Since the pandemic, the homeless population has doubled or maybe even tripled throughout the Garden City, according to the Salvation Army.
The signs are everywhere.
People with backpacks or pushing shopping carts are seen roaming up and down Washington Road, Peach Orchard Road and Gordon Highway. Litter, needles and human excrement can be found under the highway overpasses, and just across from one of the city’s architectural jewels, Sacred Heart Community Center, tent cities spring up almost weekly.
No sooner do Sheriff’s deputies clear out the tents and clean up the area than they spring right back up. We have even witnessed “cookouts” under the Calhoun Expressway.
There used to be an urban legend that the city of Augusta would round up every homeless person that could be found just prior to Masters Week and bus them out of town so that visitors would get a “proper” Garden City experience.
While that never happened, there is significant evidence that other cities are rounding up their homeless and busing them to Augusta.
Reports surfaced that unmarked buses were routinely seen pulling up to the Waffle House at I-20 and Washington Road. When the police caught wind of this, the bus drivers simply changed their drop off points.
Certainly, the Sheriff’s Office does not have the manpower to park an undercover officer at every suspected location each Saturday night when these drop-offs are allegedly occurring.
This is one public nuisance that the public can aid the authorities in quashing, and the public can help by doing nothing.
Aside from those with legitimate mental health issues, being homeless is largely a lifestyle funded by panhandling. Reporter John Stossell led an investigation by pretending to be homeless himself and found that a good panhandler can make $300 to $500 per day.
The panhandling fuels the drug and alcohol habits that many homeless suffer from.
Other communities have found that by the citizens doing nothing and police simply enforcing the laws already on the books, the homeless problem dries up.
This means that if someone approaches you with a sob story asking for money, politely tell them no and move on.
Store owners can aid by not allowing loitering in front of their businesses.
On its face, it may sound cruel, but the reality is that no one in Augusta needs to be homeless. The Salvation Army, United Way and Veterans Administration all have programs with high success rates of getting people off the streets.
If their source of income is removed, the panhandlers will pack up their tents and move on to another town.
