Homeless in Santa Monica
Blandford magically paints a verbal stained glass picture of elegant misery. Perhaps she should rewrite “Bambi” with “Helen, the slender, pretty aide” as lead in “Forest of the Urban Homeless”!
Would it not be better to pay a qualified individual to go into the streets and select, first, those most easily helped. Give to them temporary shelter from which to job hunt, assess their skills, line up job interviews and when they finally secure that job help them to find a permanent residence?
Day after day as the “enemy descends” there would be one fewer, 10 fewer, 100 fewer to sleep in dumpsters, under bushes and on benches.
In the meantime, let the volunteers for the homeless spread their “crisp white tablecloths” and gourmet food knowing that each week the group grows smaller of those who must celebrate, party even, on the Santa Monica City Hall lawn.
BARBARA ZAMASTIL
Claremont
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