Big charities often create homelessness

I DISAGREE with those that say that Jeremy Reynalds did great work here in Albuquerque for the homeless. While he had his heart in the right place, I think he almost single-handedly created the misery industry in this city.

His Joy Junction was soon followed by other organizations, many of them now funded by the city of Albuquerque. The homeless problem here has grown, not diminished, since he began helping. The helping hand has turned into a permanent crutch.

You have to ask yourself, what incentive is there to get a job, the number one agent that would end homelessness? The homeless are fed, sheltered, clothed, hell, even paid with welfare money. I see plenty of homeless carrying cellphones while smoking cigarettes I can’t even afford. Our street corners have been turned over to beggars — and in this you can also thank that liberal … group the ACLU — our bus stops have become after-hours crash pads, our parks are becoming tent cities, and I’d say the real reason our mayor wants parks every ten miles apart, and ... (some) break their way into unoccupied buildings and tear through chain link fences to get into places they were meant to stay out of.

Many of these homeless apparently have enough money to buy drugs and booze to get into all sorts of trouble. And our police have to pick up after them, often filling our hospitals with those sobering up or coming down from a high. Our streets and homes are less safe as law enforcement ends up performing this time-consuming nanny service.

The ones that really do need help are the mentally ill but, again, you can thank the ACLU for making the streets their asylum.

Unless you’re willing to let the indolent or drugged out either starve or fly right and unless you have a solution for the mentally ill, this problem will only worsen.

Like the old proverb goes, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Unfortunately, big charity has become the paving contractor in this homeless mess. CLYDE J. ARAGON Albuquerque