This past week Jeannie and Eli (watch his video here) were arrested in Sacramento for being homeless. They lived along with about 125 other homeless people in an organized tent community called Safe Ground.
Jeannie worked as an in-home nurse. She lost her job and her place to live on the same day. Since April she has been living in a tent in Sacramento.
Kind of ironic Jeannie talks about the city counsel changes needed and the prospects of Sacramento allowing the campers to have a place to live only days before they were forced to move.
The old hippie in me loves the self-governing tent city model, but really the only reason a tent community even exists is because homeless services has failed to provide adequate support.
What are your thoughts on this controversial issue?
Special thanks to Safe Ground
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Until we make affordable - and case-management supported when applicable - housing available to every single person as a basic human right, and then ensure that no matter what, there will be a way for them to pay each month without starving and/or sitting in the dark in the process, we will continue to see homeless numbers increase, and we will continue to see the jail as our defacto "affordable" housing answer. It's up to "We The People" to end the madness and we can start by choosing those who represent us wisely.
It's a blog I started over the summer when my 11 year old son and I were homeless. For six months we couch hopped and lived out of our car until I could raise enough money to get into a new apartment. I feel blessed for friends who never let us spend a night in our car and for Starbucks that always provided internet service so I could blog. Without that blog I would have felt completely worthless; it gave me a voice and a purpose. This issue is not easily solved. The homeless do not just want government housing; many of us are people who were not on government assistance prior to becoming homeless. We worked and lost jobs but unlike many of the unemployed people who I know just didn't have the safety net of a relative's home to live in. Providing temporary housing is not going to solve the problem of unemployment. Yet it will give these people back their sense of humanity. Though I must say these individuals don't seem to have lost their humanity a bit. They have maintained dignity as well. In the times of our forefathers VERY little land was actually owned. Now, every last bit of land is owned if not privately then by the state. It is illegal to forge your own homestead. It is illegal to be a hard working survivor.