Jerry Summers
The generosity and support of Hamilton Countians towards the less fortunate has been will known and documented over the years.
Friends and acquaintances have personally expressed their enjoyment and feelings of satisfaction from interacting with the ever-growing homeless population in our community.
The number of unhoused citizens and migrants fluctuates on a regular basis.
A large number of the 501(c)(3) non-profit charities (2500) are committed to helping both local and incoming migrants from other cities, states, and countries.
(The ongoing political controversy at the Texas, New Mexico, California, etc. borders is outside the scope and purpose of this article. As previously stated we are all immigrants, even Native Americans who allegedly got to this country 12,000-30,000 years ago according to one source.)
Chattanoogans are known to be extremely generous to military veterans and individuals with mental disabilities.
Church members and civic groups regularly provide food, shelter, and free medical care in addition to financial aid from local, state, and federal governments.
The emergence of Chattanooga/Hamilton County as a desired destination because of our natural scenic beauty, low taxes, as a caring community, etc will continue to increase the population and also present certain benefits and problems…
The projected “bigger is better” mentality will bring Hamilton County both good, deserving individuals as well as groups of permanent foreign freeloaders, criminals, and will include every category that will have to be considered in the future.
To suggest that I have any magical formula to solve these ongoing and continuous problems of growth would be misleading and false.
However the following suggestions are made in an unreliable attempt to distinguish between those that really need and deserve public assistance and the con artists who will not help themselves, are made to both the donors, and recipients of our community’s benevolence:
1) If an individual asks you for a donation and they are smoking a cigarette out of a $7.00 Marlboro pack, they may not be that destitute;
2) The Humane Society and the McKamey Center have plenty of adorable, adoptable dogs that can be trained as rescue dogs with charitable non-profit funds if you need a legal reason to enter a restaurant instead of urinating (etc.) on the public streets;
3) The dedicated Public Works and Downtown Alliance workers have more important tasks than to pick up the empty food boxes, empty plastic drink bottles and any other items that could be placed in trash receptacles rather than on public streets;
4) If you are trying to earn additional money as a male, female (etc.) prostitute on the streets of the Inner City at least rub you privates outside the purview of vehicles with children riding in the front seat;
5) If you are a true military veteran holding up a sign asking for donations at an intersection, have some form of legitimate service identification so as not to defame the legitimate veterans who served our country;
6) If you are the fortunate recipient of one of the rebuilt bicycles by benevolent 501(c)(3) non profits, don’t wear dark clothing after dark and don’t ride outside the popular bike lanes. (Carrying a candle or battery operated lighting device may make you a less likely target on the highways and byways of the Inner City (and else where); and
7) If you are physically and mentally able to accept some form of employment in the future you may be able to graduate from the Homeless category into being a productive citizen!
(Good luck!)
* * *
You can reach Jerry Summers at jsummers@summersfirm.com