There may not be a bigger problem to solve for San Diego or any other city than the problem of homelessness.
It’s been a problem for decades but at a time the economy is better than it’s been in decades with unemployment low and the minimum wage going up, there are thousands who are homeless despite programs helping people who are homeless.
A San Diego Taxpayers Association report says the problem is so big that despite cities spending a lot more money trying to solve it, the problem is so big it’s hard to even know what to spend and on what.
This week we’ve even seen how sometimes ways to help the homeless that sound like good ideas turn out to be bad ideas.
The San Diego City Council lifts the ban on people living in their cars along city streets and then two weeks later, the mayor and others call for the ban to be reinstated, saying that lifting it was a bad idea.
In the meantime, thousands of people who are homeless in San Diego and in cities across the county are still sleeping on sidewalks and in parks and roaming the streets with their shopping carts, putting their own health at risk and having a negative impact on businesses and tourists.
There always have and will always be people who are homeless. Those Biblical words that there will “always be the poor” ring true.
But while the problem of homelessness may always exist, it doesn’t mean that we can’t do more about it.It just comes down to a matter of our will to do it.
(Photo credit reporting partner 10News)