Editor;
I write to express my concern about the increased presence of unhoused people on our roads and underpasses and to ask if anything is being done to find help and housing for them.
The number of campfires getting out of control and spreading also appears to be increasing as people move into these areas to live. We are seeing spikes in crime and drug use and according to your own publication the death of a person walking in lanes of traffic late at night on SR-242.
I have also read that local police and city governments are attempting to deal with the problem without much visible success. Are we giving up? Or is this a problem we can solve?
Sincerely,
Patricia Lee/Concord
We can solve this problem, but it will require actions that the voting public will not embrace. The solution is to canvas the homeless population and commit mentally ill persons to mental health facilities and drug addicts to drug treatment programs. The remaining homeless population that do not fit into either of those categories would be negligible and could be dealt with on a case by case basis. To me, this approach would be much more compassionate than what we are presently doing, but I fear that I am in the minority with that opinion.
A quick point, Liz (thanks for the post by the way) but do you think we have the mental health facilities and drug treatment programs in place to deal with the issue?
NEWS24/680
No. We need to address that. I would like to see tax dollars go toward the construction of high-quality facilities to treat mental health and drug addiction (often related conditions) rather than what we are currently doing, which isn’t working.