The Homeless, Liberated

Middle Tennessee has just had two stories that highlight the plight caused by de-institutionalization of folks who are a danger to themselves and to the community at large. Three homeless men who were intoxicated lit a fire in a building in downtown Nashville in an attempt to stay warm. The inadvertent arsonists managed to ignite the place they were sheltering and the fire they started spread to another building before our fire department managed to put it out. In another incident in a bedroom community near Nashville, a homeless man allegedly molested a woman who bought copies of our homeless newspaper, The Contributor, from him. In each of these incidences, the community would have been better served if these vagrants had been held under close supervision.