Thoughts on the Homeless

The homeless are a blight on any city.  That may seem like a harsh saying but the fact is, those who are homeless leech off those who work and pay taxes.  When I say “homeless” I  need to clarify.  There are a very small percentage of people who, through catastrophic illness or job displacement lost everything.  Through no fault of their own, they ended up homeless.  Many years ago I saw a man, who dressed up in a suit, held up a sign offering resumes to anyone who wanted them.  He would go into stopped traffic and put resumes on the windshields of cars.  I saw him every day for 3 weeks, then he was gone.  He was clearly in the camp of someone who was going to do anything to get back on his feet.  I have no evidence that he was homeless, but I would support that man.

Earlier this week a car was pulled into my church’s parking lot.  In it were two homeless people.  They approached me and claimed that God had sent them.  They talked about their ministry and how they were going to be a blessing to me and my church.  This type of person wears their homelessness as a badge.  It is their identity.  If they were not a victim, they would not be anyone.  To give them services or a home would be pointless, because they need training and education on how to live in society.

Another man appeared last Saturday and arrived with three shopping carts of junk and setup a homeless encampment on the far end of our parking lot.  Speaking with the man, he is clearly mentally ill.  He is a very violent speaker but the police say he has never hit anyone.  He did break a window in one of our bathrooms.  He was finally arrested last night for trying to vandalize our electrical panel.  He needs medication, supervision and needs to live in a group home.  Yet he lives on the street.

There is plenty of money in the government, at all levels to care for these people, to put them into the system, to give them medication, clothing, dwellings and even employment, but it seems that the system will not go and get them.  It seems that people have to volunteer to enter that type of relationship with the state.  If homelessness and victimhood is a badge of honor, I doubt if those who were pulling their broken car would join.

The sheriffs have informed me that there are needles and broken drug pipes in the bushes around our parking lot.  We regularly go into those bushes to plant and weed and landscape.  So the street population of San Lorenzo has now made that more difficult.  I say that the homeless and professional victims are a blight on any city because they force the working people who function in society to change their habits and pay money just to survive.  The government has enough money to fix this, so why don’t they?