A spokesperson for SpartanNash, the parent company of Family Fare, said store employees responded “with the utmost compassion and professionalism.”
“Ensuring there is ample safe, affordable housing continues to be a widespread issue nationwide that our community needs to partner in solving,” Adrienne Chance said, declining further comment.
Warren said the woman was cooperative and quickly agreed to leave. No charges were pursued.
“We provided her with some information about services in the area,” the officer said. “She apologized and continued on her way. Where she went from there, I don’t know.”
I feel like there’s very few opportunities these days to say this, but the cops and business owners in this situation actually seem to have behaved in a very humane and decent way here, so that’s a nice surprise
I was 100% assuming she was arrested. Very relieving that’s not what happened.
cops and business owners in this situation actually seem to have behaved in a very humane and decent way
Well it’s nice that they didn’t beat her to death. But they still kicked her out and didn’t actually provide any more help. “Services in the area” probably will be less adequate than what she’d had before they booted her.
I don’t expect them to actually take care of her, but they don’t get a gold star for declining to bludgeon, strangle, or imprison her. She’s on her own.
I mean, I would add on not sticking her with a criminal charge as an important thing they didn’t do here, because the whole story of “oh you missed a court date because we sent the notice to an address you haven’t lived at in years, so now we’re fining you on top of the original criminal charge that brought you in here, [soon] wow, you’ve got a lot of missed court dates and unpaid fines, you look like a career criminal who needs the book thrown at them” happens a lot,
And there’s a very real chance that the contractors looked the other way and then this woman’s residence got discovered they could have lost their licenses or otherwise gotten in trouble
Like, I think what you’re pointing out is a really important perspective and we shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that a woman with a home was made homeless here, but I think a lot of relatively powerless people here tried to be as humane as an inhumane system would let them be, and I think that’s important too. I think the way this world gets less shitty is when more people start making these little steps towards revolutionary kindness and then those little steps start getting bigger and bigger.
Again, it’s not praiseworthy that they merely declined to abuse her. I’m not scorning them, but they get zero credit for declining to abuse her (beyond the abuse of kicking her out with no help).
there’s a very real chance that the contractors looked the other way
Without evidence, there’s no point in this speculation unless you’re hired by their PR to praise them (which seems unlikely).
the way this world gets less shitty is when more people start making these little steps towards revolutionary kindness and then those little steps start getting bigger and bigger
Sorry, but this is absolute nonsense. It’s meaningless. She is homeless.
a woman with a home was made homeless
This is the only story. Let’s not waste time praising the heroic saints who kicked her out.
mate it’s ok and good to acknowledge a small measure of good that may exist in a very terrible situation.
humans are not meant to focus on only the doom, gloom, and cynicism of it all 100% of the time.
not meant to
Meant by whom?
nature. our brains get fucked up when stuck in the doom and gloom for too long.
pedantry is an ugly quality btw.
a small measure of good
There was no measure of good whatsoever. Her situation was made objectively worse, and we’re presuming to praise those responsible merely for not making it even more worse. I’m not the one who created any doom or gloom. I didn’t kick her out. And it’s not cynical to sympathize with the homeless woman instead of with the people who kicked her out. Mate.
And she’s also a homeless woman. Women need private spaces when they are homeless, they can’t just be on the street as safely as men are. They space was probably VERY safe for her compared to a shelter.
This is where it’s at in the US: people feel a warm sense of happiness when a marginalized person isnt beaten to death or shot by authorities.
I think it’s sad af, if she was a bird or raccoon they’d let her stay. We give people less dignity than a bird.
Eh, you should see the lengths people will go to to get rid of birds.
Would you like the officer to take a second mortgage out on his home and build her a room on his house? The system is broken, the cop did his best to not make it worse.
I’m not blaming the cop. But I’m also not praising him. Nobody here helped the woman. Let’s just lament her homelessness without weirdly congratulating the people who kicked her out.
Agree
You know back during the Great Depression, we used to let widows buy their homes for pennies rather than let them be homeless. It’s sad that these days, our sense of community is so fucked that people would pick profit over making sure everyone in their community has a house.
They behaved kindly because they were in the wrong - it’s almost certain that if they’d used force and she’d resisted that it’d end up in front of a judge and she would be able to claim the area as a residence.
How exactly are they in the wrong?
There are laws about squatters rights in the US and they likely qualified under them.
I would be extremely surprised if squatters rights apply to a commercial business premises.
Correct, and Squatter’s Rights are meant to apply to properties abandoned by their owners, i.e. they’re meant to prevent absentee landowners from just hoarding buildings wherever and never visiting or maintaining them. Or traditionally, if a property owner has died with no next of kin, or someone believed they inherited a property from a dead relative and this was not contested. Somebody simply hiding in a thoroughly used and very much frequented and maintained building in such a way that they’ve managed to escape notice for some amount of time doesn’t allow them to magically put the deed in their name.
To make a successful claim this woman would have had to occupy the premises for 15 years, or do so for 10 years while also paying the property taxes on it. Further, their occupation has to be “open and notorious,” i.e. it cannot be in secret (she failed that requirement right off the bat) and occupation must be exclusive, i.e. others don’t have access to the property. That requirement was obviously failed as well.
Relevant statute:
https://www.legislature.mi.gov/Laws/MCL?objectName=MCL-600-5801
The unidentified woman, too. Sounds like a whole bunch of people being cordial to each other for once.
No, the humane and decent thing would have been to leave her the fuck alone. She’s not hurting anyone.
I see nothing in your quote that mentions the police.
Read again
Contractors curious about an extension cord on the roof of a Michigan grocery store made a startling discovery: A 34-year-old woman was living inside the business sign, with enough space for a computer, printer and coffee maker, police said.
“She was homeless,” Officer Brennon Warren of the Midland Police Department said Thursday
Sounds like she had a home you goddamn narcs
“There are much better options”
She had private shelter, no rent, probably HVAC. about the only thing missing was a bathroom, but there’s no mention of any waste she could ha e left.
Sounds like a pretty good deal. Wonder what “better” is.
Who snitched??
Not really “homeless” now is she?
She is now, since they kicked her out. She wasn’t before that.
I mean… She isn’t there anymore
Sounds like long enough for her to claim squatters rights and no longer be homeless.
The threshold in Michigan is 15 years of conspicuous, uncontested, and exclusive occupancy. So, no.
The court may argue that the space behind a retail marquee is not a home.
Pure commercial zoning, legally can not be a home.
That is all I would need to distract me from being homeless
This was not a homeless woman, this woman had a home.
The director of a local homeless assistance group is quoted as saying:
“Obviously, we don’t want people resorting to illegal activity to find housing."
IANAL but here’s a funny twist of the law. It’s not generally illegal, per se, for the woman have done this until she was caught and legal action was taken and was successful. The mere act of it was not in itself illegal. Heck, in California you have to give squatters 3 days notice (the area where she stayed could be seen as “vacant”).
Anyway, food for thought. Lest, you know, one require housing.
“Welcome to camping with Steve”
“On the roof, it’s peaceful as can be, and there the world below don’t bother me…”
Luxury. Best we could manage was a paper bag in a septic tank.
We were evicted from our septic tank.
She had a home, but they kicked her out.
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