Letter: Homeless people are our friends, not our enemies

Editor,

The University should build a homeless shelter on campus. Students and the unsheltered ought to be allies, not enemies.

Yet in the three years I've been at UNM, I've seen nothing but disdain for the homeless coming from my fellow students. I've seen students walk past someone lying motionless on the sidewalk — no one stopping to help. I've seen opinion pieces that lay the blame for violence on the "shelter" of some bushes near the dorms. I've seen people walk on by from folks without homes who only wanted to ask the time. I've seen a woman wailing in the street because she had nowhere to go.

Last week, the Board of Regents very suddenly approved $415,000 to deal with "security" issues on campus. 

Never mind that many of our departments are understaffed and underfunded, and that we've been told for years we need to "tighten our belts" and accept drastic measures like tuition hikes. Even if this money is necessary to improve security on campus, the way it's being spent is largely a waste. As a former security professional, I can tell you cameras are poor deterrents and even worse for evidence. A security director will probably call for more armed guards on campus. If the point is to lower the rates of gun deaths in schools, more armed guards won't be the solution.

I want to challenge us to think about the problem differently. UNM is an open campus in the biggest city in one of the nation's poorest states. Why can't we be a flagship institution for the unsheltered as well? Why can't we be the pioneers of programs that fight poverty?

I volunteer sometimes at a downtown program called the John Brown Breakfast Club. Using nothing but some camping equipment and a license from the city, volunteers there feed 150 to 200 folks a week. Some are just passing through the neighborhood, but many are living outside on the streets. I've learned a lot from these folks about just how hard it is to get your life back on track once you're down. It's an inexpensive operation for us and, because we make them feel welcome, because we put the focus on community, it is largely a nonviolent space.

Think how much food, shelter, clothing $415,000 could make. Think what a counseling program director could do instead of a security director. Think how many professional opportunities there would be for students in helping Albuquerque's own suffering population. Think how much people experiencing homelessness have to teach us.

Let's stop treating the people in UNM's neighborhood like garbage, like monsters to be feared, like obstacles to be overcome. Let's take a hard look at the people they are and the people we want to be. Each of us defines all of us. We need to do better by our neighbors.

David Puthoff