I'm no expert on homelessness, but I do know a bit about mental health and addiction. I do know that you can't lock up the problem and make it go away. And it's not "us vs. them", no matter how much we want to assume so. These are our neighbors, and they're not going to go away.
The solution? Not sure there is one. Not a pat, cut-and dried, one size fits all solution. It seems so backward of course, that fining and arresting the homeless is the solution, but if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail, and if it doesn't work the first time, get a bigger hammer.
We may not be able to completely eliminate homelessness, but I believe we can reduce the numbers. But I’m leery of the “Let’s hire an expert” solution that seems to be proposed. While we need experts from academia, we also need them from the ground up. We need to hear the voices of the homeless, what they need individually and collectively. That matters as much as anything, and it needs to be done.
For what it's worth...my two cents...
I'm no expert on homelessness, but I do know a bit about mental health and addiction. I do know that you can't lock up the problem and make it go away. And it's not "us vs. them", no matter how much we want to assume so. These are our neighbors, and they're not going to go away.
The solution? Not sure there is one. Not a pat, cut-and dried, one size fits all solution. It seems so backward of course, that fining and arresting the homeless is the solution, but if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail, and if it doesn't work the first time, get a bigger hammer.
We may not be able to completely eliminate homelessness, but I believe we can reduce the numbers. But I’m leery of the “Let’s hire an expert” solution that seems to be proposed. While we need experts from academia, we also need them from the ground up. We need to hear the voices of the homeless, what they need individually and collectively. That matters as much as anything, and it needs to be done.
I couldn't agree more on this Mark. It's like we'll ask anyone BUT those experiencing the thing we're talking about what they need.