Federal government needs to help solve homelessness

Regarding “One Bay Area city tried to figure out the true cost of homelessness. Here’s what it found” (East Bay, SFChronicle.com, Dec. 10): Oakland Assistant City Administrator LaTonda Simmons and homelessness advocate Adrian Gonzales have it right on solving homelessness in Oakland and across the nation.

Cities simply do not have the resources to do it. The state government helps, but it too is lacking what is needed. All levels of government should contribute, but the federal government is the only one with the amount of resources needed.

Congress is missing in action when it comes to seriously addressing this dire problem, and our homeless citizens, and the entire community, deserve much better.

At the drop of a hat, Congress found billions to fund the war in Ukraine. Why can’t it do that for homelessness? Congress passed an $858 billion Pentagon budget that was $45 billion beyond President Biden’s request. Congress’ priorities are grotesquely misplaced, and I hope our new Oakland mayor and City Council will challenge the federal government and demand billions for affordable housing for all.

Unless our cities and the people demand it, it will never happen, and the military-industrial complex war profiteers will just keep getting richer.

Victor Ochoa, Oakland

BART is a mess

As a regular BART rider for the past 30 years, I am disturbed by its present condition.

In the past year, I have witnessed people injecting and smoking illicit drugs, smoking tobacco and marijuana, public urination and defecation as well as physically threatening behavior on busy commute hour trains.

I have observed all this upon exiting the trains in the paid areas of stations. Being subjected to secondhand meth,

fentanyl, tobacco and marijuana smoke in an enclosed moving train is a public safety hazard.

In addition, I see pervasive fare evasion in the presence of station agents who seem powerless to stop it. Decades-old turnstile technology no longer deters fare evaders.

The ease of fare evasion should be an embarrassment to the BART administration. The cost of new turnstiles is probably very expensive, however, the lost revenue would seem to be far more expensive.

Enforcement of proof of payment should be BART’s highest priority. It will solve many more serious problems down the line.

Michael Plafker, Lafayette

Ageism is pervasive

Regarding “Why America is as tired, old and mediocre as the Joes who run it” (Open Forum, SFChronicle.com, Dec. 11): I realize that the piece by Joe Mathews was meant to be a bit silly, but the blatant ageism is totally out of line. Why don’t we just say the quiet part out loud: Most young Americans don’t see the value in older Americans.

In this piece, old equals useless, slow and irrelevant. This point of view is so widely held that we seem to regard it as fact. Truly, ageism might be the only ism that many of us openly cop to. This is not only damaging to our elder population, but it’s a missed opportunity for the rest of us.

Don’t discount the value in those extra years lived. History repeats itself when we ignore the oldest among us.

Brontë Wittpenn/The Chronicle 2021 A homeless encampment near Raimondi Park in Oakland was one of the city’s largest in 2021.