By Jon Mann Santa Monica Save the bison Editor:
Weldon Berger’s “cost effective” approach to homelessness suggest that if we don’t provide housing for our indigents they will bankrupt our city. I doubt that, as Santa Monica is one of the wealthiest small cities in the world. Wealthy enough to target millions of dollars for homeless services that are anything but cost effective.
The feeding and other free services may foster dependency and attract more homeless to our parks, alleys and libraries, but much more of the funding is absorbed by the social service bureaucracy than trickles down to the genuinely needy. It would be interesting to see an ongoing budget of how those revenues are allocated.
It seems a more pragmatic approach to homelessness is the old Chinese proverb, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." Granted that many of our indigents are substance abusers, or off their meds, and resist any kind of personal responsibility, but fostering dependency succeeds no better than punitive approaches. Both only aggravate the problem and enable, rather than developing self sufficiency.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on June 16, 2008. Read the original PDF.