Linda Yellin’s letter, “Homelessness Needs a Real Solution” (EW 7/1), no doubt makes good points about society’s inability to address homelessness, but just like the Weekly article it was responding to, she fails to address the true root cause of the problem.
In the 1970s we did not have the homelessness that we do today. We didn’t have droves of tents lining the streets of some of the most affluent cities in the country. So what happened?
There has been a blatant, rampant, shameless upward redistribution of the country’s wealth. The top one percent have watched their investment portfolios balloon to ever greater wealth, while the rest have languished and countless people have fallen through the cracks, landing on the street. The situation has worsened under COVID as the government has dumped trillions of dollars into the financial markets, further enriching the already wealthy.
To meaningfully address the root cause of homelessness, we need to reverse the class warfare that the wealthy have waged against the poor and middle classes for the last 40-plus years. We must do it forcefully and unapologetically. We can even create jobs by hiring musicians to play soothing violin music for the millionaires who whimper at seeing their fortunes reduce slightly.
Robert Bolman
Eugene