What does Democratic Party homeless policy look like? Having to fight a legal battle to remove a massive homeless encampment riddled with diseases because the homeless people have a union.
Such is the story of the left-wing cesspool of a city that is Berkeley, the cutting edge of progressivism in progressive California. The city has finally begun clearing a homeless encampment that has been around for nearly a decade, as the encampment has become a fire risk as well as a public health hazard. The encampment was full of rats and dogs infected with leptospirosis, which, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, can lead to “kidney damage, meningitis (inflammation of the membrane around the brain and spinal cord), liver failure, trouble breathing, and even death.”
LOS ANGELES GREEN-LIGHTS MORE HOMELESS ENCAMPMENTS
This led to two human residents of the camp contracting the disease, the first known human cases of leptospirosis in Berkeley in over a decade. One of the two was hospitalized, and the other died from the illness.
The city could have gotten around to clearing out this obvious hazard sooner, but the Berkeley Homeless Union filed a lawsuit to block city action. Now, Berkeley is allowed to clear the encampment if it accommodates disabled homeless residents by storing their belongings and helping them move, which the union says the city is failing to do, which will likely lead to more legal action.
Yes, you read that correctly: There is a homeless union for homeless people in Berkeley, which is committed to fighting to ensure that they can live in rat-infested, disease-ridden tent encampments that are liable to burn down a city block at a moment’s notice. Throw some Palestinian flags and a taxpayer-funded abortion or two in there, and you have the perfect image of Democratic governance.
ENDING LA’S HOMELESS INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX
The main line of thinking for progressive Democrats when it comes to homelessness is that homeless encampments are something worth protecting, rather than clear public safety hazards that should be eradicated whenever they pop up. They view the homeless almost as a version of noble savages whose lifestyles must be protected, when those lifestyles are literally killing them with diseases that are spread by rat urine.
The real solution for homelessness is to build homeless shelters and then prosecute those who remain homeless, giving them the option of a shelter bed or jail. Instead, progressives want to allow them to build homeless encampments until those become a hazard and then enter into legal battles with union representatives who want to allow homeless people to build their own garbage dumps on public street corners, fire damage and rat urine diseases be damned.