Moving the homeless is understandable, but not a solution

Update: A few days after this appeared, Thomas Lepera denied he had any intention of busing homeless people to Villanova. To me, it sounds like he caved to pressure.

This is what used to be called a hot ghetto mess before some people decided “ghetto” was racist.

It is not, as it refers to the clumping together of people of a certain type, not a certain race, any more. The word is Italian and was first used to designate the Jewish quarter of Venice.

Homeless encampment in Norristown. (Photo: Times Herald)
Today, it generally means low-income areas, except when used ironically, as in the Golden Ghetto of Beverly Hills.

Anyway, the current mess concerns a stated plan on the part of Norristown’s council president, Thomas Lepera, who has a potty mouth, to entice homeless in his borough to accept two things — $500 gift cards (1)  in exchange for (2) bus transportation to the Villanova University campus.

He’s doing this because Norristown has no homeless shelters, while Stephanie Sena operates one in Upper Darby. Sena is an anti-homeless advocate and anti-poverty fellow at the University’s Charles Widger School of Law. That creates the homeless/Villanova connection.

Norristown is in Montgomery County, Villanova is in Delaware County.

It is an inter-county war.

Wait! says Villanova, sensing a looming PR disaster — Sena’s homeless activities are on her own dime, not connected with the university. 

The Inquirer reports Sena is working on behalf of 160 homeless people in Norristown.

Here’s where it gets ugly, and sticky.

Lepera met briefly last week to discuss homeless encampments with Sena and Eric Tars, legal director of the National Homeless Law Center, in Washington. Sena and Tars agree Lepera called Sena an “ivory tower elitist,” which seems fair, but concluded the meeting by cursing at Sena and making an obscene gesture, which was uncalled for.

What makes it worse is that Lepera is the political director of IBEW Local 98, the politically powerful, Philadelphia electricians union. 

I know some union men cuss, but there is a time and place for everything, and when an Inquirer reporter called to get details from Lepera, the union guy reportedly cursed out the reporter and hung up.

He later issued a statement saying Norristown has about 20 encampments and “When Stephanie reached out as a representative of Villanova [the university denies Sena represents it] I said, ‘How perfect is this? Because Villanova, with hundreds of millions in revenue, that prides itself on Catholic values and wants to help the poor, has a school now with empty dorm rooms… ‘ I couldn’t see a more perfect scenario as where to move the encampments.”

And now the homeless issue aligns with unrestricted immigration. 

Lepera rightly has been accused of following in the footsteps of Texas Gov. George Abbott and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who have bussed “immigrants” to Democratic-run Sanctuary Cities in the north, including New York, Chicago, Washington, and Philadelphia.

The critics of the governors neglect to mention that the Democratic-led U.S. government has been flying and busing “immigrants” all over the country, often under the cover of night.

That is a fact, and is a consequence of newly-elected Joe Biden’s decision to reverse almost all of President Donald J. Trump’s border policies. When Biden brought back “catch and release” — meaning stopping either illegal crossings, or faux asylum seekers — and then allowing them into the interior of the country, the border exploded. I explained what I meant by faux asylum seekers in an earlier column.  

Abbott, DeSantis, and Lepera may be guilty of guerilla theater, but guess what? 

It got everyone’s attention and eventually forced Biden, just weeks ago, to retract some of his well-intended, but demonstrably stupid border policies.

He had created a magnet for illegal immigration — to the point where some illegals were wearing T-shirts addressing him by name. Those obviously were distributed by Open Border types, even though anyone who can do basic math understands that Open Borders means suicide for the United States. I explained how here

The homeless have been a problem for longer than the immigrants.

Losing his grip, Tars likened Lepera’s voluntary  relocation with the forced relocation of Japanese citizens during World War II. To me, that’s worse than cussing. It rewrites and denigrates history.

What do we know about the homeless?

I see four types 

Economic. Those willing to work who may have been laid off or lost their income and finances in some way.

Addicted. Those on booze or drugs, who can’t function.

Mentally deficient. Those incapable of caring for themselves.

Leeches. Those who can work, but refuse to.

The economic must be given jobs, even if the jobs have to be created for them. This might align with the concept of guaranteed minimum income, brought to the fore with the Presidential candidacy of Andrew Yang, that he called the “freedom dividend.”

Those willing to work must be accommodated. I don’t care if they are handed a broom, or a shovel, or assigned to be teaching assistants, or coaches, or safety monitors on mass transit — give them work!

On the other hand, the leeches should be given nothing. This includes the nouveau Gen Z who seem to think all work and jobs should be voluntary. 

Don’t worry. They won’t starve. They will leech off parents and friends until the poor fools realize they are being played. Eventually, to eat and pay rent, the leeches will be forced into the labor market, and, yes, they can have fries with that.

The addicted are breaking the law. As such, they can be offered a choice between rehab and jail, which will serve as a less-pleasant rehab than a medical facility. Once they are straight, they can be guided into job training or a job.

The mentally deficient must be institutionalized in decent facilities. That will cost a lot, but maybe less than having them living on the streets.

California has spent about $10 billion on homelessness in the last three years. The money is being spent, but inefficiently.

We have come a long way from being homeless in Norristown, and elsewhere.  

They need help, but the help must not be hammocks that permit them to continue self-destructive behavior.

11 thoughts on “Moving the homeless is understandable, but not a solution”

  1. I particularly like your last sentence. That shows compassion with stern reality.

      1. So you failed to do due diligence. You keep claiming you are a reporter, in reality you are an opinion writer and a lazy one at that. The key question in your article is why are there homeless living on the street in Norristown.

        1. Judah, if you did YOUR due diligence you would understand I have been a columnist, an opinion weitwrm for 30 years.
          And the “why” of the homeless was tangential to the theme I chose — the actions of the Council president.
          If you think I am “lazy,” YOU try pumping out as much material as I do, dumbass.

  2. We have government on the federal, state and municipal levels. They should all have their own distinct roles. State and municipal government should not have to protect us from foreign invasion, for example.

    Municipal government should be concerned with public safety, sanitation and public education. They cannot be involved in health and welfare issues. If they get involved with that you get what you have seen in Philadelphia and are now seeing in Norristown. The problems come to the areas where the programs are located. These programs must be funded and run by the state government. If the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is not doing its job to the satisfaction of those in Philadelphia and Norristown rather than run the programs themselves they should elect people on the state level that will do what they want. Elections have consequences. Municipal government should be dealing with the problems that homelessness bring by keeping everyone safe, dealing with the sanitation issues and educating the children.

  3. Stu , if you give them jobs there still isn’t enough affordable housing units for all the people that need them.
    I know you are a union guy but 20 yrs ago when pha built all those homes below girad between 10th and 12 st ,they cost pha $370k per home ,an incredible amt in 2003!. That’s got to be over $500k per home today. The main reason was that they used all union labor to build them . 2 yrs ago in Kensington a non profit built a row home for $90k using all city licensed but non union labor . The building trades have got to at least charge the much lower rates they charge in the suburbs, for philly affordable housing construction as opposed to the much higher rates they charge for market rate buildings inside the city limits of philly

  4. How is it that the richest country in the world has so many homeless/sock/crazy/lazy people wandering the streets, when no such problem existed in the 1950s? Yes, we were busy in the 1950s lynching negroes, preventing them from voting, and imposing quotas on Jews to keep them from getting into good colleges and universities, and the mob ran Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, Kansas City, Detroit, and many other cities, but gee whiz, there’s gotta be an answer to this problem. [Just pointing out that there never has been a ‘golden age’ in the USA. Ours is a country that has always been beset with problems, but which is able to solve them by brains and brawn and cash. Calling all citizens to wake up and pull together to clear the streets).]

  5. I thought about this all day. I thought back when my dad worked two jobs to keep us going. When I graduated High School, those who could went on to college, some worked, some joined the military. We all did domething in 1973. When I got out, I had no problem finding a job, and eventually went to work for the city and got a pension. No complaints. Somewhere the train left the tracks after or during teen years, entitlement, then govenment seemed to be a battleground. Being a Vet meant nothing anymore. Drug use became accepted, handing out needles, different drugs to deal with the addictions. Kids drinking seemed to be no big deal, until somebody got killed, then mom and pop were gone, the money ran out. Those who never worked, felt and probably were unemployable. The military was not an option, so homelessness grew, crime grew,So dealing with the homeless is one tiny fix. I believe the Vet’s should go to the front of that list, along with the medical, and mental health. Children next. I believe there was a Golden age for everybody, everybody had a chance, If you blew it, you need to get whatever it takes to help fix it. This was a non race,religion,or finacial problem. Do something for you. Or your family. If you are waiting for a hand out, that ship has sailed.

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