We read at visualcapitalist.com that we spend “…just under $23,000 per prisoner in Arkansas to $307,468 in Massachusetts.” The fact that so much is spent to incarcerate those who have been convicted of crimes, as compared to our failure to proactively take care of our homelessness issue, is troubling. While it could be said that incarceration has its place when it comes to criminals, it just doesn’t seem right that those who have committed no crime, except to suffer from lack and/or mental issues, are without safe shelter. While we might decry that some parts of some cities are inundated with homeless people, it doesn‘t have to be that way if only this nation would make it a priority to enact programs to address this issue specifically and keep at it until successfully resolved.
It is disappointing, that there seems to be plenty of space to lock up prisoners and that this nation will spend whatever amount of money to keep them locked up in a facility in which prisoners are entitled to food, shelter, and medical needs; whereas those that are homeless have seemingly less robust programs to deal with their issues, that should and ought to be dealt with comprehensively, in this the richest nation in the world.
No doubt, homelessness in its own way, appears to be intractable, but that doesn’t mean that this government couldn’t do more to help to resolve this issue as compared to doing just enough that takes care of part of the problem but doesn’t take care of the whole problem. Indeed, to spend less on homelessness as compared to what we spend to incarcerate criminals doesn’t seem to make a whole lot of sense, because those that are most in need but aren’t criminals, should be properly served first, and at a minimum shouldn’t be ignored in the sense, that there is an unrealistic hope that homelessness will just disappear over time, which just isn’t going to happen without forthright action from government and charitable agencies.
As in anything, it probably behooves this government to try to ascertain as to what creates homelessness to begin with, and to the degree that this can be ameliorated with programs and attention, it should be done. In any event, those who are homeless should be able to readily avail themselves of governmental help, and in consideration that a lot of the homelessness is part and parcel within our biggest cities, it would be best to address that need from that perspective. So too, homelessness in America reflects that our institutions and our priorities seem to be out of sync, because if we do not see our fellow citizens as being worthy of our attention and care, then we have forgotten that we are our brother’s keeper.
When it comes to homelessness, there is no point in not making a solemn commitment that this nation will do everything that it can do to take care of the problem, because the intent behind governmental programs of merit should always be to attend to what needs to be attended to, so as to get the job done, and not to relent from those efforts until it is done.