Sad But True

 

Homeless people are looked at as eyesores in communities, especially to township officials. 

The previous mayor of Lakewood, Robert Singer, once said that tent cities are "illegal and can pose safety, sanitary and environmental issues", also saying they should move to "proper accommodations". 

That's funny considering there is not one homeless shelter in Ocean County, and rotating the homeless in and out of motels is not exactly my idea of "proper accommodations".

It's not until the homeless are given chances they truly believe are worth taking that anything is going to change. Would you want to be put through the system just to be spat back out where you started? Why bother packing up your things?

I've been to public meetings and have listened to horror stories. One homeless woman who has children was put up in a motel, but it took over a week for the system to get her any food stamps. If it wasn't for the kindness of activists and food donors, her family would have been starving. It seems to me that wrap-around services, don't really wrap around much at all.

It may not be the best way to live, I understand that. There are alcoholics, and probably people with drug problems. I understand that, too. But I am going to continue to support the residents of tent city because what they stand for is so much more important than the notion that what they are doing is illegal. 

Permanence.