Roanoke’s debate and frustration over its homelessness predicament boiled into an act of public defiance last week.

After a contentious meeting about the issue at Crystal Spring Grocery in South Roanoke Oct. 8, a city-owned bench in front of the restaurant disappeared, reportedly the next day.

The bench is a flash point: It’s frequented by transient people in one of the most affluent areas of the city, raising the concerns of those who live and run businesses in the neighborhood. The neighborhood was also shaken earlier this year when 80-year-old Susan Williams was murdered in her South Roanoke apartment building by a felon who was homeless. 

Mayor Joe Cobb was at Wednesday’s meeting, during which angry residents suggested that city-owned benches along South Roanoke’s commercial strip need to be removed as a deterrent to keep homeless people out of the area.

Cobb said Tuesday there were numerous points he wanted to make that night but couldn’t because “I kept getting interrupted.”

Cobb said the benches are a legitimate issue to be discussed, but that he told some at the meeting that citizens making the decision to remove them without municipal consent could involve arrests. No police report on the incident last week had been filed as of Tuesday afternoon, police department spokeswoman Hannah Glasgow wrote in an email.

The city would like the bench that’s been removed to be returned, Cobb said, so it can be stored away.

Cobb said he is concerned about the public taking matters into its own hands.

He said he’s been involved with homelessness issues in Roanoke since 1997. It’s a complicated matter, he said, adding that a belief that all homeless people are criminals “disgusts me.”

The issue is an intersection of public safety and public health that needs to include a myriad of solutions, he said. One major problem currently is the lack of affordable housing, he said.

The city’s homeless numbers have increased significantly since the pandemic. Cobb said his office is most recently receiving calls from people who are employed but can’t find housing. Most of those are women, he said.

“We have to work together on this as a community,” he said, “but I also need people who are willing to do the work and not just further stigmatize a group of people who are already vulnerable.”

Through an initiative started by Cobb, the city’s new Hope and Home Task Force held its first meeting last month. Its goals are to increase awareness and understanding of homelessness while coming up with what it hopes will be new and innovative solutions to the problem. The task force is expected to take a year to 18 months to complete its work.

One of its members is Lauren Ellerman, who owns the Crystal Spring Grocery along with her husband. Ellerman is now in the middle of the ongoing South Roanoke frustrations as she starts her task force service. 

Concerning the missing bench, Ellerman said she reported to the city items left there by a homeless person last Thursday morning. Later that afternoon, a restaurant employee told Ellerman the bench was gone, she said.

“I don’t think that’s the way to handle it,” Ellerman, a lawyer, said of the bench’s removal.

The task force represents a diverse cross-section of the community, from such areas as business, healthcare, construction, and education. It also includes a person who was formerly homeless. During the group’s first meeting on Sept. 17, Ellerman said she’s heard the negative comments about its formation, including that it’s just a political tool, and that there aren’t any solutions not already discussed.

“So my goal is to prove them all wrong,” she said.

And Ellerman already offered an idea for which Cobb is seeking support.

A state law allows for more ways to transport those discharged from a temporary detention order or other mental health treatment. Currently, some in that category are discharged to the streets from trauma centers such as Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital, just a short distance from the spot where the bench was removed last week.

Cobb, after talking to Ellerman, added an initiative to the city’s state legislative agenda. It asks for more funding to make it easier for a transportation provider to return people to their homes, or to localities where they were before coming to Roanoke. Transportation providers can now be private companies - as well as medical facilities – beyond law enforcement. 

“I think that’s a great addition to the legislative agenda, and I think it also speaks to some of the tragedies that we’ve had here in the city in this past year,” Councilman Peter Volosin, who lives in South Roanoke, said during a council meeting last week, adding “and this would be a great way to make sure that people are getting back to where they are most comfortable as well.”