Homeless tax could hurt, not help

Large corporations shelling out $275 per employee to combat homelessness is the sharpest kind of double-edged sword.

On one hand, these billiondollar industries absolutely can and should foot the bill in the combat against a massively growing problem in homelessness. After all, with increasing rent prices and property taxes and the burden on local resources, these corporations certainly have a major hand in creating the homeless problem in the first place, and they need to literally pay for their transgressions.

On the other hand, it seems like a dangerous (albeit wellmeaning) endeavor to support the homeless to such degrees. If the goal is to fight homelessness and not encourage it, additional measures need to be taken.

However, figuratively speaking, a free meal does nothing but invite others to come partake. Otherwise, what keeps a band of homeless individuals from traveling and settling into an area, eager to take advantage of freebie taxes, all the while encroaching upon residents, lowering home values, and pestering for spare change?

Forgive the crassness and insensitivity, but unless a true effort is made, not to merely enable, but to feed, treat and help homeless people become selfsufficient, $275 per employee just may end up doing much more harm than good in the long run. Ralph Lundi Orlando