Folks without Homes Shouldn't Pay the Price for our Economic System; but Small-Business Owners Shouldn't Pay the Price for our Community's Decency, Humaneness, and Lawfulness

Homelessness is epidemic in our country. And here.

It presents tough problems. A small number of those homeless are addicts or legally nutty. Some commit crimes. We know locking everyone up doesn’t work; but some citizens are suffering so badly --- starting days picking up others’ feces and garbage, getting threatened, and having stores broken into – that it’s Red Alert Time.

Our city manager form of government minimizes politics and cronyism. The council hires a manager to run operations. If you don’t like his work, you can complain to city council; but you can talk with the manager. (Well, Manager Ifo Pili invited folks to contact him, without mentioning he’s retreating to Utah.)

Public input at council meetings offers many harrowing accounts of unpleasant experience, though few practical ideas. We need change; but suggestions I hear are unlawful, unconstitutional, or impractical. Can’t legally ship people away. Legally, crazy folk can’t be tried for crimes. Their constitutionally guaranteed right to a fair trial is meaningless if they’re too far gone to cooperate with their lawyer. Local judges send ‘em up to Las Vegas, the State says “Yep, too crazy to try!” They’re back on the streets. Not the local judge’s fault, nor the City’s.

The City is trying new tactics. Fentanyl complicates the problem. We must curb the inflow, although that’ll increase prices and therefore crimes. We must invest in prevent addiction and treating addicts. We all, including city government, must do what we can.

Most comments expressed regular folks’ deep and honest frustration. Some folks try to use the situation to make political capital. But no councilor should dismiss the pain and anger we heard as just politically-motivated eloquence.

One angry citizen sarcastically “congratulated” Councilor Johana Bencomo “for creating such a beautiful magnet to bring crime and lawlessness into our district. Thank you for a job well done.” He’s entitled to think Community of Hope is a problem, not part of the solution. He’s entitled to dislike Councilor Bencomo. She sure didn’t cause the homelessness epidemic. Camp Hope long preceded her election, and helps the situation. (His main [and quite legitimate!] complaint is Burn Lake housing squatters who aren’t in Camp Hope. I sympathize with the problems inherent in living so close to a huge homeless encampment; but I thought this comment had more vitriol than sense.)

Another speaker inaccurately claimed the City Council had decreased the police budget, impliedly helping to cause Officer Jonah Hernandez’s tragic death. Pili later said that the council has repeated improved budgets that increased police spending 25% recently. The angry citizens had left. Understandably: they have businesses to run and kids to watch; but I hope they listen later to what councilors and Pili said.

We all need to work together, producing creative, helpful ideas, debating factually, and collaborating to improve the situation. Not folks personally attacking councilors, nor councilors dismissing aggrieved citizens. Instead of political adversaries using this tragic situation, let’s combine all our efforts to deal with an unprecedented and highly challenging situation.

I’m inviting citizens to discuss this on radio – with us and LCPD Chief Jeremy Story. (Unlike Pili, he’ll be here. For a long time, I believe. And hope.) I also hope the city schedules a work session.

Civil discussion can eliminate some myths, clearly communicate citizens’ real issues, enlighten folks on what laws and practicalities are in our way, and give everyone’s ideas a fair hearing.

Listening is important.

– 30 –

[The above column appeared Sunday, 3 March, 2024, in the Las Cruces Sun-News and on the newspaper's website, as well as on KRWG’s website under Local Viewpoints. A shortened and sharpened radio commentary version will air during the week on KRWG (90.1 FM) and on KTAL-LP (101.5 FM, streaming at www.lccommunityradio.org/).]

[What I hope I articulated in the column is respect for all concerned. I watched the entire video of the Public Comment and Councilor Comment items, plus the City Manager’s Comments. I was moved by the public input. Many speakers clearly balanced their understandable distress and anger with understanding of the humanity (and, mostly, decency) of folks without homes and with the limits on what city councilors could do. I share their outrage and feel some duty as a citizen to try to help better things. However, some, either because of their understandable anger or for other reasons, viciously attacked councilors, mostly for things beyond those councilors’ control. I wanted to get folks with very different perspectives together in a room, to discuss things on radio, and will do so the morning of 13 July. I hope it’ll be a candid but civil discussion that moves participants and listeners toward mutual understanding, and perhaps working together toward improvement.]

[I also hope it’s clear that while obviously the homelessness epidemic is a serious contributor to our problems, as is the fentanyl epidemic, (a) homelessness is mostly NOT the fault of the homelessness, (b) most homeless folks are not criminals, and (c) that “solutions,” or, at least, improvements, are not always easy to identify or implement, we need to be humane and just both toward folks without homes (a situation many are a missed-paycheck away from) and folks who live near them or have small businesses. As I’ve said before, those small-business owners and residents should not have to pay the price for our efforts to remain a decent, humane, and lawful community.]

[I send in my columns Thursdays, mid-day. Stuff happens between then and Sunday morning, when the paper gets read, and I post a column here and record the radio-commentary version. For example, this week, between deadline and Sunday morning, came a very interesting press conference by LCPD Chief Jeremy Story, who [very reluctantly, as I would feel in his place!] showed TV cameras and news reporters footage of the killing of Officer Hernandez, and discussed where we are, how we got here, and some sensible steps to get somewhere better. Immediately afterward I wrote next week’s column. I want to discuss his suggestions, and praise his level-headedness and judgment in saying what he needed to say despite what must be strong grief, anger, and other emotions. I was marveling at how his discussion exemplified balance. (While recommending steps to deal with the practical problems caused by the 2016 bail-reform amendment to the New Mexico Constitution and by the rights of mentally incompetent defendants discussed above, he could reiterate his respect for those rights and tell us that he too voted for the bail amendment, and believes in its purposes.) Toward the end, he spoke of balance, analogizing how we must proceed to parenting. Spoke of balancing grace with justice, love with accountability, discipline with freedom.]