Perspective: Laissez-faire drug policing aggravates homeless plight
A formerly unhoused man relays in the American Spectator that homelessness isn't solved in a snap by having enough gov't beds (sorry, SCC Housing First devotees). Instead, municipalities should heed how the community's freewheeling substance abuse keeps individuals away from shelters, job opportunities, and peaceful integration into society.
How could 6,000 shelter beds be unoccupied in Los Angeles County? It’s a number, reported in LAist in July, that makes no sense given the miles of homeless encampments that occupy area streets and sidewalks.
Looking for an answer, I talked to Dave — a formerly homeless man who asked me not to reveal his last name. Dave told me how he ended up unhoused in the 1990s and then worked his way into a good job and a steady roof over this head.
He believes that homeless individuals who live on the street choose to do so, because when he didn’t have a roof, he chose to spend the night in missions with rules, not on streets without them.
Dave does not identify with those who squat in the tent encampments he sees in the Seattle area where he lives. “People that have hit hard times,” he told me. “They’re not begging on street corners.” If they want to turn their lives around, they look for a job....
[The L.A. Alliance for Human Rights] has pushed for more housing, yes, but also for more treatment for substance abuse and mental health issues, and for, well, allowing law enforcement to enforce laws on the books.
The very term “homeless” conveys the sense that individuals merely lack housing, [Paul] Webster noted, when the real hurdles they face may be significant behavioral or mental health challenges.
The very term “homeless” conveys the sense that individuals merely lack housing, Webster noted, when the real hurdles they face may be significant behavioral or mental health challenges.
To Webster, part of the problem is “a laissez-faire attitude toward enforcing community standards in public places.” The result: encampments that foster organized crime, drug dealing, and human trafficking.
This article originally appeared in the American Spectator. Read the whole thing here.
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