About 600,000 people are homeless in the United States, with about 256,000 living outside on any given night, according to federal counts. “Punishing the victims of our failed housing policies will not solve homelessness. It will make it worse. It will increase the number of people unable to get inside.” (OREGONLIVE.com)
Maybe the quote, “There but for the grace of God go I,” is appropriate when considering the conditions of being with a permanent home, not living on the streets. Maybe the quote, “any place I hang my hat is home.,” sounds romantic, kind of adventurous, until you start hanging your hat on the top of a trash container. Maybe as we all sleep in our beds, in the same place each night, be it a mansion or a studio apartment, we could become arrogant enough to say things like, “if they wanted something better, they would find it.” Maybe as we purchase our second or third home, purchase a property to “flip it,” we are so annoyed at the time and effort it now takes to renovate a home, add on to our homes we have no time to consider anyone else but ourselves. Maybe when the local news outlet pretends to run one of their “from our hearts and conscience” segments and the coiffed, well-dressed reporters, often times wearing their-so called “street clothes,” you know the $200 jeans, the log- laden winter jacket, and their $300 sneakers, interview some people living on the street a drug addict, a person looking dirtier than the rest, some of those folks do say, they like it better on the streets, and as they say things like that, we become safely pompous and say, “nothing I can do about it, if that is what they want.”
Is it Socialism to desire all people to have a modicum of shelter, nutrition, health care, and both the physical and mental care? Is it Capitalism to even think that if people don’t pull themselves from their own bootstraps, they should pay the consequences, even if they don’t have the wherewithal to first purchase those boots to strap up? Is it now the new American Populism to suggest that “we vs they,” is a healthy way to grow or just die?
About 600,000 people are homeless in the United States, with about 256,000 living outside on any given night. Facts may not matter to the Politicians, to their wealthy donors, their wealthy owners and operators. When it is fact of life to be homeless, but that fact has not affected your way of life, does that fact matter?
