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News & ArtsThursday, June 16, 2011
Mailbag Completely Ending Homelessness
Posted by Dominic Holden on Thu, Jun 16, 2011 at 11:05 AM
This flyer just came in the mail:
End homelessness! Maybe by the end of June! It's literally impossible, but we hear this kind of message a lot. Is this talking point useful? Like, are more folks willing to help reduce homelessness if they somehow believe they're ending it completely?
1
Well, it is usually much easier to get people who believe outlandish claims to follow orders than people who don't. Take religion for example.
2
You know what you don't hear much about anymore? The Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness. We're more than 6 years into it.
3
The number of homeless in Fremont and other neighborhoods is skyrocketing due to the focus on Pioneer Square.
Push one place, it comes out the other.
Push one place, it comes out the other.
4
Two easy ways to end homelessness:
Re-designate recessed store entrances and refrigerator boxes as "homes" = the end of homelessness.
Jail anyone who doesn't have a physical address = the end of homelessness.
/Nobody said it had to be fair or realistic
Re-designate recessed store entrances and refrigerator boxes as "homes" = the end of homelessness.
Jail anyone who doesn't have a physical address = the end of homelessness.
/Nobody said it had to be fair or realistic
6
Here's my plan to end homelessness:
Buy them homes.
In Detroit and Cincinnati they are giving away homes or selling for $1000.
7
"End Homelessness!" is a better slogan than "Mitigate the Negative Social Consequences of Homelessness!" although the second is probably a more realistic goal.
8
The Space Needle, Inc. says they're willing to promise to fly the rainbow flag every year, but the gays have to end homelessness first.
9
Impossible? We could've ended homelessness by spending $1.4 trillion of the THIRTEEN TRILLION dollar financial services bailout to pay for all of those defaulted mortgages, and the rest to buy every person in the u.s. a home with enough left to cover everyone's health insurance in the u.s. It's impossible because we're a dying nation, and prefer to spend money helping criminal speculators continue to criminally speculate while contributing not a single job to the u.s. economy. Now with that reality in mind, how much silver can you steal from the dining hall of the titanic and make it to a lifeboat in time?
10
Here are some fun facts: Mary's Place, one of the few shelters that will temporarily house families --- read single women with children, often seeking refuge from DV --- saw a 200% spike in traffic between January 1, 2011 and May 1, 2011. The MP admin approached over 200 landlords, both residential and commercial, appealing to them that they allow use of vacant space. Not a single one agreed.
'Ending Homelessness' is the worst kind of fluffy rhetoric. Imagine a campaign to 'end' mental illness? Or disagreeable social skills? Ridiculous notions, and rightly so.
Homelessness is a condition, a symptom, not unlike terrorism. I remember years back, Savage riled up the NW AIDS Alliance by suggesting it was an opportunistic agency, that it was growing itself as a business on the backs of the patients it served. But this is the essence of institutional dynamics. Agencies like Plymouth Housing or DESC employ people --- more people every day --- because demand is growing. And those employees want to stay employed.
These are complicated issues composed of nothing but moving parts, no brilliant insight there. But the longer we acknowledge rhetoric about 'ending' things like homelessness, or hunger or terrorism or ignorance, the longer we'll face the consequences of our own hypocrisy and narrowness of imagination.
'Ending Homelessness' is the worst kind of fluffy rhetoric. Imagine a campaign to 'end' mental illness? Or disagreeable social skills? Ridiculous notions, and rightly so.
Homelessness is a condition, a symptom, not unlike terrorism. I remember years back, Savage riled up the NW AIDS Alliance by suggesting it was an opportunistic agency, that it was growing itself as a business on the backs of the patients it served. But this is the essence of institutional dynamics. Agencies like Plymouth Housing or DESC employ people --- more people every day --- because demand is growing. And those employees want to stay employed.
These are complicated issues composed of nothing but moving parts, no brilliant insight there. But the longer we acknowledge rhetoric about 'ending' things like homelessness, or hunger or terrorism or ignorance, the longer we'll face the consequences of our own hypocrisy and narrowness of imagination.
11
Dom's plan involves passing out little slips of paper that say "Hey, buddy. I totally feel for you and support your cause, but your presence makes me feel awkward so can you please go somewhere else."
14
We have bums because we want to have bums. And you staunchly support a welfare state, you just don't think it should go to the poor.
15
And there certainly are enough homes for them...so no, that's not why I think we have bums...we are a country that fervently desires the existence of the poor and needy--relies on their existence for our own.
17
@2 Uh, maybe because you're not paying attention?
http://www.opb.org/thinkoutloud/shows/di…
And yes, it's ok to think about ending homelessness. At least as long as we don't pretend that tent cities do anything to end homelessness, because TENTS ARE NOT HOMES.
http://www.opb.org/thinkoutloud/shows/di…
And yes, it's ok to think about ending homelessness. At least as long as we don't pretend that tent cities do anything to end homelessness, because TENTS ARE NOT HOMES.
18
If a person can be arrested for abandoning their pet how come we, as a Nation are not responsible for abandoning our people?
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