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.
No comments:
Post a Comment