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02/05/2006:

"In Detroit, a Super Bowl Timeout for the Homeless"

DETROIT -- Organizers have planned the parties for months, with gospel music groups, games and vans to pick up guests. Chicken and sheet cakes have been ordered, and big-screen TVs have been delivered.

But when the parties here are over after Sunday's Super Bowl, the guests will return to the hodgepodge of shelters, abandoned buildings and streets that are their homes. They are among the estimated 10,000 to 25,000 homeless men, women and children who live in Detroit.

The city and several nonprofit organizations planned the parties as the beginning of what they envision as a program of stepped-up assistance for the homeless that will include more meals, health assessments and counseling.

Some Detroiters laud the efforts, calling them a positive way to include the unfortunate in the city's celebrations and to call more attention to their plight. But some advocates and homeless people say organizers are only trying to hide the homeless to make Detroit more attractive to big-spending visitors and VIP guests.
washingtonpost.com