Charitable acts need focus on developing skills, identifying resources

Several residents of Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., gather in a public park to serve food to some hungry homeless individuals. Would this be considered an act of charity or a crime?

Three of those residents — Arnold Abbott, and two south Florida ministers — are being charged with up to 60 days in jail and a $500 fine in violation of a recent ordinance, according to the Associated Press article, “Feeding the homeless: Act of charity or a crime?” This Florida ordinance restricts public feeding of homeless people and was put into effect to help keep public places open to everyone.

According to the article, the Ft. Lauderdale mayor states “the city was working with local charities to help serve the homeless through indoor feedings and programs that get them medical care and long-term help.”

Sure there is this issue with homeless people invading public areas, which gives residents mixed feelings — uncomfortable, frightened and even angry. Some concerns surround the issue of public and charity organizations continuing to give handouts to the homeless, which leads them to think they can settle in the area.

But has this issue become big enough to enact laws creating restrictions for those who want to channel the charitable efforts to helping the homeless? If we do enact these laws, is it going to be a here today gone tomorrow deal or will the enforcement be continuous?

Encountering certain people, even homeless, on the street can be scary and nerve racking.

According to the National Coalition for the Homeless website, homelessness can be caused by foreclosure, poverty, eroding work opportunities, decline in public assistance, lack of affordable housing and other factors — lack of affordable healthcare, mental illness, domestic violence and addiction disorders. All of which are visible factors in the area.

Some of the homeless population consist of veterans, families and children who couldn’t survive the latest recession or have suffered great financial hardship, forcing them to live on the streets trying to find some sort of shelter.

In 2012, there were 1,185 homeless in Spokane County, 170 of those homeless were families with kids, the median income sat at $47,642 — almost $10,000 below the state and nation’s median income — and the unemployment rate stood at 8.6 percent, according to the Community Indicators Initiative of Spokane County website.

While an increased homeless population is not much of an issue in Cheney and other places on the West Plains, nearby Spokane has seen a noticeable homeless population for several years. Sure it may not be where we live but it’s a place we visit often enough to notice it.

While Spokane is taking part in a 10-year plan to help deter its homeless population and help resource centers, shelters and give more access to affordable housing, there is always more effort that can be done.

Let’s encourage those who take part in charitable acts to help the homeless population and guide them to resources and organizations that can help them get back on their feet. Let’s also give them more long-term help and teach them skills to assist them in advancing off the streets and into a more stable environment and life. Sure, giving them food and a shelter here and there is helpful to them but it doesn’t give them any long-term benefits.

Abbott has served the homeless for over two decades in multiple ways, according to “Feed the homeless: Act of charity or a crime?” He works with them in his culinary school to train them and help find them jobs in local kitchens.

There’s that old proverb: Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day; teach him how to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.