Mentally Ill

I feel for the moms near Schroeder Hall. I am one of them~the homeless~I know them~the mentally ill homeless. Some can be quite scary. Some homeless people do stuff one would not want children to see. But as a whole they are mostly harmless. They do not grab children off the streets or attempt to physically harm them in any way. Mentally ill, I think, are not the type of homeless to attempt burglarizing homeowners. Yes there are some criminals and crooks among the homeless that use the Village's drop-in center. Lots of alcoholism and some drug users too.

As for crack cocaine, I will clue the ladies in: when homeless are smoking crack visiting the Village is the last thing on their mind. They are far and away. Like at one of those 3 crack houses the lady mentioned "we closed down." They are over by the river, in an alley and sadly in park restrooms, even at the beach on a rare occasion. They are in dealers or john's cars or at a party in Hollywood. They are not hanging around near the Village drop-in center.

I was warned early on in my street living adventure not to go to the back of Lincoln Park: that is where the crack users hang out; a dangerous bunch, they said. A homeless lady had just been gutted by a knife wielding homeless guy over drugs at Lincoln Park. I did not find the people in the back of the park to be dangerous at all. Other crack users used to be in the vicinity of the 14th Street park and some probably hang at MLK Jr park. Homeless hang out because there is no place to go during the day. There is little if any shelter room to go sleep at night.

These people are not out to harm homed people's children. What the parents have to watch out for are the homed drug dealers that give away free drug samples to kids to get them hooked and to gain customers. With a police substation on the same property as the proposed new Village drop-in center the drug people will not be hanging round the neighborhood. Police are feared. They do not want to get caught.