Eddie Gunn has been working downtown at Lourie’s, a men’s clothing store, for almost 20 years. During that time, he’s seen many downtown shops close their doors. Today, only a handful of stores remain open on Main Street, including Lourie’s. Gunn says that many stores have moved to the malls, away from the downtown area.
“Most of Columbia’s homeless population lives in the downtown area,” Gunn says. “It doesn’t encourage people to come and shop down here.”
Such was not always the case. Gunn can remember a time when Main Street was bustling with shoppers.
“At one time, downtown Columbia was the place to shop,” Gunn explains. People from Orangeburg and other areas would come up here. Main Street was like 5 th Avenue in New York City on Saturdays.”
Nowadays, newcomers to Columbia like Jesse Jacobs, find the homeless to be a more visible problem. Jacobs, a Tallahassee, Fla. native, is the general manager of California Chicken Grill in the Vista.
“In Tallahassee homeless people might on occasion hang out outside of the store just because it was somewhere to be and they might get a few dollars or some food from our customers,” Jacobs says. “But here the homeless have more outgoing personalities. On a daily basis they come into the store and come up to the counter and ask for us to give them food or money.”
If you head to downtown Columbia on a Saturday now, you wouldn’t mistake it for New York’s 5 th Avenue. There is an obvious lack of traffic, and an obvious presence of homeless people. Gunn says the presence of several homeless shelters has hurt downtown businesses, including Lourie's.
“It’s definitely had a negative effect on our clientele,” Gunn says. “Female customers are especially wary of walking around outside alone.”
In addition, Gunn says that the homeless will loiter outside the store and in the parking garage. According to Gunn, the homeless who loiter there often urinate in public or beg for money from the customers.
While Gunn says that he calls the police “regularly,” doing so is only temporarily effective.
“I personally will have to say something to the guys, who sit outside on the street and curse loudly, about once a week. But whether the police say something or I do, it still continues.”
Gunn says that he would support a more permanent solution. He supports a proposal to move several downtown homeless shelters to a centralized location on Bluff Road. Gunn says he is “disappointed” that the plan was supported by most of the shelters, but The Oliver Gospel Mission shot down the idea. He doesn’t blame the City of Columbia for not taking charge.
“The city wants to do more, but pressure isn’t there,” Gunn explains. The Oliver Gospel Mission is a privately funded organization, so the city can’t really get involved.”
Gunn says that the downtown shelters have created a bad situation for both the shelters and the businesses.
“We can’t donate unless business gets better, and that won’t happen until more people come and shop downtown. They aren’t willing to come until they feel safer.”
Click to Hear from Matt Kennell from City Center Partnership
It is sad to think that so many people are universally without food and shelter on a regular basis. Living in a city like Columbia can turn that thought into a reality. Whether you are driving through town, going out for dinner or just performing daily routines, we see these unfortunate people more than we may like.
Homelessness has always been a problem, but trying to prevent it and help those in need has become more and more difficult. It is hard to provide jobs and shelter for so many people in need. Truthfully, it feels like there will never be a solution for the problem of homelessness. Shelters and non-profit organizations are consistently working to cure homelessness by changing lives in our community.
Many who call Columbia home have come to grip with the reality that homelessness is a problem in the city. Jesse Jacobs, the new general manager of the California Chicken Grill Restaurant, has been living here in Columbia for just more than a month and already sees the problem on a regular basis.
“Since I have been here, I have noticed the difference in the amount of people wandering the streets,” he says.
The homeless problem is a detrimental one for businesses in Columbia. Jacobs comes into contact with homeless people everyday. Some come into the store, but leave after they are denied food.
There is a huge revitalization project in affect right now, but Jacobs said that he thinks “the homeless situation might affect what the projects are trying to accomplish”.
The problem of homelessness can seriously affect a city. Seeing the lonely, hopeless people walking the streets of Columbia just breaks my heart. It is really hard to give one of the homeless money, because you don’t know what they will use it for. Statistics show that drug and alcohol abuse are huge contributing factors of homelessness.
Business leaders like Jacobs can only view homelessness as a problem. No matter how little it may seem that homelessness does not affect businesses, ultimately it actually does. Just having a store located near where the homeless may come into contact with customers will almost always have an impact on business. Hopefully the revitalization process will lead to more shelters and an increase in business in downtown Columbia. Serious measures need to be taken to find a solution for the bigger problem facing this little southern Capital City.