For the sake of homeless youth

Although more comprehensive, unbiased data should hold greater sway in our homeless debate — Point in Time (PIT) the only such local data so far — personal experiences often attract more attention and influence.

My recent experience involved after-school math tutoring of two teenage homeless brothers serious about their education. Their father had a disabling industrial accident and mother a low-paying job. The family moved back and forth from apartment to homeless shelter — when mother’s job couldn’t afford the rent — requiring the brothers to change schools mid-semester. The after-school program and homeless shelter shared the same building so I often visited the shelter to initiate the tutoring.

Despite the best efforts of dedicated workers, the homeless shelter was chaos, with pre-schoolers crying and screaming. Sleeping in the same environment, the brothers were eternally tired trying to learn. Eventually, having exceeded their shelter stay, they vanished, rumored westward.

Summarizing, my experience overwhelmingly supports individual affordable housing units over homeless shelters. I’m unsure how typical this experience is, but the PIT data indicates it more so than fearmongers like Nadine Woodward — deeply indebted to Washington Realtors PAC — would have us believe. Whatever the full picture of homeless families, obviously life is unfair for our youth. They can neither pick their families nor the culture they grow up in. Yet as Frederick Douglass said, “It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.”

So for the sake of our homeless youth, as well as their families, vote Ben Stuckart and Breean Beggs.

Norm Luther

Spokane