The debate over what to do about America's homeless population is reaching the breaking point as tent cities pop up like spring dandelions in communities all across this fruited plain. On the one side of the debate are the über-empathsists who rush to defend them from those 'law and order, keep the streets clean, heartless Republicans,' and on the other side are the defenders of property rights and the status quo. Cities like Portland, San Francisco and even Albuquerque are seeing this issue rise above the water line of the voters' consciousness as we approach the mid-term elections, and it is causing considerable consternation among political candidates of both parties. Albuquerque (and I suspect the managers, mayors and city council members of other cities) are quick to usher their homeless into temporary shelters when a big convention or sporting event like Balloon Fiesta is in town. So, the 'problem' goes away, but promptly returns once the hundreds of thousands of out-of-state visitors pack up their bags and head back home to remark to their neighbors about what a clean city Albuquerque is.
America has always had a homeless problem, and it never goes away; it just gets worse or better as our economy gets worse or better. People lose their homes. They come back from foreign wars, broken and with PTSD. They get divorced and they get released from prison with nowhere to go with a family that doesn't understand them. Then there are the hard-core addicts and alcoholics and those suffering from mental or emotional illnesses, not to mention the penniless who call the streets and underpasses their home. To some they are just 'collateral damage' - the result of a throwaway society that thinks it can dispense with certain people like paper shopping bags. The truly heartless will say that "Every society has its sediment that sinks to the bottom of the barrel, and it's a natural consequence of a free-choice, free-will society," but the homeless are real people. And the problem keeps growing. We have witnessed an ebb and flow of homelessness over the decades. When our economy is thriving homelessness recedes, but oil crises and economic mismanagement along with wars push more people into poverty. Now inflation and an energy crisis are forcing more people out of their homes and onto the streets while the Biden Administration is preoccupied with redefining what a recession is. Everyday Americans are feeling the shock waves of rapidly escalating food and energy prices along with rent and interest rate hikes… and the homeless numbers reflect it through the migration to tent cities. Sadly, it will get worse as the Administration continues its war with the fossil fuel industry.
Millions of Americans are teetering on the brink, facing some pretty difficult choices triggered by the policies of economic amateurs and ideological zealots in DC. Heating or transportation? Food or medicine? Health care or rent? And when there are no more choices to make, many will leave everything behind and the homeless problem will worsen. "Many of the homeless choose to be homeless" is a quote I've often heard, and every time I hear it I want to forcibly take away the house keys of the person who uttered it and say, "There. Now YOU try it for a while and see what you think." But I don’t because some people will always believe the worst of other people. How then do we solve this problem? Do we build permanent temporary shelters for the homeless? Do we hire 87,000 social workers instead of 87,000 IRS agents to help them? Maybe we should replicate the 'Peace Corps' to minister to the homeless in a way Americorps can't? We MUST do something to rehabilitate the rehabilitateable that will provide them with a pathway back to society. Caring for the homeless is America's greatest test of its willingness and ability to address and solve one of its most pressing social problems. To do that will require us to put political partisanship aside and work with compassion and persistence to bring our lost souls back into the fold. It's never too late to do the right thing.
Stephan Helgesen is a retired career U.S. diplomat who lived and worked in 30 countries for 25 years during the Reagan, G.H.W. Bush, Clinton, and G.W. Bush Administrations. He is the author of twelve books, six of which are on American politics and has written over 1,300 articles on politics, economics and social trends. He operates a political news story aggregator website: www.projectpushback.com. He can be reached at: stephan@stephanhelgesen.com
