THE CBS "60 Minutes" program last Sunday had a segment about the decline of a famous shelter for the homeless in Washington created by the late Mitch Snyder, about how the original lofty mission of taking care of those unable to house, feed and clothe themselves had disintegrated into an establishment where donated food was sold to the poor, where bribes were taken to provide a bed, where drugs and booze were sold. There have been a lot of stories lately about disillusion with the high idealism that created such shelters and provided free meals and free clothing all across the land. As the fear of crime has increased, sympathy for the homeless, the jobless, and for all strangers on the streets has decreased.
Throughout the nation, the fear of crime has local governments and their police clamping down on street people, on panhandlers, on windshield washers and other reminders of homelessness or poverty within their jurisdictions. Old ordinances against loitering or drinking, unenforced for years, are used to get the homeless out of sight.To the extent that panhandlers are begging because it is an easier line of work than washing dishes or cleaning streets or public buildings, getting rid of them is a justified operation. To the extent that people are living on the streets because they prefer it to living in shelters provided by the government, getting them off the streets so they are not harassing merchants, shoppers, tourists and the general citizenry passing by is a worthy cause. The only problem is separating the bums from the genuinely needy.
We might remember the lofty motivation that put a large percentage of those people on the street. A generation ago, there was a string of horror stories about the terrible conditions under which some mentally ill people were being held. There was a wave of scandal involving cruel psychiatric facilities and deplorable nursing homes. The moral thing to do was to free as many people as possible from incarceration. They were harmless. All over America millions of marginally helpless people were discharged from mental hospitals. Governments were delighted; it costs a great deal to hold someone in a mental hospital.
It was then, and is now, a question of money. The high motives of those who didn't want to see usually harmless people held in unpleasant surroundings was met by a public that didn't want them living next door and was happy to stop paying for their living anywhere.
Before we can get the homeless off the streets, we owe it to the sick, the helpless, and the mentally ill to be sure there is someplace where shelter is available. Before we can stop panhandlers and beggars we have to be secure in the knowledge that they can get food.
As we lose some of the idealism that encouraged us to provide free shelter and free meals and sympathize with the homeless on our streets there is still room for common ground.