Drugs, Poverty, and Gun Violence: Common Challenges for Every Community

BEMIDI, MN (trfnews.i234.me) The problems with drugs, poverty and angry men with guns are facing every community. We look at what’s being done in Bemidji, Minnesota to combat the problems.
wherever you live in the united states there’s part of your community’s population that suffers with drug addiction poverty and issues that have gone through families for generations sometimes it all erupts in gunfire 10 to 15 gunshots if we get all switched to bm4 before we get out we have multiple 911 coming in said ridgeway multiple people yelling screaming and running around in recent months there have been several incidents of gunfire erupting around town at different locations but the most frequent location is here at ridgeway apartments it’s been groups and or individuals shooting at each other not the general public but for folks who live here it’s made life uncomfortable to say the least kelsey splits the 810 a month rent here with a roommate while working at target at this point it’s what fits the budget well as you know i’ve done several reports here of gunshots around this complex does that continue to be a problem um i mean i’ve known it to be a problem but you know like i kind of stay away from everybody not trying to get in trouble with the people here that reside here do you does it feel dangerous to you um i mean you know i’ve gotten like a threat with a knife when i first moved in but you know i kind of just stick to myself so okay does it kind of seem like it’s in between groups of people and they’re not really targeting anybody else yeah pretty much um they kind of just go after whoever you know some people are really sketched out um you know drugs make them that way we’ve had several reports i’ve done stories about this complex or whatever the gunshots and stuff is and i guess i i usually don’t hear them in my sleep at that time all right yeah does it feel like a scary place to live for you oh there’s some people that might be hard to get along with but i i just don’t talk with them too much it’s not law enforcement problem it’s not the city’s problem it’s our problem throughout this past summer audrey thayer of the bemidji city council has been working with an organization called village of hope and others thayer says they’re trying to fix a very complex problem bemidji like every town across the country grant a lot of name a town there’s a certain population with a drug problem and in many places the people that feed that drug problem get into whatever you want is disputes or whatever and gunfire happens um which has happened several times at the ridgeway apartments but you’re saying you know it’s the problem was a lot deeper than that thank you um the ridgeway situation and it is actually the most recent uh one was not even in ridgeway it was another uh apartment complex but you’re dealing with uh when we’re talking uh at gun violence in any community you’re you’re looking at uh and you you’re looking at a number of factors all right so uh we have to look at the economics of a community the the intergenerational um path of a family uh uh and in our present day society so there’s there’s um when you have trauma in community in any community you will have you will see things like gun violence um and of course uh that’s related to domestic violence as well with people shoot you know shooting so um there is a group that started working over at ridgeway because when you look at the statistics that area kind of stood up um on um on opiate use and and uh and gun violence but i’m it’s actually like you said in every community but that’s not the only community in bemidji area or the only location we have some concerns and i’ve been around this issue working prior in my lifetime for 10 years with you know with challenges in community when it comes to gun violence so and i’m no expert but i joined this group i was asked to join them after right before i got elected to help with the rich we call it the ridgeway project and i’ve been actively involved since may and it’s a relationship building within the community by people from the community who are taking their time to be in community and it happens to be ridgeway so we have every two weeks over the summer and spring and summer we had um meals together hot dogs and grill we grilled out the most recent one was a week ago just before the pine ridge shooting we had we met on a wednesday night and we and a lot of money and efforts put in by a number of organizations in the community and everybody’s invited to sit down and have meals there’s also education going on site now because one of the mistakes i think we’ve made in society is we set up these programs to serve people who are in need but we we don’t recognize that we are in a district or an area here that does lack like transportation so often it’s very challenging just to reach out to to get a helping hand up not out um up you know because they can’t get to these things i’m i’m being very very surface on this issue because it is very deep uh when we’re looking at um the mavel hierarchy of needs which is basic do people have enough to eat if they don’t then they do things that are is not necessarily right in our eyes and you know of anybody who has any teaching of what’s right and wrong so that project’s working right now neil it’s we’re in our you know what how many months now you know june july august um the the educational programs going on people are going we have um different programs going to them get the community there to offer schooling uh education on financing how to be a better candidate how to live and we’ve got people who are fearful and i’m over there quite a bit i was just over there last night sitting in the parking lot observing i’m always observing uh to see what’s going on in that community and we are getting trauma community training so we know how to deal in community so the people who are involved have not had experience working with uh populations of need people in need and uh they are um learning so much and we’re seeing um you know trust and and um feeling the lack of despair is very real for many many people and they seem to you know this is a pocket of an area in our community we see a lot of that that’s the price most of our housing in bemidji is way over a thousand dollars a month how can anybody afford that work uh you know that’s a livable wage issue um and so that i talk a lot about in in community about how important it is for livable wage uh so that people can afford to live and then i know there’s another crew working on housing issues because we don’t have a lot of affordable housing in our community that allows uh young families to come in and young people and i i suspect i know that family that you’re mentioning because i kind of know who the families are now over there it’s getting so uh and we’re having family we’re helping families move to places as soon as they can find an opening to a better location you know your point being it’s not just about drugs it’s about people who don’t have enough money and they’re looking for a better life and some of these shootings and whatever else happens when with those situations yes and it’s scary you know when you’ve got these unhealthy people who get frustrated and don’t know don’t have an answer to their own ones just one example of work underway to address a problem that exists in every community meanwhile bemidji remains a vibrant town being one of the top tourist destinations in minnesota and overall a safe place to live and visit as some folks step forward to try and make sure it’s a good life for everyone i’m Neil Berg reporting for trfnews.i234.me