Repair Mill Street neighborhood now

0 Comments | Gazette, The (Colorado Springs), Nov 18, 2000 | by Lou Gonzales

I talked to a bleary-eyed Edenna Hackos on Wednesday morning. Well, as much as you can communicate with anyone who just survived a 17-hour City Council meeting.

The marathon session ended at 3:30 a.m. with the council voting 6- 2 - with councilmen Lionel Rivera and Richard Skorman dissenting - to authorize construction of a one-stop social services center in the Mill Street neighborhood where Edenna lives.

Mill Street neighbors have been fighting the $6 million Montgomery Community Center because they fear it will destroy their neighborhood of about 80 folks.

Mill Street soon will host a complex designed to attract all the city's homeless- perhaps 500 a day.

The Red Cross persuaded the City Council that a one-stop method of caring for our homeless is a good thing.

Currently, the city's down-and-out must make their way - often on foot - from the railroad tracks and bridges where they sleep to the homeless shelter on South Sierra Madre Street, then several blocks north to the soup kitchen at Cascade and Bijou, and often, on to health services, even farther away.

The mega-shelter will bring an end to this cruel pilgrimage.

It's a trek familiar to Edenna, who lives just off Mill Street on Sierra Madre - right between the Burlington Northern tracks and the present shelter.

Whenever she's outside hanging clothes, pruning her rose bushes, playing with her children, she witnesses the promenade of homeless coming and going. She often offers a cup of coffee and a kind word. Sometimes, just a simple greeting will make these unloved and unwanted wanderers cry. She calls 911 several times a week: Someone started a fire to keep warm; someone collapsed.

That's why I was so offended when El Pomar implied Mill Street's neighbors are against the homeless. Actually many homeless already are in the back yards and alleys of Mill Street. Their objection was that now all of them will be there.

I believe the Red Cross, El Pomar and the city now have a special obligation to the Mill Street residents. While the Montgomery Community Center will be the official caretaker of our city's most needy, Mill Street's residents will be their unofficial caretakers.

Steps to alleviate their burden must start now. The infrastructure in this neighborhood has long been neglected. Start funneling in long-promised block grant money to fix crumbling sidewalks.

Widen and improve Conejos, Mill and the other narrow streets. Footpaths and alleys need light and remedial care.

Get a special neighborhood protection program started and, most important, throw open the doors to the center.

Make it a place where the neighbors can bring their children, where they can feel comfortable enough to go with questions or the inevitable problems.

Much can be done, and now is the time to start.