The headline and focus of your recent editorial decrying homeless people camping on the Greenfield Common has its priorities exactly wrong.
The outrage is that people do not have access to housing or safe temporary places to sleep at night. Not that some people find them unsightly. The statute that needs to be passed, would be one that makes it possible for these and others forced to camp out to do so on other more appropriate public property, which is impossible under current existing statutes.
Unfortunately, the wheels turn exceptionally slowly. A consortium of social service agencies, the faith community, activist groups and city officials is currently seeking a safe, sanitary place for people to sleep at night from now until around the end of October.
Unless immediate emergency efforts are made, it’s likely official action will come too late to make a difference this year. Let’s deal with the disgraceful problem of people not having a place to sleep at night, then those who are more concerned with the grass, like a prominent City Councilor whose name you can probably guess.
It’s hard to see what the mayor’s service fairs will do to deal with this issue and the “roundtables” have been taking place already, although he himself has not been personally involved.
Ken Eisenstein
Shelburne Falls