No pun intended, but a plan for the city of Los Angeles to provide bathrooms for its constantly growing homeless population doesn’t pass the smell test. City bureaucrats estimate it would cost $57 million a year to provide toilets for every homeless encampment in the city.
David Busch, a homeless "advocate," told the L.A. times that for him cost is no object, “When we start treating everybody with equal dignity, that is priceless.” And, of course, he’s not paying.
That sort of statement is part of the there-but-for-the-Grace-of-God-go-I view of homelessness. From this viewpoint the homeless are all former choir directors and school bus drivers that were thrown out on the street through no fault of their own. Their main problem is not homelessness, it’s the heartlessness of society.
If that were really the case, it wouldn’t be so expensive to operate the pit stops. As the Times points out, “A big part of the cost for bathrooms is staffing: To prevent portable toilets from being trashed or taken over for illicit activity, such restrooms are monitored by trained attendants for 12 hours a day at a cost of more than $117,000 annually, according to city officials. Adding administration, toilet rental and other costs brings the price to roughly $339,000.”
Those hardly sound like the sort of grateful response to a gift from taxpayers one would expect to come from a group of people running over with dignity or gratitude.
The fact is the homeless population in California — which continues to grow in spite of multiple millions spent each year to “end homelessness” — is composed mainly of the mentally ill who should be institutionalized for their own good, drug and alcohol addicts, criminals, and people who are just oppositional and don’t want to follow any societal rules.
Former choir directors are few and far between.
Proponents of this latest effort assume spending millions on free bathrooms will successfully get human poop off the streets, when issuing free needles and receptacles to hold the empties to addicts has only resulted in needles being scattered like fall leaves all around L.A.
We are constantly amazed at the naive trust and optimism toward the homeless that is exhibited by city bureaucrats. Evidently only taxpayers are automatically viewed with suspicion in city hall.
Michael Reagan, the eldest son of President Reagan, is a Newsmax TV analyst. A syndicated columnist and author, he chairs The Reagan Legacy Foundation. Michael is an in-demand speaker with Premiere speaker’s bureau. Read more reports from Michael Reagan — Go Here Now.
Michael R. Shannon is a commentator, researcher for the League of American Voters, and an award-winning political and advertising consultant with nationwide and international experience. He is author of "Conservative Christian’s Guidebook for Living in Secular Times (Now with added humor!)." Read more of Michael Shannon's reports — Go Here Now.