Cudahy appears to warming to the idea of caring for area homeless. Finally.
See the Journal Sentinel story here.
The mayor of Cudahy, whose city has come under fire for rejecting a church’s proposal for a homeless shelter, said he will reach out to faith leaders to discuss “the best way and best location to provide a warm place for the homeless” in his city.
Mayor Tony Day issued a statement Wednesday after the Journal Sentinel reported that local churches were hosting all-night prayer services to accommodate the homeless on the coldest nights of the year. St. Mark Lutheran Church in Cudahy took in four guests Monday and Tuesday nights in response to a Journal Sentinel story on the shelter’s rejection in which an alderman made disparaging remarks about the homeless in Cudahy. The service moves to Tippecanoe Presbyterian Church near Bay View on Wednesday.
Day said in the statement that he regretted that comments made during an October Plan Commission meeting, in which an alderman referred to homeless people in his district as “stinky” and “drunk,” had “become the focus of this important issue.”
“This office is committed to the well-being of all Cudahy residents, especially those who have fallen on hard times,” he said.
I am glad Cudahy has finally seen the light on this … although it’s too bad it took a story in the Journal Sentinel exposing the problem to spur things along.
I’d like to think we’d have a different reaction in South Milwaukee, but I am not naive enough to think that the misconceptions and biases espoused by some in Cudahy aren’t felt by some here. I, however, don’t share them.
Homelesseness is a real problem everywhere, urban and suburban, and hiding from that fact does no one any good.
Finding both short- and long-term solutions should be the goal, and the graciousness of area churches to open their doors to the homeless is a great start.
God bless those who are doing this.
South Milwaukee Blog 