Lock ’em up was the common cry — and may still be
Lock them up was the common cry in many cities, including ours, several years ago. Tear down the cardboard boxes, give them a warning ticket and next time lock them up.
Jail is where those homeless, hopeless, hungry people belong. The nerve of them dirtying up our pristine city. The nerve of them detaining people, asking for money and food. The nerve of them expecting help from us. The nerve of them getting in a position of needing help. The nerve of them thinking that we will allow them to put a blight on our city with those cardboard boxes after we have been working so hard to make it a city that will attract big business and bring in the kind of people who will add to our economy, not take away.
We were driving into town several days ago and it was quite chilly. I glanced out to see a lady walking with her blanket wrapped around her. She was also trying to carry something in her hand. I thought about our Rome community leaders and concluded that they would not say these things to the disinherited of our community.
This town has a big heart and every year we give out awards to people who have earned the Heart of the Community award. Surely some of those big hearts will step out and speak up for those hopeless, hungry, homeless people. We are a city with churches on every corner and surely our spiritual leaders will come together and lend a hand to help with solutions dealing with the homeless in our neighborhoods.
Research has revealed that since the last recession, the number of homeless residents has increased greatly across the nation. Several reasons can be attributed to the cause. Housing cost has increased. We have fewer affordable houses. Technology has grown so fast and people have been left behind. Therefore, many do not have the necessary skills to perform the job. Salaries have been lagging behind the cost-of-living increase.
Health issues that are not cared for also can bring about a very unhealthy population that will be unable to hold steady jobs. I am listing just a few of the health problems facing the homeless population: hypertension, diabetes, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Missing work regularly because of illness can bring about firing. Being fired over a period of time will produce a homeless individual.
Transportation is necessary to get to work. Many do not earn enough money to keep cars in good enough condition to get back and forth to work daily. Cars must have gas, insurance, and upkeep.
Many people have to walk everywhere they go unless they beg for a ride. Foot problems occur with a greater frequency among homeless people. These include superficial fungal infections and calluses, corns, and bunions that are apparently the result of trauma from illfitting shoes that might have been picked up from a Clothes Closet.
Homeless people also suffer from many dental problems. Reports of poor oral hygiene, cavities, gingival disease, and extractions with no prosthetic replacements appear to be extremely common among homeless people. Many employers will not hire individuals with missing teeth.
Lately, many people have been labeling the homeless as dangerously mentally ill. That is so wrong. Homeless people are less likely to bring harm to others than the average homeowner. The greatest harm is what they bring to themselves.
“Deeply ingrained maladaptive behavior patterns, which usually begin during childhood or adolescence, interfere with a person’s capacity to relate to others, limit a person’s potential, and often provoke counterreactions from the environment. Personality disorders should not be seen primarily as a consequence of homelessness. Rather, because they impair a person’s ability to cope with the demands of life and the expectations of society, they may contribute to the factors that cause certain people to become homeless,” the Institute of Medicine, Committee on Health Care for Homeless People, concludes in “Homelessness, Health, and Human Needs.”
For years many city leaders across the nation have come up with an inhumane solution to the problem. They put the homeless on buses and give them one-way tickets to other cities. I can only see the humanity in this if the individuals are not local. Many do get away from home and cannot find funds to travel back home.
When I worked with the TBC Social Service Ministry most of the homeless that came through were locals who had fallen on hard times. I, along with my helpers, encouraged them to connect with a church family and seek forgiveness from their local family and friends.
Most cities are creating homeless task forces as our City Commission has done, to study the problem and recommend solutions to be used by the authorities. With the change of weather coming, solutions for the problem should be forthcoming.
I pray that our summer is not as brutal as our winter has been.