Homelessness is often intertwined with substance abuse, addiction, and mental-health issues. Some living unsheltered on the street have faced an array of tragic circumstances. But others have chosen to live on the street. Many progressives — including those who govern major American cities — cannot wrap their heads around the latter reality. The United States, as a nation, has the resources to address this problem, but city leaders lack the necessary grit to implement strategies that actually work.
Regardless of the ineptitude of city and state leaders to enforce their own laws, the poor, the unsheltered, and the unclothed always ought to be the first and foremost priority of charitable missions. This does not mean, however, that public-transit systems are the proper venue for this charitable project. The purpose of public transit is . . . to transport the public.
The Chicago Transit Authority is evidently ignoring this basic fact. In a scarcely believable video, Tom McKone, the agency’s chief administrative officer, proudly shows the viewer around the CTA’s new homeless initiatives on the “L” (the elevated train).
The video begins with an interview of a concerned CTA rider, who asks, “What’s being done about the problems we see with homeless people riding the trains and sleeping on the benches and that kind of thing?”
McKone responds, “Well, we do want to urge our customers and everybody to remember that it’s not a crime to be homeless . . . but what is a challenge is people who continuously ride and who do use the system for shelter and that’s where we’ve looked to engage the outreach to provide assistance to those individuals who are sheltering on the train and not using it for transportation services.”
Beaming, he waves his arm and proudly states that the CTA has established “a pilot program with a couple of outreach agencies” across a few lines to provide “outreach services for individuals experiencing homelessness.” (Different scenes of ostensibly homeless people sleeping on trains flash across the screen.) Because of CTA’s status as a makeshift shelter since the pandemic, McKone decided that the CTA should formalize this designation. (Nowhere in the video does he mention any efforts by the CTA to discourage “individuals experiencing homelessness” from sleeping on trains, benches, etc.)
If homelessness is a growing problem in the city, this is not for the transit authority to solve.
Ridership on the CTA has plummeted since Covid-19 and is nowhere near 2019 numbers. Consequently, revenue has fallen sharply. Dedicating train stops as access points for those seeking social resources will hardly encourage typical commuters to use the system.
The hypothetical is not hard to imagine: If trains and stations are designated gathering places for homeless people, average transit users will feel less safe on their route. A mother will be less inclined to push her stroller through those areas. A young woman on her way to work will take an Uber to avoid that stop. In short — those who can afford other options of transit will use them, while those who must rely on public transit will be left to suffer the consequences of the degradation of the system.