Our Homelessness problem

There are an estimated 655,000 (six hundred and fifty five thousand) homeless people in the United States. Santa Fe, as so much of the country, finds itself trying to balance competing interests when it comes to the homeless problem. How do we remain compassionate and help those in need but do it in a way that we do not also attract hundreds or thousands more homeless into our community?

Here are some starting ideas:

• Prioritize care for the homeless who are from our community

• Develop new and reform old substance abuse programs

• Adopt policies that prevent Santa Fe from being profitable to anyone presenting to be homeless

• Adopt policies that encourage the criminal element inside the homeless population to leave Santa Fe