ARE YOU WILLING TO HOLOCAUST THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE BECAUSE THEY ARE HOMELESS? DO YOU CONSIDER THEM TO BE SUBHUMAN and NOT WORTHY OF BASIC RESPECT or TO BE WITHOUT NEED? Is it OK with you if they freeze to death? Starve to death? Die in the street? Give birth in the street? Go hungry? Go without education? Keep moving? Do you care if people who not long ago had it all together are now at risk of going crazy? HAVE YOU DUMPED FRIENDS BECAUSE THEY RAN OUT OF LUCK?
If so, please do NOT celebrate Christmas.
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I don't know about your town, but I know that mine has a homeless encampment that keeps getting bigger down by the post office, which happens to have outdoor lighting on all night. There is also a motel that has been temporarily funded as a temporary homeless shelter. I encounter homeless people everywhere I go, especially in libraries, and I believe the numbers are triple of that counted. I believe this because I believe that a good number of homeless are secretly so. They have avoided being counted and do not want to go to shelters or other facilities either because they don't want governmental benefits or intrusion into their lives, or because there are horror stories about what it is to be in these places. In talking to people I meet, I've learned about long wait lists as well and the feeling of despair. Partners do not want to be separated. Parents don't want their children put in foster care. They would rather go on loving each other in a tent.
I thought about this the other day because basically I was reading through my old posts that are genealogy oriented, I noted that the National Archive of Hungary and the databases that show who owned the land and how many people lived on it - as tenant farmers - as serfs - back in the Queen Marie Theresa's day. As well, the 1828 census counted how many slaves one had. I was thinking about how the land barons who had serfs on their estate owed them some very basics. They were better off than the homeless in the sense that if you were a serf on a baron's estate, you were not expected to be transient.
You knew where you belonged and you knew what hut was yours for the night. You probably had a sense of community and some pride in being able to work hard to contribute towards your upkeep. You may have had rags on your feet, but you had family too. I'm not idealizing serfdom. I'm saying the freeing of the serfs was a great big deal and often they ran for another country and a better life, but how can we free the homeless who are living much like them?
I truly fear what is coming if there is no more governmental help coming, in particular if evictions are allowed to continue. Even those who have been living on unemployment benefits are at risk at becoming homeless. So very many here in Southern California live without savings. And have nowhere else to go. California has been a destination for people who became homeless in other places, in particular cold places. You probably won't freeze to death here, but there are still places where you can be overexposed to cold.
I learned that the motel full of homeless people does not house our town's local homeless. Social workers from all over the city have sent people who are very ill or incapacitated there. It is full of people with stage four cancer, people who cannot walk without a chair and assistance, people who are recovering from heart surgery who lost their apartments in the process of their illness and recovery. Some of them are awaiting placement in assisted living or apartments with governmental vouchers.
It was bad before Covid-19 and now it's just horrible. Though my neighborhood is decorated with Christmas lights, the food bank has been setting up down by the school. We are all grateful for what all we have but also worried. We have decided on token gifts and donations to charities.
If you are reading this from another place in America or the world, please consider that empathy and understanding of other people's plight is a first step. Stop protesting the existence of tent cities or the existence of homeless people in your neighborhood. Learn the truth about why they are out there. I suspect you will find that evil and greed is at the heart of it.
AND TO ALL OF YOU, A GOOD NIGHT!
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