I commend City Councilman and congressional hopeful Brinker Harding for at least trying to do something about the homeless problem. But is it really a solution or just the go-to response when a problem doesn’t really seem solvable?

The go-to response I’m referring to? Put them in jail.

Putting someone in jail is the easy way to deal with someone who has a drug problem, or an immigration issue, or a mental health illness. Out of sight, out of mind.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying we don’t need jails. We obviously do. But incarceration rarely solves any problem if it doesn’t get to the underlying issue.

Will spending a few nights behind bars make a homeless person think they need to make some changes in their lives? Or will they appreciate a roof over their heads, a warm cot to sleep on, with no concern where their next meal is coming from?

I seriously doubt that after a few nights in the hoosgow, they will take a shower, put on some new clothes, and get a job.

In my career, I have occasionally gone out on the street and talked to those who are living there. While my experience is anecdotal, in our conversations, I have learned there is no one reason why a person ends up living like that. There are some who are there due to life’s circumstances. Perhaps they lost their job, or the breadwinner in the family died. It could have been an illness where they couldn’t work or wound up with an insurmountable medical bill that upended their life. Maybe they never got an education and don’t have a skill that can pay the bills, or they have not been able to assimilate back into society after seeing the horror of war. Others were raised by abusive parents, and life has just beaten them down.

Many stay drunk or high to help them cope with those problems, or their addictions are what put them on the streets in the first place.

There’s not a 100% solution, so it’s going to take 100 1% solutions. None of them easy.

And maybe spending 30 nights in the county jail and a $300 fine could be one of those 1% answers, but that means we still need 99 more.

Mayor Ewing is planning on providing more affordable housing along the streetcar line.

Douglas County Sheriff Aaron Hanson has proposed a program where Omaha citizens could offer their residences to those without shelter. I don’t think that is really a serious proposal, but more likely an attempt by the Sheriff to shed more light on the problem.

I’m not going to pretend that I have all the answers to getting these people off the streets and into a place of their own.

I do know that it all starts with the individual making the effort to overcome their circumstances to get the help they need. We need more facilities available for those who want that help. More support for the Open Door Mission, Sienna Francis House, The Salvation Army, and places like New Visions that help homeless veterans.

I don’t know if the homeless problem in Omaha has really gotten worse, or if I’m just noticing it more since the development downtown has forced many of the homeless to leave the library and the Gene Leahy Mall and move to more midtown locations.

I never spent much time at the Old Gene Leahy Mall or Downtown Library, so I didn’t notice the problem. Out of sight, out of mind.

But now the homeless have been camping out along busy streets and are much more visible. And while it’s unfathomable for most of us to believe, for many of the homeless, living in a tent under a bridge is their comfort zone.

There are success stories, and those need to be celebrated. People who reached their bottom and decided they couldn’t live like that anymore. They were able to get the help they needed from the limited resources available to get back on their feet.

I commend Brinker Harding, Mayor Ewing, Aaron Hanson, and anyone else working to ease the homeless problem in our city. It’s a complex societal problem that can’t be easily fixed, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try.

Tom Becka is a long time Nebraska broadcaster who for over 30 years has been covering Omaha and Midwest issues on both radio and TV. He has been a guest on numerous national cable and news shows, filled in for nationally syndicated talk radio programs and Talkers Magazine has recognized him as one of the Top 100 talk show hosts in the country 10 times. Never afraid to ruffle some feathers, his ‘Becka’s Beat’ commentaries can be found online on Youtube and other digital platforms.

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