Letter: Bijou Pines resident says thanks
To the community,
I want to thank everyone in the community, and especially in my neighborhood who contacted me in regards to my article on the warm room and the homeless affecting Bijou Pines.
To date I have had 20 emails, 24 phone calls, and eight neighbors who have stopped by to say how happy they are that I wrote the article. All of the people that responded to my article say that they too have been negatively affected by the homeless since the warm room opened in our area.
I have not, as of this writing, received one email in support of the warm room being located, basically in a residential neighborhood.
Perhaps that is something the City Council should take to heart.
Catherine Whelan, South Lake Tahoe
Hi Catherine, my name is Ernie Claudio and I support the Tahoe Coalition for the Homeless in their efforts to aid our economic refugees. I was wondering if we could exchange email addresses, mine is ErnieClaudio@sbcglobal.net
In an effort to improve the Bijou Pines neighborhood, I have been picking up litter in your neighborhood. Perhaps you’ve seen me with my blue bucket and Pik-Stik. To date I have collected 15 gallons of litter in your neighborhood, 10 gallons from the Little League Field, 10 gallons from the Rec. Center, and 8 gallons from Rufus Allen and Lyons Blvd.
All the Best,
Ernie
I agree. That Homeless Shelters should not be next to residential neighborhoods. It does reduce safety as well as value of home ownership. Last winter, these “clients” were roaming the adjacent neighborhood off Silverwood also, to the alarm of residents – especially those with children. It is a difficult problem, and while most of us are empathetic to those who are real economic refugees – many of those clients are just lazy bums and bummets who don’t want to work and who want a life with no walls and no rules.
Catherine, you should contact the City Clerk and get the issue on the Agenda for the City Council to address. They will calendar it, and have City Staff investigate and write up a Staff Report. There mmust be a zoning issue as well , which would limit the use of the property as a group residence.
Hi Irish,
Thank you for the comment. I had not thought about checking with the Zoning but will certainly do that now. I have talked to our Mayor who has agreed to walk my neighborhood and see the negative changes here first hand.
Ernie
Thank you for giving me your email and I will send an email back to you.
I’m guessing there are a new group of people without addresses spending tme at the Co. Library.
The homeless are a problem in every city. It looks like the number of homeless has been growing in every city. I keep searching the Internet to learn about how other cities are dealing with this problem. Ideally, all homeless shelters would be located away from residential areas.
Can we put our heads together and come up with some possible locations for our shelter? Some cities that have failed to establish clean and healthy shelters are now dealing with diseases like Hepatitis. Without shelters, the homeless will be forced to live in camps in the forest. Diseases can come from these camps.
A permanent building would only be used in the evenings for a shelter, the building can be used for other things during the day.