The real answer to homelessness

Homelessness has been with us since the first Neanderthal was kicked out of the cave.  For centuries and even longer, a warm, safe place to sleep was not the norm.  For most of mankind’s history, people slept wherever they could, under a tree, in a haystack or in a hole in the ground.

With the coming of the industrial age people flocked to the cities.   Immigrants coming to this country often slept 10, 12 sometimes 20 people to a room.   During the Great Depression people lived in shacks made of cardboard and held together with rope.   Even, right here, on the shores of Budd Inlet we had hundreds of people living in wooden shacks along the shoreline of what would become Capitol Lake,  It was called Little Hollywood.

So, lets get it into our minds that homelessness is not a new problem.  Its just that now we have different point of view about those who live on the outskirts of our humanity.   Today they live in their cars or campers.   They live in tents in our greenbelts and in sleeping bags in our alleys.  They  carry their belongings on their backs or in shopping carts.

The causes of homelessness in many ways is the same as its always been – mental illness, drug or alcohol abuse and the inability to find work or hold down a job.   Modern homelessness is also accompanied by a different problem – government rules and regulations that make the cost of housing unaffordable to many who do have jobs and a society that will not allow substandard housing to exist.   Housing that used to be the norm for many people.

A community-wide property tax to fund construction of 500 units of low cost housing will not alleviate the homeless population and will do nothing to solve the problem.   The answer is a second tier of housing that is not subject to all of the rules and regulations of government.   That’s what non-profits tap to build low cost housing.   Why can’t for-profit companies also be allowed to build second tier housing to help meet the need?

All we have to do is change society’s view of homelessness.