Hearne: Tale of Two (Tiny) Cities

There’s a risk to spending too much time on “cable” news…

Where most everything is presented in “cut and dried” form, with baked in conclusions. Kind like getting indoctrinated at the same time you’re trying to absorb actual news.

On Fox, for example, homelessness is often presented as an end of the world phenomenon. Throw in a bit of sympathy for good measure, so as not to appear heartless. Mix with a measure of, “Who are these people and why are ruining our world instead of being out job hunting or doing slam time?”

When it comes to the fair city of Lawrence, Kansas, homeless folks get to run amuck. Which at times can be a little scary or gross to halfway normal folks. All while hipster politicians allow them to create problems and put locals at risk.

That brings me to Topeka – the place I now work. Here, hipness is fairly low on the food chain, so unsightly homeless types are largely unwelcome.

As evidenced by this recent  Topeka Capitol Journal headline:

“Camping near trails banned in unanimous vote by Topeka City Council.”

Much of that can be explained by WIBW TV’s headline in February: “Topeka homelessness at four year high.”

In my experience, seeing homeless people used to be a rare occurrence.

No mas.

Explain it as you may – these days they’re almost everywhere, and often in comparatively large numbers. But how folks feel about it often, seems to be reflected by their political persuasion.

Not everybody sees it that way…

“It has nothing to do with stupid politics,” one woman said. “We are fact based.”

I get it, “Just the facts, Ma’am.”

Now let’s check out T Town:

With reportedly more than 80 active homeless encampments and between 400 and 500 homeless in Topeka, banning camping within 500 feet of a public trail and 50 feet of a sidewalk was approved last week by the city council.

Those restrictions, some say, will eliminate more than 70 percent of the current camps.

One Topeka resident said he was walking with his six-year old granddaughter in a public park when she “took my hand as we were walking and said ‘Grandpa, the last time we were here there was a woman bathing her privates.'”

Gramps later told a local station, he wanted violators arrested and for a second time offense, to get a minimum $100 fine and or five days in jail.

A consultant Topeka expects a new study to take eight months and offer multiple potential solutions to town’s homelessness epidemic.

The $64 million question: Where did this homelessness suddenly come from?

It’s gone from something many folks were mildly aware of to one of biggest problems facing cities large and small.

When I moved to Arizona three years ago it was a blip on the local news radar. Now even one-horse-towns like Lawrence and Topeka  are wrestling with how to handle it and accusing smaller towns are dumping their homeless on them.

“It’s not surprising that people wrongly believe the fundamental causes of the homelessness crisis are mental-health problems and drug addiction,” writes Jerusalem Demsas in The Atlantic. “Our most memorable encounters with homeless people tend to be with those for whom mental-health issues or drug abuse are evident; you may not notice the family crashing in a motel, but you will remember someone experiencing a mental-health crisis on the subway.”

Higher rent prices and vacancy rates result in there not being enough housing.

“The problem, rather, is the millions of people who are precariously situated on the cliff of financial stability, people for whom a divorce, a lost job, a fight with a roommate, or a medical event can result in homelessness,” Demsas says. “The crisis is driven by a constant flow of people losing their housing…The U.S. is now millions of homes short of what its population needs.”

Westport business guy Bill Nigro has a theory on the causes the homeless crisis:

“Ever since COVID hit, the world has been turned upside down,” Nigro says. “And it’s made more people homeless. That was the start of it all. Now there’s more joblessness than ever. And when people are homeless and starving, crime goes up. There was a guy on my loading dock this morning at 6 am when I came in to work. I gave him two bucks and asked him to clean his shit up.

“I think COVID magnified the homeless problem and, the economy just kinda seems good, but it’s really not,” Nigro adds. “And homeless people are flocking to Democratic run cities because they know they can get away with more.”