• A few weeks ago I had occasion to talk with a friend with whom I hadn’t been in contact for months. During the conversation he regaled me with the usual elaborate descriptions of his travels, as he travels widely. Highlighting a visit to Vancouver, British Columbia, this past summer, he said he loved the city, which he found cosmopolitan, beautiful, and full of great places to eat. But one thing bothered him. “What was that?” I asked. “The homeless,” he replied. “Oh?” “Yea, the homeless are everywhere in Vancouver.” Citing a discussion of the problem he had with a tour guide, he was informed that “they’re there” because of the extensive medical facilities available, and, as you know, he continued, “the Canadian government pays all the bills.” There was a pause in the conversation. Finally, I said, “Well, that much is good, anyway.” “No,” he rejoined, “that’s not good. The government has no business bailing these guys out. They should be out looking for work rather than sitting around on their butts with their hands out.” He then concluded, “I guess that’s just another point on which you and I differ.” “I guess so,” I said. The conversation ended on that rather unpleasant note.
The conversation left me a little shaken. I wondered how could anyone be so insensitive, so lacking in compassion. I knew what it was that my friend didn’t like about the homeless people of Vancouver: he didn’t like to look at them. They bothered him — they’re not particularly picturesque, and they presented a subjective threat to the good time he and his family planned to have on their vacation. Vacationing in places where the indigenous population is poverty-stricken is not unusual for Americans, and it’s also not unusual for us to feel guilty when we lavish in their beautiful environs while they sweat it out in the kitchen. But my friend was turning his disquiet into anger, blaming these victims of poverty and oppression for laziness, ineptitude, and, well, just being around to look at. Relegating him to an ultra-conservative or extreme libertarian place on the socio-political spectrum was easy, but I was nonetheless saddened by the encounter. I felt compassion not only for the homeless guys of Vancouver my friend complained of, but for my friend himself.
Shortly thereafter, however, and to my chagrin, I learned my friend had real-live, honest-to-goodness support for his point of view — support from no less than a syndicated columnist and faculty member of one of the nation’s leading universities, Thomas Sowell. I found it in Mr. Sowell’s column in the Record-Eagle on December 3 fetchingly entitled, “Freedom and the Lefties.” Now for those of you who do not know this guy, Thomas Sowell is an academic economist, social critic, author, and a Senior Fellow of the Hoover Institute at Stanford University. (Personally, however, I’ve never figured out why the Record-Eagle pays him a red cent for the privilege of publishing his opinions.) In this particular column, Sowell rants against the “arrogance” with which school administrators and college admissions committees reward students for performing “community service.” The arrogance to which Sowell objects is that of school officials imposing their “notions as to what is or is not a service to the community” on their students. While I might agree that a wiser school policy would be to provide a menu of community services from which students could chose, that’s not the issue that concerns me at present. What concerns me is Mr. Sowell’s use of aiding homeless persons as a prime example of community service ill spent.
Here’s what Sowell says on the subject: “Working in a homeless shelter is widely regarded as “community service” — as if aiding and abetting vagrancy is necessarily a service, rather than a disservice, to the community. Is a community better off with more people not working, hanging out on the streets, aggressively panhandling people on the sidewalks, urinating in the street, leaving narcotics needles in the parks where children play?” Mr. Sowell’s idea, I guess, is that if we don’t “aid and abet” these dysfunctional, criminal deadbeats, sooner or later they’ll just up and walk across the street and get a job. Reminds me of Jay Leno’s comment about Nancy Reagan’s anti-drug campaign in the 80s — “Just Say ‘No’!” Remember that one? Leno said she was going to start up a similar campaign to eradicate homelessness — she’d call it, “Just Get a House!” Simple as that.
A response to this nonsense was made in the Record-Eagle by John O’Neill, the executive director of the housing council in Benzie County, who, unlike Sowell, actually came up with some facts. “Some people make poor choices,“ O’Neill began, “but most are not homeless due to laziness. Loss of manufacturing jobs, low service-sector wages, and loss of affordable housing strongly correlate to increased homelessness.” Foreclosures, illness, disabilities, immigration and naturalization issues, and other personal crises aggravate homelessness. Far from abjuring work, most homeless people are desperate for a job; O’Neill cited the U.S. Conference of Mayors which found that 17.4 % of homeless adults with children worked while 13 % of singles held jobs. Nearly half of all homeless women are abused; a quarter of homeless men are veterans; two-thirds suffer from addictions; and another third are mentally ill.
Further research reveals that last year 23 % of people seeking shelter were turned away, and 29 % of those were children. As for children, in 2003 children under the age of 18 accounted for 39% of the homeless population, and 42% of these were under the age of five. Unaccompanied minors comprise 5% of the urban homeless population, though the numbers of homeless children in rural areas are much higher. Regarding families, the number of homeless families with children has increased significantly over the past decade and are among the fastest growing segments of the homeless population. In its 2007 survey of 23 American cities, the U.S. Conference of Mayors found that families with children comprised 23% of the homeless population. These proportions are likely to be higher in rural areas where families, single mothers, and children make up the largest groups of homeless persons. Presumably Mr. Sowell figures that along with the other homeless these single mothers and their children will, if left to their own devices, sooner or later become self-sufficient on their own.
So, helping these people is a disservice to the community? Really?
Postscript: As a member of the Board of Directors of Goodwill Industries of Northwest Michigan, I’m aware that, with the economy in the dump, the two major homeless shelters in the Grand Traverse Area — Goodwill and Safe Harbor — are full most of the time. During nights like those we’ve experienced with the temperature in the teens and below which put the homeless in grave danger, the overflow used to be parked for the night in the county jail — at least when Ralph Soffredene was Chief of Police. (Ralph is also a member of the Goodwill Board.) But the current sheriff (current, that is, until January 1) would have none of it: he has consistently refused to allow the city to use any part of the jail as a temporary homeless shelter because “they smell badly” (which is often true). So where do Traverse City police officers now take homeless persons in cold weather? Well, sometimes there’s no place at all to take them, and sometimes they take them to the branch banks in the area that have those little closed vestibules that house ATM machines and are open all night.
One final note: After the first of the year, those of you living in northwest Michigan please join me in sending a letter to the newly elected Sheriff of Grand Traverse County, Tom Bensely, asking him to reinstate the policy of placing homeless persons in the county jail overnight in very cold weather. Sheriff Bensely’s address will be: Grand Traverse County Sheriffs Office, 851 Woodmere Avenue, Traverse City, MI 49686. Thanks.
The conversation left me a little shaken. I wondered how could anyone be so insensitive, so lacking in compassion. I knew what it was that my friend didn’t like about the homeless people of Vancouver: he didn’t like to look at them. They bothered him — they’re not particularly picturesque, and they presented a subjective threat to the good time he and his family planned to have on their vacation. Vacationing in places where the indigenous population is poverty-stricken is not unusual for Americans, and it’s also not unusual for us to feel guilty when we lavish in their beautiful environs while they sweat it out in the kitchen. But my friend was turning his disquiet into anger, blaming these victims of poverty and oppression for laziness, ineptitude, and, well, just being around to look at. Relegating him to an ultra-conservative or extreme libertarian place on the socio-political spectrum was easy, but I was nonetheless saddened by the encounter. I felt compassion not only for the homeless guys of Vancouver my friend complained of, but for my friend himself.
Shortly thereafter, however, and to my chagrin, I learned my friend had real-live, honest-to-goodness support for his point of view — support from no less than a syndicated columnist and faculty member of one of the nation’s leading universities, Thomas Sowell. I found it in Mr. Sowell’s column in the Record-Eagle on December 3 fetchingly entitled, “Freedom and the Lefties.” Now for those of you who do not know this guy, Thomas Sowell is an academic economist, social critic, author, and a Senior Fellow of the Hoover Institute at Stanford University. (Personally, however, I’ve never figured out why the Record-Eagle pays him a red cent for the privilege of publishing his opinions.) In this particular column, Sowell rants against the “arrogance” with which school administrators and college admissions committees reward students for performing “community service.” The arrogance to which Sowell objects is that of school officials imposing their “notions as to what is or is not a service to the community” on their students. While I might agree that a wiser school policy would be to provide a menu of community services from which students could chose, that’s not the issue that concerns me at present. What concerns me is Mr. Sowell’s use of aiding homeless persons as a prime example of community service ill spent.
Here’s what Sowell says on the subject: “Working in a homeless shelter is widely regarded as “community service” — as if aiding and abetting vagrancy is necessarily a service, rather than a disservice, to the community. Is a community better off with more people not working, hanging out on the streets, aggressively panhandling people on the sidewalks, urinating in the street, leaving narcotics needles in the parks where children play?” Mr. Sowell’s idea, I guess, is that if we don’t “aid and abet” these dysfunctional, criminal deadbeats, sooner or later they’ll just up and walk across the street and get a job. Reminds me of Jay Leno’s comment about Nancy Reagan’s anti-drug campaign in the 80s — “Just Say ‘No’!” Remember that one? Leno said she was going to start up a similar campaign to eradicate homelessness — she’d call it, “Just Get a House!” Simple as that.
A response to this nonsense was made in the Record-Eagle by John O’Neill, the executive director of the housing council in Benzie County, who, unlike Sowell, actually came up with some facts. “Some people make poor choices,“ O’Neill began, “but most are not homeless due to laziness. Loss of manufacturing jobs, low service-sector wages, and loss of affordable housing strongly correlate to increased homelessness.” Foreclosures, illness, disabilities, immigration and naturalization issues, and other personal crises aggravate homelessness. Far from abjuring work, most homeless people are desperate for a job; O’Neill cited the U.S. Conference of Mayors which found that 17.4 % of homeless adults with children worked while 13 % of singles held jobs. Nearly half of all homeless women are abused; a quarter of homeless men are veterans; two-thirds suffer from addictions; and another third are mentally ill.
Further research reveals that last year 23 % of people seeking shelter were turned away, and 29 % of those were children. As for children, in 2003 children under the age of 18 accounted for 39% of the homeless population, and 42% of these were under the age of five. Unaccompanied minors comprise 5% of the urban homeless population, though the numbers of homeless children in rural areas are much higher. Regarding families, the number of homeless families with children has increased significantly over the past decade and are among the fastest growing segments of the homeless population. In its 2007 survey of 23 American cities, the U.S. Conference of Mayors found that families with children comprised 23% of the homeless population. These proportions are likely to be higher in rural areas where families, single mothers, and children make up the largest groups of homeless persons. Presumably Mr. Sowell figures that along with the other homeless these single mothers and their children will, if left to their own devices, sooner or later become self-sufficient on their own.
So, helping these people is a disservice to the community? Really?
Postscript: As a member of the Board of Directors of Goodwill Industries of Northwest Michigan, I’m aware that, with the economy in the dump, the two major homeless shelters in the Grand Traverse Area — Goodwill and Safe Harbor — are full most of the time. During nights like those we’ve experienced with the temperature in the teens and below which put the homeless in grave danger, the overflow used to be parked for the night in the county jail — at least when Ralph Soffredene was Chief of Police. (Ralph is also a member of the Goodwill Board.) But the current sheriff (current, that is, until January 1) would have none of it: he has consistently refused to allow the city to use any part of the jail as a temporary homeless shelter because “they smell badly” (which is often true). So where do Traverse City police officers now take homeless persons in cold weather? Well, sometimes there’s no place at all to take them, and sometimes they take them to the branch banks in the area that have those little closed vestibules that house ATM machines and are open all night.
One final note: After the first of the year, those of you living in northwest Michigan please join me in sending a letter to the newly elected Sheriff of Grand Traverse County, Tom Bensely, asking him to reinstate the policy of placing homeless persons in the county jail overnight in very cold weather. Sheriff Bensely’s address will be: Grand Traverse County Sheriffs Office, 851 Woodmere Avenue, Traverse City, MI 49686. Thanks.
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