Coronado, California Mayor Richard Bailey, a Republican, has managed to keep the homeless population in his city at a minimum by not allowing homeless populations to build encampments, he said in an interview with Fox News.
Instead of offering woke solutions or throwing money at the problem, Bailey’s zero-tolerance policy against encampments and other code violations have made a major impact in reducing the homeless population.
“The policies that are in place at the regional and statewide level that are tolerating this type of behavior that is personally destructive and also destructive to the surrounding communities are really enabling this situation to increase throughout our entire state and throughout our entire region,” Bailey said.
The city’s police department and a homeless service provider work together to offer reasonable services to get homeless people back on their feet. Although the city doesn’t tolerate encampments along the sidewalks or code violations such as being drunk, urinating, or defecating in public, Bailey emphasizes that they provide the option for individuals to get help.
“The fact of the matter is, although there are a myriad of reasons that people end up homeless, they eventually only fall into two camps – those that want help and those that do not want help,” Bailey said. “Those that are refusing to get help shouldn’t be granted…the ability to break laws such as tent encampments on the sidewalk or urinating or defecating in public.”
Bailey’s approach may seem harsh, but it’s proven to work. Coronado has only one homeless individual in the city, and even that person is getting help to get off the streets. This stands in stark contrast to California, which has 30 percent of the country’s homeless population and has spent $10 billion since 2018 trying to curb the problem. Little of that money has gone to enforcing laws against massive homeless encampments or open-air drug markets in San Francisco’s Tenderloin District.
Coronado’s efforts to address homelessness are gaining recognition, and the city has emerged as a shining example. Instead of permitting tent encampments on sidewalks, Coronado prioritizes getting help as the only choice. Bailey’s zero-tolerance policy for encampments and other code violations may seem harsh, but it’s the only way to help individuals who refuse to get help.
Bailey has a message for those who find his approach heartless: “We need to be enforcing these policies to ultimately help them get into that other camp that eventually gets help.”
It’s clear that cracking down on massive homeless encampments is a common-sense solution that could help reduce the homeless population, and other California politicians would do well to follow Bailey’s example.
Sources: WesternJournal, Fox News
