Columbia residents call for return of Vista benches, end to homeless ‘discrimination’
Weeks after the three street-side benches were removed from a corner in the Vista, downtown residents are still calling for Columbia to do more to address homeless issues in the city’s business district.
Kate Bowie and E.K. Hoffman were among several residents who spoke up at last week’s Columbia City Council meeting, about a month after the benches were removed. They asked the benches be returned and that the city repeal ordinances they feel discriminate against the homeless.
“There are ordinances against loitering, urban camping, how much you can have on you like pushing a buggy down the street,” Hoffman, who works downtown, told The State. “These ordinances criminalize poor folks in public places, and reinforce this capitalist ideology that you have to have money to exist.”
Bowie criticized the city for spending $42 million this year to operate the police department, compared to around $1 million on homelessness services.
The benches were removed from the intersection of Lady and Lincoln streets last month, surprising business owners in the downtown district and raising concerns about what would happen to the people who used to sit in the area regularly.
Columbia police said the benches were removed because of complaints about homeless people in the area, who panhandled and slept on the benches, drawing complaints from business owners.
At the time, police said the three benches had been moved to the entrance way of police headquarters for visitors to use. In last Tuesday’s city council meeting, Councilman Howard Duvall said the benches had been moved “about a hundred feet up the hill,” to the intersection of Lincoln and Washington streets.
The Columbia Police Department told The State the benches are now set up outside the entrance way of police headquarters, a location Bowie and Hoffman doubted would be welcoming to homeless people who need a rest.
Wade Sellers, the owner of Coal Powered Filmworks on Lincoln Street, had complained about the decision to remove the benches without business owners in the area being consulted. He said merchants met informally last week to discuss the issue.
“We agreed communications between businesses and between the city and the Vista Guild could be better,” Sellers said. “The issue’s bigger than benches, and it’s something metropolitan areas bigger than Columbia are dealing with to a much bigger degree. Columbia has done a good job with nonprofits and religious organizations, but we can’t take for granted communications between the city and businesses.”
Mayor Steve Benjamin said he understands why citizens would be upset about the challenges that homeless people face in Columbia. He said reductions in federal and state aide to combat homelessness has increased the number of people sleeping on the street, whether because they’re dealing with domestic violence, drug addiction or just “two missed paychecks.”
The city is working to find more “innovative ways” to combat homelessness, Benjamin said, but he doesn’t want to get “caught up in discussions around benches.”
“I don’t think they should have been moved, frankly,” Benjamin said. “If we want to be a walkable, bikeable pedestrian city, we need places for people to move around... (but) we need more comprehensive solutions.”
He mentioned the city’s funding commitment to agencies that work with the homeless in the Columbia area. The United Way of the Midlands received $445,000 this year to coordinate regional services and open inclement weather shelters when needed. The Transitions Homeless Center on Main Street received $325,000 for residential and day services, and Housing First Columbia received $229,500 for housing units and support services in the city.
Transitions is open during the day to provide people with meals, a chance to shower and other opportunities, and the Mental Illness Recovery Center also operates a drop-in center for youth on Gregg Street. Richland Library also has programs for homeless people at its Assembly Street location.
Duvall said he had discussed adding public seating near the mouth of the tunnel on Lincoln Street, but received objections because the benches would have included dividers to separate individual seats, something critics contend is an example of “hostile architecture” meant to discourage homeless people from using them.
The councilman said the city does a good job providing services to the homeless, but that the responsibility of solving the problem shouldn’t fall on the city alone.
“It’s a state responsibility, a county responsibility, a social responsibility from the churches,” Duvall said. “Homelessness is not caused by the city of Columbia, and the city can’t solve it by itself.”
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