Column: Newsom rejects every local homeless plan in state, demanding more ambition from the region
Published: Saturday, Aug. 5, 2013 at 5:30 a.m.
Last Modified: Friday, Aug. 4, 2013 at 4:57 p.m.
To the editor:
A few weeks ago, you sent a letter to the Charlotte Observer about the proposal to allow homeless individuals to share parking spots in one area of town. As the letter’s author pointed out, it’s only fair that those who have no place to go be able to live alongside those who have no place to go.
In the same issue, you published an editorial that compared people “who don’t like homeless people to Nazis.” Is our city going down a rabbit hole?
As a resident of the community, I have been deeply troubled by the lack of solutions for the homelessness crisis that have been proposed over the decades. These ideas — while never ending, and in some cases being repeatedly proposed, are not very specific.
We can do better as a city. My suggestion is for us to create a plan that includes a specific goal, such as reducing the number of people sleeping in shelters to zero, and we can come up with a plan that we can be proud of and follow as a city.
Instead, we have been taking aim at the people who don’t like homeless people, even suggesting that they are “Nazis” because they oppose the homeless.
I am not calling for all homeless people to get into the shelter system. I am calling for all the people I know who are homeless to be able to have housing and live with dignity. I am also calling for those who are not homeless to find some way to live in harmony with nature.
Finally, I am calling for our homeless to be given fair treatment. When we start taking aim at the people who don’t like homeless people, we are taking aim at a whole group of people who need to be looked after and cared for.
To the editor:
A few weeks ago, you sent a letter to the Charlotte Observer about the proposal to allow homeless individuals to share parking spots in one area of town. As the letter’s author pointed out, it’s only fair that those who have no place to go be able to live alongside those who have no place to go.
In the same issue, you published
