In this episode of “Try to Control Your Shock and Astonishment”…
South of Democrat-governed Denver with its homeless crisis, conservative Douglas County practically eliminated its own homeless population with a basic message to its citizens:
“Alms don’t help.”
There are about 70 signs with this message throughout the county, mostly at intersections and along roads that were once popular meeting places for local beggars. Each sign also alerts citizens to the Douglas has heart Homeless Initiative website where they can direct their donations to the Douglas County Community Foundation. The county also uses print media and social media ads to spread the message in the community.
Douglas County Republican County Commissioner Abe Laydon said he came to the initiative through “common sense.”
The thought came to me out of common sense. I saw many people like my daughter who were torn at a crossroads. When you see someone who seems to be down on their luck, you feel bad driving past and doing nothing – but on the other hand, we all know the stories of people who perhaps haven’t used all the money they received in the most appropriate way. Maybe it goes to food, maybe to medicine – you don’t know where the money goes.
Common sense
“The more you give on those corners, the more people seem to come there,” says Laydon, adding, “It becomes a topic of conversation on the street. If you go to that corner, you get money there.”
Common sense, like facts and logic, are foreign to the Democratic Party and the left in general.
Speaking of facts, here is more:
Between 2022 and 2024, Douglas County saw a edged decline in the number of homeless people, from 43 to just six, according to the latest count report conducted by several nonprofit organizations. Including those sleeping in their cars and in shelters in the area, the total number of homeless people fell from 96 to 69, according to the count.
On that day, July 29, no beggars or camps were seen in the county’s five districts.
Based on the city’s own counts at the time, which include people living in shelters and on the streets, there were 9,065 homeless people in Denver in 2023, up from 6,884 in 2022.
“I saw it coming from Denver,” Laydon said, continuing, “People were getting off the light rail, not paying a ticket and getting off at the Long Tree stop.” [and] and before you know it, they’re begging for money on a street corner.”
It was kind of like that everywhere, but never as bad as downtown Denver. We started in a good place. [Our smaller homeless population] gave us the opportunity to nip this problem in the bud before it really got out of hand.
Let’s think about this from both perspectives: that of the residents of Douglas County and that of the homeless panhandlers.
Preemptively eliminating potential violence in the county increases citizen safety, thereby reducing fear and stress. Removing homeless panhandlers from the streets – some of whom I’d venture a bet are drug addicts – potentially reduces fatal overdoses – potentially for the homeless who operate the county’s homeless initiative.
READ ALSO:
Trump/Vance’s up-to-date commercial, “Forgotten Cities,” was set to run nationwide
San Francisco spends millions on free alcohol for the homeless, causing controversy
Gavin Newsom shows up at the homeless camp for a creepy, bogus photo shoot and pretends to care about the problem
The conclusion
Douglas stands in stark contrast to Democrat-run Denver, as well as cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago and other decimated Democrat-dominated cities across the country. While leftists might call Douglas County’s initiative heartless, the opposite is true: The conservative county’s initiative shows the real hearts of its citizens.
Yet for more than sixty years, the Democratic Party has claimed to be the “party of compassion.”
You have to imagine that.
