Nonprofit Concentration Often Hurts Downtowns

The community discussion revealed in this story from the Maui News—while reflecting the situation in the Hawaiian town—also resonates with a Sacramento situation.

In Sacramento, it is accepted fact—by local business and residential communities—that the concentration of homeless and other social service nonprofits in the Richards Blvd/12th Street/North Sacramento vicinity has severely degraded the quality of life for businesses and residents in and around the area.

This negative impact extends to downtown where panhandling, loitering, and related crime have added to the long-term difficulty of renewing the lower K Street area.

Helping the less fortunate or those who have fallen on hard times is an important aspect of community and individual compassion and charity; but it is not something that should be at the expense of the public safety or economic viability of the larger community.

Helping another should not harm someone else.

An excerpt from the Maui News.

“WAILUKU - Even as the makeover of Wailuku town continues in a decades-long redevelopment project, some merchants and residents expressed concern Friday that a concentration of social services in the area could attract homelessness and crime.

“Wailuku either already is or will soon become home to a halfway house, housing for the developmentally disabled, a residential mental health care center, a free clinic, a battered women's shelter and a soup kitchen, said resident and commercial broker Susan Halas.

"I'm not advocating kicking any nonprofit out, not at all, but maybe we should consider that we are at a tipping point," Halas said when reached by phone Friday. "At some point, if you only have people there because they are receiving assistance, if nonprofits occupy a large percentage of your available space, then it becomes difficult for for-profits to come in."

“But Wailuku businessman Richard Dan said Market Street was in no way a new hotbed of crime.

“Dan agreed there is a problem with "annoying" drunks at the privately owned banyan tree park at the corner of Market and Vineyard streets but said that overall the complaints are overblown.

"They are trying to say there are junkies nodding off in the alleys, and that's not the truth," Dan said.

“The Maui Redevelopment Agency has adopted a plan for the 60-acre area calling for mixed use, such as buildings that combine residential, business, office and retail functions. But Executive Director of Wailuku Main Street Association, Jocelyn Perreira said the group still has a way to go toward its goal.

“Some residents and merchants blame the MRA - a recommending agency for redevelopment in Wailuku - for the influx of nonprofits to the area. Others say it's still too early to pass judgment on the effects of a master plan developed years ago.”