Hiedi Lee usually can tell when people have been feeding the homeless and distributing supplies at Vancouver’s Esther Short Park.
That’s because of the mess of trash and leftover food Lee finds on her daily rounds through the park with a trash bag.
A pumpkin pie. A nearly untouched tray of Costco wraps. Plates loaded with a turkey dinner and all the fixings. Unopened packages of toothbrushes and toothpaste and lotion left on the covered stage where the homeless congregate in bad weather.
Indeed, the outreach is a kind gesture — but there isn’t a shortage of food distribution downtown, and people know where to get food when they need it, said Lee, 36, who has lived for 2½ years in a condominium overlooking Esther Short Park. If church members want to feed the needy, let them do it at their church, she said.
The messes in the park have been occurring more frequently since early spring, but grass-roots homeless outreach seems to be ramping up with the holiday season underway, she said. For instance, the day after Thanksgiving, a church group served tamales and handed out clothing in the morning, and another group served chili and turkey dinners and distributed hygiene products in the evening. Walking her dog that night, Lee found food and an assortment of toiletries strewn around the park.
Lee, who “adopted” Esther Short earlier this year with her boyfriend, Dan Mitchell, wants people to consider putting their time and money into established social service organizations rather than occasionally serving dinner in the park to the homeless.
“There are so many small organizations that are popping up that feel they can do it better and feel they can serve more people, but the fact is, the people who are serving food in the park are not there every day,” Lee said last week. “The way they’re going about it is probably not in the best interest of everybody, whether it be the homeless person or the neighborhood.”
Meanwhile, established agencies such as Share and Council for the Homeless are providing a multitude of necessary services other than “here’s a piece of pie and a sandwich,’” Lee said.
“If some of these groups came together, the amount of traction that could be gained could be amazing,” she said.
Peggy Sheehan, Community and Economic Development program manager, said from her perspective as a city employee, it’s “much more effective” to work with an established agency that has a plan, offers counseling and provides information on how to obtain benefits, apply for housing and improve credit.
Andy Silver, executive director for the Council for the Homeless, said he’s been seeing a rift between organizations that provide services to homeless people as part of their mission and volunteer-led, grass-roots efforts.
“I think it’s really unfortunate that there isn’t a greater amount of collaboration and communication happening, and I think that would benefit the people that we are all trying to help if we were able to come together more and partner more,” Silver said last week.
Based on the dozens of comments on Lee’s posts on Next Door, a social media site for neighborhoods, and the Facebook page, “Keeping Esther Short Park Clean,” Lee is far from the only neighbor irritated by the food and trash situation.
“While I suppose some might find their efforts praiseworthy, I and others do not,” one neighbor wrote. “Personally I find it to be nothing more than vanity. As I said before, if they want to make a difference give to those providing mental health. The homeless who are not mentally ill (have found) assistance with other church outreach programs which do not put on such self-aggrandizing displays.”
Janis McDonnell, who helps pick up trash at Esther Short Park, wrote on Next Door, “We do not want filth, antisocial behaviors, food being prepared and distributed without food handling licenses in OUR living rooms. The great city of Vancouver and it’s great citizens have worked very hard to provide all the needs for the homeless at the APPROPRIATELY ESTABLISHED sites and NOT at the Esther Short Park.”
A Nov. 27 Facebook post next to several photos of food-loaded plates, trash and toiletries on the steps of the Esther Short Park stage said, “You might feel great about your morality, you did something good … but did you think about the repercussions? Did you stay around to clean up?”
That prompted an increasingly heated back-and-forth of digital comments Tuesday between Esther Short Neighborhood residents and a member of Free Hot Soup Vancouver, who maintains that the group cleans up after itself.
“We don’t want a mess in the park either, so we pick up after ourselves. Maybe if you came and talked to us, we could work with you,” wrote Brian Fazio, who has been sharing food at local parks at 4:30 p.m. on Saturdays as part of Free Hot Soup with his wife and daughter for a year. “We’re not doing anything wrong, and we want to help the whole community, even you guys. So if you want to partner with us, too, we’re there.”
The exchange then degenerated into an argument over why Fazio wouldn’t directly answer whether his group had a food-handling permit, which is a health department requirement when preparing food for the public.
Fazio, 43, a software implementation specialist, told a reporter Wednesday that Free Hot Soup is simply a group of Facebook friends, and several have food handlers’ licenses. When he “shares his picnics” in the park, as he puts it, he reminds recipients to be respectful and clean up after themselves. He’s picked up large quantities of trash on his outings but doesn’t feel responsible for returning the next day to clean up “the whole Saturday night party,” he said.
Fazio is surprised by the attitude of nearby residents and chalks it up to their wanting the homeless to go away. In that case, the best thing they could do is advocate for affordable housing so the homeless have a place to go, he said.
“To me, this whole thing has been personally rewarding and personally frustrating,” Fazio said. “I would like to be able to put food in the mouths of the hungry and not deal with the politics of it.”
