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We Need A Better Solution For This. We've Needed One For Decades
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I often ask you what we can do about the homeless in our big cities, with the key question being where do they go if you "clear them out"? Seattle's grappling with this: to prevent homeless encampments under bridges, where they have been prone to setting fires, the city installed fences to block the homeless from getting to the area under one bridge. But that means the homeless need someplace else to go. If you're going to prevent people from going one place, you have to provide an alternative. "Oh, they can just go to a shelter" doesn't work, because the overcrowded shelters are dangerous and terrible. The city IS authorizing tent cities, which is sad but at least one option. One advocate notes that the money spent on the fences could have housed the five campers forced from under the bridge in apartments for a year. But you also can't allow homeless encampments to create problems for the neighbors, whether fire or crime. What should the city be doing? (Seattle Times)
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