Tacoma: Homelessness can't be landscaped away

Re: “Shrubbery outside library meant to soften boulders” (TNT, 4-7).

Tacoma spends $19,000 to prevent the homeless from congregating next to the public library. The city continues to push the homeless issue down the street, or across the street in this case. As a city, we must work to solve the homeless issue, not landscape it.

A radio report about the decrease in library participation was not surprising with the technology age upon us. What was of interest was other cities’ solutions to utilize the library space for community services.

In place of trying to hide the homeless issue, let’s open the libraries and use this underutilized space to bring in mental health counselors and other social agencies to assist this segment of our population.

Let’s not mask over our problem and send it down the hill. I suspect that the $19,000 spent on this landscaping project could have been put to better use in solving the issue that is all around our city.

The city manager says the project is an effort to collaborate with “business and property owners to increase outreach and safety in the area.” I frankly found it nothing but a detour around the real issues.

This story was originally published April 8, 2016 at 10:17 AM with the headline "Tacoma: Homelessness can't be landscaped away."