Retired Urban Planner Seeks Refuge For Homeless
By PATTI S. BORDA
The Frederick News-Post
FREDERICK, Md. (AP) -- Alan Feinberg seems just as comfortable planning glistening Frederick workplaces as reconfiguring the layout of a daytime refuge for the homeless and mentally ill.
As the new executive director of On Our Own of Frederick County, Feinberg is using his influence to force "comfortable" people to reconsider their role in the lives of those who have been diagnosed
with mental illnesses.
"My mission is to afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted," he said. "I want to bring this out into the light."
Statewide, On Our Own chapters are mental health consumer education and advocacy groups that promote equality in all aspects of society for people who receive mental health services and develops alternative, recovery-based mental health initiative.
A retired urban planner, Feinberg has volunteered and helped establish a vision for the future of east Frederick that features a tidy mix of residences, commercial and business uses, full of tree-lined sidewalks. The people and city leaders with whom he developed that vision may find it uncomfortable to address the
needs of the less fortunate, he said.
"It's not easy (for leaders) to face them," he said. "It could easily be them."
It was Feinberg in 1976: He said he was "thrown" into an institution for three months because he suffered from manic depression. After that experience he learned what the label and stigma of mental illness can do.
"Once you get labeled, you have no idea how painful and limiting it is," he said. "The way I got out of it was to fight."
He helped others and advocated for the mentally ill for a time.
"(Then) I had to get back in my life as an urban planner," he said.
Now he is retired, but he has never stopped thinking of how communities work together for good or fall apart.
In December, he became On Our Own's executive director. The rented space at 217 N. Market St. has a room and well-used furniture for people to sit and relax on, a few computers, many books and places to cook, eat, be alone or be social.
On a Saturday, Feinberg was pondering the best way to make the rooms more attractive and comfortable.
The backyard is big enough to have a grill and seating. Andre Weedon wants to put in a garden for the aesthetic benefits and sense of accomplishment it can bring to those who tend it.
Feinberg brings to his position a connection to the more fortunate and influential members of society.
"The advantage I have is I can go to Rotary and say 'I am certified sane: Are you?"'
He said the whole community needs to help people get back on their feet after mental illness causes them to falter. His aim is to help the clients heal and find productive work.
That is all Weedon said he expects.
"The town has sort of forgotten the small people," he said. "Everyone seems to overlook them.
"If you give a lot of us a chance, we could be productive," he said.
"To embrace failure, knowing what to do with it, is such a powerful thing," Feinberg said.
"I'm in the position to be proud of what I've come through and help," he said.
"We need more people like Alan (Feinberg) to step up," Weedon said.
(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
