The French author Anatole France wrote, “The law, in its majestic equality, forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal their bread.”
The oft-quoted 19th-century skeptic might have smiled ruefully at a news conference Gov Ron DeSantis held last week to sign a law intended to drive homeless people out of urban areas.
Come Oct. 1, cities and counties may no longer allow homeless people to pitch tents on sidewalks or make a lean-tos in public parks to spend the night; rather, they will be directed to shelters or designated camping fields, supposedly safe from drugs and crime.
Well, make that “safer” — it’s got to be better than life, literally, in the gutter.
The idea behind the legislation is not just to move homeless people, but to steer them to drug treatment, mental-health counseling or other programs to return their lives to some normality.
Read the rest of Bill Cotterell’s latest Capitol Column.