Approaching the Homeless Problem

Anatole France, in response to the abuse of the poor in French society, savaged the law with his immortal barb: “The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets and to steal bread.” Now, a century later, we have the county fathers lavishly illustrating his text.

When their children ask them, “Tell me, what did you do in the Great War against the homeless?” they will proudly be able to answer, “We drove them from the parks, we drove them from under the bridges, and gave them no place to lay their ‘worthless’ heads!”

There are parks in every city and parks throughout the county. Mobile homes, which Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley offered for $10,000 each, could easily be set up in every one of these parks, until the cities made low-cost permanent homes available to the homeless. The more urgently you want to reclaim the parks, the greater the pressure there will be on the authorities to create low-cost housing. We would soon see some action.

A war on poverty, not on the homeless, will do more to fight the drug problem that any other single remedy. Heartache, shame and despair make a fine breeding ground for substance abuse. No amount of empty rhetoric and macho strutting with weapons will undo the damage that has been done to all of us.

SYLVIA EASTON

Chair,

Irvine Task Force for the Homeless