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The Ghost of Christmas Present's short life passed at midnight on Wednesday, and the children began counting down to the appearance of his brother, one year from now.
This Christmas, as I do every Christmas, I read Dickens's A Christmas Carol. There is a scene, immediately after the departure of Marley's ghost, in which Scrooge sees disembodied souls, doomed to wander the earth. These spirits beg and plead, unseen and unheard, with The poor, the homeless and the disadvantaged. What they lament is their inability to help – a tragic irony, since they had the opportunity to act while alive, but now without physical bodies, they can do nothing.
This got me thinking about homelessness. Is it the same thing? As mayor of El Cajon, California, I have been an outspoken critic of how the state is handling the homelessness crisis. I asked myself: “Is it possible that, like a curmudgeon, I was formulating my own heavy-handed string every time I criticized voucher programs, lawlessness, and Housing First policies?” I wondered: If I received the same gift as Scrooge, what revelations might my pursuers uncover?
The Ghost of Christmas Past, which brings to mind the 1970s, will show me California is largely free of homelessness. At the time, California was a relative paradise, characterized by a sense of law and order.
Future homelessness in California will get worse if we don't change policies. FILE: The city of Berkeley, California, is being sued by several companies for failing to remove homeless encampments. (Supreme Court of the State of California, Alameda County)
But didn't Christ say: “The poor will be with us forever?” I know the 1970s were full of poor people, and I was one of them. Most of the people I knew were poor. However, we can walk downtown without experiencing the challenge of homelessness. Crime exists, but the police are empowered to protect communities. The beaches were beautiful places, not camps full of filth and despair.
Why? What has changed? In my opinion, it was a conscious decision to make homelessness a viable option – by financially supporting the homeless lifestyle, repealing laws that kept communities safe and clean, normalizing addiction and removing the stigma of homelessness (using the coarse language of the 1970s). In my imagination, the ghost would not pass any judgment, but would allow me to draw my own conclusions.
Will the Ghost of Christmas Present show me the dark and dangerous camps filled with rape, violence and despair? I think he will do it. But is the blame falling on those trapped in this hell or on politicians? Will he show me the backroom deals and development contracts that prop up the hobo-industrial complex – a system in which a select few benefit from $25 billion in wasted funds while the problem worsens, leaving NGOs begging for more?
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Will the Spirit look at the miserable and say: “Do not blame me for this misery. This is the work of man”? Does he point to the people dying on the sidewalks and say: “I see a tent left empty. If these policies do not change, then this is their fate?” Will he show me the Christmas dinner tables where people laugh and shake their heads and lament California's self-destruction?
The last ghost, like Scrooge's, will be the one I fear most. He wanted to show me California, where the cities are uninhabitable and people are scattered across the country as refugees. It will expose the lawless chaos of the streets, where sexual assault and overdose deaths are predictable. It will show closed retail stores, hospitals and crowded public places that have become unsafe. He was leading me to the ruins of the house where I was born. Perhaps he silently points his skeletal hand to places like Haiti, warning us of what lies ahead.
I hope at Christmas that the real recipients of such witch-hunting are the political decision-makers responsible for this crisis. I hope they wake up on Christmas morning with a new, vibrant vision — one that prioritizes the well-being of all Californians over greed and failed ideologies.
If I were Dickens, I would write an ending where the homeless industrial complex is dismantled and replaced with effective solutions. Most importantly, I would like to write a happy ending for those trapped in homelessness and addiction – not by empowering them, but by enforcing laws that prevent street living while providing, and sometimes requiring, appropriate treatment. I would like to see municipalities take back the tools to clean up their cities and reverse policies that have made California increasingly unlivable.
Why? What has changed? In my opinion, it was a conscious decision to make homelessness a viable option – by financially supporting the homeless lifestyle, repealing laws that kept communities safe and clean, normalizing addiction and removing the stigma of homelessness (using the coarse language of the 1970s).
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Reflecting on this, I see a disconnect between the poor and homeless in Victorian England and the crisis we face today. In 1843, there was no safety net and few options. I believe that Dickens' poor would have embraced modern shelters, employment opportunities, and rehabilitation programs – not because they were better people, but because the harsh conditions demanded it. They said, “Aren't there poor people? Are there no shelters? Many would rather die than go there.” This was their bitter reality.
But today, our commitment to the poor and homeless must be matched by their commitment to participate in their recovery. The real curmudgeon in this story is the political class that imposed a failed social experiment on Californians – a failed experiment by all standards. May we all see the truth so that we can proclaim: “God bless us all.”
