Anaheim Motel Ruling Hurts the Poor
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* Re “City’s Ruling Means Fear for Families,” Feb. 29:
The city government of Anaheim is sounding more Scrooge-like every day.
The effort on the part of the City Council to limit the number of days a person may reside in a motel is representative of Orange County’s war on the appearance of poverty in our midst, while doing nothing to fight the root causes of poverty.
Never mind that motel living is often the last stop between a secure home and homelessness. Orange County as a whole seems to consider poverty the most heinous of crimes.
For example, take a person for whom the struggle for daily bread is relentless. Unable to scrape together enough extra cash to pay the car registration fee, the person is issued a ticket.
Unable to pay the ticket, the car is impounded. Unable to pay the impound fee, the car, often the only asset a poor person has, is then lost.
Unable to pay fines for driving without a proper registration, the person winds up doing 90 days in County Jail. Meanwhile, the family, struggling to maintain even the most basic lifestyle, hunkers down in a cheap motel, waiting for eviction.
It would behoove our city fathers to wage war against poverty rather than against the poor.
LISA COOPER-KEIL
Huntington Beach
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