Nah fuck that complacency.
Go complain about it. Complain that we’re failing people. Complain that we don’t build enough homes. Complain that our social safety net lets people end up in tents.
Fuck this benign neglect bullshit that has let the homeless rot rather than housing them.
Except complaining will get you absolutely nowhere, because the people you’re complaining to (E: with the power to do anything within the existing system) don’t give a shit at best, and at worst, get their kicks out of sweeping homeless camps and abusing their occupants (or at best, are already on your side, in which case you’re still achieving absolutely nothing by complaining).
Maybe consider “do some direct action to actually help people” instead.
“do some direct action to actually help people” instead.
Do you have any recommendations?
Go out in to your own community and figure out what’s needed. I have no idea where you live, how you’re able to help, or what kind of support your community might need.
Start by looking for a Food Not Bombs or other group helping feed vulnerable people, and go from there, I’m sure that at the very least they’d appreciate a donation and or helping hand, but more importantly, they’ll be able to point you in to several directions where your help could be used.
Also https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/petr-kropotkin-mutual-aid-a-factor-of-evolution
Depends where it is too… Out of the way somewhere? Yeah no prob, you do what you gotta do. Middle of a sidewalk or in front of a door? Yeah, sorry you’re making things less accessible and safe so gotta move.
Or am I reading too much nuance into a lazy meme?
Yea, I’ll very softly grumble before/after passing an encampment if they’re taking up a sidewalk that I need to walk on, or both sidewalks on a street. However, I put up with it. It’s bullshit that they have to live like this.
Having homeless encampments is a decision a nation makes. The US decided it wants them. The richest nation on earth absolutely has the resources to house every single individual within its borders in a decent apartment. If homeless encampments exists, they do because the US decided they want it. So leave the people your society dumped on the streets the fuck alone and don’t make their lives harder.
I spotted a tent in a public park this time last year. No way was i gonna narc but knew they were doomed because they were in full view of a paved trail. A few days later a newspaper article said two people were found inside. One alive, one deceased
Don’t leave us hanging. What does “found inside” mean? Froze to death or murdered? What does being in full view from the path have to do with it?
They were in full view of the trail so i knew someone would call the cops or rangers on them. This isn’t an area where folks are accustomed to seeing homeless people.
The news article said the person died of exposure which i took to mean froze to death though it hadn’t gotten that cold yet. My fishing buddy later said a ranger told him it was a man and a woman sharing a sleeping bag and it was the woman who had died.
Homelessness is becoming more common where i live. I’m thinking some don’t have much experience sleeping in the cold and don’t realize how important it is to insulate yourself from the ground. This may account for the woman freezing to death despite it not being that cold yet
Wow that’s rough. But thanks for following up.
I can’t shake this thought. Losing your job, or your rent increasing beyond your means, resulting in your getting evicted… IDK, it just doesn’t sound like it’s so impossible for most Americans.
But imagine that you lost your job, your SO says “never mind honey, I still love you, we’ll get through this. We have got that tent, and we always talked about going camping. Cheer up, let’s go sleeping bag shopping with our last cash” and then they end up freezing to death next to you two weeks later.
It’s always baffling to me that the NIMBY Karens complain about the person taking the last resort to shelter themselves, rather than the systemic failure of making shelter a commodity in the first place.
I moved back in to my parents home to help get my niece and nephew adopted. Each kid needed their own room also putting me in garage or basement wasn’t good options.
I bought a small four season canvas bell tent and pitched it up out in the back yard. My two immediate neighbors were cool with it, but I spotted one of my distant neighbors spying on me as I was setting it up and taking pictures with their phone. It was creepy as shit. Bored homeowner suburbanites with nothing to do but work, collect stuff, mow the lawn, and worry about their neighbors affecting their property value are a very unique breed of neurotic. I was concerned the HOA would be throwing a fit but its been living in it over a year now no complaints. I guess the neighbors see me taking care of the kids playing with them outside or babysiting in the tent and understand that the situation unconventional but for good reasons.
Fuck NIMBY. Out of sight, out of mind, right?
Unless the person in there will get city provided shelter if reported
Mind your own fucking business
And if a local park is full of them and is now inaccessible by the public? What if it’s full of used needles? Would you let the person keep destroying their own life further in this case? There are municipal departments that have trained employees to help those in need, in my view this is the compassionate thing to do. That’s why there’s funding for these organizations
Then that’s not a tent. 🤣
Wdym? Like if it’s an encampment?
I don’t really understand what threshold under which things ahouls remain as is
