The film Field of Dreams featured a famous prediction: “If you build it, they will come,” referring to an unlikely baseball stadium in a rural American cornfield.
The Mayor of Sacramento, California has a new, related concept in order to house California’s growing numbers of homeless. His proposal: “If we build it, they MUST come.”
Progressives are delighted with the idea that a city might legally require housing for the homeless to be built immediately. It’s not just a fluffy council resolution about a long-term city aspiration that might, or might not, one day be realized.
As expressed by the mayor, however, this concept of fulfilling an actual right to housing has a serious catch.
If homeless, you MUST come to this housing? Goodness, how does that idea sit with all freedom-loving Americans (Are there any other kind?).
Because . . what actually is “housing” and who gets to define and answer that question?
A weatherproof roof overhead enclosing at least a warm (possibly not air conditioned) space protecting against rain and snow? Sure.
But a decent quality sleeping bag can do that. MUST a homeless person “move in” to a waterproof sleeping bag mandated as one “home” amongst many others spaced across a vacant lot? The suggestion is a ridiculous extreme, but leads towards the difficult scope of the problem. What about a shack with a good tin roof?
And if giant dormitories divided by curtains are deemed to be an answer, MUST the people who avoid shelter life and its hazards (including violence) nevertheless stay in an assigned bed and be beaten up regularly?
As for homeless parents with children . . . where to begin?
While it may be convenient to view the homeless as a collection of reprobates with substance use and/or mental health problems, the majority are simply folks too poor to afford a home. Will this mandated housing be suitable for any American, and where appropriate, any American family?
Read more about a Sacramento city proposal with lots to love, and lots to hate about it, at TheOneWorldNews: Sacramento Mulls a New Homeless Strategy: Legally Mandating Housing
