There’s a meme going around about the current COVID-19 coronavirus and the homeless.
It’s a bitter reminder of how sympathy and feelings aren’t the best approaches to public health.
The meme reads, “Odd that the same leftists who let people poop on the streets, throw away used needles to step on and demand open borders are suddenly concerned about disease.”
These are all unsafe things happening in homeless encampments in cities run by West Coast liberals. From LA to San Francisco, to Portland and Seattle, it’s a Petrie dish on the street. In San Francisco, people are hired at more than $100 thousand per year to clean up human waste on the street.
Enter the coronavirus, which is now a declared public health emergency in Oregon.
What can be done about people who are allowed to camp practically wherever they wish, with whomever they wish, who are immunocompromised – largely by drug use, mental illness and the elements – and not required to stop dangerous, risky behavior all while camping near urine and feces?
The City of Portland has an answer: simply tell the homeless to stay six feet away from one another.
Sure, that’ll work.
KGW-TV reports that city and county officials have requested that homeless shelters ask “houseless” people to stay six feet from each other in the shelters and if they won’t do that, send them back on the streets and demand they separate themselves there.
Sick residents will be asked to wear masks and maintain a 6-foot distance between themselves in others in an attempt to keep the spread of any possible sickness to a minimum.
If residents are unwilling to follow those guidelines they may be turned away.
“There are regular conversations between city, county, and state about how we are going to address COVID-19 and the homeless population,” said Mayor Wheeler.
There is also a concern that homeless shelters may not be able to house as many residents in order to make sure there is enough room to maintain an appropriate amount of space between them.
Many shelters are also stocking up on hand sanitizer.
It’s all so clear to us now. If only we’d been telling homeless people where to go, what to do, and how to stay clean, we could have avoided the issue in the first place!
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