Homelessness pushback in O.C.

Re: “O.C.’s grand homeless plan collapsing,” March 23

Lili Graham, director of litigation for the Legal Aid Society of Orange County, thinks it would be better to let the homeless return to the Santa Ana River. Of course everyone in Irvine, Huntington Beach and Laguna Niguel would approve. After all, as Ms. Graham notes, “Someone in Laguna Niguel, Irvine or Huntington Beach would never understand what some of these men and women go through.” Maybe it’s time they do. Leslie Kato

Santa Ana

Re: Laguna Niguel Mayor Elaine Gennawey’s callous comment that she was “stunned” that the county contemplated sheltering homeless people near where “innocent children play”:

When did the homeless stop being “the public,” and since when did their safety become secondary to those who are fortunate enough to have permanent housing? Maybe if we allow our very blessed children to actually live close enough to witness their plight, they will grow up to live lives of compassionate action, and put to shame those whose consciences have fallen asleep. Sheila Gilmore

Irvine

Build it and they will come. The more you subsidize homelessness, the more homeless there will be. If the price of a valuable product is zero, the demand will be infinite. You’re only seeing the beginning.

Whenever someone sets up a shelter on public property, they have privatized it for their own usage. The only way to limit the homeless problem is by requiring people to give something back for that privilege. Boris DeWiel

Prince George, British Columbia