Low Barrier

 My neighbor texted to say there were people pitching tents across from her house. 

I went over, and unsurprisingly found a couple of longtime street people I've known for years. One is merely a drug user who gets in trouble, the other a man haunted by mental illness which is not greatly helped by his insistence on using drugs. 

They had some tentmates also. 

I indicated to them that we would prefer they not set up shop there.

They replied that they wouldn't be staying. I left.

An hour later, my neighbor texted again to say they had moved to the basketball court, farther into our block. 

"What are you guys doing," I asked. "You know this is not acceptable, right?"

"The policeman told us it was okay, until someone calls the cops," they replied.

"The policeman and I are about to have a discussion," I said.

Right then the policeman in question drove by, and I managed to flag him down. 

"What are you telling these guys," I asked. 

He said there was not any no trespassing order on the property, so he had figured it was okay.

It was not okay. "We're trying to do something here," I said, indicating the neighborhood around him. 

We ended up compromising: they could move to my lot on St John street, until someone actually made a complaint. Off they went. 

The next day, I tried finding out who had pushed all the homeless off of St John street originally, because that was why they were suddenly on my street. A Mister Bob, I was told. I called around, and finally found Mr. Bob. 

Mister Bob and I talked for a little bit, until I mentioned that all the campers were on my property as a result of him chasing them from where they had been on St John. He denied this, saying he was just cleaning up the trash.

"We did get a complaint about your property though," he said, but couldn't do anything about it because it was private property. This was pretty thin, I thought, because we have had a no trespass order on the property for months. 

Upon hearing that, he picked up the phone and called a police officer he knew, who said he would dispatch police promptly to remove the homeless.

Here's the thing though: this doesn't really solve the problem. In fact, approaches like this prevent us from finding real solutions.

That night I went to a meeting about homelessness. Among the topics raised was a low barrier shelter. This was only briefly touched on, though, without any details. A low barrier shelter is a shelter where people will be secure and safe but can still do drugs. 

"It's important for us to meet people where they are," the executive director of the group leading the meeting said.

The next afternoon I was talking to some people about the idea, and realized that St John was currently our low barrier shelter. Without the shelter or security.