A homeless man has been sleeping on a low flagstone wall at the corner of Shermer and Walters in Northbrook for the past few nights. A block from my house.
The first time I saw him, while walking our dog with my wife about 9 p.m., I steered us in a different direction, worried he would, I don't know, leap up and stab us. It happens.
The second time I saw him, I had a very different thought: "You know, we have those extra bedrooms. Maybe we should put him up for a few nights ..."
Two very different reactions — fear and kindness — that neatly bookend the general reaction to pervasive homelessness in American society.
On the one hand, we're afraid. Even though the unhoused are far more likely to be victims of violent crime than the cause of it. Not just for our own safety, but for the health of our communities as a whole.
Few motorists driving along Lake Shore Drive, I imagine, see the tents sprouting in Lincoln Park and think: "Cool. A welcoming city provides safe space for its most humble citizens." Not the city beautiful Daniel Burnham had in mind.
On the other hand, we recognize life is hard. There are many ways to fall through the cracks: addiction, mental illness, divorce, unemployment, poverty. Some unfortunates struggle to maintain the barest fingerhold on society.
Who among us wants to tread on their fingers? I doubt many Americans wake up and wonder, "How can I make life more difficult for homeless people today?"
Such people exist and now have a strong ally in Washington. America is in the midst of her Golden Age of Fear. It's like we're cycling through vulnerable communities, one by one, to see who can be demonized and oppressed next.
Trump 2.0 came out of the blocks swinging at immigrants — who now can be arrested on sight by masked police, without due process, and shipped to foreign countries while we race to build our own domestic gulags.
Then trans people, who now can be cashiered from the military for reasons that had nothing to do with their ability to serve.
To continue reading, click here.
To paraphrase Eliot,
ReplyDelete"This is the way democracy ends
Not with a bang but a whimper"
Or, as Padme Amidala puts it in Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith: "So this is how democracy dies. To thunderous applause".
DeleteThe people who lived in the tent city in Humboldt Park your forced out by the government of the city of Chicago
ReplyDeleteThe people who live in the tent City in Gompers Park on the northwest side have also been dispersed by the city.
The people living under the viaduct on Chicago avenue between Sacramento and kedzie were forced to relocate
The people who lived in tents under lake shore drive at Wilson we're forced to leave
Here in the city people who live in tents , some of the most vulnerable people in our city are treated like refuse.
All over the country encampments are forcibly dispersed.
The scope of this problem is monumental hundreds of thousands probably millions of people do not live in permanent structures receiving little to no services that are afforded to those who pay rent or mortgages.
Donald Trump did not create this problem nor is he going to solve it this is bordering on unsolvable I heard a representative in LA on NPR yesterday talking about a billion dollars having been spent in the last few years to address this circumstance there are more people living in temporary structures in public places then before that money was spent
You and I were at the hideout a few weeks ago and the theme of the evening was addressing homeless people in some way.
I don't know if they raised any money or accomplished anything but the music was good
I didn't notice that any people struggling with homelessness were present at the event.
Virtue signaling at its best
The person sleeping in your leafy suburban Paradise needs first and last month's rent and a cosigner to secure an apartment probably just a room.
Are you kind enough to do that?
I am.
Previously on housed person has an apartment because over the last year I have paid their rent. It's cost about $12,000 including utilities..
I spoke with them last night because for the last few months I've been insisting they pay half of their rent and move towards being able to pay it all they screamed at me and told me to go f*** myself.
Don't help me anymore then a******.
That s***'s going to slide off my back.
I was fortunate enough to have a friend who is willing to take the risk of having a mentally ill person live on their property.
They got a job actually a couple of them and if they would put smoking and drinking they'd be able to pay their whole rent maybe get a nicer place and get some new shoes
If each person who was able to pay another person's rent for a year would do so this crisis would lessen.
I believe the phrase goes something like, "Trying to empty the ocean one teaspoon at a time." I have no idea what a viable solution to homelessness might be. For all I know, Trump's cruelties will do the trick (not damned likely), but it's a crying shame that the richest (and generally most generous) people on earth apparently can't do a thing to help the most vulnerable of thier own.
DeleteTate
Franco has a point!
ReplyDeleteI see the tents in Lincoln Park along Lake Shore Drive all the time. Considering that the homeless already have numerous medical problems, breathing in all that pollution from the cars & buses there must make those problems even worse.
ReplyDeleteWe also had a serious problem in Rogers Park for a couple of years, numerous tents went up in Touhy Park & the park became unusable for anyone else, until the city finally removed them last year.
Two summers ago, my wife and I were taking a walk at Touhy Beach, and came upon one of the tents. It was still pretty early, on a cool August morning. The occupants must have still been asleep, because I noticed a row of sandals and shoes, neatly lined up in the sand, like cars in a parking lot...and I was struck by how neat and methodical they looked. Remember thinking: "Hey, at least they have shoes to wear."
DeleteWe were staying in Evanston, but we used to stay at that funky old motel at Sheridan and Chase, just down the street. Not that year...it was housing Hispanic refugees in 2023, and they had all been booted out because some of the kids were hungry and had been taken out for pizza, and had "violated their curfew" by coming back late. Nice.
As a result of that egregious fox paw, they were sleeping in tents at Touhy Beach. We left town and drove home a couple of days later. Cannot recall how long they stayed there, or to where they were finally relocated. Had to have been before the start of another Chicago winter. Or maybe not.
The words "decency and compassion" are beginning to sound "quaint." They feel like vestiges of a world we've left behind.
ReplyDelete