Re: “Restricting sleeping in public won’t end homelessness” (Feb. 11, Opinion):
To resort to legal guidelines to handle social issues is an admission of failure. The financial system has the most important affect on our lives and values and isn’t invested in resolving social issues (“It’s a enterprise, not a charity”).
Lengthy-term reasonably priced housing is required, however the housing business doesn’t make the revenue it desires from reasonably priced housing. Public cash is then wanted to subsidize these income in a single kind or one other. Tens of millions of {dollars} are spent on homelessness, however to not deal with the “speedy” wants of the unhoused in creating “stability” within the type of adequate, efficient shelter preparations, tiny houses and automobile/RV protected heaps.
Creating stability would yield higher outcomes. After 4 years as a volunteer in a joint program between Seattle Public Utilities and St. Vincent de Paul visiting these dwelling in RVs and infrequently surrounding tents, the distinguished sentiment I’ve seen from authorities and most of the people has been to make life harder for the unhoused so they’ll go away.
Legal guidelines to criminalize homelessness will not be new and as ineffective as making poverty unlawful.
Jerry Gunville, Seattle
