Homeless!

On Friday, September 21, 2012, on the blog “Bluebonnets and Barbed Wire”, in a commentary titled “Transient, Homeless & Solutions??” Randi Maze is critical about Austin police Chief Art Acevedo’s position on the homeless shelters that are in downtown Austin, which Acevedo recently voiced in an article on KXAN. Randi doesn’t agree with Acevedo’s position, or the idea of moving the homeless to another location, saying, “He wants the downtown shelters moved to another location....hmmm. Ok, let’s just move the problem and it won't be in our faces”. Randi is critical of Acevedo’s stance that it is an issue of crime, specifically crime being committed by the homeless, and asks if security will be increased wherever they are shipped off too. Randi also believes that the solution could be funding, and she provides a link to an article in the “Austin Business Journal” to support this.

 

Randi does a good job of stating her position on the plight of the homeless, and her commentary is informative. She provides a link to Chief Acevedo’s story that supports her position, and a link to a story about funding for the homeless in Miami, that gives a possible solution to reduce Austin's homeless problem.

 

I’m not in favor of moving homeless people as a solution to crime, as I don’t believe that most homeless people are criminals. In defense of Acevedo, he did state that it is a transient problem, and not a homeless problem. While this might be the case, and transients are homeless too, moving them doesn’t solve the problem. Acevedo also believes that some are running from the law. Well, criminals come in all shapes and sizes, and a quick ID check could determine that, and then perhaps that particular criminal element would be eliminated. Another thing is, if the recent high and mighty people who moved downtown don’t want to see homeless people in their neighborhood, than they should help them out of their situation, or move, or accept it. I don’t blame the homeless for being downtown, because that is probably where I’d go if I was homeless.