Does anyone "Deserve" to be Homeless?

D R A F T

Once I finish this article, I will have it reviewed by a variety of folks - homeless advocates like me, homeless service professionals like CAPSLO, but most importantly, by those who are currently homeless. I want to see what they have to say. Do these words ring true? In the end, the result of this litmus test for the accuracy of my point of view will be the homeless themselves. This article is one more (futile) attempt to soften the hearts and minds of the hard-hearted toward those amongst us with the least.

It's black or white: people either despise the homeless, or have empathy for their plight. I have written on this subject before (google: timwaagblog "hate the homeless"). Both sides are rigid in their positions, and I don't think I've been able to change a single person's mind. 

The "Homeless Haters" are convinced that the homeless are just lazy bums. Period. End of debate. Conversely, there are "Homeless Lovers" (myself included) or at the worst, those that believe that "the homeless are people too". Those in the "lovers" camp feel that the homeless are all human beings and deserve our compassion, whether they have earned it or not. 

There but for the Grace of G*d Go I. Yes, it could be you. You could be homeless one day. Don't believe it? I can prove it to you - the subject of a future article. A series of "bad" things can happen to anyone - including good and / or successful people. Those who figuratively "pick the homeless up out of the gutter" do so because we are really saving ourselves. It could be us living in our own filth. We believe that and so should you - because its the truth.

In our relatively affluent society, we should be able to house and feed everyone, regardless of circumstance. Not gourmet food. Not luxury accommodations. Basic nutritional food. Basic shelter. A warm bed. A roof that doesn't leak. A place to lock up their stuff. A place where they can sleep without threat of being robbed, attacked, raped, cited  or arrested by the local constable. But for government regulations and NIMBYism, this could be done cheaply and safely. Note that I do not believe this is a right - it's just something that we should be able to do.

The few "bad" homeless ruin it for the many "good" homeless. Unfortunately, the face of homelessness are the aggressive panhandlers (we all know who they are) and the severely mentally ill (those are the stinky, smelly, crazy people wandering around talking to themselves). The bad are the tiny minority - you'll have to trust me on this one. The vast majority of the homeless are decent people that have had a series of bad occurrences that put them into homeless. Once they are homeless, it's hard to get out of that situation without some help - from you.

Note also that some of the "homeless" you see waving their signs around are "con-men". They are after a buck and not necessarily "homeless" at all. As always, we recommend that you never give money to anyone you meet on the street, although offering to buy them food isn't a bad idea. If you need to "give to the cause', try one of the homeless support organizations or the downtown SLO "homeless parking meters".

They Deserve It. They deserve to be homeless. They made bad decisions - did stupid things. They got themselves in this situation - let them get out of it. Morons. Idiots. Losers. Scum.

Yet ... who hasn't made bad decisions? Most of us have been lucky that our bad decisions didn't ruin our lives. Be honest. Driving after too much to drink? Barely missed hitting the kid in the crosswalk? Texting while driving? Cheating on a college test? Unprotected sex, but she didn't get pregnant? Cheating on your taxes? Sold your buddy some of your pot? Sexual harassment or worse?

The homeless are people too. The homeless have hopes, fears (lots of fears), dreams, emotions, feelings - just like people do. They have children, mothers and fathers, brothers, sisters, friends. They are somebody's child, mother or father, brother or sister, friend. Just try talking to a homeless person someday - but first, google "timwaagblog 2011 tribune fresh eyes" first and read my a description of how to do this safely. You'll find out that they are really people like you and me - except they are living under temporarily bad circumstances.

The homeless somehow aren't fully human. Due largely to the ugly public face of homelessness, the unhoused have come to be seen by many as something less than fully human. I could compare how they are treated today to other classes of people who have suffered abuse in our past history (Jews like my wife and kids, various ethnic groups, etc.), but I won't. 

Around the world today, various categories of people are treated by others as sub-human, but we no longer treat any class of people that way in America - do we? or did we forgot some group? Oh yes, the homeless are still treated this way by many - here - in America - today. We funnel our unhoused - 2,000 to 3,000 homeless alone in San Luis Obispo County (the count varies, but is growing) -  to live in the streets - today - a somewhat less than fully human existence, in my eyes. Don't believe me? Go see for yourself - I'll take you. Oh yeah - you don't want to see the reality of homelessness.

It's easy to see how people have come around to this point of view, but I can assure you that the homeless are just as human as you and me. It is truly a sad commentary that I would have to try and convince you of this at all, but I do. An interesting side note: being homeless does rob people of at least some of their humanity. Actually, I am amazed at how the homeless face up to their reality with a certain dignity that I'm not sure I could muster under similar circumstances. Maybe that's why I respect them so much - yes, I respect them. All of them. Even the ones who are disgusting.

They weren't always homeless. Surprisingly, that comes as a revelation to some people. Given their apparent sub-human status in SLO and certainly elsewhere, many just assume that somehow they were always homeless...that they were born homeless, grew up homeless, and here they are, still homeless. Of course, its not true, but still, I have to say it. Some have been homeless a long time: 10 or 20 years or even more. But only a tiny percentage. Many have been in and out of homelessness. Again, a minority. Most are recently homeless - say the last 1 or 2 years. They weren't always homeless, and they don't want to be homeless now, either.

They should just go somewhere else. We get more than our fair share of the homeless here in SLO (don't we?), so shouldn't they just go back to wherever they came from? This has often appeared to be the point of view of our local SLO police department. Oh wait. Most of our homeless have ties to our community: they grew up here, or went to Cal Poly, or worked here, or have family here, etc. So yes, to some degree, this makes it our problem. I can make the case that at least those with ties to our community are OUR homeless, and that indeed makes it OUR problem. We can debate about the others without community ties some other time.

Nobody deserves to live under our bridges, in our creeks, or in our doorways. Nobody. This is another version of "we should be able to house everyone". IMHO, this fact should be self evident. But it's not. We have tent cities here in SLO county, just not in the way that you might think. A tent city would be illegal here, unless you are part of the politically correct "Occupy SLO" movement which was allowed to set up an apparently legal tent city in downtown SLO for a few months a few years back. Our tent cities are a sprawling underground community that differs from traditional "tent cities" in that they are spread out over large areas and are the tents are "not on top of each others". I need to coin a term for this - let's try "hidden tent communities". Since we actually allow these "hidden tent communities", why don't we allow them to come out from under our bridges and creeks into an open shared space where they can share community resources together in a traditional tent community. Also, it makes policing and services much easier.

There is no sense of urgency. This drives me crazy. Sitting in meeting and listening to the "powers-that-be", there is never an sense of urgency regarding the homeless. Homelessness is a slow moving disaster, not unlike a train wreck, a commuter ferry colliding with a cargo ship, a sinking or burning cruise ship, or an earthquake. The disaster leaves people injured, sick, in need of immediate help. This is how I see our homeless, yet nothing is done to address the "entire" disaster - the "entire" homeless population. At best, our programs nibble around the edges, but do not provide solutions for the vast majority of our homeless.

Who deserves to be homeless? This is a question for those in the "they deserve to be homeless because they are bad people and made bad decisions" camp. Yes, I get it - many people do not like the homeless, but that doesn't mean that they deserve to be homeless. Let's take a careful look at the various categories of homeless people to "pick" which we should leave to their own devices to live their beleaguered existence in our streets.

Do people who work (full or part time) deserve to be homeless? Many homeless work part for full time. Surprised? Their jobs that do not pay well enough or provide enough hours to afford to rent a place to live or pay for a car to commute back and forth to work. Should a person willing to work full time (i.e., not a bum) still have to live in the creek beds? How about part time workers? Also, some people are not physically or mentally able to work 40 hours per work, though they might want to do so.  I know many of the unhoused wh are in this exact situation.

Do the truly disabled deserve to be homeless? Sadly, the bulk of the disabled homeless are mentally ill. The rest have what we would consider more "traditional" disabilities. These include sensory degradation issues (blind, deaf, etc.), common physical disabilities (carpal tunnel syndrome, degenerative spinal injuries, arthritis, etc.),  common birth defects (down's syndrome, spina bifida, congenital heart defects, etc.). So we have 2 camps in the "disabled homeless" category: the mentally ill, and those with traditional disabilities.

Do the Mentally Ill deserve to be homeless? I'll just answer that one. No, they don't. Society (that's us) should make sure they get treatment for their mental illnesses. You can't treat a person for mental illness while they are unhoused, so they must be housed first, then treated for their mental illness. Yes, state and federal laws prevent the mentally ill from being "forced" to receive treatment. That is often a problem. I don't know how to get around this problem, but I bet professionals in this field "have their ways". That leaves the mentally ill who do want to receive treatment - let's start with those. Society has a responsibility to house and treat the mentally ill that want treatment.

Do those with "Traditional Disabilities" deserve to be homeless? Most or all of those with traditional disabilities want to work but are not able to do so. However, if they became housed, they are often able to work part time, depending on their disability - isn't this better than living on the street? Those with traditional disabilities also have a harder than average time with the harsh life that living in the streets entails.

Do our American Service Veterans deserve to be homeless? They served our country. Often put their life on the line. Voluntarily. Combat vets in particular have more than their share of mental and physical disabilities. In almost every state except California, we make sure our veterans are housed. Not California. Our record is abysmal. We have more homeless veterans in SLO County than in 41 other entire states in the union. Yes, it's true. Shameful.

Do our Senior Citizens deserve to be homeless?

Do we have an answer to the question: where can I go right now?

There is no sense of urgency.

Thanks to my "select" friends and family. They provided the insight into allowing me to  understand the lack of support for lending a helping hand to the homeless.

A Society's worth is measured by how they treat the most vulnerable. They