Look to the source

As the mayoral race progresses, we hear two reasons for the causes of homelessness: addiction and mental illness.

To end it, we must look beyond Nadine Woodward’s solution of “jail ‘em all.”

Homelessness is not a new problem in this country, although we have always led the industrialized world in numbers and depth of this catastrophe.

Homelessness began decades ago, primarily a result of cruel, greedy, negligent government policies: allowing manufacturers to take their jobs offshore and the health insurance and pharmaceutical industries to raise prices to obscene levels with no regulation; giving no encouragement for rent control as prices spiraled beyond the means of ordinary people; allowing developers’ low-income tax incentives to die with little to fill the gap; collapsing state mental health systems; facing a rising drug abuse epidemic with no plans for increasing rehabilitation services, and more.

Homelessness cannot be ended at a community level – it requires a commitment from federal government, but our own community can do much through support of low-income housing programs and Community Court, encouraging small businesses through policy/tax incentives to pay a living wage, funding rehab programs and services, etc.

Ben Stuckart is the only mayoral candidate who looks to the public health analysis as any responsible, informed, effective leader would do: look to the source, not the symptoms.

We must not be satisfied with punishing the victims. We need leadership that reflects an understanding of the issues facing our city and willingness to make it happen. Ben Stuckart is that person.

Marianne Torres

Spokane