Richard Littlefield: Look past bias, money to understand homelessness issue

To the Daily Sun,

NIMBY, or better known as Not in By Back Yard, is what some in our community feel is the best course of action in dealing with Laconia's second largest problem, and incarceration for the sake of incarceration is second best.

Laconia taxpayers foot the bill for tens of thousands of dollars for every inmate at Belknap County jail. Nobody paying taxes in the city of Laconia has a hard time seeing the hypocrisy in wanting to pinch pennies but also spend wildly to make criminals out of a homeless population that has so few criminals.

At Wednesday night's event. I laied out expectations that would come with the God Pod program.

• A monthly fee.

• Accountability check-ins.

• Curfew.

• Drug screenings.

• Clean living space and area.

• The expectation of sober living.

• A case worker for members to help them on their year long journey back to productivity.

For those who want to help themselves, they would have a workable path back in to society.

No dis- or misinformation involved, just the bare truth.

I said in my brief remarks that no town, city or community is ever going to take care of a problem like homelessness as long as people stay in the mindset that no program or structure for the homeless is ever going to be good enough to be in their community or on the streets they live on.

These people acknowledge the problem.

These people see the problem.

These people can't see past their biases and money in their pocket to be a genuine part of the broader solution.

I refuse to walk away from my brothers and sisters on Laconia's streets no matter what time, hard earned money and energy I have to give to a solution.

Richard Littlefield

Laconia