don't.
Since I took the picture before the storm last week the encampment in the church courtyard seems to have disappeared, although I'm 100% certain it popped again somewhere else. Then, once that one's discovered, they'll be chased away by the police again in what has become a very tragic, never-ending game of human whack-a-mole. How does this problem ever get resolved?
I wish I knew.
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