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At first I thought the suggestion was just a little slap at Reagan, considering how he's practically deified by the Right. But then I stopped to think about it. Do you remember an overabundance of street people
before Reagan? Sure, there have always been bums and hobos, but an actual problem that anybody noticed and talked about? I'm not so sure. . .
[Excerpt]
How Reagan Created "The Homeless," & Why Charity Can't Fix It
In 2008, an estimated 2.3 to 3.5 million people will be homeless for some part of the year - & the numbers have been growing. Americans have grown accustomed to seeing people sleeping in the streets of their big cities: the "homeless" seem to be a fact of nature, like the weather.
Yet I remember a time when it wasn't so. Pre-Reagan, in downtown Seattle. Sure, there were poor people downtown - mostly older men. They hung out on the streets around the market, but they didn't sleep there, they didn't even panhandle. They slept in SRO's - single-room occupancy hotels - on 1st & 2nd aves. It was a seedy area, but I was a young girl at the time, & I wasn't afraid to go there. . .
