By Charles Springer Santa Monica
In response to the good Dr. Lisette Baursachs’ comment to the homeless being put in prison as a solution to the homeless problem, (SMDP, Sept. 27, page 4). You have a Ph.D. I would think that someone with that much of an education would study the problem first-hand, then make a comment as you made. I have first-hand knowledge, a Ph.D. in the causes of homelessness as it were, as well as first-hand knowledge of the homeless community as a whole, and here in my solution to this situation. 1. We imprison the ones who have allowed the homeless population to grow for the sake of money, property and prestige. This will free up the monies needed to build shelters. 2. We imprison the ones who keep the homeless population where it is so they can profit from it through the “program run around” and give those who have succeeded in a program an open door to being a productive member of society. 3. We imprison those who have the NIMBY attitude — those who keep shelters from opening in their neighborhoods, thus creating a lack of shelter beds to help those who are homeless get back on their feet. This gives the shelters places to be built and gives the homeless person a chance to be in society and adjust, instead of being in the neighborhood that is dangerous and tempting to a return to the old lifestyle. 4. We imprison those who have a prejudiced stereotype of the homeless community as a whole. Those who fuel the fires of the NIMBY attitudes because they do not have, nor wish to receive, the education to see the real causes of homelessness, or wish to ignore results of 20 or so years of an eroded infrastructure through pri-vatization, the soaring housing costs, the outsourcing to other countries or in sourcing jobs to illegal aliens so that the “profit margin” is high and the returns are better on the stock portfolio, so we can work to create jobs with sustainable incomes and affordable housing to keep people falling back to and keep people from being homeless in the first place. 5. We imprison all those who place the “Almighty Dollar” in front of compassion and understanding, thereby creating an atmosphere where we help each other in a crisis whether it is a natural one, as in the Gulf of Mexico, or man-made as in the examples I gave in solution No. 4, instead of kicking the person who is down.
Does this seem like a viable solution to solving the problem of homelessness, Dr. Baursachs? Does your esteemed education see this as a solution? I admit that if anyone housed or un-housed commits a crime, they should be put in prison. But the solution of imprisoning someone for their economic situation is a very stupid idea. I would have expected more from an educated person.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on October 5, 2005. Read the original PDF.