The Homeless Aren't People, Apparently

A few nights ago I listened to a call-in radio show about what is going on in Humboldt County right now; people are signing petitions to get the local police to remove the "transients," as if they are garbage instead of people. I know that homelessness is a problem, but I know forcing people who have nowhere to go to just go away is hardly the solution.

A local transient known as Coffee Jim was given a warning to not loiter. He was told that he better not be found there again. Exactly 24 hours later he was arrested, for "loitering" in a completely different part of town, sitting under a tree in the lawn of a local church. He was not drinking or drunk, he was not under the influence of any drugs, he did not have any illegal substances on his person. He was sitting under a tree. And he was arrested for it.

Another woman had a similar experience, someone who was born here, who has family here, who has never lived anywhere else, has been arrested repeatedly because she is supposed to leave. She doesn't have anywhere else to go. Does anybody bother to help her find a place to be? It seems that they just tell her to disappear. A bystander said she overheard the woman quietly asking the arresting officers how was she supposed to just disappear? "Do you know how hard that is?" she asked them.

This just makes me sad. The hour-long program featured many of the local transients, who told their stories a bit, as well as other locals who know these folks, and it was a really human experience. These are people. Signing petitions to have them removed from the area is not the solution to the homelessness problem.