Outreach event gives legal hand to city’s homeless
Posted on Monday, September 15, 2008
In legal circles, Wayne Gruber is known as the “homeless judge.” He’s right at home with the title.
In a silver plastic tent underneath Broadway Bridge on Saturday morning, the Pulaski County district judge heard the cases of 41 homeless people with outstanding misdemeanor charges.
The charges can prevent employment, critical for helping the homeless provide for themselves, advocates say.
Gruber’s “Homeless Court” provided criminal legal services during the biennial Homeless Outreach Event in Little Rock.
Four hundred volunteers provided homeless people services including diabetes testing, tax consultation and mental-health evaluation as well as clothing, food, toiletries, haircuts and information on housing and alcohol- and drug-abuse resources.
Arkansas Legal Services, a nonprofit organization, offered free assistance with civil legal matters during the all-day event. Outreach sponsors included Little Rock and North Little Rock.
During the Homeless Court, Gruber granted leniency to a few people charged with such misdemeanors as public intoxication or unpaid parking tickets. The homeless rarely have enough money to pay fines for such charges, Gruber said.
“I love doing it, and it gives me a deep sense of accomplishment,” Gruber said.
On Saturday, Gruber gave leniency request letters in most of the more serious misdemeanors, such as writing a hot check or possessing drug paraphernalia. Although Gruber can handle any case in Pulaski County district courts, he prefers to send a letter to the district judge in whose court the case is being tried. He said the letter is essentially “one judge asking another judge to give that homeless person consideration for leniency because they took it upon themselves to come to court today.” Gruber said one reason he has drawn to the homeless is that many of them are veterans.
Gruber, who served in the National Guard for 30 years, said, “It pains me to see so many veterans that are homeless without services and benefits.” Jimmy Pritchett, event co-organizer and Little Rock Homeless Services Coordinator, said one in three homeless in the capital city is a veteran.
Sandra Wilson, event coorganizer and Arkansas Supportive Housing Network Inc. director, said the event provided information about services to the homeless in one place.
“A lot of times, they don’t even know where to start.” The biennial event, which started as Operation Care in 1995, has since increased in size every time, Wilson said. She said that 100 more volunteers, mostly from churches and youth groups, participated than two years ago. Organizers are discussing making the event annual.
More than 1, 200 people ate lunch under the metallic rattle of overhead cars. Among them was Billie Jean, 52, eating spaghetti donated by the Olive Garden restaurant and watermelon. Her Rose City trailer burned four months ago, putting her on the streets for a month. She now lives in Our House, a Little Rock shelter and education and jobtraining center. She has a job, but not insurance to help with her broken tooth.
Jean arrived too late Saturday morning to take advantage of the free dental exams, but, showing her dilated pupils, said it pleased her to get a free eye exam, glasses and a prescription. She also learned about free dental exams once a month at North Little Rock’s River City Ministry, a Christian organization serving the poor.
“In the meantime,” Jean said, “it’ll be [anesthetics ] Orajel and Anbesol.”
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