The March 27 story, “Homeless camp dismantled,” shows rousting out the homeless has accomplished nothing. The people in that camp in Hazel Dell will just move somewhere else. It’s time this community found places where they can camp indefinitely. There must be some open spaces in the Vancouver/Clark County area where they could camp. Anyone who doesn’t have a home should have a right to establish a base somewhere.
At a minimum, they should be able to camp without being rousted. Even better would be to establish a campground with restrooms and showers. Best would be also to routinely take social services to the people at the camp, which might help some of them find a way out of homelessness.
I live downtown. I see people sleeping on benches and sidewalks because they have no place to go. I’ve had two major illnesses in my life. Luckily, I had polio while serving in the Air Force. I probably would be one of the homeless myself, because of other illness, if I didn’t receive VA disability compensation every month.
The fact that people are sleeping on benches is more of a reflection on our community than on those people. We should be able to find a better solution than driving people out of homeless camps they have set up to survive.
