It's developers, politicians and bureaucrats who are the problem, not the homeless

By Robert Pembroke

Remember the Starbucks manager who had the two lingerers in his store arrested? He just wanted to sell more lattes to meet his daily quota. The two guys lingering in his store said they were just waiting for another person so they could have a business meeting. It is very probable that neither party wanted the notoriety that arose from the incident  — and Starbucks surely did not want to have to shut down 8,000 locations to teach lingerer cuddling.

The homeless do an awful lot of lingering and a number of them are lingering to conduct business. Some are waiting to buy drugs, some are waiting to sell drugs and some are waiting for another cohort to plot a robbery. I have witnessed all of this happening myself on the corner of 200 South and Rio Grande in downtown Salt Lake City.

As I have written before, there really isn’t a homeless problem in Salt Lake. Yes, they are here now, but haven’t they been here since the time of the pioneers? What is different now is that the developers want the property that houses and feeds the homeless on the corner of 200 South and Rio Grande for new restaurants, stores and apartments.

I was excited to read the Salt Lake Tribune article “There’s No Transparency” that reported that INN Between, an organization that provides help for the homeless ill, had been granted a permit to establish a hospice and medical treatment facility. Serious medical conditions and the act of dying should be off the streets, and friends and family members should have a nice place for the patient. The only downside to the project is that facility is located on a steep hill. Old codgers like me have troubles walking up steep hills.

I have been blessed with the opportunity to be around the homeless. For nine years I volunteered at the Saint Vincent de Paul soup kitchen. My job was to cook the Monday lunch for about 450 homeless folks and I relished every minute. What made the experience joyful were the other full-time volunteers I labored with.

Joe was the leader of the pack. He arrived at the soup kitchen at 4:30 a.m., six days a week. He was the former mayor of Magna and president of the union at Kennecott. Joe’s job was to make sandwiches to be delivered to those homeless clients who couldn’t make it into the kitchen. Rose was the belle of the ball at the kitchen. She was widowed and the most caring person I have ever met. Rose made the salads and sanitized the soup kitchen six days a week.

Sy was a cook, six days a week. Sy never stopped moving for those six days and was one of the hardest-working people I have ever met. 

And then there was John. John was a wounded World War II veteran who walked around with a cane. John washed pots and pans six days a week.

I could go on and on about the other volunteers who showed up six days a week, such as Buck, Leo, Robert and Tall Tom. All these folks had certain traits in common. They were caring, they had empathy, they loved their fellow man and most were Catholics.

Another benefactor that deserves recognition is the LDS Church. Not only did it pay for all the kitchen equipment in the soup kitchen (the Catholics paid for the building), it supplied 14 servers from different wards six days a week.

All these folks and institutions are the unsung heroes when it comes to the homeless in our area. When you read about the plight of the homeless, please check out who is making the pitch. Many of those who are crying wolf are just downright greedy. They are the developers who want the property, the politicians who want the votes and the bureaucrats who want a job.

Robert Pembroke was chairman and CEO of Pembroke’s Inc. in Salt Lake City.