Homelessness is uncalled for

[Cardinal]

Originally posted by oryzias
It seems to me that there are two schools of thought regarding homelessness. Most of you seem to share the first; that the homeless have failed society by refusing to live up to our standards (in refusing help and failing to thrive, despite attempts made for their success.) Hence, we are justified in hating the homeless, who choose to be a burden.

The second is that society has failed the homeless, by providing inadequate support and resources, and by creating structural shortcomings, such as unemployment and a shortage of affordable housing, that virtually guarantee that a certain percentage of society will be homeless. Hence, the homeless are to be empathized with, and helped.

I think if you read the post carefully (here and a few in other threads) you will see that most of us fall into both camps. Some people have not found the societal support - families, employers, and the like as well as government programs - to keep them from becoming homeless. Other are and remain homeless through their personal failings and/or decisions they have made.

I also think it is wrong to suggest that people here "hate" the homeless. Again, this seems to suggest that all of the homeless are alike. What I have said, and heard from others, is that the negative impacts of some of the people on the street, thinks such as aggressive panhandling, public urination, etc., do have impacts on the health of our cities, downtowns, and neighborhoods. This has to be recognized within our field of planning as we struggle to revitalize communities and curb sprawl.

A few weeks ago I witnessed one agressive panhandler in Chicago. He would ask for change, and when turned down, would follow, yell at, and try to intimidate his victim. When I passed him, this person reeked of cigarettes and alchohol. I don't need to wonder if the teenage girl or businessman I saw him harassing took home a negative image of the city, and whether that might influence their desire to shop or live there in the future. Should our society tolerate this kind of behaviour? The only answer is 'No." Treatment should be made available, but if they fail to take advantage of it, they should be "harassed" by the police or locked up where they cannot threaten anyone. That is not me hating a group of people or even an individual, but taking a hard line against those who deprive others of their rights, safety, and opportunity.


Edit

Why not try to lesson our structural causes of homelessness, while also requiring an element of individual responsibility?

I missed this at the end of your post, but seeing it, I think we can agree on the right path to a solution.

[BKM]

I think Michael hit it on the head, most of us recognize that there are different reasons for being homeless, and that there are certainly people who "society" has failed. But, there are the lazy, the willful, and the violent. You can look for root causes until the cows come home, but the fact is that the latter minority of problem bums (and it is a minority) are still there and still have to be dealt with on a daily basis.

I guess the problem I see-which leads to the somewhat aggressive statements by some of us-is that the poverty industry-and it is an industry-is unwilling to accept the second case. All homeless people are innocent victims of society. Any reforms that limit unrestricted cash payments or require "personal responsibility" are "fascist attacks on the poor." Any attempt to enforce local community standards-at all-are "caving into yuppie suburbanites."

This leads to (somewhat facetious) statements like "ship them to the next town." Nobody really believes that to be the solution (as the resident of a "next town" to the Bay Area, I certainly hope not.)

[chriswerner_1]

Oryzias,

In your post you said that you did the homeless thing for awhile. Having had the experience of living out of a vehicle also (barely running minivan) and having made a new meaning for the term "self-storage" I can relate to some of what you are saying. I paid $15 for a Y pass (to shower daily) and paid $12 a month for a phone message service plus a monthly fee for a mail box. I was also in the US living in a state that didn't require automobile insurance... (ah, those were the days) It's a good thing the leasing company had no idea where I was or my 10 year old vehicle/home would have been repossesed.
I have also slept in some very odd places when times were tough. But if you review the main point of my message it is not to say that homelessness can't "happen." My circumstances came about as several poor decisions. It wasn't the result of alcohol or drugs (since I've never been into that scene) But the point of the message is that there is always a way out of this type of situation if one will only do what it takes. There are shelters out there. There are churches that will help also. Homelessness should be a temporary thing and not a permanent way of life. To say "there is no excuse for homelessness" really means there is no excuse to remain homeless when there are so many resources out there to get back on the right foot. So then we're back to two broad groups of people. 1. the mentally incompetent. They cannot fend for themselves because they don't have the capacities to do so, in which case they should be introduced to a care facility. You wouldn't leave a helpless child on the street for the very same reasons. The second group is those who have chosen (perhaps by default) not to get out of the situation they're in. This includes addicts and those who stubbornly refuse to join society perhaps due to their philosophical beliefs etc. That is why I said earlier that perhaps these people who are choosing not to live by the basic rules of our civilization should be evicted from our civilization. This of course is infeasible. Our governments are not about to "ship off" the undesirables to some distant locale or a gas chamber. Obviously another solution needs to be implemented. That would be stricter by-laws that are rigourously enforced. The goal of which is to gently prod our disenfranchised bohemians and drug addicts to take the preferred course of action which is to take advantage of the resources available to them and or to just do what it takes to become employable... get off drugs.. etc.etc.