i have tried to make you understand the homeless. i've tried to get you to think about the things that cause homelessness. i've made an effort to get you to think about the causes of homelessness and the brutal truth behind those causes. at times i realize i may have seemed like i did not support the homeless. but just the opposite is true. i do support the homeless, but i think in order to gain a wide, lasting support among the general public you cannot attempt to bend the truth in order to fit a certain agenda. i think honesty and truth is a better approach, whether or not it paints a nice picture or whether it paints an ugly, honest and truthful one. only realism and truthfulness will lead us to a solution. anything short of this only leads to the short term, temporary relief for a very small number of the homeless. we have been experiencing this for decades.
i've told you about how i view and feel about free housing with no strings attached, attempting to glamorize the homeless, the effort to somehow normalize homelessness and the self serving agendas of politicians, hud, naeh and other homeless agencies. i have written about the many, many efforts from these agencies and the federal government that in the end do very little for the homeless and are only instituted for funding or political capital. i have spoken of our homeless children and the disgrace to your country that this represents.
so what do i write about now? what ideal or concept can i put forward that will get your attention. you are not ignorant of the fact that the homeless are in your city. even a very uniformed reader could stop for a moment and think logically about the facts, the math and the history of our homeless programs and see that we have not been and are not currently on the path to significantly reducing homelessness. while i understand it is human nature to prefer websites or sources that tend to make you feel better by painting a rosy picture of the homeless and the lives they lead, that's like reading a paperback romance novel. it may be nice, but it's just fantasy. while i understand it may allow you to not put any effort of any sort to help the homeless by reading and believing articles that say this city or that city has ended or made great strides in ending homelessness, it's just not true. the homeless are still with us and they still suffer daily. children still die on our streets, women are still raped and men are still murdered because they are homeless.
i can only conclude that perhaps i can't write about anything that will make a difference. i can only conclude that while you may glance at or skim over the content of this website, it has no lasting impact. i can only think that just as you do when we pass a homeless person on the street, you glance at this website then quickly look away.i can still hear the car door locks go "click."
until you take the time to think about the homeless, until you choose to look closely and see the truth in the faces of the homeless, until you decide to scrape of the niceties and the glossy finish that some attempt to put on the homeless and until you decide that you do not want your city to allow anyone to be homeless....there's just not much more i can do.
see you around town