Why does Fort Collins fear the homeless so much?

For over a year now, the Fort Collins community has been divided over whether the city should fund 20 lockers for the homeless at the Fort Collins Mennonite Fellowship. Those who are for it say that it will lessen stigmatization for 20 people, while also heightening their chances of employment. Those who are against it worry about the safety of the community. Both sides argue about whether the $10,500 project is or isn’t the best use of that money.

But the money isn’t really the issue. The locker project has become a symbol for a larger question, one that has never been adequately answered as long as humanity itself has existed — when the poor being poor doesn’t affect the rest of us, how many of the problems that face the dregs of society should we make our own?

We don’t have to make them all ours, but let’s address them with logic, not fear of something most of us know nothing about.

In all the research I’ve done on this topic, I’ve noticed that a lot of the opposition for the locker project is fear-based. Maybe some of the community not only fear that their money is at stake, but their way of living. And while we can’t afford to make all of the homeless problems the problems of communities at large, we can at least make an effort to be aware of when our misgivings are based on biases and stereotypes instead of rational reasons.

Here are some of the most biased and fear-based reasons that I’ve found for opposing the project.

To start off with, Councilman Ray Martinez fears that lockers would be given to homeless people who are resource resistant: “They like living on the street for some reason or another,” he said. Whether or not it’s actually true that some people “like” their homeless situation (and whether or not Martinez is really in a position to know), people will be chosen for lockers based on interviews with the Fellowship, and lockers won’t be given to those who don’t agree to its rules. And because the Fellowship would only be operating 20 lockers, they can be fairly selective in who they give them out to.

Next, listed in the memo sent out by Deputy City Manager Jeff Mihelich, is the argument that lockers could cause a potential increase in people experiencing homelessness in the area. As Mihelich explained to me, lockers by themselves (without programs attached to them) keep people in their current state, without incentive or resources to work for anything more. However, if people could store away their cumbersome backpacks early in the morning, that means they could also make it to their job or job interview on time, without lugging all their worldly possessions along with them. Isn’t the potential for a steady, self-made income the best way for a homeless person to slowly but surely increase their confidence and self-sufficiency? Lockers seem like the best bang for our buck, in the long run.

Another argument in the memo, this one voiced by community members, is that lockers may become a gathering place for illegal activities, and a storage place for drugs and weapons. Besides the fact that this is all just supposition, Steve Ramer, pastor of the FCMF and strong supporter of the lockers idea, brings up an interesting point. He says that since the homeless are victimized at a higher rate than a lot of other populations, lockers could actually help reduce some kinds of crime. Not reported crime, (because when the homeless have their things stolen, it’s not usually reported), but crime nonetheless, as theft is theft. All this in turn begs the question, why is this crime not reported? In our eyes, are homeless people not as worthy of protection as the rest of us?

Lastly, Councilman Ray Martinez argues that if bus stops with cameras aren’t deemed safe enough for lockers, then churches with cameras shouldn’t be either. But why aren’t bus stops deemed a good place for lockers in the first place? Maybe because the homeless and the homed would have to mix together in close quarters. And the reason this is a problem? Is it valid safety concerns, or is it the distaste and fear brought on by buying into the stereotypes of the homeless, and the refusal to look them in the eye as we pass? In the paraphrased words of Nick Wilde from Zootopia, “If the world’s only going to see [them] as shifty and untrustworthy, there’s no point in them trying to be anything else.”

With the locker project on the agenda of another City Council meeting this coming Tuesday, it’s important to remember that these lockers are not the end all be all of Fort Collins’ efforts for taking care of the poor and homeless. There are many facets to this decision, and they will all impact the homeless, the community, and the city’s view of itself in some way. But all four of the above arguments against the project are based simply on a fear of what could happen. When we’re opposing something that the homeless have asked for, let’s be real about where our reasons are coming from.