A ‘Modest Proposal’ for the Homeless Shelter

Scott Fischer has it right:

For too long, the shelter staff has played by the rules. I have personally looked at the last two sites, and recognized how desperate things had become to consider such horrible locations as an isolated industrial park or ancient ruins on a rugged, steep slope.

In the tradition of Jonathan Swift’s “Modest Proposal,” I suggest that the existing shelter be replaced by dozens of mini-shelters located in the homes and businesses of Mayor Bill Beck, the City Council and the spiteful writer from Spotsylvania who wrote in opposition to the mere concept of the shelter, calling it “socialism” [“Keep shelter out of taxpayers’ neighborhoods,” Feb. 20].

Shelters can be set up in the homes of the people from the neighborhood associations whose voices resonate with venom at public meetings and the rest of the NIMBYs in this town who can only propose other sites, all of them out of sight, out of mind.

Hurrah! I think it’s time we start rallying ’round the standard. Fairview has lived with the shelter as a neighbor for years. That other sections of the city such as Darbytown aren’t willing to step up to the plate smacks of elitism. Time to finally flex those moral muscles and do the right thing, guys.