Respectfully Disagree

I am writing in response to your article titled "Street Life" in the May 7-14, 1998, edition of Metro Pulse. I must take issue with some of the material in the article. There is solid research on the local homeless population, which must not have been available to you.

There are approximately 1,100 homeless individuals in Knox County in a given month. That translates to about 550 per night. Research indicates 45 percent are mentally ill; and 50 percent have addictions. Many are dually diagnosed with mental health and addictive problems.

While I agree that homeless people have life-dominating problems and that, as a whole, they represent the most dysfunctional people of our culture, I must respectfully disagree that "the average citizen has cause to be scared." I have been involved in ministry to homeless people over 15 years and find them to be mostly reticent, attempting to avoid contact with others. They feel a great deal of shame and tend to distance themselves from others. For instance, the research done by Knox Area Rescue Ministries and the Knoxville Police Department found that the vast majority of panhandlers are not homeless.

KARM begins by offering basic services such as food, shelter, and clothing, but then offers programs which give a person the opportunity to overcome their life-dominating problem. Educational opportunities, addiction treatment programs, job training, and life skills programs are a part of the services we offer as well. Also, we offer intensive case management services for most all of our clients. All we do is done from a Christian perspective and encourages our clients to seek a meaningful relationship with God.

While you gave stories of clients who are homeless who are not doing well, let me assure you there are many to whom I can introduce you that are extraordinary examples of courage and hard work. While not denying the problems of the people who are homeless, we must also acknowledge that given the right opportunities, life change and restoration is attainable.

F. Monroe Free
President, Knox Area Rescue Ministries
Knoxville

Ed. Note: The actual sentence from John Clendenon's story reads: "There's a strange dichotomy at work here: To the average citizen, the crowd of unshaven panhandlers dotting the landscape outside the Knoxville Area Rescue Mission on North Broadway isn't a pretty sight. But get beyond that and the picture becomes muted. For every alcoholic and crackhead, there's a homeless person who screwed up and is fighting to return to a so-called normal lifestyle."

What Is Progress?

The article "East Knox Crossroads" [by Joe Tarr, Vol. 8, No. 21] is not just a study of regional change; it asks us to define a personal concept of progress.

At one time, progress was a slow transition where change was nonthreatening: Cow paths became city streets, and a building could be a business, then a home, then a business—and back again. A single plot of land may hold many layers of life.

I don't think such a view is anti-progress. And I don't think Mr. Honicker is irresponsible when he seeks to find the development potential that best reflects the needs and nature of the land he lives on and find a way to match land to community needs.

Unfortunately, the article does include messages that we should in no way hope to stand against developers. And participants who give the side for financial boom may really have the best interest of their community at heart—reasonable growth, just quicker. Yet from their words, I sense a need to develop—not for financial, social, or community reasons, but for the reason that so many people in East Knox don't want it.

Larry Pennington
Knoxville