283 deaths. Do they matter?

[Indigo Blue]

Run time: 02:49 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOKxZ1Fs_m0   Posted on YouTube: June 10, 2008 By YouTube Member: Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: June 11, 2008 By DU Member: Indigo Blue Views on DU: 740

 
June 9, 2008. After a night's camp out at City Hall in Seattle in protest of inhumane sweeps of homeless people camping on public property, sweeps which, in the interest of minor concerns about littering, endanger the lives of homeless people. A memorial service conducted by Women In Black of Seattle reads the names of 283 people who died on the streets in King County from 2000 to date. Excerpts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOKxZ1Fs_m0


"When you take away their means to survive, you're going to kill a percentage of them - guaranteed": http://journals.democraticunderground.com/Indigo%20Blue/1


If you care...

"open the door and look outside; there's a whole world that needs your attention, a whole world that needs fixing. Do whatever you can, in any way that you can, whenever you can. So many people need you desperately." - Sapphire Blue

[Aussie leftie]

1. I understand your concern

My daughter, who was on holidays in the US until last week, relayed to me her concern regarding the amount of homeless people living on the streets. As much as she enjoyed her stay in your country, she could not help noticing how destitute some people are. How sad that one of the wealthiest countries in the world should have such a stigma.

Getting a job is not always the simple answer to the problem. Some people cannot work because of psychological reasons or because of alcoholism or just general ill health.

The Social Security system should be looking after these people. Imagine how much worse the situation would be if Bush had his way and privatized Social Security.

In Australia, we have homeless people as well, and for that, we should be ashamed.

[Indigo Blue]

2. No, getting a job isn't always the answer, especially when wages aren't sufficient to pay rent.

And for people unable to work, Social Security pays much less than what is needed to survive. Rents are outrageously high and unaffordable, low-income housing is disappearing, being torn down, privatized, funding has been consistently slashed for decades. And people look away. Or attribute homelessness to 'poor choices', 'drug addiction', 'alcoholism', and, of course, 'mental illness'.

And the truth is:

"The focus on individual problems shifts attention away from structural problems and obscures the real causes of homelessness."

"Homelessness is caused by poverty, insufficient affordable housing and insufficient money to pay for housing, and a weak or nonexistent safety net of income maintenance and support services."

http://www.wpunj.edu/~newpol/issue43/BMandell43.htm

[woodystanford]

6. Hmmmm...

I'm actually a homeless guy right now. I was a computer programmer until I became schizophrenic.

The solution is pretty simple. They already have a homeless shelter here in Phoenix but its so run down and lacking showers and laundry. However the food ain't too bad.

What they need is a large warehouse with a whole tonne of bunkbeds in it. I spent a week at a jail like this, and they just need to replicate it for the homeless (sans barbed wire). Nothing fancy. Just enough to keep people from living like animals.

[Voltaire99]

3. Inhumane indeed.

I'm afraid it's scarcely better here to the south in Portland.

Shameful that a society of iPhones, SUVs, war profiteering and the biggest glut of empty houses in history abandons its destitute.

[petwlkr]

4. Sad but true

Well the mayor of Seattle, Mike Nichols has always been more concerned with image than anything else. He is one of the main architects of the attempt to "Manhattanize" Seattle and all these starving and lonely people sleeping in doorways and under bridges is ruining the pretty picture he is trying so desperately to portray.

The city keeps insisting that these people can go to one of the many shelters and don't need to be on the street. Unfortunately the shelters are already running at full capacity and at last count there are almost 3000 people on waiting lists to get in. The only time there is enough room for everybody is during the winter months when the city will open up additional "emergency shelters" so these people don't have to be outside in the frigid weather. The idea that you are helping the situation in any way by treating the homeless as criminals and taking the few possessions they own away from them is idiotic and disgusting.

I have been homeless before. There is not a scarier feeling in the world. Back in the 80's I lived in my car for almost 5 months and I considered myself lucky to have that. I can't imagine how much worse my situation would have been if I had to constantly worry about the police on top of everything else.

[Aussie leftie]

5. From the replies to your post that I am reading

One would think we were talking about a third world country. Somehow, I think more people would stop and help out if it were a stray dog rather than a desperate human being. It seems only a matter of time before our governments start introducing the Brazilian method of eradicating their human city strays.

Sapphire and Indigo Blue, you both have good hearts.