We are deeply disappointed that the long-awaited $73,000 study — intended to provide a strategy to address the homelessness crisis in Asheville — so misses the mark and touts enabling and dependency rather than promoting the need to earn a living in its recommendations.

In our view, the top priority in the homelessness “gameplan” should have been innovative ways to instill a work ethic, including a pride in earning one’s own way and a desire to be independent (rather than relying on handouts indefinitely), allowing the homeless to transition as seemlessly as possible into the workforce as soon as possible.

The 50-plus-page report, released Jan. 23, was devised by the National Alliance to End Homelessness and features its findings as well as its recommendations for addressing unsheltered homelessness in Asheville. The Alliance was hired by the city and Buncombe County as a consultant on the problem.

In brief, the report outlines five strategies and 30 recommendations for city and county leaders — perhaps most notably a proposal to increase shelter beds by 30 percent in Asheville.

Aside from a recommendation to “implement moving on strategies,” we saw nothing in the report mentioning what we consider the most important aspect of the issue of homelessness here or anywhere, which is the truism that it is more worthwhile to teach someone to do something (for themselves) than to do it for them (on an ongoing basis). This relates to the famous quotation atop this editorial about “teaching a man to fish.”

Instead, the report mainly focuses on streamlining bureaucracy and providing more and better services to the homeless, which will likely cause the homeless population in Asheville to skyrocket, as word gets around the Southeast that nobody treats the homeless “better” than Asheville. Ugh!

A long-time volunteer at a homeless shelter, requesting anonymity, shared with the Daily Planet her view about “the mindset” of these folks as follows: “Most of them are just lazy and they don’t want to work. Homelessness is a lifestyle and many of them think those who actually work for a living are ‘suckers.’”

We urge our leaders to assign, when feasible, work to offset the cost of handouts, to ensure that the homeless soon are able to actually earn a living.