National Shame, National Action

Last Thursday morning at 8, a man lay on a downtown sidewalk near the busy intersection of 4th Street and Broadway. Shielded from the cold by nothing but newspapers and a sheet of plastic, he was motionless. People walked around him, and cars rolled past without even slowing. Seeing such a scene the first time suggests that nobody cares about the homeless. On reflection, it is clear that at least some do care, but they are overwhelmed by the enormity of the problem, uncertain what one person can do to help.

Help is needed on two levels. First, help must be found for those already huddled around urban campfires. Second, people who are struggling with poverty need help to keep them from landing in the streets. Programs exist in both categories; they need more visibility and more support.

Communities from Santa Monica to Santa Ana are working to shelter the homeless on these cold nights, as are groups around the nation. These programs have specific needs--money, blankets, food, volunteer workers. Within Los Angeles, for example, the Shelter Partnership helps organizations find shelters to adopt. A phone call to the partnership can help people learn what resources each center needs. The Salvation Army and other rescue missions are making their seasonal appeals, and they need help to help the homeless. Corporate donors could look to the Local Initiative Support Corp., which raises funds and makes grants to help restore deteriorating neighborhoods.

There are other phone calls that can help, too--phone calls and letters to members of the Los Angeles City Council, for example, uging them to help the Community Redevelopment Agency provide more low-cost housing. People should also insist that the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors increase the county role in caring for the homeless. Members of the California Legislature and especially Gov. George Deukmejian need to hear that voters want them to increase funds to provide care in the community for so many of the homeless who are mentally ill. Congress and President-elect George Bush should hear from the same voters about housing programs to help end the scourge of homelessness.

President Reagan said recently that there have always been some people who do not want to come in from the cold, who are too ill to know what help they need. In a sad way he is correct, although he let it go at that, as though there were nothing that anyone could do about the problem. Bush, in contrast, has called homelessness a national shame. A national shame calls for national action, for people acting in concert, each doing something--no matter how small--to help others find permanent shelter so that they need not sleep on the chilled sidewalks of the cities.