You really missed the mark with your (blog) on the homeless situation and the proposals to deal with it (“City doesn’t need to be a magnet for the area’s homeless,” Aug. 13).
For some reason, you seem to feel that establishing a tent city in our region would bring more homeless to our area.
You state that the duty of the city council is to make Port Orchard a better place for those who live here, not those who don’t live anywhere.
Does it not occur to you that the homeless are also residents in our community?
They may not have the good fortune to live in houses or apartments, but they live here, work here, shop here and send children to schools here. Since they do, it certainly would be part of the job of city council to make Port Orchard a better place for them as well as for those of us who are already blessed with a roof over our heads.
“If you build it, they will come” is a scare tactic in this case, or perhaps a bad case of “Not in my backyard.”
You make it sound as if our community did not already have citizens within its boundaries who struggle to find work, to find enough food to eat, or to have consistent shelter.
Perhaps spending some time at Helpline, South Kitsap Family Kitchen, or St. Vincent de Paul would help you put a human face on our neighbors without homes and see them as people instead of problems.
You state that “the city has enough problems of its own without inviting someone else’s to move here — along with the crime and drain on public resources that would surely follow.”
If you did research on other tent cities, you would find that their successes are far greater than their failures.
It is worth investigating.
Homelessness already exists in Port Orchard. As citizens, it is our duty to look out not only for ourselves, but also for our neighbors — for the good of the whole community.
Maybe a tent city is the right temporary solution. Maybe it is not.
I’d like to think that Port Orchard and South Kitsap residents are open-minded enough to look at the whole issue and not respond in fear to stereotypes and misconceptions.
MARIA MURPHREE
Port Orchard
