When the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced in April that it was in the process of drafting new regulations to bar illegal aliens from public housing, the reactions from pro-illegal alien politicians were, predictably, shrieks of moral outrage.
“Cruel,” cried Los Angeles Congresswoman Maxine Waters.
“Mean-spirited,” howled San Diego Congressman Juan Vargas.
“Xenophobic,” charged Judith Goldiner of the Legal Aid Society, adding, “This latest attack on immigrant families is an effort to strip them of the fundamental human right to housing.”
Many other voices at the federal, state, and local level chimed in with similar sentiments, before finally running out of adjectives.
However, when news broke on Tuesday that homelessness in Los Angeles County jumped by 12 percent over the same time last year, and 16 percent in the city of Los Angeles, the best long-time County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas could muster was “stunned,” as in “we are pretty well stunned by this data.” On the other hand, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti was described by the Los Angeles Times as “more upbeat” about the news, for reasons the Times neglects to mention. An estimated 59,000 people countywide are homeless, with 36,000 of them camped out on the “upbeat” mayor’s streets. And this was after a new sales tax that was supposed to solve the homeless problem kicked in last year.
Now the bad news. Los Angeles actually fared pretty well compared to other Southern California counties, or San Francisco which saw a 17 percent increase in its homeless population and a 45 percent growth in the number of people who are living in vehicles (which may explain Mayor Garcetti’s cheery disposition).
The pro-illegal alien advocates are bemoaning the fact that people with no right to be in the country will now be denied what they call “the fundamental right to housing” (at the expense of American taxpayers – they don’t mention that part). But what they aren’t taking into account is that many Americans, including veterans and families with children are denied public housing – because illegal aliens are occupying available units. And none of them seem to think that it is mean-spirited and cruel to provide public housing to trespassing foreign nationals while forcing citizen families and veterans to sleep on the streets.
Nor do any of these politicians seem to give much thought to the impact of the ongoing border crisis that is funneling a hundred thousand new migrants a month into American communities, most of whom lack the wherewithal to pay for basic necessities like food and housing, will have on the homelessness crisis. Homelessness, like immigration, is a complex issue that defies simple solutions. But that doesn’t mean we can’t, or shouldn’t take logical steps like barring illegal aliens from public housing and deterring still more from crossing our borders.
Barring illegal aliens from public housing, as HUD is attempting to do, won’t solve the homelessness problem in California, any more than the new sales tax did. But freeing up tens of thousands of taxpayer subsidized units will help somewhat, at least. And that’s a good start. Otherwise, like Mayor Garcetti, we can all just learn to be upbeat because at least where we are isn’t as bad as San Francisco.