Last December, during one of our Saturday morning walks, my lovely wife brought up the topic of our New Year’s Resolutions. For fear of being placed in the dreaded cone of silence for the remainder of 2019, I will not tell you of Tina’s objectives for 2019.
After listening to her “self-improvement plan” for the coming year, she asked me: ”Well, what are you going to do to better yourself?”
Not sure why, but I responded with one word: “ACCEPTANCE.”
After a few seconds, I said: “I am going to learn to accept things and people as they are.”
Since then I had the opportunity to share my resolution with other friends — and I don’t know what to think?!
Everyone agreed that my 2019 resolution was most needed!
Seems like I stumbled upon something that I need to reform in my life: my impulse to always try to “correct” the wrongs that I see in others.
The Emergency Cold Shelter of NKY in Covington
So, I embarked on my 2019 goal with single-mindedness: I kept my nose out of the business of others. I thought that I was doing pretty good on my goal — until recently.
Less than two months into the new year and my acceptance of “things that I cannot change” went completely out the window.
This past January, the weather outside was frightfully cold. This caused a huge increase in guests at the Emergency Shelter of Northern Kentucky. And, twice this winter I have called the Newport City Manager and asked him to have the folks who were taking up residency under what is called the “wagon bridge” removed and encouraged to go to our Emergency Shelter in Covington.
I hope that kicking people out a place where they choose to live does not make me a heartless person. I just do not want my fellow human beings suffering needlessly when there is a warm place to spend the night.
The Emergency Shelter is overcrowded and lacking the restroom and laundry facilities that are needed to shelter these men and women.
Homelessness and affordable housing were the number one issues recently identified by a NKY group of 30-to-40-year-olds.
So, let’s build a bigger, better facility. The ESNKY (Emergency Shelter of Northern Kentucky) has over $1 million thanks to the fundraising efforts of Kenton County Judge Executive Ralph Drees and United States Congressman Goeff Davis (Yes, they earned the titles.)
BUT, WHERE TO BUILD?
Kim Webb, Executive Director of the Shelter, continues to look for space where her agency can adequately care for the needs of our homeless. (They are OUR homeless. These folks, men and women, are from our families.) She fights that awful prejudice we commonly refer to as NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard). When speaking about this, Kim, and the prior Executive Director Rachel Winters, will refer to the fact that our Kentucky State laws require that each of the 120 counties in our State have an animal shelter, but are not required to have a human shelter.
The Kentucky Revised Statutes, KRS 258.195, reads as follows: ” (1) The governing body of each county shall employ, appoint, or contract with an animal control officer, or shall contract with an entity that employs, appoints, or contracts with an animal control officer, and shall establish and maintain an animal shelter as a means of facilitating and administering KRS 258.095 to 258.500……….”
I looked for, but couldn’t find, any statute that requires counties provide for human shelters. Kim Webb is correct.
AND…..this is where I failed my resolution. Even though I cannot change this, I cannot accept this as it is.
There is a very simple solution…..the General Assembly could pass legislation requiring each of the 120 counties provide shelter for humans when the outside climate could cause death. It may be as simple as changing the wording of the above-cited legislation and enacting such a law (sounds too simple, right?).
This is a fairly simple fix ….right?
No, not really. There still remains the acceptance of a facility in each of our three counties.
As I explained the possibility of such legislation, one person said to me: “That ain’t gonna happen, Rechtin!”
But wait….
NKY has underutilized assets throughout the region that could be used to serve folks less fortunate than ourselves.
But…. you say: “I know all about NKY (Boone, Kenton, and Campbell),,,,Just where do these places exist?”
They are right under our noses. We use them every Sunday! Or, if you are a Baptist, on Wednesday night as well.
So, here’s the plan…….
There would be a gathering place, a “reception center,” in each of the three counties:
In Campbell County, folks might gather in the lobby of the Campbell County Fiscal Court Building on Monmouth Street.
In Kenton County, homeless people would gather in front of the new Kenton County Fiscal Court Building now being constructed along I 75 in Covington.
In Boone County, people would congregate at the Florence Government Complex.
At these three reception centers, the homeless guests would be greeted by volunteers or staff of Welcome House or ESNKY. Staff/Volunteers would then help give directions to those seeking shelter for the night.
At the reception centers, every evening at 6 p.m. from November 1st through April 1st, Church vans or public buses would arrive to transport our guests to their accommodations for the night.
So, you ask: “Ken, where are you taking these folks?”
Me: “Good Question!”
All churches, schools, clubs, fraternal organizations, religious groups and any other organization in NKY would be given the opportunity to “serve and share.” Serve their fellow man and share their resources.
An organization described above would offer dormitory style rooming facilities for up to 10 same-sex guests. The charity’s facilities would be provided with: training, cots, blankets, sheets, laundry soap, towels, a microwavable hot evening meal and a coffee and pastry breakfast to be served to each guest.
In addition to the dorm style room, the organization would provide: a restroom facility with shower, a washer and dryer, a TV and seating area, a game table and volunteer(s) to chaperone the evening.
The following morning, at 6 a.m., the vans or buses would arrive to transport our guests back to the reception centers.
So, now I ask: “What do you think? Does it address our needs?”
If you are a volunteer who believes that this is a good idea, if you are a church or one of those organizations looking for “good works” to do or if you believe that I need to stick to my New Year’s Resolution and keep my nose out of it, please let me know.
Ken Rechtin (kennethrechtin@gmail.com) or at anothervoicefornky.com
Ken Rechtin is a Newport city commissioner.
Why not fix the root of the problem? Salaries in general are rising pretty well right now along with a record low unemployment rate. How bad is homelessness going to get during the next recession whenever that is? Scary thought if we’re saying it’s getting bad right now.
The affordability part of the Affordable Housing Crisis is due majority in part to the cost to build and construct new housing, not stagnant wages. If you look up the data with the NAHB, regulatory costs account for 25-35% of the cost of housing. That doesn’t even include taxes or permit fees, that’s simply the man hours, resources, delays, and time contributed towards dealing with regulation.
So, for a simple example if you buy a $300,000 house tomorrow, you’re paying a $100,000 “price” for government regulation. You should be able to buy that house for $205,000 instead assuming their needs to be a tiny bit of regulation in place. And even at that, the lot sizes are absolutely tiny and the building materials are super cheap.
If you look at the time lines, these regulatory costs have risen exponentially in recent years due namely in part to environmental regulation.
We should take a strong swipe at the regulators and bureaucrats that make housing expensive first, so there’s little to no homeless population to begin with.
Concerned Citizen, I’m sorry you can’t afford to buy a house right now. I can’t either. But your assertion that the homeless shelter crisis is due to too many regulations that cause the cost of “building a house” to be too high ignores the real problem. A VERY significant proportion of the homeless population suffers from mental illness and/or drug addiction. They’re not trying to “build a house”. They’re trying not to freeze to death and trying to get life-sustaining food…and perhaps to get better access to mental health and addiction programs that can turn around their underlying issues.
Kevin, If you read my post it was clearly led and titled with “Affordable housing” not homelessness. I agree and am knowledgeable on the fast the majority of homeless people have mental illness or are retarded. But still even these people could probably be more housed if housing was cheaper. or maybe people would be better suited to donate money to buy some houses for these people. I encourage you to read before commenting. They have a program called Hooked On Phonics you can buy online.
As far as drug addicted, those people don’t even deserve to sleep under a tree. Drug abuse is not a disability, a type of mental illness, etc. Drug users are selfish, decision making, cowards, and slugs on society. Ship them all off to California where they will be idolized as heroes of the 21st century and given the riches of the land.
The day we agree and tell everyone that drug use is okay and that they’re just misunderstood people, is the day rape, murder, theft, and any other sin and crime become “okay” and “mislabeled” and “misunderstood actions that we should be tolerant of”.
Sadly it is already slowly starting, and will cause the fabric that hold society together to quickly deteriorate.
Thank you for your rude response. The fabric that holds society together is deteriorating because of people who deal with others the way that you just did with me.