Recent Meditations on the Homeless Crisis
It struck me during the holidays how most of the great seasonal stories are essentially about the homeless or have homelessness at the heart of the narrative:
Think Mary and Joseph in Bethlehem
The Victorian poor of The Christmas Carol
The lack of housing in It Happened on 54st Street
The foreclosures and bankruptcies of It's a Wonderful Life
The allegedly mentally ill old man claiming to be Santa Claus in Miracle on 34th Street
The homeless Christmas tree Charlie Brown rescues from oblivion.
And so on.
Two sightings on one of my morning walks through the park: a homeless man herding a duck with a stick and a homeless man living out of his 40-year formerly luxury town car who was flying a drone. I don't know what to make of these sightings.
I ran into Donny, one of the members of the Old Crow Book Club, and he was drunk, slurring his speech, collapsed on the sidewalk, and somewhat bloodied and being counseled by someone I didn't recognize to check back into rehab. I chipped in my encouragement, but Donny seemed unable understand what was happening.
One of the leading Portland advocates for the homeless said the city's decision to step up the sweeps of the encampments and build several large sanctioned and temporary tent encampments marked a “Right Wing” shift in attitude.
Right Wing? Encouraging/facilitating/motivating/compelling (choose your own verb) homeless people into places to live where there is sanitation, social services, water, garbage collection, power, vermin control, security, and resident decision making is Right Wing? Ten minutes walking around Old Town and you couldn't possibly claim this unless you have become blind and reactionary in your advocacy of the status quo and have nothing new to contribute. These advocates have lost their way. We can't wait three to five years for affordable housing to come online. I suggest this advocate investigate the informal solution taking place in Sweet Home of all places. Maybe someone from the city can learn something from someone outside the city. I sure did when I visited the town and saw some inexpensive and commonsense and democratic measures implemented. It was not a permanent solution but it addressed some serious problems vexing Sweet Home.
I am writing this from a public library and a homeless man is asleep in a chair with a smart phone in his hands. I sure wouldn't want to be a public librarian these days. They are performing triage with many homeless people. Many of us are every single day.