Under most circumstances, everybody does what they want to do. Or they don’t do what they don’t want to do. Some homeless people wear homelessness as a badge of sorts. They use the available resources — free cellphones, SNAP benefits, Medicaid, warming/cooling shelters, etc. — to make that choice more livable.

I’m sure there are some who do it because they think the others are easy prey. There is potentially a significant portion who are not in a position to make the choice, whether it’s due to an addiction or a mental illness. I’m not talking about the panhandlers who make a living doing it, as that stuff has always been around. As long as there are giving people, there will always be an element of our society who are takers looking for the givers.

I say: Weed out the ones who are addicted and experiencing mental illness and establish the fact that sometimes our choices, or our circumstances, require intervention. Homelessness exploded with the idea that all have rights and that, no matter what, those rights eclipse everything else.

With that came what we have today.

Paul Bonenfant
South China