Des Moines Evicts Homeless From Huts, Cites Safety

[CoffeeCat]

Source: Des Moines Register

David Costello, the activist leader of HOPE Builders, the group that helped build the huts, said a lawyer for the group would try to stop the eviction order. The homeless residents and HOPE volunteers nonetheless started to tear down one of the huts, but not before they voiced their dissatisfaction.

"What I'm saying to the city is 'Shame on you,' " Costello said. "Shame on you for ignoring this city's housing crisis."

Residents hauled bags of clothes and boxes out of the shacks and put them in the backs of pickup trucks. One wood-burning stove smoldered as several men removed it from a shack.

"They can bulldoze the rest of this thing," shouted one homeless man. "I hope they're happy."

Read more: http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20081203/NEWS/812030381/1001/

[Hugin]

1. Off on a truck to some-unidentified-place else.

Doesn't solve the problem... Just relocates it.

Sort of like bailing out Citibank.

[WriteDown]

2. Yep....

the problem is never solved, just moved.

[amdezurik]

3. out of sight, out of mind

until the next election when suddenly they are the "fault" of the other guy in the race...

[balantz]

4. Where is the compassion?

"They have Halliburton work camps for the mass populations of poor!"

-Ebenezer Scrooge

[Tempest]

5. They need to organize like in Miami

And move into foreclosed homes.

www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28002276/

[Vinca]

6. Is it safer to endure winter weather out on the street with no shelter?

If they're going to destroy the huts, they should have alternative housing in place first.

[awoke_in_2003]

7. No, they just want them

out of their town. If it means they die, so be it :(

[Trillo]

8. So much for "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness"

Perhaps the document should be revised: "life and liberty are expensive, be prepared to pay for them. With more money, more life and liberty can be purchased."

[Cults4Bush]

9. I was homeless for a few months...

in a warmer clime. I still have nightmares about it and everything I witnessed. I can only describe it as feeling like youre in a war zone as a refugee, the local gov might not kill you but the populace just might. In this instance it sounds as if they dont want to actually kill them in the first person, just let nature have them. No compassion because there is no empathy.

[Hannah Bell]

10. Empty foreclosed houses, homeless people, CEOs at spas on public $.

What's wrong with this picture?