Slay personally apologizes for homeless incident
Photo by Fielder Williams Strain
From the mayor’s blog:
Yesterday was a low point in the City’s hospitality. Badly supervised City employees callously destroyed the possessions of some homeless people who had chosen to camp illegally and for a extended period of time in a public park outside the windows of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Relocating people from public parks and other locations is not an unusual occurrence. It happens regularly, and it is part of a continuum of efforts to get people off the streets and into permanent, safe, supportive housing. What is unusual – and wrong – is bringing a garbage truck and using it.
The City’s social services agency has an explicit protocol for the situation. Possessions left behind in parks are to be tagged, safely stored, and returned – if possible – to their owners. That is what is supposed to happen. That is what did not happen this time.
Social services director Bill Siedhoff says that his agency will work with other departments to salvage what can identified – and will replace what cannot be saved. He will also rehearse the standard operating procedures with all the relevant City agencies.
This should not have happened. I am very, very sorry it did.
City Hall sources say contact has been made with the homeless men whose property was taken and destroyed and they have been offered compensation and housing.
The mayor also noted on his blog post that “no jurisdiction in the St. Louis region does as much for homeless people as does the City of St. Louis. A compassionate constituency, a good plan, some great advice, the cooperation of dozens of social services agencies, and some timely Federal assistance secured by our Congressional delegation have made the City’s plan to end homelessness a national model.”
Which is true, and should not be overlooked.
Eddie Roth writes about education, social justice, public safety, transportation, legal affairs and historic preservation. He joined the Post-Dispatch editorial page in 2008 after six years as an editorial writer with the Dayton Daily News. But he is not new to St. Louis. Eddie grew up in Webster Groves and south St. Louis County. He's a lawyer who for many years practiced with a downtown firm, and was active in civic affairs, including serving a term on the St. Louis Police Board. He and his wife, Jeanne, and their three daughters, Emily, Julia and Alice, live in the Shaw Neighborhood.
When it comes to community organizing, he endorses Quentin Crisp's advice: Rather than keeping up with the Joneses, it's better to pull them down to your level. 
I have compassion for homeless people and understand some causes of poverty. Foreign trade is a major cause of urban poverty and when there are jobs many urban dwellers are excluded. I do not fault the homeless for not wanting dead end jobs or menial labor. Especially since there is no financial gain involved for them just menial tedious labor. This being said homeless people camping in public parks and the like is a public health problem due to sanitation. Their belongings i.e. boxes, bags, carts, and other incidental items get contaminated by moisture and thus breed insects. These people become human host for insects and the like. This causes them ill health which spreads to the public. The mayor is helping them believe it or not.
One again Mayor Slay shows what a compassionate and concerned leader he is. His enlighted stewardship of the city government stands as a beacon of hope against the squalor that would consume us if he had not given us his progressive and intelligent leadership. Mayor Slay is to be commended for his forthright and timely response to this unfortunate incident. His actions make me proud to be a citizen of this troubled city. Thank you Mr. Slay for your leadership and vision in guiding St Louis through these troubled times.
“…His enlighte[ne]d stewardship of the city government stands as a beacon of hope against the squalor that would consume us if he had not given us his progressive and intelligent leadership….”
Thank you Mrs. Slay.
The person who gave the order should be fired and the officers who carried out those orders should be riding a desk.
I wonder how many of those guys who’s sole belongings were thrown into the trash right before their eyes were veteran’s who had fought for this country?
I can’t help but think that a few of them may have burned hooches in Vietnam. Horrible, but that was/is war.
This is not. This is unconscionable.
“Just following orders” is no excuse. If any of those park rangers had a conscience they would have refused the order. The one who gave the order clearly has no conscience or compassion. He shouldn’t have his job either.
He really only apologized for the garbage truck…..
If it comes to making a mistake in judgement, anyone criticizing the park rangers should spend more time around the homeless downtown. While there are many that would engender compassion, there are others that are destructive and self-centered criminals. The cleaning out of the park could have been better handled as admitted by the mayor, but in his apology, he made the comment that they were illegally camping. They shouldn’t have been there and they knew it!