One mayor’s solution to addressing homelessness

How to address and effectively handle the homeless issue across the country has been a hotly debated topic, and one that has yet to be satisfactorily handled.

Many have opinions on how to fix the issue and while all of those opinions vary, there does seem to be one common idea: get those with mental illness some help, so they can get off the streets and on medication, if need be.

New York city Mayor Eric Adams has moved forward with a host of policy changes that would crack down on the city’s homeless population.

On Tuesday, he announced that officials will begin hospitalizing more homeless people by involuntarily providing care to those who are deemed to be in a “psychiatric crisis.”

“For too long, there has been a gray area where policy, law, and accountability have not been clear, and this has allowed people in need to slip through the cracks,” Adams said in an NPR report. “This culture of uncertainty has led to untold suffering and deep frustration. It cannot continue.”

Advocates for homeless people have criticized his policies, however.

“Mayor Adams continues to get it wrong when it comes to his reliance on ineffective surveillance, policing, and involuntary transport and treatment of people with mental illness,” Jacquelyn Simone, a policy director for the Coalition for the Homeless, said in a statement, on Tuesday. “Homeless people are more likely to be the victims of crimes than the perpetrators, but Mayor Adams has continually scapegoated homeless people and others with mental illness as violent.”

While her statement about the homeless more likely being victims than perpetrators might be true, we in the Antelope Valley have had two recent cases in which it was not true.

Take for instance the case of Paula Lind. A homeless man was charged in her September murder. He faces one count each of murder, assault with intent to commit rape during the residential burglary, first-degree residential burglary and sexual contact with deceased remains. His motive for breaking into her house was unclear.

Then there’s the more recent case of Ken and McKenna Evans, a father and daughter who were spending the afternoon together, working on one of their cars in the shopping lot near Kohl’s on 10th Street West in Palmdale.

A man suspected of being on drugs attacked and stabbed them to death, according to news reports. The man was a suspected transient.

Those are just two local examples of random people being targeted and attacked by homeless people.

Simone is right; not all homeless people are victims, just like not all of them are violent. But those who commit crimes and acts of violence pose a large enough threat to the general population that an effective solution needs to be thought of — and quick.