28 January 2013
HOMELESS: The answer to homelessness is not to let them sleep on the streets, but to keep them off the streets in the first place.
By Amy Wang, Staff Writer
Assemblyman Tom Ammiano of San Francisco has drafted the Homeless Bill of Rights to help the homeless. How, you may ask? Why, by letting them stay homeless!
That’s what he’s proposed with the bill. The Homeless Bill of Rights is meant to protect homeless people from discrimination, giving them legal protection to carry out life-sustaining activities on public property. This includes sleeping, congregating, panhandling and urinating, among other activities. Under the bill, local officials cannot force them into shelters, even if it is for the benefit of both the homeless and the public.
The fact is that about half of the homeless people out on the streets suffer from mental health issues, including substance abuse. A study conducted in 2003 by the National Resource and Training Center on Homelessness and Mental Illness found that around 25 percent of the single adult homeless population have a serious mental illness, such as schizophrenia, chronic depression or bipolar disorder. Also in 2003, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration estimated that 38 percent of homeless people were alcoholic and 26 percent were drug abusers.
These people need aid, not apathy. Mental illnesses prevent those diagnosed from properly taking care of themselves, and substance abusers suffer from addiction that actually stem from their homelessness. A study published by the National Coalition for the Homeless in 2009 cited that once someone becomes homeless, he or she turns to drugs or alcohol to alleviate the pain and becomes addicted.
Allowing the homeless to do as they please on public property is not going to help anyone. All it really means for homeless people is that they can sleep on all the sidewalks and urinate wherever they please. This really is not a winning situation for either side.
If we really want to help the homeless, we need to provide more care for them. The McKinny-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, the only major federal legislative act for the homeless as of now, was signed into law in 1987 by President Ronald Reagan. The act provides emergency food, job training, shelter and housing programs for the homeless to help them move off the streets. Not stay on them, like the Homeless Bill of Rights allows.
Ammiano’s intention is to keep the homeless safe from discrimination, but his plan stops there. It does not provide any true assistance for those it is meant to help. Instead of creating a new bill to let the homeless continue living on the streets, why not focus the attention on the old act we already have in place? Fund more shelters, offer more aid – this way, both sides win.