Would Jesus arrest the homeless man?

When Judge England described Chico, in the Warren v. Chico case, he made it clear the people of our city have been chronically deceived regarding the realities of homelessness. Among those most responsible for this deception I’d include Councilor Sean Morgan. And given his co-authorship of a recent editorial, I’ll include council candidate Tom van Overbeek in the homeless fairytale squad.

Morgan and van Overbeek offer a lengthy opinion piece on homelessness while managing to entirely avoid the subject of housing. By avoiding this painful subject, the authors position themselves to make a set of claims only possible for housing crisis deniers.

Among those claims is the notion Florida has effectively tackled homelessness by incarcerating more people — especially drug addicts. If only California kept more people in prison, we could cleanup this homelessness problem. Of course we’d then have that pesky little “Hitler problem” seen in totalitarian states, where incarceration is the preferred solution to all social ills.

I had to laugh when Morgan and van Overbeek sought to own the Christian high ground, while condemning distribution of materials to those on the streets. I think Jesus would say we need new approaches to housing and more robust supportive services. Failing that, I’m pretty sure Jesus would give the homeless man a sleeping bag as opposed to arresting him for vagrancy.

As to public office, on the basis of their editorial alone, Morgan and van Overbeek exhibit a troubling and disqualifying lack of insight. It’s time for a new direction.

— Patrick Newman, Chico