A Mayoral Proposal in S.F. Would Tie Welfare to Drug Tests
TBT: Beggars Can Be ChoosersA Mayoral Proposal in S.F. Would Tie Welfare to Drug Tests
I talked a couple of weeks ago with Walter Herres, a homeless man who has been a longtime advocate for the unhoused in the city of New Brunswick. Our conversation came at the tale end of a long heat wave, when temperatures had spiked in the 90s and the humidity level made being outside unbearable. This created significant problems for men and women who lacked regular shelter, people who were forced to live through the extreme heat often without access to basics like showers and running water. The city opened a cooling center in the Unity Square Community Center on Remsen Avenue during this year’s heat wave, but it only provides a brief respite, and does nothing to address the larger crisis. The city offers more services for the homeless — see the city’s website — than other Middlesex County communities, but that is misleading. New Brunswick has no choice. It is a destination for homeless men and women because of its geography and centrality in the life of the region. The presence of a major train station and one of the state’s largest soup kitchens (Elijah’s Promise), the anonymity that a city offers, and the proximity to health care mean that those without shelter from elsewhere in Middlesex County and souther Somerset County can find ways to which survive that would be much more difficult in suburban communities that are more spread out and ultimately less hospitable.
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© 2023 Hank Kalet
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Hank Kalet 