Help Save Somerset West CBD
Over the last few years there has been an influx of vagrants to our town. Many vagrants are been encouraged into Somerset West by the "good will" of charity organisations such as The Helderberg Street People Centre also known as The Somerset West Soup Kitchen. The vast majority of homeless people in Somerset West are homeless due to addiction or alcohol abuse and feeding them is not a solution especially in the CBD. As previous post urging people not to give homeless people hand outs, the same should go for charity organisations that are in love just taking these peoples responsibility away and enabling their drug or alcohol problem. The Soup Kitchen is damaging the value of Somerset West and contributing to crime in the area. There are many people who live in poor communities around Somerset West and this is where they should move the soup kitchen or to The Night Shelter in Somerset West. Help save Somerset West by signing this petition to get The Soup Kitchen moved and if you support this organisation then you should seriously consider the value of keeping these people stuck and removing their responsibility from them.
Click the link to sign the petition to move The Soup Kitchen:
Petition Number: 488
The Central Business Area CBD of Somerset West has been badly effected by the well intended activity of the soup kitchen in Victoria street. It is a sad day when some people think they are doing good by helping others but at the same time destroying hard working small business people with their charity. The soup kitchen has been a magnet for vagrants, desperate street people, mostly with drug or alcohol problems. To make matters worse the soup kitchen is next to a liquor store where beggars spend there beggings to enjoy with their free meal from the soup kitchen.The six churches involved in the soup kitchen could do much better with a bit of research and programs of help to those that want to better themselves and change their ways.Replace the soup kitchen with a training and placement centre to uplift the unemployed.
ReplyDeleteI hear what you are saying, and agree with you on what is happening. But, like Magel, I would suggest that we dont just see problems, but rather see solutions. Instead of feeling anger towards the poor when they are using survival instincts (finding out the free food) and coping mechanisms (alcohol to numb the pain and coldness), lets rather be imaginative and creative in seeing how we can give these men and women back their dignity and pride. So, not just shut down the center, but increase it. See where it is lacking, and what problems it is causing, and make it better. Lets put our minds together to come up with something that shows humanity and kindness, brotherly love. I agree that moving the soup kitchen to a better location is an idea (ie incorporate it with the night shelter).
ReplyDeleteImagine if Somerset West could be known for turning the homeless into proud and dignified, wonderful men and women that contribute to society.
Instead of frowning at the problems and complaining, lets grab the chance to be pioneers of kindness and humanity! A town of example to the rest of the country.
Hi Timothy, we are not suggesting closing it down but moving it to another location like the Night Shelter and combining orginisations to offer the homeless solutions such as grants, shelter, rehabilitation and possible intergration. But having a food hand out in the middle of town is not a solution to the homeless problem. There is a big difference between a had out and a hand up. The soup kitchen is a hand out establishment that needs to intergrate with other orginisations in solving the problem not making it worse...
ReplyDeleteTo the bigoted charmer who wrote this article: You make "good will" out to be a social evil and bergies out to be sub-human and to be kept out of town.
ReplyDeleteAll People need to eat - a fact you seem to have forgotten. Does it matter that they come into Somerset West to do so, or would you like them to carry a dompass so that you can make them leave the city limits after they are fed?
If charity is "destroying" hard-working business people, then maybe those business people are not being very charitable in their ethics. They should then ought to become more humane in their outlook and less business like. Maybe we should make all soup kitchens start paying tax. Would you prefer that?
Feeding people each day does not take their responsibility away from them, it helps them to focus their efforts on enjoying life which is one step ahead of survival consciousness. If it means they must get drunk then we need to establish some sort of rehabilitation which helps them out of alcoholism after we have fed them.
Most people are homeless not because of drug addiction, it is because our government is too corrupt to supply the poor with cheap housing. The society is sick and it makes the poor sick.
Let's hope you don't end up on the street depending on charity, but then again, your benevolence might benefit from that type of situation.
How can you prove that the kitchen is damaging the value of Somerset West? That is just speculative twaddle. The poverty is now in your face and you have to see it, whereas before it was hidden beyond the city-limits and in the township.
Your article belies your refined sense of social conscience and basic human empathy. We ought to round up all these people instead and send them to labour camps and that would probably make you sleep better at night!
To the article poster (HELP SAVE SOMERSET WEST) -
ReplyDeleteWho do you think you are???!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
TOTALLY SHOCKED BY THIS ARTICLE,
ReplyDeleteWHOEVER POSTED THIS IS NOT HUMAN AT ALL,
HEARTLESS,SOME BECAME OPHARNS AND HAVE NO WAY OUT,
IS FEEDING OTHER HUMANS NOW A CRIME?
I FEEL SORRY FOR YOUR SOUL:(
I fully agree, please go to http://helderbergstreetpeople.co.za/ and see for yourself the wonderful work they do. Closing them down is the same as saying we don't care.
ReplyDelete