Where are they supposed to go?

First I want to thank everyone for all their kind comments regarding me continuing to blog.  I have decided the benefits outweigh the negatives by a huge proportion so I plan on marching forward with a smile on my face.  Thanks again for the encouragement, you know how to make a girl feel wanted.

I have spent lots of time thinking about the homeless lately for several reasons.  One is because Tabitha who used give food to any homeless person outside any food place she frequented has suddenly become afraid of a certain homeless man.  This man spends lots of time outside her workplace, is very aggressive and has made her very nervous by his erratic behaviors on several occasions.  This really saddens me for a couple of reasons.  One being I hate that she is fearful and looking over her shoulder during the day and two I have tried to teach my children that homeless people aren’t bad.  Most of them are just very mentally ill, have drug and alcohol problems or through a variety of circumstances found themselves without a place to live. 

Just to be clear, for this post I am specifically talking about the homeless who are mentally ill and even if given a place to live they probably wouldn’t want to live there.  They have made a life for themselves on the streets and it is what they know.  They need medication and serious mental help to change but they probably never will so that being said, where are these people supposed to go?  

I live one street away from the Costa Mesa border and West Costa Mesa has a long history of homeless people that used to congregate in a specific park.  For most of my life they have always been there.  There is a soup kitchen a few blocks from the park where they can get food and the city recreation center used to provide an area for them to store their belongings and use the restrooms.

Some time ago the city decided to clean up the park and now these people have dispersed to other parts of the city.  Every time I take Trinity to gymnastics on Saturday we have to walk through this area with the homeless and sometimes it is almost empty and other times were see people resting under the shade of the trees.  In the past there was always 10 or more homeless lounging in the shade.  Now within minutes of seeing someone,  the foot patrol start harassing them. 

A few weeks ago they put a code on the bathroom door so you couldn’t use it without the combination and let me guess they don’t give the combination to everyone.  This totally bugs me and makes me mad.  I understand why they did it but if you are going to take away the bathroom maybe they should provide another option, like a portable potty?   I am not an expert on the homeless situation nor do I have any knowledge on the topic except I hate that the City keeps pushing them from place to place.

If they aren’t going to get them mental help or financial help why not just allow them to sit in peace if they aren’t bothering anyone?  Now, if they are harassing, violent or causing harm that is a totally different situation but I think it is the rare circumstance not the norm.

So that is my rant for the day, if you have any ground breaking ideas to solve the homeless issue, please pass them along!

 

xoxo tiffani