According to an Associated Press article in the ADN, “The federal count of homeless people reached 580,000 last year, driven by lack of affordable housing, a pandemic that economically wrecked households, and lack of access to mental health and addictiontreatment.” And this is coupled with an increase in “laws at the state and local level that criminalize homelessness.”
What is wrong with this picture? Doesn’t America already have a historical template in FDR’s New Deal on how to successfully deal with the economic and social crisis of homelessness affecting the entire country? I’m guessing that it is mostly a GOP solution to “outlaw homelessness,” as once proposed by Trump, and to simply turn away from the problem by turning America’s citizens into enemies of the state.
Most people, after a time, would rather not remain homeless and would jump on opportunities to pull themselves out of it if those opportunities were made available in government programs. Stop wasting taxpayer money by herding people from one spot to another.
— Ken Green
Cooper Landing
Have something on your mind? Send to letters@adn.com or click here to submit via any web browser. Letters under 200 words have the best chance of being published. Writers should disclose any personal or professional connections with the subjects of their letters. Letters are edited for accuracy, clarity and length.