SLU’s treatment of the homeless population exposed
Saint Louis University is not upholding its Jesuit mission. As a university, our mission, according to the website, is to “extend compassionate care to the ill and needy; and maintain and improve the quality of life for all persons.” Yet, on Oct. 12, 2018, it was confirmed during “Pizza with President” that SLU has been paying off duty cops to arrest people experiencing homelessness near campus, and they are given a bonus for every person they arrest.
Our university justifies this act by claiming that it makes the parents feel comfortable about the safety of their students, which brings an even bigger issue to light. Should we be alienating the homeless population and judging them as “dangerous” when they are doing nothing more than existing near our campus? This goes against our mission and all the values this university was built upon. We are supposed to reach out to everyone in our community and treat them with love and respect and help improve our community’s quality of life. The reason our university was built in the heart of the city was so that we can easily interact with the community of St. Louis.
One organization on campus that does a great job in practicing the SLU mission is Labre. Every Wednesday, they get together at 6 p.m. and cook dinner. They then divide the food into groups and each group drives out to a different part of downtown and feeds the community. The same people tend to go on the same routes, so SLU students end up building strong friendships with the individuals experiencing homelessness. I’ve personally participated in Labre a couple of times, and it’s an extremely enlightening experience.
Labre is not about simply “feeding the homeless.” It’s about preserving the humanity of our community. Just because someone does not have a roof above their head does not give us the license to dehumanize them or label them as dangerous entities. A lot of them are young adults just like us with similar interests. In Labre, you spend an hour just talking to individuals and getting to know them because we’re not “feeding the homeless,” we’re feeding our community. We’re feeding our friends. Classifying the homeless population as “the homeless” is extremely degrading and dehumanizing. Hiring cops to arrest people to leave an area where they live is extremely rude and uncalled for. The homeless population may not have a house near SLU, but this is where they live. To know that my tuition money is going toward removing people from where they live for doing absolutely nothing is unsettling to my stomach. My university is hiring cops to remove my friends from their homes.
I’ve heard parents are scared because “they often do drugs.” I do not deny this, one of the top causes of homelessness is drug abuse. However, a lot of my classmates do drugs as well, yet no one fears any of them. We have to admit that as a society we have unfairly alienated the homeless portion of our community. We look down upon them, and we fear them.
It’s time to wake up. Wake up and realize that becoming homeless does not make you less of a human—someone that can just be thrown around wherever we want. Being homeless does not make you less of a human to where you are just a body to feed. Experiencing homelessness does not put you into a separate community from SLU students. Thanks to Labre, I build relationships with new people and try to help them grow from their hardships. For example, Labre delivers food to Nancy and Clyde, a couple that used to experience homelessness but who now have a house. Labre still follows up on them every week to make sure they have food, and moreover because they are friends.
We need to stop our university from having cops arrest individuals experiencing homelessness for merely existing in an area near SLU. There are better solutions on how to improve the safety of students on campus. Instead of a great deal of money to arrest harmless people experiencing homelessness, why not invest in free Uber rides for the students? At WashU, every student receives two free Uber rides per day to improve the safety of their students on campus. I appreciate SLU’s willingness to spend money with the intention of improving my safety, but paying off duty cops to arrest people experiencing homelessness for no reason is not improving safety; it’s just dehumanizing and degrading members of our community.
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Richard • Dec 10, 2019 at 1:22 pm
Professor “Tim” came and finally got his man and then lied directly to my face. The man he got was the wrongfully credited founder of the homeless camp on the a East St. Louis riverfront, Robert Giles. The professor said that he would come to talk with me about “Labre” on the next Wednesday. He also said that the weekly meeting on Wednesday night would remain on schedule to meet up every Wednesday. Then he got my phone number and said he would call me. I have been waiting for weeks now, there has been nobody showing up. Still to this day, there hasn’t been one single time anybody has tried to call me! I see another person who they put in one of the six homes they have on the north side of town everyday. He uses a monthly bus pass that they bought to come to the stoplight directly in front of the Casino Queen. Once there he holds a sign begging for money. If you follow him you will personally see him go back to St. Louis downtown and buy heroin daily! I have disabilities and have expressed that to professor Tim face to face. He declined to look at the seven surgical scars on my body. It’s because of Saint Louis University Hospital that I’m still alive! It’s very disheartening to see people who got help and first hand see some of those people abuse the help. Thanks for letting me have false hope and watch you choose to help people that clearly don’t appreciate it on a daily basis. I’m a man of my word, clearly professor Tim and another certain member of the group are not!
Monica Benson • Oct 26, 2018 at 2:47 pm
Had they not closed down the one shelter that was housing the homeless they wouldn’t have this problem. In stead of fixing what was wrong. They shut the doors! What and where do you expect these down on their luck folks to go ? God doesn’t like ugly. Yet they are constantly building around them and expect them not to congregate there. It’s not against the law. Build a shelter then. Because Karma real.
Dee Ryan • Oct 25, 2018 at 1:12 pm
To those who wish to learn more about how to help our unhoused family in STL, I encourage you to check out PotBangerz – it’s similar to SLU’s Labre group. https://www.potbangerz.org/ THANK YOU Nadia. I shared this with my daughter who is considering attending a Jesuit university to ask if they have a similar program.
Janese Prince • Oct 25, 2018 at 11:08 am
Thank you so much for this article. This is not new to SLU. As a social work student in the mid 90s, the department began to lock the door of our lounge to keep out the homeless. Now, maybe that was necessary but I saw many things that were contrary to it’s Jesuit mission, including how minority faculty was treated.
SLU needs to hold to it’s mission and stop being hypocritical.
Toni • Oct 25, 2018 at 10:01 am
I truly appreciate your article. It’s insightful. The issue with treating people experiencing homelessness as other is a national issue. They are not only removed from campuses around the country but also from certain neighborhoods. There are very few true Jesus followers left in this world. I’m glad to hear Labre exist. I’m not a SLU student but if I could be a part of something like that I’d love it.
Timothy Pekarek • Oct 25, 2018 at 8:05 am
Shameful that a Catholic, Jesuit University would act to criminalize homelessness. They have disowned their mission of christian values.
Piper Salvator • Oct 24, 2018 at 10:23 pm
Nadia,
First, thank you so much for writing this article and bringing this issue to light. Your article makes so many important and persuasive points. I am deeply disturbed by this policy as a fellow Slu student. I am a law student, so I am not usually on the main campus but I still find this atrocious.
I really want to help with any efforts to make sure this is quickly put to an end. Is there anything that you think I can do as a law student to either make more awareness of this issue or communicate with law school administration??
Please reach out to me with any ideas or next steps. My phone number is 303-905-4333 and email is [email protected].
Mo Costello • Oct 24, 2018 at 10:18 pm
Thank you, Nadia, for your compassionate editorial. I have met some of the members of Labre on the streets of downtown. They are inspiring.
I sincerely hope that your editorial spurs the immediate change to the outrageous policy of arresting unhoused people.
jim salvator • Oct 24, 2018 at 9:19 pm
like why not just pay the homeless person instead of the cops?