Betsy McCaughey opposes making homelessness a lifestyle choice.

Don’t Surrender to the New Normal of Urban Chaos

Advocates for the Homeless Demand Unfettered Freedom

Americans must not surrender to the new normal of squalor and urban chaos — of tent encampments, public defecation, panhandling, and shouting schizophrenics. In the aftermath of Jordan Neely’s tragic death on a New York subway, advocates for the homeless and most Democratic politicians are demanding unfettered freedom for the homeless to live on the streets, even with mental illness.

Advocates are taking over subway stations and dominating the mainstream media with their demands. Too little is being said about the needs of the quiet majority. People who go to a job every day or operate a business or take their kids to school need safe sidewalks and public transportation.

Democrats Push for Homeless Rights

Yet Democrats in the Oregon state legislature are pushing a bill to guarantee the homeless the right to sue for $1,000 if they are harassed or removed from a public space. Democratic lawmakers in California recently defeated a ban on homeless encampments within 500 feet of a school, playground, or youth center. So, it’s okay for kindergarteners to have to step over syringes and navigate buckets of urine on their way into school?

Urban homelessness emerged as a problem in the 1980s, in part because civil libertarians demanded that mental hospitals be closed. The number of patients living in state hospitals across the nation plunged from 535,000 in 1960 to 137,000 by 1980. The mentally ill wound up on the streets.

Speak Up for the Homeless

The problem worsened when the Obama administration and homeless advocates won a lawsuit to prevent Boise, Idaho, from outlawing camping on sidewalks and public parks. Obama’s Justice Department deemed homelessness a legally protected lifestyle choice. Ridiculous.

A person who “chooses” street living, instead of shelter or hospitalization, is exposed to hypothermia, disease, and crime. On average, a homeless person survives only to age 48, losing 30 years of a normal lifespan. It’s worse for women.

Allowing that choice is neither compassionate to the homeless nor fair to the rest of society. Kudos to a handful of Democratic politicians who are bucking their party to advocate for involuntarily hospitalizing the mentally ill homeless.

Seize the Moment to Denounce the Delusional Argument

Neely’s death is igniting a nationwide debate over homelessness — the only good to come out of the tragedy. If he had been hospitalized for mental illnesses, maybe he’d be alive today.

Seize this moment to speak up and denounce the delusional argument that street living is a “right.” It dooms the homeless to short, brutal lives, and the rest of us to filth, crime, and chaos.

Betsy McCaughey is a former lieutenant governor of New York and chairman of the Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths. Follow her on Twitter @Betsy_McCaughey. To find out more about Betsy McCaughey and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

Photo credit: igorovsyannykov at Pixabay