A group of homeless St. Louis residents and advocates plan to march on City Hall and the social service agency St. Patrick Center this morning. Not expected to take part in the protest is the Rev. Larry Rice, director of the downtown homeless shelter New Life Evangelistic Center and a frequent critic of Mayor Francis Slay.
Rice (pictured, left) also stayed away from a similar protest last week planned -- in part -- by members of his organization. "We don't want this
Fresh off a protest march on City Hall this morning, a group of advocates for the homeless say they plan to circulate a petition asking that St. Louis City cede land for use as a permanent camp for the indigent.Brian Ireland, a case worker at New Life Evangelistic Center, says the one-acre tract would be similar to Dignity Village in Portland, Oregon. That homeless enclave (pictured above) has been in operation since 2000 and consists of tents, wooden shacks and tee-pees.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mager/ / CC BY-SA 2.0It was supposed to be an exchange between city officials and downtown's homeless. By 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, about 50 people had filled up room 306 of the St. Louis Public Library's central branch. But for a pair of cops and a few service providers, it was mostly homeless citizens. Discussion ranged from jobs and rat droppings to trash norms and beer-drinking etiquette. "I was really hoping our invited city officials would come," organizer Jay
