by Lowell City Councilor Corey Robinson

What happens when those who help stop helping?

We have seen the impacts of those refusing help on our neighborhoods. It is wreaking havoc on our communities. I ask again, what happens when those who are helping opt out? Too many desperately seeking assistance are caught in the outcome with nowhere to turn.

We have heard from members of the community that provide food and day services to our unhoused population. We have been informed how they have gone from providing on average 30 meals a day to upwards of 190 in two years. We have heard convincing testimony of being disrespected, assaulted, and treated as if their good faith is exploited as an entitlement. We have heard of the blatant disrespect that runs rampant amongst those in need of help as well as to the property that is providing the assistance.

Throughout the social services web, there has to be rules and accountability in order to achieve the intended outcomes. Enabling and allowing chaos to thrive, will only impede those preferred outcomes. Our social service system is far from perfect, but it is what we currently have to work with. Through the utilization of this system, we need to examine and continuously make adjustments to improve these services.

When we merge the unhoused, our social service providers , and the general public with the common goal of providing services to those in need; there must be guidelines, rules, regulations, and respect in order to allow this complex arrangement to function.

The historians, the advocates, and the critics of our local elected body fail to consider accountability within our social compact. Ordinances and bylaws are merely tools used to provide these guidelines. Unacceptable behaviors such as mixing firearms with food distribution centers may just be enough to force those providing the services to opt out. We can no longer afford to walk by the discarded syringes and the human feces, while politely declining offers of sexual service for a fee. In many instances, we are whistling past the graveyard.

Excusing harmful behaviors, chalking them up as the larger society’s fault is a radically, wrong headed way of thinking and does nothing to assist those truly in need. We have work to do…

#TogetherWeMakeADifference