By NOLAN WILLIS
I recently heard and read the news concerning the proposed homeless “bill of rights” that is being proposed by Sen. Elvi Gray-Jackson.
That got my attention because whenever someone precedes the words “justice” or “rights” with a qualifier, it usually means that the rights are specific to a particular group of people and trump the rights of others.
One example of this would be legally forcing landlords to accept tenants by default because they are ethnic minorities or members of the LGBTQ+ group while disregarding other factors that may go into a landlord’s decision process. Or taxing white citizens more for the sins of their fathers while using the proceeds to fund programs that are intended to level the playing field for minorities that have traditionally been treated poorly.
In both of these examples (real or hypothetical), the state is attempting to right wrongs by making things worse, and the same could be said of how we approach the homeless situation.
To be clear, homelessness should absolutely not be a crime or a cause for discrimination. Being down and out is no sin and no offense to society. If lack of shelter was all we associated with homelessness, I do not think people would be jaded and cynical about the situation.
That being said, a lot of our trails, parks, and public places have become unsafe and unclean. You are liable to encounter scattered needles, razor blades, garbage, fire hazards, and deranged individuals. There is also always the threat of indecent exposure.
I have nearly stopped taking my kids to most places in Anchorage because I have seen more indecent acts in Anchorage than I have ever seen anywhere else. It is a real problem, but few in office seem to have realistic solutions.
The homelessness crisis has also imposed a heavy burden on local and state medical systems.
The last time I had to go to the emergency room due to a work-related injury, the doctor was barely able to see me because he was being run ragged by having to attend to transients and addicts. I had part of my finger missing, and someone on a gurney not far from me was shouting at the nurses, acting like a maniac, and complaining about how the Narcan made him feel sick!
I know I’m not the only one who has witnessed similar scenes of disorder. There are countless examples if you just have eyes to see and ears to hear.
We have a problem, and the problem is not that homeless people lack rights. If anything, our city and our state are remarkably tolerant of their behavior, which effectively amounts to various forms of lawlessness that we have failed to effectively prosecute. Other than cannabis, most of the drugs they are using are not legal.
On top of that, we still have laws against disorderly conduct, indecent exposure, harassment, intimidation, larceny, theft, reckless endangerment, vandalism, and a whole litany of crimes that many people in our homeless community regularly commit. When we allow them to commit those crimes and do not hold them accountable with adequate consequences, we effectively allow them special immunity to continue committing those crimes because we have a misguided view of “social justice” that does not allow any “oppressed” individual to be held accountable for the problems they cause others.
There is a way out of this, and it’s called sanity. We don’t need to criminalize homelessness, and we don’t need to give them special privileges either. We need to enforce our laws impartially. If average citizens cannot get away with doing some things, the homeless should not be allowed to get away with doing those same things.
I understand that life is hard for these people, but that is not an excuse. No excuse, however legitimate, ever got me out of a traffic ticket or a fishing violation. Why, then, would we want to make the problem worse with a homeless bill of rights?
Nolan Willis is a lifelong Alaskan, a Bristol Bay Commercial Fisherman, a licensed Professional Electrical Engineer, and the current Chair of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Alaska Section. His work experience spans the worlds of utilities, energy, communications, and naval nuclear propulsion.