Everyone is frustrated by homelessness problem

Edited highlights from a Washington Post article 4/30/22:

We are in a pandemic of homelessness.

Even the homeless cannot believe how many homeless there are.

The despair and frustration here mirrors how many in the state are feeling about the worsening humanitarian crisis of homelessness.

An average of more than three homeless residents have died on the streets of Sacramento County each week.

People are not paying attention to the signs on the street about what’s really going on down here.

In a statewide survey conducted last month by the Public Policy Institute of California, 64% of respondents said homelessness was a “big problem” where they lived.

We understand the frustrations of the neighborhood associations and the business community since we are equally frustrated at the lack of urgency shown by cities and counties to adequately address our crisis of homelessness.

Clearly the population has expanded much faster than our response.

One of their neighbors is James Crofton, who traverses the camp in a wheelchair with a novice’s unsteadiness. In early February, after a cold streak, Crofton had his feet amputated just above the ankles because of frostbite. Several of his fingers are still blackened, dead of all feeling but pain. Born in Chico, Crofton grew up with two parents during the early part of his life, a mother who worked as a registered nurse until she died of leukemia at 37 and a father who died later in a car accident.

With apologies to Scott Wilson.

— Charles Withuhn, Chico