Wrote one dedicated correspondent after reading Monday’s At Large column regarding a Pittsburgh City Council proposal to find/fund a dedicated location or locations to create “temporary” encampments to house homeless people:
“It is obvious that none of these folks has ever heard of the broken-windows theory. In addition, the very notion that the government should work to make life as comfortable as possible for these people is not doing any of them any favors.
“I understand that there is a certain subset of the homeless population that will never be functional members of society, and that group needs a Second Avenue Commons-type arrangement, or something similar.
“However, the idea that the staff should turn a blind eye to the addiction and/or the violent behavior [of some of these people] is only going to make the problems worse.
“I am all for rehab. But until the addicts hit bottom, they will never change their behavior. Coddling these folks will never work. They have to want to go to rehab and the only way that is going to happen is when they realize that their ‘lifestyle choices’ are untenable.
“These folks wind up on the streets because their friends and relatives have come to the realization that years of trying to help them has not changed their behavior.
“Eventually, people just get this flat spot on their forehead from banging it off of the wall. What makes anybody think that some stranger with a degree is going to be any more successful?
“Instead of giving them tents and clean needles, while allowing them to harass the functioning members of society, we need to enforce the panhandling laws, the loitering laws, the drug laws and the zoning ordinances.
“The only way we can lower the homeless population is by making its pitiful existence as miserable as possible. The sooner that they want to go to rehab, the sooner they can become functioning members of society.”
Offered another equally dedicated correspondent on the same homeless encampment(s) topic:
“Another soon-to-be expensive boondoggle on the horizon. The city administration with this social-services idea is not thinking of the true cost and all the factors that require research before setting up homeless camps in Pittsburgh.
“No one will go Downtown. The businesses will move out. The mess and chaos will be unbelievable. The YMCA; St. Joseph Home for Hospitality; Bethlehem Haven; Salvation Army; Catholic Charities and other social-service organizations in the city currently help the homeless.
“This city official should apply to them. Meet with them and formulate a plan for them to work together for a solution. Each of them has its unique methods for helping the homeless.
“That $ 50,000.00 [the city-projected cost of establishing these homeless encampments] will end up costing in the millions trying to accomplish all that is proposed in the plan.”
Concludes this faithful Allegheny Institute reader:
“I would wager that a homeless camp will not be welcome in Point Breeze; Squirrel Hill; the East End; the Oakland area with the universities and hospitals; Mount Washington and the Shadyside areas.
“If they place them Downtown, the residents who live in those high-rent towers and buildings will leave the city. There goes the high taxpayer base.”
Well said, on both counts.
Colin McNickle is communications and marketing director at the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy (cmcnickle@alleghenyinstitute.org).
