The issue of homelessness has unfortunately become a major bone of contention in American politics, and the perception is that very little works to reduce the problem of the homeless. In the current political climate, in fact, the homeless are seen by many as having caused all their problems themselves, and personal responsibility is held out as the solution. In a sense, what some are saying is that the poor would be better off if they worked and earned money, though how this is to be accomplished is to be left to the poor themselves. Homeless people are seen more and more as irresponsible people who could have homes if they wanted them, but it is not at all clear that this really characterizes any significant portion of the homeless population. instead, it seems that homelessness is a complex and multi-dimensional problem that requires some kind of coordinated effort to overcome. Two opposing attitudes toward homeless can be seen in newspaper articles on the subject, one from Chicago about a Chicago building program, the other from Boston about a response to the homeless in California. The Chicago program advocates positive action to address the problem, while the California court decision allows cities in effect to outlaw homelessness, to make it crime, and to drive the homeless away so they become someone else's problem. The Chicago approach offers some hope and in any case is a reasonable, ethical, and just social response, while the California approach reported in the Boston newspaper is an abrogation of social responsibility.
The report from Chicago concerns a project known as Lakefront, a nonprofit concern that has refurbished a large number of apartments for single low-income occupants. The organization has been in operation since 1989 and has produced nearly one-fourth of the 2,561 SRO units financed by the city's Department of Housing over that time. Lakefront is now the second-largest producer of such housing i...