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News Article: Man Told To Stop Giving Freezing Homeless a Place to Stay

MattinBama

MattinBama

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https://nypost.com/2018/01/03/man-told-to-stop-giving-freezing-homeless-people-a-place-to-stay/

A suburban Chicago man has been told to stop the “slumber parties” he hosts in a basement for freezing homeless people — or the home will be condemned.

“I would stay up all night with them and give them coffee and stuff and feed them,” Greg Schiller, of Elgin, told NBC Chicago of the events in his girlfriend’s basement.

Schiller said his reading of city code allows for “slumber parties,” but city officials claim that code applies to children’s parties, not adults.

According to the city, the “parties” Schiller hosts a few times a week actually make the home a “rooming house,” which is prohibited by city code, the Chicago Tribune reported.

Schiller has been cited twice in two years for trying to provide a refuge for the homeless.

....

Coby Basham, Elgin’s department of neighborhood services director, said that when code officials tried to enter the home’s basement in early December 2017, they were denied access.

So the home’s owner, Teresa Quarles — Schiller’s girlfriend — was cited for things that code inspectors could see, like a broken front widow, an outdoor port-a-potty and a commercial trailer on the property.

...

“It’s cold enough to freeze to death,” Schiller added, pointing out that his makeshift basement shelter is only open when the emergency shelter at the First United Methodist Church of Elgin is not.

But city officials said the church shelter has a license and has been inspected.

“To be a shelter, you have to have a license. There are churches that have licenses — he doesn’t,” Basham said. “He is pushing the envelope as to rationale.”
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crimsonaudio

crimsonaudio

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Things like this are why I hate government agencies more often than not. Policies trump humanity so often it's ridiculous.

I understand why the rules exist, but there has to be some way this is allowed.

I swear, I'd love five minutes in a room with these bureaucrats...
 
Jon

Jon

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crimsonaudio said:
Things like this are why I hate government agencies more often than not. Policies trump humanity so often it's ridiculous.

I understand why the rules exist, but there has to be some way this is allowed.

I swear, I'd love five minutes in a room with these bureaucrats...
Click to expand...
would you feel differently if the house in question was next door to yours?
 
D

day-day

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The dude should work a deal with the First United Methodist Church of Elgin so he can oversee it on nights their emergency shelter would normally be closed. He is staying up all night with the people anyway; he can provide them coffee and watch movies there.
 
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MattinBama

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Jon said:
would you feel differently if the house in question was next door to yours?
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From the things they were cited for in plain site it doesn't sound like they're in a gated community.

Generally I tend to lean towards "your property, your decision." I get the whole property value argument and all but I just don't really feel that strongly about it personally. That's one of the reasons I made sure to move away from anywhere that had Homeowners Associations and such.
 
Jon

Jon

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MattinBama said:
From the things they were cited for in plain site it doesn't sound like they're in a gated community.

Generally I tend to lean towards "your property, your decision." I get the whole property value argument and all but I just don't really feel that strongly about it personally. That's one of the reasons I made sure to move away from anywhere that had Homeowners Associations and such.
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same
 
RTR91

RTR91

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MattinBama said:
From the things they were cited for in plain site it doesn't sound like they're in a gated community.

Generally I tend to lean towards "your property, your decision." I get the whole property value argument and all but I just don't really feel that strongly about it personally. That's one of the reasons I made sure to move away from anywhere that had Homeowners Associations and such.
Click to expand...
I was certain every neighborhood in Titus had a HOA.
 
crimsonaudio

crimsonaudio

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Jon said:
would you feel differently if the house in question was next door to yours?
Click to expand...
Assuming this was just for cold nights, nope.

Again, I understand why these rules exist, but when it's freezing and there's no room in warming centers, enforcing this is the perfect example of everything wrong with bureaucracy.
 
Displaced Bama Fan

Displaced Bama Fan

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MattinBama said:
From the things they were cited for in plain site it doesn't sound like they're in a gated community.

Generally I tend to lean towards "your property, your decision." I get the whole property value argument and all but I just don't really feel that strongly about it personally. That's one of the reasons I made sure to move away from anywhere that had Homeowners Associations and such.
Click to expand...
Here's an analogy - Smoking, it's your body so who cares when and where you smoke even if it affects others around you.

HOAs serve a purpose - Want to let your house fall into disrepair and have 10 homeless guys loitering around the front yard, it's your house...but your neighbor who may be trying to sell his house, well, good luck.
 
MattinBama

MattinBama

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Displaced Bama Fan said:
Here's an analogy - Smoking, it's your body so who cares when and where you smoke even if it affects others around you.

HOAs serve a purpose - Want to let your house fall into disrepair and have 10 homeless guys loitering around the front yard, it's your house...but your neighbor who may be trying to sell his house, well, good luck.
Click to expand...
Not saying they don't serve a purpose, just saying that I didn't want to be part of their purpose. My parent's live in a neighborhood with a busybody HOA that likes to send nasty letters over every little thing. My spiteful nature towards these type of people would not serve me well in such a setting and so I choose to avoid it.
 
Displaced Bama Fan

Displaced Bama Fan

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MattinBama said:
Not saying they don't serve a purpose, just saying that I didn't want to be part of their purpose. My parent's live in a neighborhood with a busybody HOA that likes to send nasty letters over every little thing. My spiteful nature towards these type of people would not serve me well in such a setting and so I choose to avoid it.
Click to expand...
Yeah, those are over the top. I served on our HOA for 6 years and we fired our management company because of that stuff.
 
B

BamaInCummingGA#1

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crimsonaudio said:
Things like this are why I hate government agencies more often than not. Policies trump humanity so often it's ridiculous.

I understand why the rules exist, but there has to be some way this is allowed.

I swear, I'd love five minutes in a room with these bureaucrats...
Click to expand...
Better yet, put the politicians up there out in the freezing cold and let them be denied access to warmth due to their own policies.
 
MattinBama

MattinBama

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I think the main thing overlooked here is are we going to stand for government saying adults can't have slumber parties?
 
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