Mayor Ballard

At one point I thought it was cool that the new Indianapolis mayor graduated from Cathedral High School, my alma mater. When I was home last weekend, though, I learned something that made me ashamed. Who honestly thinks that making it illegal to be homeless will reduce homelessness? The law may not specify that it is illegal to be homeless, but making it illegal to sleep in public places in effect makes it illegal to be homeless. Where else are the homeless supposed to sleep? There are many other more logical and more realistic ways to reduce homelessness. It's as if people don't think there are enough reasons not to want to be homeless. It's as if people think the homeless want to be homeless. In reality, many of them work day labor jobs (with the day labor agencies making profits off of paying really low wages) or at least try to find day labor jobs. Why do we always think there's something wrong with those suffering in these situations rather than looking to see if there is something wrong with the system? Why do we care more about whether our city "looks like Calcutta," as someone on the Indianapolis Star's Let It Out online comment board said, than we do about the people who have to live on the streets?