In this TEDMed talk from a few years ago, Lloyd Pendlton explains how Salt Lake City, and the state of Utah, used the Housing First and Harm Reduction models, to reduce its chronic homeless population by 91% over ten years. He also explains how his understanding of the homeless issue, and homeless people, changed during that time. Most importantly, he explains the importance of trust in dealing with homeless people. This is the best video I've seen on dealing with homelessness in today's world.
Part of the change in thinking about homelessness in the last 25 years or so came from a Malcolm Gladwell article called "Million Dollar Murray." Here's a quick video explaining that idea.
"Million Dollar Murray" was first an article by Malcolm Gladwell that appeared in the New Yorker (February 13, 2006), and later was repreinted in his book, What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures. That's a collection of Gladwell's articles from the New Yorker, that was published in 2009. I read the story in that book several years ago.
So... The backpack I bought in Palmdale in May of 2019 was getting pretty worn out. OK, that's the understatement of the year. It was pretty much obliterated, but still getting me by day to day. I definitely got my $7 worth out of this pack. I bought it used in Palmdale at a Goodwill, over three years ago. By the time Covid hit in early 2020, zippers were beginning to pop, but it was still usable. This was it today, as I finally retired it. I seriously wanted to burn it in a little ceremony, but lighting fires on the streets tends to be frowned upon.
Both straps were hand knotted to keep them working, all zippers were broken, but it was still functioning day to day. The buckle straps on the outside kept it going.
It wasn't like I didn't try to get a new one. But I'm cheap AF, and I usually try to find a good quality backpack at either a swap meet, Goodwill, or Salvation Army. There are no good swap meets in The Valley that I know of. Every time I had some money to buy a new pack, I couldn't find a decent one in a thrift store. So this old pack just kept getting sketchier and sketchier. I had resigned myself to saving up $70-$80 and buying a good quality one at a camping store when I could.
While being homeless is a situation where people always think cheap products are fine, in reality, backpacks, coats, and sleeping bags really get a workout. Having basic items you can rely on means a lot. I mean, when's the last time you went camping for 1,200 days straight? Honestly, outdoor equipment companies really should give some product to homeless people for R&D and testing purposes. We put that stuff through hell.
In any case, I started talking to a couple women from one of the homeless organizations, and they told me they had a backpack I could have today. I told them I'm REAL picky on backpacks, and I blow through backpacks like a NASCAR driver blows through fenders. I carry a lot of stuff daily, I needed an outside strap for my blanket (strapped to side, in trash bag), and I need lots of pockets to keep different things handy. A few people have offered me packs, but none that would do what I needed. So I always politetly declined. These ladies today had a pack that fit the bill, so I'm stylin' again in the backpack department. Thanks a ton ladies. I'm stoked on the new pack, and hope it's up to the challenge. While my old pack seems like a champ for its durability, it's not my personal record holder. In 2007, I bought a backpack for $4 at Orange Coast College swap meet, and used that crazy little pack until the summer of 2018. This old pack above ranks #2 in my backpack durability archives.
The new pack looks and feels good, so I hope it lasts until I can get a roof over my head, and work on making an actual living again. Onward!
In the small town of Willard, Ohio, in about 1979, my 8th grade music teacher, Mrs. Essex, introduced us kids to the rock opera "Tommy," by The Who. I loved it, even though I wasn't really into hard rock then. That was a brave act by Mrs Essex at the time, in conservative, small town Ohio, and I appluad her for it. It opened me, and others, up to a lot of great music. This is the best known single from that 1969 double album, "Pinball Wizard." "Homeless Pinball" is what I call it when homeless people are forced out of a spot, and bounce around from one place ot another.
Don't you hate it when a complete stranger walks into your house and says, "Hey, we're demolishing this place tomorrow, so you have to get your shit out." No, you don't hate it, because that doesn't happen to average people. "This is America!" you shout, "they can't do that here!" OK, I won't get into eminent domain, that's not the point of this post. The point is, if you live in a house or apartment, whether you own it or rent it, strangers don't come in a tell you to get out with a few hours, or a day's notice.
Even if you are behind on rent, or haven't paid your property taxes in years, a government official doesn't just walk in one day and say, "You gotta get out." There's a process, we have a reasonably functional rule of law in this country, even now. Yes, there is institutional racism, sexism, and other "isms" at work in our legal system. But compared to most of the world, we have a functional rule of law, and there is a process for evicting a person, foreclosing on a mortgage, and getting people out of houses they aren't paying for. That process has many steps, and it can take months or years to get someone out. That's one of the securities of living in the United States of America.
But not when you're homeless. It doesn't matter of you are homeless because your house burned down a month ago, or because you're a lifelong, degenerate crackhead. When you are homeless, you make your "home" on somebody else's property, either private property, or government property. That's because every single piece of land is someone else's property.
At some point, when a homeless person camps out- ANYWHERE- someone in the area, or the property owner, gets sick of you being there. You could be on a vacant, overgrown lot that no one ever paid attention to, but as soon as homeless people camp there, it's suddenly a national monument in that neighborhood. It's like George Washington took a leak there in 1783 or something, the land is suddenly sacred, once a bum pitches a tent there. "They need to leave!" some neighbor shouts, then they try to rally others.
This is happening, right now, as I type this, at the place I've been sleeping at, for the last six months. I started sleeping there when I spent 5 days with Covid-19 in January, so I could be close to a restroom and a mini mart, to buy water and Gatorade to get through that illness. For the record, I got both Pfizer vaccines, and I think it helped me get over Covid quicker.
There were two of us sleeping along the side of this building then. Then three. Then five. That number has gone up and down since, as a handful of neighbors have pulled every string they could to get us out. Recently friends of one of the people started hanging out, smoking meth (which I don't do, see my last post). Someone even hired a regional gangbanger to phyiscally threaten us a couple of weeks ago. This kind of stuff happens on a regular basis, all over, in cities everywhere.
Yesterday a guy I'd never seen before walked up to us and said that they would be powerwashing the sidewalk, on both sides of the street, this morning, and that we had to move everything. I said, "I'll be gone." I moved to another spot last night. The others will do the same. I call this "Homeless Pinball." Nobody will go very far. They just wind up in another spot nearby, but out of sight of one group of local renters.
A couple people might get taken to "housing," which your tax dollars pay for, by the way. Just for the record, housing, eventually, puts homeless people in long term places, usually ghetto apartments, and your tax dollars go to a bunch of ghetto landlords to pay their rent. Maybe you're cool with that. Personally, I'm not. Almost no one who goes into homeless "housing" gets a good paying job and rents their own apartment again. Ever. "Housing" is your tax dollars (and inflation dollars) paying the rent for thousands of homeless people, indefinitely. Keep that in mind.
But most of the people moving from my old spot today, and the others getting moved out of other spots, simply move to another piece of land, usually within a few hundred yards. Sometimes people just move across a city line into the next town, which is what I did. There is no legal process, we have no recourse about getting forced out of a spot with little or no notice. We repeatedly lost much or all of what little we own. No one cares. Homeless people get "bounced" around areas like pinballs in a pinball game. That's why I call it Homeless Pinball. It's a short term solution to a long term problem, which keeps getting bigger.
As a society, we don't want ot actually house all the down and out people, that's obvious with a trip through any major city. As this blog goes on, I'll look at some of the ideas for dealing with homeless people, and give my thoughts on what works and doesn't work with the various programs. I'll even write about my best ideas on how to deal with homelessness, at some point. Meanwhile, the homeless population will keep growing, because it's not just an addiction or mental health issue, it's a long term demographics issue in the U.S. and Western society, at this point.
The powerwashing today will move the 7 or 8 people out of that 50 foot stretch of sidewalk. Within a week, they will start being replaced by even sketchier homeless people, the full blown, hardcore tweeker and crackhead, walking zombie types. And the people of this neighborhood will be pissed off again. Bing-bing-bing... us bums just keep bouncing around. Inflation and this recession we're sliding into will add to the numbers. Anybody up for actual solutions yet? No? I didn't think so. Maybe someday...
Blogger's note- 8/9/2022- The sidewalk I wrote about above did get a much needed powerwashing, and most of the people moved across the street. No one went to housing. Most of the people who have been frequenting this area are still there. Meanwhile, L.A. city council just passed ordinance 41.18 last week, which outlaws "sitting, sleeping, or camping" in many of the places homeless people traditionally camp to keep out of the way. The ordinance is incredibly vague in some of its language. More on that later. The drama continues. But, the sidewalk is much cleaner. If any city people are reading this, the bus stop around the corner could really use a powerwashing.
The sidewalk I mentioned, right after the powerwashing, much cleaner now. My photo.
These four photos are ones I shot in 2021, while we were still in full Covid-19 restrictions mode. What you see in the pic above is an actual homeless hammock set-up in a fucking tree. I'd thought about doing this at times, but I'm a really fat dude these days, so it wasn't feasible. This was right in front of where I had my storage unit, and pretty much unnoticed by most people. Anyone remember Swiss Family Robinson? This set-up didn't look that comfortable, but it was definitely creative. Below is the same tree see from a short distance away. Other than a sign this guy hung on the tree, most people, even those walking their dogs under the tree, didn't see this spot. He had it up there, and actually slept up in the tree many nights, for about two months, I think. There was a big homeless encampment right across the street at the time which is now all cleared out.
The tree with the homeless hammock in it, well hidden from sight. 2021. #SEstreetlife, #steveemigphotos
The bag car. There are many levels of homelessness, something I'll explain in more detail in a future post. There are A LOT of people living in their cars these days, like in the movie Nomadland, but locally. Many of these people do have jobs, but don't earn enough to pay rent, and all other bills, associated with having an apartment. This guys really needs a van. OK, he needs an apartment, but he could use a van or bigger car in the meantime.
The Park-N-Ride in my area turned into a Park-N-Live during the Covid era. Here's an older limo, being used as a bedroom/storage unit, in one group's campsite. This encampment, which had 6 to8 RV's and maybe 15 ramshackle huts, has been declared off limits to camping since. Most of the people went into the local neighborhood, camping on the sidewalks, afterwards, and others when to the edge of the park, across the freeway from this site, which is in the East end of The Valley.
I call this "Homeless Pinball." A group of city leaders in one city will get the police and outreach workers to push homeless people out of an encampment site, which usually sends them right into the local neighborhood, a park, or other empty lots nearby. Pretty much everyone from this encampment moved to new locations within 200 yards of this site, when pushed out. But they weren't visible from the freeway, which is what mattered at the time. Sweeping bums under the rug, and out of sight, so to speak. Several months later, as we began to come out of the Covid restrictions, they were all pushed to move elsewhere. Some may have got housing (local motels, then on a list for apartments, paid with tax dollars), and some may have simply moved across city lines to another outdoor spot in a nearby city. The only guy I really talked to got a motel room to stay in 30 minutes away.
As we open up completely out of the Covid era, there's a massive push to get people into "housing," and get homeless people out of sight in L.A. "Housing gives people a roof over their head, a bathroom, a shower, TV, and power to charge phones and other devices. These people keep social program money, like EBT (food stamps), and other programs. most of the time. But they wind up with very little money to live on for personal expeneses, and very little to do, but binge watch TV. "Housing" usually comes with curfews, searches of personal property, not having the key to your room (security lets you in in some cases) room searches, and bans on weed/cannabis, alcohol, and possibly cigarettes. which are all legal. "Housing" leads to addiction and mental health programs, but rarely leads to ever making an actual decent living, where you can rent your own apartment again. So even long term housing is still a temporary fix. People going through these programs don't become what most people would consider "productive people" again.
For those and other reasons, a lot of homeless people prefer to remain on the streets, which allows much more personal freedom. There are a lot more nuances to these issues, which I'll probably dive into deeper in future posts.
