EDITORIAL: Evaluating Human Services

WARD 3 COUNCIL member Stephen Kunselman was first threatened with recall by a member of the homeless advocacy group MISSION. A few days later, the same member of MISSION who had announced at a public Council meeting the group was behind the recall effort, reversed course. As a 501(c)3, MISSION is not legally entitled to participate in recall efforts. We don’t always agree with Council member Kunselman’s votes and sometimes find his comments needlessly provocative. However, his comments concerning the rights of property owners and the need to bring the homeless from tents into shelters during the winter months were practical; Kunselman’s views represent a voice of reason.

Previous Council members and Ann Arbor’s previous mayor were quick to pat themselves on the back for funding more “beds” at the Delonis Shelter. The “beds” were rubber mats placed on the floor and the funding was temporary. Nonetheless, when temperatures drop into the teens and 20s, people living in tents need heated shelter, warm food, showers and security.

While the county and Ann Arbor have given millions of tax dollars over the past decade to county and local non-profit human services organizations, the number of homeless in our county has risen. In response, local elected officials rely on churches, synagogues and other organizations to step up during winter months. This is little more than the use of volunteers and public money to do what county and city officials refuse to fully fund.

It’s time to not only scrutinize how county and local human service non-profits have used public money, but to initiate a community discussion about a second homeless shelter, a day shelter. According to its own budget and incident reports, the Ann Arbor Public Library spends hundreds of thousands of dollars each year on security staff who tend to the homeless who use the downtown library as a day shelter during the winter months. This is not only a poor use of public funds, but an even worse use of a public library which hosts 10,000 children each year.

The Library’s Director and that institution’s Board members have, for political reasons, chosen not to press local elected officials to stop the de facto use of the AADL as a day shelter for the growing homeless population. The AADL’s Board of Trustees put politics before public safety. City Council members are doing the same in outsourcing the city’s human services to paid non-profits and volunteer religious organizations. Steve Kunselman pointed out the obvious. Taxpayers and the homeless deserve a more comprehensive and thoughtful human services plan.