Wednesday, April 11, 2018

Homelessness - Why So Many People ?

John Higuitas speaks with another camper in the city of Seattle’s last safe parking zone for people living in their vehicles. Permitted residents can park at the Sodo site without fear of being ticketed or towed. It’s a noisy place: One side of the parking lot is next to busy railroad tracks, another side is next to the Spokane Street viaduct, and it’s under the flight path. (Lauren Frohne/The Seattle Times)


"...2,300 homeless people countywide who sleep in vehicles, a population that has tripled since 2012..." 

The article states that the majority have a criminal record or drug history and are not easily housed for these reasons. This is what it's coming down to. The root is people growing up in a society where they fall prey to drugs and criminal behavior. The home has disintegrated because the value of the home was overlooked and taken for granted when women were the primary homemakers. 

Women's fight for fair treatment and equality was at the cost of the home and upbringing of our children (in a society that cultivates nurturing and caring for others flipping to a society that only cares for how much someone's earning capacity is) in our false race to be falsely 'equal' to a system that degrades nature and human beings. Neglecting our homes, neglecting our children, neglecting our planet and all life on it, are the repercussions of this imbalance and quest for acquisition and notoriety and rank, none of which has any substance or real concrete value. 

Planting a flower, reading a story, cooking a meal -- the little things that people do as a community with each other to learn and grow and instill a sense of values and worth are slowly losing ground. So is the very land we call home and inhabit. Land and space we occupy has become the ultimate commodity and the ultimate cost. In order to survive and claim our living space, we have to work for it, and those who do still can't manage to afford a life free of crime, free of addiction, free of societal condemnation for failure.

Our highest return on investment is our investment and time with each other as people. What we teach our children, how we treat our neighbors, reaching out to those in need who have suffered or continue to suffer. We have a duty and an obligation to be responsive and proactive and preserve our quality of life, not just for ourselves, but for our entire population. When we neglect and ignore human need, we are neglecting and ignoring our responsibility to the home, as a community.

Some people literally have to rewrite their life history and childhoods because they have experienced so much trauma and abuse. People who lose their way fall prey to poor coping mechanisms that further degrade their lives. When there is nowhere else to turn, people reach out to complete strangers for help... We can do better as a community, from childhood to adulthood if we focus our energy and investment of time on what really matters, people and the quality of their lives. . . No one should have to live in their vehicle or in a ditch on a roadside without shelter. This is the definition of societal failure and we need to reverse it NOW, not later...

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