After watching the film “Taylor’s Campaign”, I had a better understanding of just how unfair homeless people are treated, especially in the city of Santa Monica. This film was released in 1998 and it was filmed during 1994 when Taylor was running for Santa Monica City Council. When the residents of Santa Monica found out that a homeless man was running for City Council with a fifty dollar budget, they laughed. Although Taylor had several ideas to better the city, people did not take him seriously because he was homeless. Taylor wanted to help the high number of homeless people in the Santa Monica area and he focused his campaign around this.

 Unfortunately the citizens of Santa Monica felt that the homeless people were a burden and they did not like seeing them in the parks, streets, or anywhere for that matter. My reaction to this was if you have a problem with them on the streets then help them to get into a shelter. Maybe another shelter should be built for these people to go to. The police continually asked the homeless to move somewhere else because they were disturbing the houses and businesses around them and they had to move. Soon enough, these homeless people are not going to have another place to move, then what, where are they supposed to go?

There are also some citizens who want to help the homeless by giving them free food. A group of residents collected food and passed it out in one of the parks, this eventually attracted more homeless people. The city eventually shut down this group and any others giving out large amounts of food to the homeless in areas other than food pantries and such. Still to this day, you will be arrested in Santa Monica if you are caught doing this.

It is sad to see these homeless people suffering and even people who want to help them like Taylor and these food giving groups, can’t.