Illinois Times readers are willing to patiently read to understand difficult issues. This week’s cover story by IT senior staff writer Dean Olsen is another opportunity to grapple with those who daily grapple with the complex issues of homelessness. Over the years, Springfield has had considerable success with the “housing first” approach to homelessness, backed by local, state and federal funding. Now, that progress is threatened by a federal executive order that would revert to criminalizing the unhoused poor. To be sure, there are still gaps in the local effort, which is sometimes slow to respond to neighborhood concerns. But there must be no retreat from the compassionate, but firm and smart, policies that have saved lives while saving money that would have been spent for hospitalization and incarceration. We all have heard, “You always have the poor with you,” but we often forget the ancient instruction, “So open your hand to the poor.” – Fletcher Farrar, editor
This article appears in Combating homelessness.
