The following link takes you to an essay titled: “Home of the Brave?” which I wrote and appeared in the Athenaeum Library of Philosophy:

http://evans-experientialism.freewebspace.com/s...

John Steinsvold

But now I want confirmation that background checks were actually carried out and not just promised…

As an aside, the preschool itself is not connected with the church and is not religious, but rents the space from Trinity. We were housed there before the shelter and there were definitely concerns about the shelter amongst the parents at the beginning. So far there have been very few incidents which have impacted us (the only one being drug paraphernalia being found in the bathroom once by a parent volunteer during preschool). We do not see the shelter residents as they are normally out of the building during preschool (we might see them during evening Parent Meetings). We share the same space in the gym for gross motor skills during cold/wet weather and at first we had some issues with some shelter objects or trash being left in there, but the church addressed it and it has been clean ever since.

I sense that most parents at the preschool do not feel that impacted by the shelter. We would prefer it to be a little further away from our families, but appreciate what Pastor Rich is trying to do. I thought that a lot of families might drop out after the shelter moved in, but that didn't happen. The teachers and the community there are just amazing and families didn't want to give that up. As a preschool co-op there are many parent volunteers present during class time and we're all extra aware and alert to strangers in the building, for example.

I live on NW 23rd and 65th directly across the street from Trinity United Methodist Church I've lived on this street my entire life, only leaving for school but my parents still reside there, so imagine my fear to get calls from other Ballard residents saying there was a stabbing on my street. I immediately phoned my parents who explained that it occurred at the church. Thankfully they were not injured.

We can applaud the police and fire departments fast response to secure the area and even the onsite security guard, but Rev. Lang does not deserve commending. Orignially this homeless shelter came to NW 23rd in the form of a tent city in the parking lot on the west side of the street. These individuals spent their days littering up and down our street cutitng through our yards from the alley, making noise all hours of the night, allowing their dogs to defecate in our grass. After numerous complaints tent city was eventually moved into the church itself; where these issues were not entirely resolved. These individuals continue to pan handle the neighbors and continue to litter and continue to post a danger to the numerous families that reside on NW23rd.

Rev. Lang can speak about their desire as a church to 'move beyond charity into relational ministries of transformation' but tell me what transformation are they providing by allowing these people to continue to dwell in their circumstances rather than provide them with the tools they need to get out of our neighborhood, and out of the shelter.

Rev. Lang can write a letter to us apologizing for the disruption to our safety and our block because he does not have to deal with it on a daily basis, he does not have to pick up the litter or continuously ask them not to cut through our property. Rev. Lang can explain how hes taken every precaution to keep us safe with his single security guard but tell me Rev. Lang what is being done to keep this from happening again? and what happens when next time it pours out into the street and actual resident and neighbor gets injured?

Communist bleeding-heart claptrap.

I really don't have much information on the Trinity Shelter so my opinion could change with more information. We'll see. Though honestly, at this point I'd say it's the folks actually living on the streets and the drug dealers (who don't stay at the shelters) who are causing the biggest problems in Ballard, not the folks at Trinity Shelter or the people who need to use the Ballard Food Bank. And my opinion is, a lot of the new population of “bums” started not with shelters opening or the food bank existing, but when police presence started pushing them out of Belltown, the financial (shopping/downtown) district and Capitol Hill a couple years ago and they all moved up here.

thanks.

Thanks for playing!

Oh. and by the way– not twenty minutes ago, two teenage dumbasses coming back from a drug buy decided to stand and piss all over my next door neighbor's garden. Then they got into their SUV and drove away.

A typical night with the privileged white kids in Loyal Heights.

cool to know that if we dont agree with your idiotic ideas of shipping bums into our neighborhood we are useless, ignorant, (elistist) bigots. sounds like you just described the dirtbags invading our neighborhood at the invitation of the churches. i guess if we are lucky enough to still have jobs we need to bend over and take it, huh?

Hey, I know! Let's make white teenagers illegal! That will solve all the problems! And everybody can feel good about their property taxes again!

Some of you people are nothing but useless, ignorant, elitist bigots.

“Rebecca Butler at Our Redeemer's Lutheran Church … said the shelter will move out of the Calvary Lutheran building when it has found a new place to go. Or it will close if shelter membership dwindles to five or fewer residents.”

http://www.ballardnewstribune.com/2009/11/06/ne...

I agree with you 100%, though, we need to continue to do what we can to shed the neighborhood of excess services that attract more bums here.

SHARE opposes background checks, and since Rich Lang is totally in agreement with whatever they say, our neighborhood is vulnerable to whatever Trinity decides to do.

anyone know for sure what has become of the share shelter at the other church on 85th and 24th? have they moved as intended? anyone?

Yes of course I could afford to buy both the house and my condo. I own both now with no mortgage on either and never a second mortgage or HEL. Are you telling me that you really have no idea what kind of money is in 'old' Ballard? My generation did not and does not live like drunken sailors. We did this on the salary of a teacher and a longshoreman. Son you are clueless.

Can you afford to purchase your house at its current market value? Most of “old ballard” can't. It's called gentrification and it happens everywhere. Even in dear “old” Seattle.

Do you live by the church? Those who do could tell you otherwise about who hangs around from time to time.

It's amazing to me to see all of the projections on this comment forum, from a place of fear, onto this shelter and onto Rev. Lang. I've never met him, I've never been to his church, and I don't care what his political positions are… he's doing loving work in our community, in a difficult situation, and doing his best to run it as well as he can.

I'll choose to open my heart to him, to his church, and to those they help. They are our neighbors, and Ballard remains an incredible place to live.

Actually he's blamed everyone but the church and vagrants:

“this is a political matter of great concern. It is also a matter of moral concern: we acknowledge that feeding folks and housing folks is not enough. What is needed is transformation of character, and reorientation of desire, along with a restructuring of our economy.”

If you choose to you may move to a neighborhood with rules against this sort of thing but this is not one of those neighborhoods. Maybe you should have researched more carefully before you purchased here.