Don’t help the homeless, critics say — it hurts them

ANAHEIM » Mohammed Aly does not see why he shouldn’t try to ease the lives of Orange County’s homeless. But the authorities — and many of his neighbors — disagree.

Aly, a 28-year-old lawyer and activist, has been arrested three times as he campaigned on behalf of street people. Recently, he was denied permission to install portable toilets on a dried-up riverbed, site of an encampment of roughly 400 homeless.

“It is a question of basic empathy,” he said.

But his detractors are engaged in a debate up and down the West Coast as the region struggles to cope with a rising tide of homelessness. They say Aly and other well-meaning residents who provide the homeless with tents, toilets and hot meals are enabling them to remain unsheltered.

And they note, nuisances like trash and unsanitary conditions fester and aberrant behavior continues.

In California, the San Diego County community of El Cajon passed a measure that curtails feeding the homeless, citing health concerns. Los Angeles city officials have closed and re-opened restrooms for those on Skid Row amid similar controversies.

The issue is hotly debated in Orange County. In the seaside enclave of Dana Point, neighbors fear a nightly meal is drawing homeless to a state beach where teens play beach volleyball and families picnic and surf. And on the riverbed 30 miles north, a van fitted with shower stalls pulls up to help those living in the trash-strewn encampment, which neighbors worry is becoming more entrenched in an area where they once jogged and biked.

“There’s no doubt that giving them stuff there prevents them from a desire to move,” said Shaun Dove, a 46-year-old soonto-be retired policeman who lives less than a mile away.

The number of homeless living in Orange County has climbed 8 percent over the last two years. In the United States, homelessness rose slightly in the last year to nearly 554,000, pushed up largely by increases on the West Coast, federal data shows. The increase is driven by soaring housing costs, as well as a drug crisis and need for mental health services.

Advocates say the homeless have become more visible as po-

JAE C. HONG — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS With a towel wrapped around her head, Stella Perez, who is homeless, applies makeup in the parking lot of Angel Stadium after taking a shower in Showers of Blessing, a mobile shower trailer built to provide free showers to homeless people, Tuesday in...