OLIVE BRANCH COMMUNITY home

Prayer Bulletin

February 3, 2002

· Members of the Olive Branch have come as a prayerful witness to those in our city who must fight for a decreasing supply of accessible shelter beds.

· As the Mayor struggles to improve the economy he has become distant from the daily reality of his most vulnerable constituents.

· This winter after several years as a hypothermia shelter, the Mayor removed the Reeves Center as an option in Ward 1.

· The location is critical to the survival of the destitute in this area.

· It was open last year after 3 froze to death.

· The Reeves Center is in the heart of Ward 1 and very close to La Casa the only bilingual shelter in the city.

· There is a struggle for beds or “seats” in this routinely overcrowded facility.

· Tensions and violent confrontations exist not only with other “Latinos” but also with a large population of Afro-American men who are homeless but from the same neighborhood.

· The “Latinos” and others who live in Ward 1 are generally afraid and unwilling to travel to other (overcrowded) shelters in unfamiliar parts of the city. They are abandoned and generally do not know how to get back to their neighborhoods the next morning.

· The Reeves Center must be reopened or steps taken to alleviate the unnecessary suffering and tension that will spread throughout our city.