Having been raised in Pocatello, Idaho, I met many a “hobo” because Union Pacific Railroad traveled right through town.

The word “Hobo,” according to several dictionaries, “functions as a neutral or positive self-descriptor. In general use, it is sometimes used disparagingly, but frequently the term carries positive connotations from its association with an adventurous life that is free of obligation.”

As Jack Long wrote: “The hobo never knows what is going to happen the next moment; hence, he lives only in the present moment. He has learned the futility of telic endeavor, and knows the delight of drifting along with the whimsicalities of Chance.”

Today we don’t have hobos as much as we do the chronically homeless, those who don’t want community services and prefer to live outdoors on their own. Unfortunately, today’s homeless don’t migrate from city to city.

These homeless people are a “pain,” according to some because they make the community (any community) look bad. They would have the homeless disappear.

Over the past weekend, there was a story written by written by Ethan Varian of the San Jose Mercury News asking “Why do Bay Area homeless people turn down shelter beds?”

It’s a good question because we face the same sort of issue in Woodland, where the Homeless Outreach Street Team is constantly offering services and seeing some accepted while others are rejected.

Just this past weekend, HOST contacted 51 people, offered services to 29 and saw only five accepting the help.

In 2024, HOST alone offered services to 431 individuals, and 145 of them accepted.

But as Varian tells it, there is now a group of individuals who have little desire to move indoors, such as “Baby Lady,” as she’s known on the street in San Jose, who has been homeless for nearly eight years.

“The 39-year-old with darting blue eyes has PTSD and severe anxiety dating back to childhood, making it almost impossible for her to stay in close quarters with others at homeless shelters, she said. After so long without a roof over her head, she’s grown accustomed to life in encampments.

“‘I have a phobia of windows, doors and walls,” she said. “And I can be violent and confrontational.’”

Many communities adopted more forceful approaches against the homeless following a U.S. Supreme Court decision last summer allowing local governments to close camps regardless of whether shelter beds are available.

In San Mateo County, officials made it illegal for homeless people in unincorporated areas to repeatedly refuse shelter. Months later, Berkeley updated its encampment policy to allow authorities to sweep camps without offering a bed.

However, experts and service providers are skeptical that threatening homeless people with criminal penalties will persuade them to move off the street. They also argue clearing camps often accomplishes little except pushing homeless people from one neighborhood to another.

Woodland has been trying to find a solution. This past February, Woodland Rotarians held a seminar on homelessness in hopes of finding some answers.

Today, the city offers “The Campus,” on East Bamer Street, where people can get services, a bed or even live in a “tiny home” as well as get substance abuse treatment, job training and food.

Yet, there are still people who decline to accept services. I don’t know the solution, other than to accept that there are people who like living on the street.

How to get them to become “hobos” isn’t an acceptable solution; not if we want to maintain our humanity.

Jim Smith is the former editor of The Daily Democrat, retiring in 2021 after a 27-year career at the paper.