The homeless are not to blame

Re “Choosing their lots in life,” Column One, Dec. 31

I am dismayed by Steve Chawkins’ assertion that homelessness and poverty are a choice.

No one -- except perhaps the mentally ill or the wandering pseudo-hippie bohemians the author chose to feature as representative of the homeless auto dwellers -- is really happy with a “permanent berth on the asphalt.” It is an anomaly to find any feasting on an “expensive raw-food diet” and wearing “all natural clothing.”

Chawkins puts the blame for homelessness all on the individual, “bad luck, bad choices, booze, drugs or mental illness,” without a reproachful word for the economic system that actually creates the problem.

John Brennan

Los Angeles