What happened to our safe, beautiful Harbison community? | Op-Ed

In 2008, we were all so proud when we were able to secure our property on Bower Parkway for our state of the art No Kill Adoption, Medical and Education Center. We worked hard to collaborate with the two counties, Lexington and Richland, to make our dream a reality. We had visitors from other states calling and asking how we ever achieved such a lofty goal for homeless pets in South Carolina.

Today, we see homeless people begging on street corners around the Harbison area. We have found crystal meth on our property, found homeless people sleeping in our trucks and passed out under our front entrance. Recently, we had three vans vandalized for the catalytic converters. Our staff no longer feels safe leaving work after dark. Our business neighbors one block away have trash everywhere, used needles found in their parking lot, human feces and the homeless sleeping under bushes during the day.

No one seems to have an answer. There are lots of reasons why the authorities don’t arrest them for loitering or trespassing even though we were told to put up signs that say “No Trespassing; Violators will be Arrested.”

You can’t really blame the homeless people, since we see people passing them money every day, which just encourages them to stay in the community. People don’t realize they are doing more harm than good by funding their addictions and enabling these people to continue to panhandle which, by the way, is illegal.

The homeless population knows there are no real consequences for their behavior and the City of Columbia Police just politely ask them to leave our property. They say you can’t force them into a program that was created to help the homeless people, and arresting them simply creates a lot of paperwork and ties up the legal system. It’s all about tolerance now, even at the risk of public safety and businesses being negatively impacted — which impacts our tax base.

It’s turning into an epidemic. On the NextDoor app, all I see is crime, car thefts and terrible things happening with no end in sight — everything has become so lawless.

We have ordinances and neighborhood rules for companion pets, as well as homeless pets, and yet we have no real solution or rules for the homeless people in the Harbison Area other than tolerance. What’s next, tent cities for the homeless people? I see exactly how that has impacted so many communities around our country.

We need strong leadership that believes in accountability. Leadership that supports our brave men and women on the police force. Leaders that embrace and support our local businesses. We need to create laws that set high standards for our community so others want to live here and invest in small businesses.

I am, by far, one of the most compassionate people you will ever meet; but I know the impact of accountability and setting safe and humane standards for all living creatures. We are proud of our partnership with Lexington and Richland counties, but we are not proud of the deterioration that we are witnessing in what used to be the beautiful Harbison Community.

Deloris Mungo is the Chair Emeritus and Founder of Pawmetto Lifeline in Columbia.

This story was originally published March 28, 2021 at 1:00 AM.