We need new homeless policies

My friend Shawn Vestal gets some things right in his article on the need for compassion for the homeless (“Homelessness is a compassion issue,” July 12), but he doesn’t understand that providing unconditional assistance to the homeless has only led to more homeless people.

If you were a borderline addict trying to make the tough choice to get your life in order, how helpful would it be to have free housing, shelter and food offered to you with no conditions on drug or alcohol use? Do we allow our children to do anything they wish, eat and drink anything they wish, and lie around all day? No, we do not because we know how that will end for them!

What L.A., Seattle, San Francisco and now Spokane are doing isn’t working. Yes, we need more shelter for homeless people, but we need to place conditions on being allowed to use them. It isn’t compassion to allow vulnerable people to do anything they wish with no conditions. It’s insanity!

One last note: The statistics printed recently in the S-R about no significant growth in the homeless population for the past several years are dead wrong. It’s growing at a crisis rate. Time for a change in policy.

Hal Dixon

Spokane