A fearful Selma Town Council turns its back on the homeless

Fear born of ignorance has often shaped public policy and never for the better. Such fear prompted Congress to imprison U.S. citizens — Japanese Americans — in internment camps in World War II. In Germany, Hitler stoked fear of Jews to drive them from their homes and businesses and into camps where 6 million died.

But ignorance was no excuse when Selma leaders said a Christian ministry could not shelter the homeless against extreme cold and torrential wind and rain. The ministry, JoCo Dream Center, had literally schooled the council in both Johnston’s homeless population and how the shelter would operate.

Regina Rodgers, a JoCo Dream Center leader, acknowledged that the homeless can be alcoholics and drug addicts with violent tendencies. But when they’re cold or soaked with rain, the homeless aren’t looking for trouble; they’re looking for shelter, she said.

It helps too that JoCo Dream Center volunteers have built a rapport with the homeless since the ministry began its outreach some five years ago, Rodgers said. Because of that, she likes to think the ministry has earned the respect of the homeless, so much so that they’ll behave when offered the chance to shelter overnight from the cold.

But to guard against bad behavior, the ministry would have searched bags for alcohol, drugs and weapons before the homeless entered the shelter. And in case anyone did act up when inside, Rodgers noted that Selma’s police station was next door.

The council had other fears that Rodgers quickly dispelled. Council members, for example, said they could envision a steady stream of the homeless making their way on foot through Selma en route to the shelter. No, Rodgers said, JoCo Dream Center would pick them up from their camps and transport them to the shelter. Just as important, volunteers would return them to their camps when the shelter closed at daybreak the next morning, she said.

Council members feared too that the homeless shelter, housed on the Temple City Church grounds, would have lowered surrounding property values. But the shelter would have operated only between November and March, only when the temperature fell below freezing and only overnight. No one would have known it was there. In any event, the shelter would have had no residential neighbors. And while the church is near a shopping center and a used-car lot, no one from either opposed the shelter. If neighbors weren’t concerned about their property values, why was the council?

No, the council acted out of fear, and Councilwoman Susan Watson said as much. “I really admire what you’re trying to do,” she told Rodgers. “But I just am a little fearful.”

But the evidence, which Rodgers laid out in detail, showed Watson had no reason to be fearful, though she joined the council in saying a unanimous no to JoCo Dream Center.

Sadly, it’s just another example of fear driving policy for the worse. And the losers will be Johnston County’s homeless.

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