The second would be cracking down on “quality of life” crimes like public defecation, urination, camping in public places, etc so that you wouldn’t have to worry about paying people to pick up human feces, used drug needles, condoms, etc.
I’m not sure how any of the “quality of life” crimes could be cracked down upon.
In order for people to not pee and poo in the street, they need public bathrooms. But public bathrooms turn into drug dealing spots, or spots to buy and sell sex. So what to do? Public urinals and poop troughs?
Camping in public places–what is the alternative? Jail? Wouldn’t that create as many problems as it solves? Jail is for criminals, not the homeless, addicts, and the mentally-ill.
There apparently aren’t enough shelters in the big California cities, so should they build more shelters? Where? There isn’t a lot of space left that doesn’t cost a million dollars a square foot.
There is definitely not enough public housing, and even if there was, do you let drug addicts and people who are mentally-ill and unstable stay in public housing? I’m not saying that all drug addicts and mentally-ill people and people who are unstable will trash things, but…we gotta be realistic here.
How about tiny houses? Or cardboard houses–I’ve seen some stories on TV about how cheap-to-make and highly effective these heavy cardboard houses are?
If not cardboard, then some other cheap building material. i wonder if all those plastic straws that are choking the sea turtles, along with all the plastic soda bottles and plastic everything could be re-cycled into some kind of cheap, small shelter for a homeless person.
Appeal to the families of these people to help them? I’m guessing that many of the families of the homeless addicts and mentally-ill have gone through hell on this earth trying to help their relative, and would probably slam the door and/or go into hiding if they were approached by social workers from California begging them to please take responsibility for their homeless relative. Some people have the resources to put their relatives into rehab centers over and over again, but most of us don’t have that kind of moolah! And the emotional toll on the family is awful.
Turn the homeless over to the churches? I think that would be the best solution, since that’s what we Christians are supposed to be doing–helping the helpless and restoring the desperate. But we can’t expect any help at all from the government because of hyper-vigilance about separation of church and state. I’ll bet the first time we mention “God”, the government would fine us.
I don’t know the answers. I don’t think cracking down is the best answer, though.
Probably the best answer is making darn sure that kids don’t fall through the cracks while they are growing up, so they won’t end up homeless as adults. I don’t see that happening anytime soon in the U.S.
