Solve the homeless problem

More and more often property owners in Cape Girardeau find homeless people putting up tents in their woods, hiding in vacant houses or sleeping at a workplace after closing time. Why is this happening?

City ordinance 18.5 forbids overnighting on "public" property. However, Cape Girardeau has no homeless shelter or designated parking/camping area. So our neighbors going through a period of homelessness are forced to break the law: They can break city ordinance by sleeping on public land, or they can trespass illegally on "private" property. They can't live without sleep.

The solution to homelessness is affordable homes where people with minimal income can stay while they build up savings from their jobs, or use rehab, vocational and mental health services to become independent again. But the local nonprofits that help very low-income people can't find enough apartments or houses for them.

Cape Girardeau has an affordable housing crisis. The city can and should do something about it.

But in the meantime, your homeless neighbors need a way to sleep without trespassing on your property. The Street Level Cape Girardeau outreach group urges the city to immediately:

1. Establish an amnesty area -- an orderly, sanitary, supervised tenting and car-sleeping area in a city park near a restroom building.

2. Let our homeless neighbors shower in the Osage Centre at low-use times.

3. Until the city has places for our homeless neighbors to get their lives back on track, exempt them from ordinance 18-5.

Please lend your support.

CYNTHIA DURGAN, Cape Girardeau