DO NOT FEED THE…

...HOMELESS?

Thirty-three cities across this nation have enacted laws prohibiting citizens and community organizations from feeding the homeless, including:

Daytona Beach, Florida; 

Raleigh, N.C.; 

Myrtle Beach, S.C.; 

Birmingham, Alabama; and

Hayward, California.

New images of homeless-prevention systems are making rounds on the internet.  Designs that would render any dry, possibly warm spot to cozy up impossible to use are becoming fashionable in major cities around the world.

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Benches exist with warnings that only upright and seated positions are acceptable.  The latest image shows benches

with spikes that can be recessed for money.  Once your time is up, the spikes are engaged, forcing butts off benches. 

image credit themarysue.com

Bushes are verboten.  No loitering or lingering in wooded

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areas.  Doorways?  Forget it.

I suppose if you prevent a homeless person from sleeping under freeway overpasses, they will get a job, rent an apartment, and become respectable.  All so YOU don’t feel uncomfortable.

Homelessness is a problem.  Veterans, singles, teenagers, families, the elderly…. ANYONE can become homeless.  Take a look at your carefully structured world, and ask yourself -

WHAT WOULD IT TAKE, WHAT WOULD HAVE TO HAPPEN, FOR ME TO FIND MYSELF HOMELESS?

Years ago, a close family member realized she was a breath away from becoming homeless.  Failing health of a spouse, no more income earned by the spouse, hospitalization of the spouse. Then her home was foreclosed on out of the blue because she’d been unaware that the mortgage had gone unpaid (it was her husband's job, but he'd become more ill than she'd known).  

She downsized in a quick move with no notice and very little help.  And there it was - the realization that it just doesn’t take that much to find yourself in a position of potential homelessness. Things worked out, as they often do, but it was the realization that struck, well, too close to home.

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Flash forward to today in America, and all over the world. Homelessness is criminalized, ostracized and demonized. What are people who are down on their luck to do?

image credit Adam Ezra Group Ramble

This is OUR problem, and how we address the issue reflects

directly on each of us.

Today's GOP/TP seems determined to spend less and less to assist the poor, who are living on the edge.  What should be obvious to everyone is that the costs associated with treating the conditions of homelessness are staggering, and could be addressed in a more economical way, if we took seriously the obligation we each have to improve the lives of others.

Utah has started to place homeless people in people-less homes remaining after the housing-bubble burst leading to huge numbers of foreclosures.  This program has proven to be more cost effective than programs that provide housing referrals and vouchers. 

The National Low Income Housing Coalition estimates

"the 2013 Housing Wage is $18.79, exceeding the $14.32 hourly wage earned by the average renter by almost $4.50 an hour, and greatly exceeding wages earned by low income renter households."

Medical issues suffered by the homeless are primarily treated at emergency rooms, which cost far more than any other venue for the delivery of healthcare services.  Communities that have addressed this area of cost management have found success in reigning in costs for meeting the needs of this under-served group.

As take10's JEM recently reported, a compassionate approach to homeless is proving to be far more effective than the cold and callous non-solutions presented above.

Before we judge, condemn and criminalize, let's make sure we have the facts.

image credit homelesshouston.org

Sources:

https://www.onecpd.info/resources/documents/ahar-2013-part1.pdf