Homelessness is big business in Savannah again. The front page headline in the Savannah Morning News reads "Homeless concerns aired: Mayor, council hear complaints about public urination, demands for money, sleeping in Squares."
Just a decade ago, The Atlanta Constitution lauded Savannah's groundbreaking pioneering work reducing the number of homeless people. We were the first to have an anti-begging policy on River Street. We targeted the squares first redirecting people to where they could get treatment rather than treating themselves. We created the Chatham-Savannah Authority for the Homeless to oversee a seamless utilization of each agencies attack on homelessness. We went to war with the problem.
The results were staggering. From 1992 through 2002 the number of people annually experiencing homelessness dropped from almost 5,000 to less than 3,000.
Those that remained were sheltered, fed, treated for addiction and mental illness and enrolled in work therapy programs. The goal was to get them straight and get them jobs! Then they could buy their way out of homelessness which is the way the world works.
The world flocked to our city to study, emulate and duplicate our approaches. We won every award their is and received international coverage because of this approach.
We even tore down the barriers between homelessness and health care achieving an effective, compassionate and cost-effective treatment program. Homeless people stopped filling hospital emergency rooms, thereby driving up health care costs for the rest of us, by getting them well so we could get them to work.
It's not rocket science!
Since then, those working (and I use the term loosely) to react to homelessness use the increased number of homeless people to demand more public resources. "We need more to help more," is their mantra.
For the past few years I've sat by and sadly watched the deterioration of the world's best solution to homelessness. While always under appreciated, the city's war on homelessness was the most effective in the world.
"You never know what you've got till it's gone," sang Joni Mitchell.
That's true. The united war is gone.
Homelessness is back in a big way.
