By Samuel Strait – Reporter at Large – March 7, 2022
It seems that spending billions of dollars to tamp down California’s
exploding homeless problem has not weathered the test of time. Looks
like when you spend billions without any thought to the tiny fraction of
the homeless problem that is actually housed, it only highlights the
ineffectiveness of the program. It further serves to attract a growing
number people who wish to also be housed on the people’s dime, something
that becomes rapidly unaffordable. Of course you can’t accuse our
“empty suit” governor for not giving his all. Spending the taxpayer’s
dime is something our governor and the Democrat legislature have down to
an art form. The more fool hardy and foolish the expenditure the
happier Sacramento government is.
Governor “Hair Gel” Newsom is on to his latest attack on the homeless
population, not to house, at least in a conventional sort of way, but to
establish “mental health courts” in every County in the State. His
contention is that the homeless problem could be brought, at least
partly under control, by using a section of the court system to insure
the large number of homeless with mental challenges are appropriately
cared for. If they resist, the court will have the power to “force”
compliance with involuntary incarceration. While the proposal has its
challenges, and requires the leftist dominated legislature to sign on,
the people facing incarceration in Newsom’s proposal are not always
homeless. Seems that you don’t even have to be homeless to be dragged
into mental health court.
With the expanded definition of words in this day and age, all sorts of
things can be “used” to define “mental Health issues”. Likely Hair Gel
hasn’t realized the full extent of what his “courts” might bring to the
table, nor the level of power over California’s population they could
have in the future. Safe to say that the Democrat politicos will focus
on the potential ill treatment of California’s homeless population and
the wish to sanctify them never mind solve their problems. While it
isn’t clear that Newsom’s “bright idea” will have any more merit than
spending billions on temporary housing, something that only seems to
have made that problem much worse, no one at any level in Sacramento
understands that homelessness always has and will continue to be part of
human experience. It is only when government tries to solve it that it
becomes acceptable and the new national past time.
Why spend money on housing when the government will do it for you? Why
spend money on anything when the government will do it for you?
Homelessness and people with mental challenges is and always has been
part of the human condition. Governments have sought to address it
recently and only made the homeless more culturally acceptable and a
growing part of the population. All of Newsom’s flailing will not
change anything, merely make it worse. Until homelessness is no longer
an acceptable condition in society, the problem will only accelerate and
become more pervasive. Mental Health Courts are an incredibly bad idea
and have the clear opportunity for things to go horribly wrong,
especially if the government is in charge.
As with anything that Newsom and the Democrats propose, things do not
improve. They seem to be focused solely on being the arbiters of what
represents “safety” for California’s population. Locking up the
mentally challenged is another example of the government wanting to
“appear to be doing something” about a certain societal issue, kind of
like Covid. We all have seen how that worked out over the past two
years. More government should not be the answer for all of life’s
challenges. Americans must learn to stand up on their own two feet
rather than look for a government hand out. Much of modern homelessness
is a product of those government handouts. Newsom needs to put a cork
in any further “bright ideas” and let Californians get on with their
lives. The homeless need to do that as well, challenged or not……
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