Ald. Gardiner dodges responsibility, feigns ignorance of harm caused by his staff
In a Facebook post late Saturday night, Ald. Gardiner finally addressed the events of January 12th, when early in the morning, a member of his office staff discarded a homeless man’s belongings, including his blankets and food.
In Gardiner’s statement, posted around 8:30PM Saturday, he says he’s “deeply concerned” to have “learned that a homeless resident within our community had his possessions inadvertently discarded” and “This was a mistake.”
Several constituents have characterized Ald. Gardiner’s statement as “disingenuous” and “too little too late”, citing the numerous comments on his original Jan. 12 post pointing out his photos clearly showed a homeless man’s belongings being discarded. Others pointed out they had followed up with phone calls to Gardiner’s office, concerned about the man’s well-being. Gardiner did not acknowledge or respond to any comments or questions about this incident until his Saturday day night post, a week and a half later. To imply he just “learned” of this incident is not truthful.
In his original post on his official government Facebook page, Gardiner thanked his “Gardiner Angels” for “spreading their wings early this morning for commuters to ensure the #irvingpark stop was clear of all unnecessary debris.” Gardiner’s post included several photographs of a man in an “Alderman Gardiner” branded yellow-vest disposing of a homeless person’s possessions. The location depicted in the photos is over 850 feet from the Irving stop, or about two blocks.
The day this happened, Gardiner’s post received over a hundred comments from area residents, many tagging the Alderman, asking what was done to help the homeless person and why he was throwing away the person’s possessions:
“That’s someone’s bed, why discard someone’s only area they have…”
“Was that ‘debris’ someone’s belongings? Their bed? If so, was that person given a place to go and compensated for the disposal of their personal belongings?”
“Alderman Jim Gardiner, could you please confirm for those of us who are worried about the human being who might rely on those items? Has he been checked on? Provided resources? Or was this “stuff” just taken and dumped?”
“It does look as though they are clearing away a displaced person’s necessary items. Not “debris”. Can anyone from Gardiner’s office confirm that the person who was living there has been given support from these angels?”
Gardiner did not respond to a single comment or question posed to him on his page. Several concerned residents have since said they also called his office to make him aware of this issue last week, never receiving a response.
“Jim, I have been calling your office about this since it happened without you responding. I have spoken with your staff and explicitly asked ‘What is Alderman Gardiner doing to get this man support?’ when I called. You were aware of this and chose to ignore the issue.”
On Friday morning, Block Club published a story about Gardiner’s actions and the public outcry, indicating “Gardiner did not return several calls seeking comment for this story.”
Block Club notes, “…one of Gardiner’s supporters claimed on social media that Gardiner got Padletic housing, but on Thursday Padletic said he has never met the alderman nor has he heard from anyone who works for him about housing or anything else.”
The false claim in question originated from Tom Schraeder, a resident of the 30th Ward. Schraeder’s wife, Joyce Schraeder is a full-time employee in Gardiner’s ward office.
On Friday afternoon, the Northwest Side Coalition Against Racism and Hate and Neighbors for Affordable Housing released a statement apologizing on behalf of “our communities on the North West Side” to the man whose belongings were taken, Mr. Kenneth Padletic. The groups called upon local leaders, including Gardiner, to “take responsibility to learn from this incident by engaging in training on best practices when engaging with community members experiencing homelessness.”
The Coalition points out that Gardiner’s staff’s actions depicted in his post violate the Illinois’ Bill of Rights for the Homeless Act, specifically:
10.a (1) the right to use and move freely in public spaces, including but not limited to public sidewalks, public parks, public transportation, and public buildings, in the same manner as any other person and without discrimination on the basis of his or her housing status;
and 10.a (7) the right to a reasonable expectation of privacy in his or her personal property to the same extent as personal property in a permanent residence.
The statement goes on to provide several resources for local elected leaders and residents to learn more about resources available to aid the homeless, the harm caused by clearing encampments without providing support, and training opportunities for people helping those facing homelessness.
Gardiner’s statement gave no acknowledgement to the numerous community members who had already reached out to Mr. Padletic directly to provide aid in the eleven days since his possessions were taken, or to the organizations which had already learned of Mr. Padletic’s plight and had met with him to provide support, or to the Coalition’s call to take responsibility.
Instead of acknowledging the works of others who had been helping Mr. Padletic since Jan. 12, Gardiner gave himself credit, claiming, “I have contacted the Department of Family and Support Services to offer this gentleman shelter and other city services. Representatives met with him this morning.”
Gardiner’s “concern” was met with skepticism from his constituents:
“How about accepting responsibility or apologizing? You gleefully posted about your angels removing ‘debris’ until the media called you out on it. Now you’re ‘deeply concerned.’ Uh huh.”
“Were you concerned when it was pointed out a week ago? or only when a news article was published about it yesterday? You literally posted pictures of the ‘debris’ being removed. There seems to be some disconnect here.”
“You threw away his only possessions in the middle of winter and then took a victory lap on social media. I appreciate you finally addressing this, however it took a Blockclub article for you to finally acknowledge your mistake, which makes the apology feel completely disingenuous.”
Gardiner’s statement centers himself as the one taking action to rally resources to help Mr. Padletic, while failing to acknowledge he was an active participant in this incident, he is responsible for the actions of his staff, and he was well aware of the impact this had on Mr. Padletic for eleven days of silence, only responding after a flurry of criticism and media coverage.
