The Homeless

It is difficult to respond to the City Council’s inability to admit that a shelter crisis exists in San Diego.

Several hundred homeless people came to a rally downstairs from the council meeting. Many of them filled out requests to speak in support of declaring a crisis, and quite a few sat patiently through the long, tedious delays the council habitually imposes on any group calling for action to benefit the poor.

The mayor did not bother to stay for the discussion of the issue; neither did Councilman Bob Filner.

A fair-sized group of people with homes also showed up, almost as many as the homeless people who stayed to speak. Their concern was that the homeless people in their neighborhoods should not be sheltered, which logically must mean they prefer them sleeping in their back yards. One woman complained that there was crime in her neighborhood and therefore, I guess, it wouldn’t be a safe place to put homeless people.

Why has the city decided that the suffering of many thousands of homeless people is not important? When you lose your job and your home, is this how you want to be treated?

FORREST CURO, San Diego