by Erika McNamara

Being homeless, once again, is the evil that lurks in every shadow ready to destroy all that is good and right. This is obviously true after homeless individuals were blamed, in a recent piece posted to AnnArbor.com, for the shutdown of Poshh boutique in downtown Ann Arbor. There is a subtle irony in reporter Lizzy Alfs’s reporting that homeless individuals managed to take out a downtown Ann Arbor boutique named Poshh. Alfs writes: “As a 22-year-old recent graduate from Cornell University, Batiste-Johnson opened the high-fashion, upscale boutique 10 years ago, at a time when she said downtown Ann Arbor was ‘drastically’ different. Now, she said high rents, increasing safety concerns and high tenant turnover rates are driving both retail tenants and customers away from downtown Ann Arbor. ‘When I came to Ann Arbor, it was listed as one of the safest cities in this country,’ she said. ‘You could feel a sense of safety. Now, there’s a huge homeless problem on Liberty Street and let’s be honest, it’s driving customers away and affects my business.’”

An alleged “huge homeless problem” is an interesting reason to close the doors of a business. This gives the impression that busloads of homeless individuals in Ann Arbor congregated outside the doors of the business like a pack of wild dogs ready to attack customers. There is such a large number of homeless who hang out on Liberty that they actually drove Batiste-Johnson’s customers away?

This lame attempt to blame the homeless for the closing of a downtown business only perpetuates the idea and stigma associated with homelessness. News flash—in Washtenaw County and in Ann Arbor there are hungry, homeless and poor individuals everywhere. They walk among us, some recognized, most not even noticed; they read at the library while you browse the latest novels, and drink coffee next to you at downtown cafes. They are your co-workers, perhaps, and in Washtenaw County most certainly your children’s schoolmates.

The homeless are a class of people that the general public disparages and discriminates against with little thought (as evidenced in the AnnArbor.com article and the comments that followed). The truth of the matter comes out as the article progresses: Poshh owner Batiste-Johnson cites half a dozen factors that, more likely, contributed to the demise of her business: high rent, high turnover, her own high prices, the economy and, of course, market trends. According to the AnnArbor.com article, “Mike Giraud of Swisher Commercial, who is marketing the 1,350-square-foot space on East Liberty Street, said retailers are having difficulty everywhere, not just downtown Ann Arbor.”

What if I were to say my upscale retail business went under because of all of the loud, giggling, U of M freshman who are a bother? They are rude, ride bikes on the sidewalk, and step out in front of cars. People would think there was something wrong with me. People blame the homeless for many social maladies. Case in point: downtown Ann Arbor retail store closes because of homeless people.

There are panhandlers and homeless individuals who stake out spots in front of the People’s Food Co-op on Fourth Avenue daily. These folks ask everyone who goes in or out of the retail store for money. Unlike Poshh, PFC is a thriving business that has experienced significant growth in membership and revenues, even as the store’s customers have been panhandled for years. So why hasn’t the “huge homeless problem” on Fourth Avenue taken down the businesses there?

It is very easy to pick on and bully those who are vulnerable. In some cases doing so gives one sense of superiority. It’s a way to deflect problems of our own making.

Ann Arbor needs a strong voice to lobby for the homeless, hungry and poor against negative media portrayals such as Lizzy Alfs’s reporting in AnnArbor.com.

Over the course of the past few years there has been an escalation of violence perpetrated against homeless individuals in the U.S.  As a result, several states have begun to include the homeless in the protected class for hate crime legislation. The National Coalition for Homeless reported that between the years 1999 and 2007 there 217 homeless individuals died because of attacks and assaults. The largest group of perpetrators of these crimes is thrill seeking teenagers. So it has fallen upon the states to make the homeless a special class of protected individuals.

One thing is for sure: if it is perfectly fine to blame the homeless for the economic woes of a downtown business, it becomes increasingly acceptable to blame them for their own homelessness, hunger and poverty as we have seen in the rationale behind various legislation passed by Republicans in Michigan’s House and Senate, as well as Governor Rick Snyder. Ann Arbor’s downtown businesses are suffering. How about we put the blame where it belongs, squarely on the shoulders of greedy out-of-town landlords who charge outlandish rents? Let’s point the finger at the Downtown Development Authority Board of Directors—an insular group more concerned with real estate deals than with raising park rates 80 percent in the space of one year. What if we blamed a City Council that hasn’t crafted an economic development plan for Ann Arbor?

Nah. Let’s blame the homeless.