{"id":691,"date":"2018-02-12T14:21:53","date_gmt":"2018-02-12T14:21:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/answerwall.domain.bc.edu\/?p=691"},"modified":"2018-02-13T13:58:39","modified_gmt":"2018-02-13T13:58:39","slug":"why-is-a-very-ill-old-homeless-man-in-a-church-not-everyones-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/library.bc.edu\/answerwall\/2018\/02\/12\/why-is-a-very-ill-old-homeless-man-in-a-church-not-everyones-problem\/","title":{"rendered":"Why is a very ill old, homeless man in a church not *everyone&#8217;s* &#8220;problem&#8221;?"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_683\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-683\" style=\"width: 297px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/library.bc.edu\/answerwall\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/aw02122018-9a.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-683 size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/library.bc.edu\/answerwall\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/aw02122018-9a-297x300.jpg\" alt=\"I attended 5:30 mass today 2\/7\/18 and there was an AA mtg after. A man was very ill, coughing &amp; wet his pants. BC PD said &quot;not our problem.&quot;\" width=\"297\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/library.bc.edu\/answerwall\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/aw02122018-9a-297x300.jpg 297w, https:\/\/library.bc.edu\/answerwall\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/aw02122018-9a-100x100.jpg 100w, https:\/\/library.bc.edu\/answerwall\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/aw02122018-9a.jpg 634w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 297px) 100vw, 297px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-683\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">I attended 5:30 mass today 2\/7\/18 and there was an AA mtg after. A man was very ill, coughing &amp; wet his pants. BC PD said &#8220;not our problem.&#8221;<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_684\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-684\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/library.bc.edu\/answerwall\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/aw02122018-9b.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-684 size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/library.bc.edu\/answerwall\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/aw02122018-9b-300x276.jpg\" alt=\"Why is a very ill old, homeless man in a church not *everyone's* &quot;problem&quot;?\" width=\"300\" height=\"276\" srcset=\"https:\/\/library.bc.edu\/answerwall\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/aw02122018-9b-300x276.jpg 300w, https:\/\/library.bc.edu\/answerwall\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/aw02122018-9b.jpg 640w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-684\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Why is a very ill old, homeless man in a church not *everyone&#8217;s* &#8220;problem&#8221;?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>It might be worthwhile inquiring at the church (was it St. Ignatius?) what they do when people who seem to be sick and unable to care for themselves come to the church. Some churches provide some care (such as food or temporary shelter), and many can refer people to social services (such as the ones listed by Boston Public Library: <a href=\"http:\/\/guides.bpl.org\/guide4help\">guides.bpl.org\/guide4help<\/a>). Policing is also mixed on its relationship to social services: some departments have tried closer links with social services, but many haven&#8217;t. It&#8217;s a widespread problem (<a href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/police-social-work\">bit.ly\/police-social-work<\/a>) owing to changing policing priorities as crime falls and substance abuse and poverty and homelessness rise. I&#8217;d like to think that officer meant BCPD wasn&#8217;t equipped to solve that kind of problem, not that they shouldn&#8217;t be expected to be humane.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It might be worthwhile inquiring at the church (was it St. Ignatius?) what they do when people who seem to be sick and unable to care for themselves come to the church. Some churches provide some care (such as food or temporary shelter), and many can refer people to social services (such as the ones &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/library.bc.edu\/answerwall\/2018\/02\/12\/why-is-a-very-ill-old-homeless-man-in-a-church-not-everyones-problem\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Why is a very ill old, homeless man in a church not *everyone&#8217;s* &#8220;problem&#8221;?&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,14],"tags":[104],"class_list":["post-691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-big-questions","category-boston-college","tag-homeless"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.bc.edu\/answerwall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.bc.edu\/answerwall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.bc.edu\/answerwall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.bc.edu\/answerwall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.bc.edu\/answerwall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=691"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/library.bc.edu\/answerwall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/691\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":723,"href":"https:\/\/library.bc.edu\/answerwall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/691\/revisions\/723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.bc.edu\/answerwall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.bc.edu\/answerwall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.bc.edu\/answerwall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}