Party in the Park 2011 Coverage

Locals from every walk of life gathered in Monroe Park last Saturday. The event, spread by Facebook and word of mouth, was held to celebrate the 1000th signature on a petition to keep the historic forum open during the planned renovations.

The planned park renovation would close every section of the park for 9-months to a year. The party in the Park was a public demonstration to show concern for the park as a community center, and support those who need it most.

Alan Harrelson, a Richmond Native, has been coming to public feedings on Sundays at Monroe park for years. He collected over 500 of the 1000 signatures through an online and written petition, getting signatures from those who don't have internet access.

"This is the last place that the homeless have in this whole city to be at. They have chased them from place to place to place to place around this town and this is the last place. And if they take this, there's no place else to go."


Public feedings were the hot topic . Some groups have been feeding the needy for decades.

Cassandra Carter helps the needy with New Jerusalem International Christian ministries one Sunday a month. From Chesterfield, Carter said her and her group help in any way they can.

"We just come to talk to those in need, we come to minister to them, if its prayer they need or feeding, whatever they need that we can be a help to them because we are trying to reach out into the community to see if we can actually get them in a place were they are stable and able to have a place to go and get a job."

New Jerusalem is one of many churches that come to lend a hand.

Peggie Sterling, of the MCC Social Justice Committee, said the homeless weren't the only reason to stand up for a free and open park.

"People come here to gather as a community. We've gotten to know many of the people and some of them have come to our church after we have been here. This is just a necessary place for people to gather, there is no other place."

Music was a big part of the gathering. Local party-regulars No BS Brass Band were on hand to lend a note or two. The brass ensemble lead a parade through the park. In tow, the All Saints Theater Company, one of the sponsors of the event, were clad in rat costumes and paper mache rat masks.

A performance by All Saints lead to a brief lecture series, highlighted by a satyrical presentation by Eric Scott, local Wingnut, and a Monroe Park Campaign Organizer, dressed as Fan District Councilman Charles Samuels.

Samuels has taken the most criticism for the park renovations.

Scott said the dramatization was in jest, but supported by fact.

"I think that its important to show people that these things are ridiculous but they are in there. and they need to be addressed. because, wile the real Charles Samuels wont come out and say it just like that, that's what he's saying by his actions. That's the direction the Monroe Park Advisory council and some parts of city council are going in."

Some spectators to the event were folks who just saw the ruckus and stayed for the music.

Sunny Gilderman, a VCU grad, remembered Monroe Park fondly and came to see her old stomping grounds. Coincidentally, the former Director of Emergency services for the Homeless in Richmond stumbled upon the event. She frowned upon the idea of closing the park for an extended period of time.

"Its another example of lack of provision for those in need and a loss of services and NOT a comparable alternative offered by the city of other authorities so... not cool. At all. "

The arts were well represented at the celebration. Gull, a local masked multi-instrumentalist rode in the bed of a silver truck as it sped around Monroe Park, blaring his unique musical style.


Julie Karr, with a 'K,' played a more mellow song for the crowd.

She sympathized with the feeding programs in the park.

"I think displacing lots of people and feeding programs that have been here for almost 20 years is something we can NOT do and i think its preventable. I think having at least part of the park open allows for things like this, like whats going on today and I'd like to see more of this in general."

In the end, Just Plain Ant, of Just plain Sounds, a local hip hop collective, saw hope in numbers.

"We picked a beautiful day to do this. And i hope the efforts of today help the cause. And with the amount of people here, it should."

For Richmond Independent Radio News, I'm Brad Kutner with Danny Rathbun.

Walking In Their Shoes: Richmond Leaders, Students Spend A Day Homeless

Breakfast was served to all comers.

How far are you from homelessness?

Listen to the full story here

Over 1,000 persons in Richmond and surrounding counties are homeless, with just 850 beds available for them any given night. As part of April’s Affordable Housing Awareness Week, a consortium of advocacy groups sponsored an event, held Thursday, April 22, called “Walking in Their Shoes.” From 8:00 in the morning until 3:00 in the afternoon, participants spent their day the same way the homeless do.

The Homeless-for-a-Day Gang of Ten met at the Conrad Center on Oliver Hill Way, near the city’s Juvenile and Domestic Relations Courts building. The center provides free breakfasts to anyone who shows up, and participants shared with the center’s regular clients a meal of Sugar Pops, a sausage patty, pound cake and canned peaches. Among those prepared to walk in the shoes of the homeless were a church rector, a pastor, the manager of a major bank’s philanthropic arm and a criminal justice student from VCU. Executive Director Kelly King Horne of the volunteer agency “Homeward” led the orientation, telling participants each of them would be supplied with a make-believe personal history which included pertinent information … the good, the bad and the ugly.

“Seventy percent of homeless adults have been in jail or prison, so a lot of you today will be ex-offenders because that’s the reality,” she said. “Each of you has a profile; they are fictional, but I’ve been here seven years , I’ve talked to a lot of people, so they’re sort of composites of things we’ve heard … it’s not a real person, but they are real stories.”

The rules were short and to the point: Each participant signed a “release and assumption of risk agreement” and were advised not to engage in dangerous or illegal activity. They were to bring along no wallets or purses, just one piece of picture ID and five dollars. Panhandling, either as a giver or a recipient, was strictly discouraged. King said that when approached by a panhandler, the best thing to give him or her is not cash, which only encourages the homeless to stay on the street.

“We have a document on our web site called The Street Sheet,” she explained, “which lists meals, which lists those immediate services you need if you’re on the street. You could print that off and give that to them. You could even give them a bus ticket. We have some cards [which list our] programs that you could give in lieu of cash.

“I say ‘no.’ I say it respectfully, I don’t look down on people, but like ‘No, I’m sorry.’ I was panhandled once, and it was like, ‘Can you help me get something to eat?’ I said, ‘Well, the Salvation Army is right there,” and she says, ‘Honey, I don’t eat anyone’s cooking,’ and I’m like, ‘Well, I can’t help you.’”

On the demographic side, Horne said that while most homeless persons are single men, “About 25 percent of the homeless population are people in families, usually a mom with kids, although not always. Today there are probably 131 kids who will spend the night in a shelter. We rarely find kids on shelters, so that’s the good news. We do some things right. But 131 is still 131 too many, because those kids are at greater risk of homelessness as adults.”

Each participant had a list of agencies to visit, places where help of various kinds was available for someone with his or her personal profile. They were invited to the regular Thursday free lunch at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church downtown on Grace Street; St. Paul’s is also where they met at 3:30 for debriefing, getting feedback from a variety of private and governmental agency representatives, and relating the day’s experiences.

Steven Geissinger is a psych major at VCU. His profile was of a man with a criminal record who was living behind a Wal-Mart and had chemical dependency issues.

“I didn’t realize how complicated the programs were,” said Geissinger. “The gap between when you can get help and when you’re no longer eligible is so slim.”

Bryan Appel, a youth minister at St. Pauls, had a backstory in which he was working man whose business had downsized, leaving him unemployed and with child support payments on which he’d fallen behind. He was pleased and a little surprised at the level of empathy he got from various agency personnel.

“They were taking this very thick, boring, almost tedious language but speaking to us as people and with care,” Appel said, marveling that in such a bureaucratic situation, common humanity was able to triumph.

In fact, Geissinger and Appel’s team was handled so efficiently by the agencies they visited, they returned to St. Paul’s an hour early … and since it was a nice day, they walked back from their last appointment, saving bus fare and returning with their five dollars unspent.

-Mark Dorroh