For many of us who work or live downtown, the road closures, heightened security, and massive crowds will be an inconvenience come July for the RNC.
But some Cleveland residents, who already struggle to get their basic needs met like food and shelter, could be the ones suffering the most.
“I may go to a spot I have and I may crash out tonight,” said homeless Cleveland resident, Edward E. Samac.
With no place to call home, he is constantly looking for a place to spend his time.
“I go visit family and friends, and you know since I’m homeless I don’t really have a lot to do. I’ve got a lot of time on my hands, I like to go to the library,” he said.
But getting to and fro this summer with the RNC in town may be a bit harder for him to do that, and that’s making him nervous.
“It’s going to be chaos. Transportation is going to be a complete in disarray. Since we’re homeless and sometimes the police aren’t too friendly to us and we’re worried that they may have a field day with us,” said Samac.
He’s not the only one concerned, social service advocates having growing concerns about those who are low-income, mentally ill or homeless in the city actually receiving the help that they need.
Joseph Mead, a Nonprofit Management Assistant Professor at Cleveland State University said this group can often be forgotten about.
“Access and equality-making sure they get the services they need that they’re not left out of the conversation. We need to make sure that all of Cleveland is represented when the republicans are in town.”
One major problem they’re facing is transportation.
“I don’t think people realize that homeless people have to go all over the place to get help, IDs may be on one side of town, meals may be on the other side of town, shelter may be somewhere else, and so getting all of those places with downtown pretty much shut down, is going to be pretty difficult,” said Brian Davis, Executive Director of the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless.
He also said another concern is their safety.
“We became worried when we saw a lot of the violence at some of the Trump rallies that our population will be caught up in.”
That’s why CSU will be holding a forum this week with more than 100 agencies to talk possible solutions
“I think that we just want to make sure that they’re not forgotten…we want to make sure that our most vulnerable populations are also included in those conversations,” said Mead.
Whatever solutions come out of it, Samac said he’s just going to do his best to stay out of the way.
“I think it’s gonna be a mess for us homeless, that’s the best way I can put it….and I think a lot of us will just go and hide in our little areas that we hang out in and stuff.”
The forum will be held tomorrow evening from 4 to 6pm at the college for Urban Affairs. Some possible solutions on the already on the table are finding local churches who might take folks in for that week or giving out free passes for activities like the zoo.
NewsChannel 5 reached out to RTA to see how they plan to handle things. As of right now, they said they will operate at their normal levels for the convention, but will be prepared to temporarily add extra routes if necessary.
