White House vows more federal aid to reduce homelessness in 5 cities and California

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7. If you provide aid, the homeless will come. Count on it.

The mayor of my small WI city decided to house the homeless for the winter at a large motel in the city because he had that federal money burning a hole in his pocket and the homeless came from the other side of the state to get it. The result? Sex and drug trafficking and people there living in fear. Plus the motel was trashed and had to close for 2 weeks to clean up the mess.
The sad thing is that the city had no clue as to what to do with the homeless for the coming summer. So they decided to turn over a large city park by the Mississippi for a tent city. The result? The park was trashed with the now familiar squalor and this spring had to basically be bulldozed. The homeless living in that park were also in fear and unless you had somebody to watch your possessions they would be stolen. Again, the city is clueless as to what they will do this summer and next winter, but the homeless are still coming.

An interesting thing is that the homeless problem here is uniting people from opposite ends of the political spectrum who simply have had enough. The problem is that this is a bell that cannot be unrung. The mayor who precipitated much of what happened here is in his first term and frankly I would be shocked if he was reelected and if there are 3 candidates he just might come in 3rd place.