In New Mexico Tent City, a Glimmer of Hope
Source: New York Times
LAS CRUCES, N.M. On a dusty lot in a rough stretch of this city, homeless people have pitched dozens of tents, some nearly empty and others so packed with possessions that their residents are practically entombed inside. There is no electricity, and the unrelenting winds batter the tents so badly that duct tape, used for repairs, is coveted like gold.
In other places, makeshift shelters like this one have been discouraged, if not destroyed. In December, a large encampment in San Jose, Calif., known as the Jungle was cleared because of health and safety concerns. In Detroit, officials were keeping cautious watch on a camp that had recently sprung up near downtown.
But the nearly 50 homeless people living in the tent city here are welcome to stay. Local officials allowed the camp to be set up on city-owned property, making an exception to zoning rules that ban sleeping overnight. With a $45,000 earmark from the State Legislature, the camp is adding landscaping and a new fence.
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The camp started as a temporary shelter in 2011, meant to last through the winter. It now has elevated plots for 50 tents and a guard house, surrounded by a wire fence. Called Camp Hope, the tent city has a few portable toilets not nearly enough, residents say but restrooms and showers are just a stroll away, to where several charities have set up a strip mall of social services, including a medical clinic and soup kitchen. There, social workers try to connect camp residents with government aid and low-income housing programs.
Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/02/us/in-new-mexico-tent-city-a-glimmer-of-hope.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&_r=0
Warpy
(111,282 posts)It's about how they'd rather deal with cold and wind in their tents than be warehoused in a shelter, although I'm sure they hit the shelter once in a blue moon for a shower, shave and hot meal.
So far, all the city has done is install a couple of porta potties. Good for the city!
duhneece
(4,113 posts)Great-and I love Warpy's perspective.
jwirr
(39,215 posts)mountain grammy
(26,626 posts)FailureToCommunicate
(14,014 posts)Cha
(297,323 posts)hunter
(38,318 posts)... with just a tiny fraction of our federal budget.
There needs to be federally managed programs in every community, otherwise communities with good weather and less despicable conditions for the unemployed and unemployable are frequently overwhelmed. Simply spreading federal money around isn't a good option because so many communities in the U.S.A. are utterly corrupt and/or racist and the money will not reach those who need it most desperately.
I honestly believe homelessness exists in the U.S.A. as a way of manipulating people into accepting below-living-wage abusive employment and dangerous slum-lord housing. It's an implied threat to the wage slaves: Don't make trouble or you could be that guy huddled down on the sidewalk under a dirty blanket clutching a cardboard sign, or the family living in the broken-down car.
Safe secure housing, good food, and appropriate medical care for all, is a very reasonable goal for any truly civilized nation.
The U.S.A. is not a civilized nation.
Until then, providing formal "camps" with adequate sanitary conditions and social services isn't a bad thing. Good for Las Cruces.