Seventeen percent are women with children; fourteen percent were homeless or in foster care when under 18 years old (of which 69 percent are women, and 64 percent are under 35 years old; thirty-two percent were living in transitional housing; seventy percent are African-American and 23 percent are Caucasian; Twenty-one percent are employed and homeless
We are deeply concerned about the way Marquette deals with homeless persons who enter campus.,”
On any given night in Milwaukee, 2,000 people are homeless, according to a 2004 study by the Milwaukee Continuum of Care Homeless Coalition, which ranked Milwaukee as having the 12th highest poverty rate in the nation.
We are deeply concerned about the way Marquette deals with homeless persons who enter campus. Often, these people are committing no crime other than simply being a presence on university property. Their unwelcome presence is dealt with through the auspices of the Department of Public Safety, which demands the homeless leave the immediate area around campus and in some cases contact the Milwaukee Police Department, who often detain the person until they can be arrested and subjected to the court system.
The homeless are people like you and me. We would not shun members of our own family, simply because they do not meet certain expectations, even expectations we may hold for ourselves. Nor should we shun the homeless from our and their community simply because Marquette deems them unattractive and undesirable.
Marquette must change their treatment of the homeless.
Marquette should open itself up and disclose to the public when representatives of the university interact with the homeless and what actions were taken. This information should be released through a bulletin available to the entire university community.
The homeless should not be referred to the municipal authorities, rather introduced to the hospitality offered by many of our city's institutions, such as Repairers of the Breach. Merely dumping people a sufficient distance off campus will not help solve anyone's problems!
Marquette, in its role as the largest voice of Jesuit ideals in Milwaukee, should develop its own program of hospitality, where the needs of the homeless can be met.
As Peter Maurin, co-founder of the Catholic Worker Movement, said, "To be our brother's keeper is what God wants us to do. To feed the hungry at a personal sacrifice is what God wants us to do. To clothe the naked at a personal sacrifice is what God wants us to do. To shelter the homeless at a personal sacrifice is what God wants us to do. To instruct the ignorant at a personal sacrifice is what God wants us to do. To serve man for God's sake is what God wants us to do."
Reinbold is a senior in the College of Arts & Sciences; Kennelly is a senior in the School of Education.
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