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The Catholic Worker House, a charitable
group who provides meals, clothing, and hygiene products to the homeless are
being viewed as a major problem by the community’s residents. There have been
four complaints about this service because CWH does not have a certificate to
serve food from an unlicensed location.
Apparently, the residents say that
the group reheats food donated by restaurants and hands them out to the
homeless. According to the law, you cannot warm up food if you do not have a
license. The residents claim that they are not worried about the quality of the
food but about the possibility of the food getting people sick
Personally, I find this
conflicting. I could not believe neighbors were filing complaints against CWH
for reheating food in croc pots. I think that this group is doing whatever they
can to help the homeless and as long as they are not feeding them rotten food I
do not see a problem. I understand that complainers do not want anyone to get
sick, but at the same time who else is going to feed the homeless? The article
said that city officials tried to direct the homeless to Haven for Hope but this
dramatically increased CWH’s intake of clients. Hopefully this gets settled and
the homeless get fed.
Any neighborhood has the right to raise issues regarding the behavior of people who live, work or are just passing through through its community. This is a basic safety concern for all neighborhoods. Its seems that the real problem here is bad and possible criminal behavior by CHW clientele as they move through the neighborhood. If the CWH feels isolated it may be that they have not a good job of working with the neighborhood in resolving these issues regarding their clients and the way they operate. If CWH wishes to continue operate in Dignowity or any neighborhood for that matter then the onus is really on CWH to be a good neighbor and ensure that their intended good work is not adversely affecting the community. CWH cannot hide behind its religious affiliation and shutting down an operation that has been in place for close to 30 years are not the answers.
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