It’s time to find real solutions to aid the homeless

This is a critical time for our homeless neighbors. All too often we demonize them and don’t listen to them or support them.

I am a Nurse Practitioner who has cared for unhoused patients in Jackson County for years. Each person has a unique story and most want to live an independent and healthy life in their own home. Their lives have included many crises with injuries, chronic medical and mental health conditions, trauma and a lack of money or resources.

The case of City of Grants Pass Oregon Versus Johnson was heard by the Supreme Court on April 22. They will determine if a local government can arrest or ticket people for sleeping outside when adequate shelter is not available.

It is time for real solutions and not tying up police with the task of ticketing or arresting people simply because they do not have a home. Criminalization makes it difficult for individuals to access housing, unemployment, and healthcare.

Making them criminals will ultimately cost us all more money and fuel racial inequities in our community. Decades of evidence point to affordable, stable housing and supportive services as the most effective and least expensive way to approach homelessness.

Let’s hope the court will support our humanity rather than take it from us and we can continue to build a community that works for all of us.

Lauri Hoagland / Ashland

Great value in tough love; focus on mental health

Stop feeding the homeless, and stop giving cash. They qualify for Food Stamps and receive assistance from churches and organizations, such as ACCESS and Rogue Retreat.

The vast majority of cash given goes to feeding addictions, prostitution, and other illegal and illicit activities; food is also traded for drugs, regularly. Unhoused individuals flock to this area when hearing of the abundance of resources, including food, available to them. This overburdens the community at large and those working to help rehouse community members.

There was a stabbing recently in Alba Park, near a daycare. The men involved were transients, and the man who produced the knife was allegedly attempting to collect a debt. Despite being only a block from the police department and with cruisers driving by regularly, this occurred in broad daylight.

Many parents are reasonably unwilling to take their children to parks in Medford because of the potential for violence and substance use where numerous homeless are gathered.

It is understandable that many who see misery and suffering experience compassion and want to help; however, hard times are meant to instruct us, and there is great value in tough love and in hitting rock bottom.

We have been cautioned not to give cash because it could be used for anything; a caring person does not need to act against their better judgment to help, including giving food.

It is possible to be compassionate and conservative, and mental health is the only real solution. Help with that.

Wayne Meads / Medford