Dealing Fairly With the Problems of the Homeless

Political partisanship will not solve the problem of the homeless. While social agendas appear to make great platforms or shibboleths, their problem is that they are more often rhetoric than action.

While in California, each county Board of Supervisors is generally charged with providing a solution for “the homeless problem,” the body politic seems aroused to make them carry out that charge only when the communications media raises the social conscience through some dramatic presentation. And because the homeless are not yet a powerful constituency, that part of the public gets very little positive response.

In fact, because the problem is becoming more widespread, the only new response seems to be confiscating the bedrolls of the homeless. Each city seems to have a solution--drive them out of their city.

The homeless are sadly regarded as human waste to be tossed back and forth. Why? Because the county system has not devised realistic programs or institutions to handle this matter. Yes, we know that the county thinks it’s a state problem, and the state thinks it’s a federal problem, and we’re sure the politicians can make it an international problem in our area, but the “blame game” doesn’t create a solution.

Because we will always have the poor with us, let us devise innovative ways to get some of those of the least, the last and the lost into the work force to enable them to be rehabilitated and to preserve their self-respect.

We need county leadership that directs its personnel to devise productive work programs. We need county leadership to direct staff members to coordinate with volunteer agencies. And for those who realistically are not available to be placed in the work force, let’s find shelter for them and feed them. That’s not only a moral responsibility, that’s the law.

If the Board of Supervisors needs help, it should appoint a county Board of Public Welfare, or a counterpart, to serve without compensation.

THOMAS M. WHALING

El Toro