by Jerry Esmay, Stevensville
I would assume that readers have been following the “homeless” problem we are experiencing across our country. Seems that every major city has an increasing problem with the homeless. Many large city governments, especially those in the liberal category, seem to have accepted this as an unsolvable root problem and just keep throwing more benefits at the problem such as more money and/or free drugs, etc. What a pleasant surprise for me to read last week that one city in California, Coronado, has taken a NON-TOLERATE approach to the problem with remarkable results – they claim that there are NO vagrants in the city.
Republican Mayor Richard Bailey stated that, “The policies that are in place at the regional and statewide level that are tolerating this type of behavior that is personally destructive and also destructive to the surrounding communities are really enabling this situation to increase throughout our entire state, and throughout our entire region. Changing these policies will actually have a major impact.”
Bailey explained that the city works with the police department and a homeless service provider to give the homeless only one option – to get the help they need.
Coronado funds “reasonable” services to help those struggling to get “back on their feet,” but noted that the city also has a no-tolerance policy for violating municipal codes.
Bailey went on to say, “we also make it very clear that we don’t tolerate encampments along our sidewalks, and we don’t tolerate other code violations such as being drunk in public or urinating in public or defecating in public. We just simply don’t tolerate these basic code violations. What ends up happening is an individual either chooses to get help or they end up leaving.”
“The fact of the matter is, although there are a myriad of reasons that people end up homeless, they eventually only fall into two camps – those that want help and those that do not want help. And those that are refusing to get help shouldn’t be granted additional ability to break laws such as tent encampments on the sidewalk or urinating or defecating in public.”
WOW! I have contended all along that there are a lot of our citizens who are downright lazy. Given the option of “getting by” without working is right down their chosen path. On the other hand, as a society we have an obligation to try to help our fellow citizens who have fallen on hard times, have a drug problem or have a mental problem. But, as Mayor Bailey noted, these services to help those who want help have to be “reasonable” and closely monitored for effectiveness.