Anybody with eyes to see or ears to hear realizes that homelessness in COMO has been on the rise in the last few years.   

Maybe it really became evident during the pandemic when the bus station downtown that is normally offered as a warming center during the winter was also opened up as a homeless hangout year-round. The situation became intimidating to customers and bothersome to employees, and managers had to fend off or clean up after an acute concentration of unhoused folks. Even caring downtown business owners came to realize it was a disaster.   

And over time our major intersections around town are covered with panhandlers — who might or might not be homeless, or part of an organized group.   

One longer term proposed solution to the bus station debacle turned into using $millions in ARPA funds for a homeless Taj Mahal by the old power plant.   

It’s hard to have a clear public discussion about this because it gets all political; even terminology: homeless vs unsheltered? “Those bums oughta just get a job” ain’t gonna fly around here, but we can’t throw around unlimited tax dollars while ignoring obvious public safety problems.   

Homeless for Different Reasons   

My eyes were further enlightened by local businessman Randy Minchew that there are myriad circumstances and attitudes among folks without a place to stay. I have since listened to many different perspectives to try to analyze what we have here. Here goes:   

First, there are people who were doing okay, but try as they may, they temporarily fell down on their luck due to economic, medical and/or relationship problems. With a hand up they are generally willing and able to get back up on their feet. Between family and friends (real-life social networks) plus numerous non-profit organizations, our community can handle this.   

Then there are those who are not trying, or who are not able to try. One important revelation is a good number of folks living on the street are struggling with severe mental health and/or addiction problems, so have slipped through the cracks, and chronically so.   

Then there’s the small percentage of homeless who are actively causing trouble. A local nonprofit leader privately described how their generous organization is really struggling with a small number of homeless: “disrupters” who come by the service center to intimidate other clients seeking assistance or break and steal equipment.   

“We can’t have that!”   

Disrupters might be a good term for the legion of panhandlers on COMO’s street corners. We can be sympathetic to beggars, but we can’t have loitering on the narrow medians of busy streets.   

At the 70/63 interchange some weeks ago I saw such a fellow whose legs were stretched into the roadway, where a semi-truck had to swerve a couple feet so as not to run over the poor guy’s ankles. We can’t have that!   

Homeless warming fires catching adjacent buildings ablaze has become an epidemic. Including behind the Noodles and Company restaurant downtown and ironically a construction trailer at the homeless center construction site. You can’t make this up.   

I hear from locals who have guests in from big cities like St. Louis and Dallas who notice the problem is worse here than back home. Locals who travel to other like-sized college towns such as Tuscaloosa, Fayetteville, even Lawrence (boo!) tell me they see hardly any homeless or intersection panhandlers. What are those locales doing differently?   

Which begs the question: “What’s wrong with Columbia?” Have we become the San Francisco of the Midwest where city hall’s bleeding heart has become hemophilic?  

The current trend is no good for residents, visitors, business owners, the public treasury, nor the homeless themselves. We need to balance being nice and accommodating, with being firm and smart. 

Steve Spellman is a lifelong Columbia-area resident and political observer.