BY PEGGY O’FARRELL |
POFARRELL@ENQUIRER.COM
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OVER-THE-RHINE – The Rev. Pam De Fusco walked up and down 12th Street on Monday, inviting people over for a hot meal.
“We’re serving lunch today,” she said to everyone she passed.
She even stopped in at the Drop Inn Center to issue her invitation.
A dozen or so men and women followed her out of the homeless shelter and around the corner to Washington Park, where volunteers had set up a table on Elm Street to serve metts, macaroni and cheese, corn, fruit salad and cookies to the homeless.
Rob Coppinger was one of the group from the Drop Inn Center who headed to the park. “It’s good,” he said. “It’s hot.”
“When people come down and do stuff like this, it’s a blessing,” said Coppinger, 50. He said he’s been on the streets for about a month, staying at the Drop Inn Center until he’s back on his feet.
Coppinger said he’d been clean and sober for about three years before he fell back into the old life. This time, he’s been clean for 30 days, he said.
When he can, he said, he works as a day laborer.
By the time the food ran out, volunteers from Washington United Church of Christ in Camp Washington, Trinity Hill United Church of Christ in Delhi and Christ Church United Church of Christ in Fort Thomas had fed about 200 men and women.
Rain or shine, the food always runs out, said the Rev. Mark Young, pastor of Christ Church United Church of Christ in Fort Thomas.
“These folks need the food and they need the community,” he said.
Monday’s feast wasn’t exactly legal.
The Cincinnati Park Board doesn’t allow charitable organizations to pass out food or clothing in city parks.
Julie Horne, manager of business services for the park board, said board members want to reduce litter and other problems such distributions cause. People who want to hold special events in city parks can get permits, but Monday’s free lunch isn’t allowed, she said.
Church groups and other charitable organizations that want to distribute food or blankets are referred to the Drop Inn Center and other social service agencies in Over-the-Rhine, Horne said.
But De Fusco and other advocates for the homeless assert city officials and developers want to make homeless people disappear from view as the neighborhood undergoes a burst of re-development.
“I guess if you don’t see them, they don’t exist,” De Fusco said.
Washington Park is at the center of a multi-million dollar redevelopment boom, with renovations planned for Music Hall, located across the street from the park, as well as a $72 million project to build new facilities for the School for Creative and Performing Arts.
School construction plans call for relocating part of the Drop Inn Center. New condominium units are being sold in the neighborhood, and the project’s success depends on making the neighborhood safer.
Georgine Getty, executive director of the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless, said she understands that people drawn to the neighborhood by the new development might be put off by the sight of homeless people hanging out in the park.
“If you have a problem seeing homeless folks, you should end homelessness,” Getty said.
Staff writer Jane Prendergast contributed.
