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# Homeless problem a matter of economics
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/homeless-problem-a-matter-of-economics-editor/
- Published: 2006-08-01T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T19:07:10.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Opinion, Santa Monica, #archive-import, Homeless

*By Rick Reutter Santa Monica*

Randy Walberger (SMDP, July 13, page 4) once again restates what has become a deplorable social condition in the United States. Americans have simply learned to tolerate the fact that innumerable numbers of their fellow citizens live in squalor on the streets of all large cities and in some rural areas. The anthropologist Kim Hopper has commented on this any number of times. Hopper has called it the case of people being forced to “live private lives in public spaces.” All human beings, everywhere, prefer to engage in certain activities in solitude, which includes urination, defecation and sex. For American homeless people, this is simply impossible. And it all boils down to the economics of poverty.

There is also the unavoidable issue of mental illness. Housing programs will certainly help to alleviate the lack of shelter (and solitude) for those who function at relatively high levels — “normies” as some people call them.

For the mentally ill, however, who also tend to be very poor people, many will only be reached and helped by outreach programs that actively, patiently and compassionately seek to engage them in the services they require, but frequently reject. This is a major medical and social work effort, which will require field workers and won’t be cheap. So we return to the issue of the economics of poverty.

Ms. Linnekens in her essay (SMDP, July 27, page 4) comments that other cities have developed some remarkably effective housing programs. Some of these programs also have mental health and medical outreach teams. The wheel need not be reinvented.

But they cost money. We’re back to economics.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on August 1, 2006.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/080106.pdf?ref=smdp.com)