O Homeless Brother

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            There is a homeless crisis in this country due to many causes: the economy, rising house costs and lost jobs. Most attempts to help, however are hampered by irrational fear and ignorance.

            While the problem is hotly debated in city meetings across the country, shelters and missions are filled to capacity and people wait on long lists to find anywhere to live. Instead of active compassion, the homeless are dismissed with worn cliches:  "These bums are a hopeless plague of thieving junkie locusts that leave garbage everywhere. Go out and get a job.  The next time you hear that ask them, would they hire a homeless person? How easy was it for you to get your job? Where can they get a full night's sleep, wear clean clothes and show up for employment on time while living on the streets? If giving the homeless a safe, healthy place to live seems extravagant, imagine wandering around downtown in pain or in severe weather without money or warm shoes and see how that feels.

            They would be off the streets if they had a safe place but many city governments are unwilling or unable to even provide space for tiny homes or camping. A well meaning activist in LA  built portable shelters for those on the streets only to have the city confiscate them with all the possessions inside. (https://www.npr.org/2016/03/03/469054634/la-officials-bring-the-hammer-down-on-tiny-houses-for-homeless) We can not expect government to solve the problem when they have no incentive to do so.

            Criminalizing the homeless is spendy and doesn't work. The cost of jail in Oregon is approximately $85/day per person, or about $30,000 a year. Having people on the street varies from $25,000 to $80,000 depending upon the location. The cost of affordable housing in Portland is $85,000 to $250,000 per unit. After doing the math, many cities have decided it's cheaper to build low rent apartments rather than having people living on the street or in jail/prison. Utah had a 67% drop in homelessness by giving the chronically homeless an apartment and a social worker to help them regain their life.

              "They chose to be homeless" is another way of saying  "it will never happen to me, so why should I care". Actually it could happen to any of us as many live one pay check away form eviction or foreclosure. They don't want the homeless around to remind them how close to the edge they are.

            "In reality, there are scary people in this shelter and it’s going to be located very close to lots of children."  Replace the shelter with a liquor, adult or gun store and you have the usual over reaction so common with NIMBY. When in doubt, bring up the imagined threat to children. In reality such concerns are a naive attempt to deny the reality of poverty and the dangers of the world.

            "There will be trash, needles and waste if they live nearby," goes the angry objection. No, not if they have a home and are educated on how to be a good neighbor, not to mention the stability to get treatment for addiction or mental illness.

            The core of this fear is that a community chooses to see the poor as disposible failures. Seeing them as a real or imagined threat is an excuse to justify intolerance. Never mind that they are members of said community.

            The homeless are suspicious, paranoid and violent as a reaction to their harsh situation, not as a normal behavior. How would you behave if you were scorned, ignored or derided all the time?

            Once we get past our reflex fear and see these are human beings who are, for numerous reasons poor, jobless or ill, we can see that helping those less fortunate is the way to improve the wellness of the whole community here and now.