The Vashon Alliance to Reduce Substance Abuse (VARSA) is taking on the problem of teen drinking in our community, which, as a mother of three, I fully support. But there is another population of drinkers that is getting caught in this net, and we may experience some unintended consequences if we don’t try to understand the issues unique to them.

The people I am talking about are the older vagrants who inhabit the Village Green much of the time. I doubt that environmental changes will affect their drug use patterns as effectively as with teenagers who have a home and parents with whom to spend their time. I am not aware of a teenage drinking problem in the center of town.

We will never have a population 100 percent free of vagrants. Therefore, the “solution” we seek has to be in how we manage the safety and housing for these people. Out of site, out of mind is not going to make them go away.

The solutions proposed so far are to put in a motion sensor light at the Village green and possible folding tables so people can’t occupy them, shorten all the bushes so people can’t hide, take out the little park at the pharmacy and remove the eucalyptus tree. I can’t help but wonder where these people are supposed to go or whose backyard or woods they will inhabit if we drive them out of town.

Is a no sitting, no vegetation policy really what we want in our town center? Is it effective in the case of the people who depend on someplace sheltered to be? Is a one-size-fits-all solution realistic?

I don’t think stripping our town center of vegetation, history, sitting places and beauty is the answer. What have other communities done around the world? What works? What’s humane? Let’s find out before we make more permanent changes to our town.

— Celina Yarkin