Things that Birmingham wants/should have...what would you like to see? Suggest it and let's make it happen!!!

[pvjd]

OK, I understand now. That's actually a pretty well though out post on your part . Thanks for clearing that up.

[mrmaloy]

everyone should want downtown to become "gentrified", the city of birmingham has been going downhill for a long time. To use the homeless as an excuse not to invest in and improve downtown is extremely backwards. First off, if people cant afford to live downtown then they will move somewhere else, they do not automatically become homeless and start living under a bridge. Currently lofts start at $1000 per month, there are plenty of other housing options at half this number in highlands. Two, why do the chronically homeless stay downtown? It is not because the shelters are downtown, it is because people with change in their pockets are. If you want to help the homeless dont "worry" about profitable lounges and lofts, worry about the current dirty/dangerous state it is in now.

[pvjd]

The cheap affordable housing is the only option for some people, especially those on disability, with mental illnesses/mental retardation, or working for minimum wage. I am referring to section 8 housing, and housing in the not so desireable areas that is affordable to poor people, not the $1000 per month condos. And the homeless are downtown because of the resources, shelters, soup kitchens, ability to blend, etc., and not necessarily for people to hand them money. In the sections where people are truly homeless and not just drunk panhandling, there are no people around to ask for money from. Your comments seem snide and belittling. You are misinformed, and have no true knowledge of the homeless epidemic in Birmingham. I do because I make my living working with them.