EDITORIAL — New admin, new solutions?

Any major metropolis has its share of homeless people, street dwellers, or psychotic vagrants. Most of them usually mind their own business and our encounters with them don’t normally result in anything untoward.

But this was not the case last June 27 when a woman threw a stone at a car traversing Osmeña Boulevard near Fuente Osmeña.

The stone cracked the windshield, but thankfully didn’t cause injury to the occupants of the vehicle.

The couple who owned the car and caught everything that happened on their dashcam reported the incident to the police.

It was reported by GMA that it was not the first time a police report was filed against the woman, known to be a psychotic vagrant in the area who allegedly often stoned passing vehicles.

She has been taken into custody and authorities are now asking for her family or relatives to come forward and get her.

Not too long ago another psychotic vagrant made the news after he attacked several people and stole food from others in Consolacion Town. He has also been taken in.

We are sure they aren’t the only psychotic vagrants loitering in Cebu City or other cities or towns for that matter. We are sure others have had violent or disturbing encounters with them that weren’t reported to authorities.

Who can take care of such people? Our automatic answer would of course be “their family”. But what if their family cannot afford to do so? What if they no longer have any family at all?

We hope the new administration that has just taken over City Hall has solutions for such a problem. But then again it’s not just a problem of psychotic vagrants. There are also the homeless who don’t necessarily turn violent, steal food, or attack vehicles, but relentlessly harass people for alms, occupy public spaces, or expose themselves to danger when they run in and out of traffic.