No Way Home by Wayne Winegarden

Author:Wayne Winegarden
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Encounter Books
Published: 2020-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

The Real Harms to Be Addressed

by Policies of Getting People Off the Streets

Deon Joseph is a Los Angeles Police Department officer who patrolled Skid Row for over 22 years. He befriended and helped thousands of its residents; he also arrested hundreds of others. Joseph has become an activist for firm law enforcement while demonstrating the compassion those on Skid Row deserve. He captured the challenge perfectly:

Most people I talk to about this issue do not hate the homeless. What they hate are the needles, used condoms, trash, sidewalk blockage, the drug usage and sales, the gangs that are drawn to them who exploit them, the human trafficking, and lewd activity that stems from it when they become a protected class that does not have to abide by rules that exist to keep us all safe.22

For most of American history, “vagrants” were seen as individuals with demons to be exorcized, to use historian Kenneth Kusmer’s phrase, rather than luckless fellow citizens to be assisted. That no longer describes the attitudes of the majority of the public or officeholders. Most Californians feel genuine sympathy when they walk past the prone homeless man with a sheet pulled along the length of his body against the cold, or rain, or shame – a sheet that often resembles a shroud.

The circumstances that lead a person to homelessness are many. Reversing those circumstances requires different approaches. There is a small class of nomads, usually young and able to find work and exit street living when they wish, who find the itinerant life adventurous or convenient. (PBS once did a report on people in Silicon Valley living in vehicles and who were technically homeless. Included was a 23-year-old software engineer named Brandon making $175,000 a year who simply opted to save money by living in the back of a U-Haul truck and showering, getting three meals, and using the gym at his employer’s complex.23) For many others, street life is the consequence of job loss. These people are motivated to return to a home but need housing support or income assistance. Most able-bodied and mentally healthy individuals who are homeless because of a lost job are typically rehoused within months. And a third category – the category that causes most of the public consternation and alarm and press coverage – consists of the “chronically homeless,” the class whose impediments to sheltered life – usually lack of mental stability, a substance use disorder, or a combination of both – are too strong to overcome in any prolonged or successful way without serious intervention.

Leaving these people unaided strikes many as amoral for this reason: extended life on the streets is harsh, solitary, stressful, and short. In October 2019, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health reported that the number of homeless deaths increased from 536 in 2013 to 1,047 in 2018, nearly doubling. This means three homeless deaths a day. Bodies are found on sidewalks, bus benches, hillsides, parking lots, riverbeds, and freeway ramps. People experiencing homelessness die on average 22 years earlier than those in the general population.

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