Seattle is so generous to the homeless that it's known as "Freeattle." So it's not surprising that in this lovely, liberal city there would be protests over recent sweeps to remove homeless camps from greenbelts and underpasses. The city claims the camps are unsanitary and unsafe. The protesters say there are not enough shelters.
To be sure, the homeless here are not as obnoxious as in San Francisco. Even the People's Republic of Berkeley has had second thoughts about doing nothing to address panhandling and defecating on sidewalks. Phoenix, which offers a harsh minimum of services, eased somewhat in recent years by a services campus pushed by some business leaders, still attracts a huge homeless population.
My personal reaction to this has changed in recent years. Based on my street experience as an ambulance medic, I knew panhandlers would just go buy drugs or booze. So I never gave money. Once I started reading the Bible with more diligence, I changed my behavior. Now I always give money. This is just me. And it doesn't represent a societal answer.
The big problem is that the word "homeless" obscures, rather than illuminates, the issue. Some homeless are people who have hit hard times, those living paycheck to paycheck when disaster strikes. Some are families, especially women with children. These are situations that can be made better, and a variety of programs around the country offer best practices. More funding here is needed.
A huge cohort is on the brink of homelessness. American society has changed so radically. Family ties have been severed. Small towns have been blown apart by migration, economic shifts and sprawl. People teeter on the brink because of a revolution in the way work is valued, incomes polarized and globalization felt. Many people don't know how to save, avoid credit cards, put off gratification. Their children are shortchanged by school systems starved by tax cuts, and in some cases stifled by bureaucrats. We're only beginning to grapple with this, but it, too, can be addressed.
Yet another portion of the homeless -- a big one -- is made up of the mentally ill and substance abusers. While we need more effective outreach and funding, many of these homeless refuse to take their meds, don't want to cure the jones. This makes them worth no less in the eyes of God than the churchgoing prude, but it does make addressing their problems much more difficult. Amid this, we have the hardcore, primarily male, population of street people. Many don't want shelters, because they don't want to abide by the shelter rules. Many don't want "homes," in the sense of a bourgeois life.
In many cases, the impact of this latter population is obnoxiously unequal. For example, the aggressive panhandler who bothers people on the street and takes a crap on the sidewalk has an unequal impact to the person who is simply walking down the street to an honest day's work. This can turn deadly, and sometimes does, when drugs and mental illness are added to the mix. It can make cities unlivable (although, we should never forget that suburban zoning has deliberately left the "homeless" to rot in our central cities -- many of those souls probably originally lost in the 'burbs). So it's not unreasonable for a society to set and enforce norms. It's not wrong to say that obligations go both ways, and some able-bodied men who once might have been called hobos just need to get a job and do their part. Caring, including in the form of effective government programs, and personal responsibility are both required
I don't have the answer. The best I can come up with is better funding for the best practices to address the true homeless and get them back in society. We need more aggressive use of best practices to address mental illness on the streets. But I would also support a return to a kind of vagrancy laws, so cops can make that pushy, even threatening, panhandler move along. And a return to skid rows, but this time as a well-policed haven for the street people, with social services and bars.
Thoughtful.
Posted by: Petro | June 09, 2008 at 10:29 AM