• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

The Valley Citizen

Nature, Environment, History & Politics

The Valley Citizen

  • Arts
  • Education
  • Environment
  • History
  • Nature
  • Politics
  • Wit
  • About
  • RSS Icon

Homelessness: Whose Failure is it?

February 27, 2016 By Eric Caine Leave a Comment

Nowhere to go
Nowhere to go

As a rule, homeless people fall into three or four broad categories. The three most common, “vagrants, transients, and addicts” are pejorative terms based on the notion that “these people” have brought their troubles on themselves. A fourth category suggests homeless people are “victims” of cruel society that has abandoned its most vulnerable members.

All these ways of looking at homelessness contain grains of truth, but none really does much more than produce an oversimplified way of thinking not much different from racism or sexism. All tend to reduce homelessness to broad categories that make it too easy to ignore the stark realities of people in need.

Consider that most people familiar with homelessness estimate that twenty-five to forty percent of homeless people are mentally ill. That’s a staggering figure and a makes the “victim” category seem inadequate.

Consider also that now that there’s a nationwide heroin epidemic, addiction isn’t being viewed so much as a moral failing as it is as a health problem involving both mental and physical well-being.

Both Jeb Bush and Carly Fiorina have experienced drug abuse with close family members and neither views punishment as the cure for addiction. Fiorina said recently that, “If you’re criminalizing drug abuse and addiction, you’re not treating it—and you’re part of the problem.”

If we factor in the percentage of homeless people who are mentally ill with the percentage who are addicted to drugs, we have an overwhelming majority already. Add those whose jobs went to China or were eliminated by automation, computing, and artificial intelligence, and we’ve accounted for almost the entire homeless population.

Yes, some homeless people are opportunistic, shiftless, predatory criminals, as unwelcome by homeless people as they are by anyone else. Most of the crimes they commit are petty and low, most especially those against the homeless.

But given what we know about homelessness, it makes virtually no sense to try to eliminate it with pejorative labels like “vagrant” and “addict,” “move-on” ordinances, and closed restrooms in public places. Telling people with nowhere to go and no way of getting there to “move on” is like telling people with measles to move on—all you do is spread the problem around and make it harder to deal with.

According to a recent United Way study, one-third of California families struggle week-to-week to make ends meet. In Stanislaus County, the figure rises to thirty-six percent. Given those figures, homelessness is less a personal failing than it is the ugly bare parts of poverty showing through a torn social fabric.

What kind of society tells mentally and physically ill people to “move along” down the unforgiving lanes of poverty and despair? How do people who boast of a “Christian nation” justify turning away from people in need?

Faced with the material and moral problems brought on by short-sighted social reforms and economic decisions that eroded our middle class, our only options so far have been useless labels and failed policies. To paraphrase Carly Fiorina, we’re not treating the problem, we’re part of the problem.

Filed Under: Featured, History Tagged With: Homelessness Stanislaus County, Modesto Homelessness

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Note: Some comments may be held for moderation.

Primary Sidebar

Off The Wire

Warren: Voters Must Elect Dems In Midterms Who Would Nix Filibuster To Codify Roe
Warren: Voters Must Elect Dems In Midterms Who Would Nix Filibuster To Codify Roe
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) on Sunday said she views the midterm elections…
talkingpointsmemo.com
A Farmer’s Quest to Beat California’s Waves of Drought and Deluge
A Farmer’s Quest to Beat California’s Waves of Drought and Deluge
Don Cameron went all in on a trickle-down survival tactic. It could help save America’s agricultural heartland—even if he doesn’t survive the new water war.
www.wired.com
Ten Ways Billionaires Avoid Taxes On An Epic Scale
Ten Ways Billionaires Avoid Taxes On An Epic Scale
This article first appeared at ProPublica. ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative…
talkingpointsmemo.com
A South Texan?s Wild, Life-affirming Quest to Break a National Birding Record
A South Texan’s Wild, Life-affirming Quest to Break a National Birding Record
When she began her year-long bird-spotting adventure, Tiffany Kersten was lost and lonely. She ended up achieving a major milestone and finding her way.
www.texasmonthly.com
Ron Johnson tried to hand fake elector info to Mike Pence on Jan. 6, panel reveals
Ron Johnson tried to hand fake elector info to Mike Pence on Jan. 6, panel reveals
A top aide said the Wisconsin Republican senator wanted to give Pence the list of pro-Trump electors as he prepared to certify the 2020 election.
www.politico.com
Raffensperger says he wishes Fox News carried every Jan. 6 hearing
Raffensperger says he wishes Fox News carried every Jan. 6 hearing
“I think it would have helped our party heal, given [people] more facts.”
www.axios.com
'Not safe anymore': Portland confronts the limits of its support for homeless services
‘Not safe anymore’: Portland confronts the limits of its support for homeless services
Homeless encampments now spill well beyond Portland’s downtown core, dividing a city that has invested liberally in support services.
www.latimes.com
Republicans Will Do It Again
Republicans Will Do It Again
They have not been chastened by the revelations of the January 6 committee.
nymag.com
Birdman
Birdman
Bird Brother: A Falconer’s Journey and the Healing Power of Wildlife
www.earthisland.org
The Potato Roll Empire Bankrolling Christian Nationalist Doug Mastriano
The Potato Roll Empire Bankrolling Christian Nationalist Doug Mastriano
The Martins were bit players in politics, until they put Doug Mastriano one step away from becoming Pennsylvania’s next governor.
nymag.com
Roger Stone and Michael Flynn under fire over rallies ‘distorting Christianity’
Roger Stone and Michael Flynn under fire over rallies ‘distorting Christianity’
Prominent Christian leaders accuse Trump allies of spreading misinformation about election and Covid, while distorting Christian teachings at ReAwaken America events
www.theguardian.com
Major water cutbacks loom as shrinking Colorado River nears 'moment of reckoning'
Major water cutbacks loom as shrinking Colorado River nears ‘moment of reckoning’
As the Colorado River water shortage worsens, major cutbacks are needed to reduce most perilous risks, a federal official tells senators.
www.latimes.com
Trump Scammed Supporters Out of $250 Million for Nonexistent Fraud Fund
Trump Scammed Supporters Out of $250 Million for Nonexistent Fraud Fund
Supporters who thought they were donating to “election integrity” instead saw some of their money funneled to Trump hotels
www.rollingstone.com

Find us on Facebook

The Valley Citizen
PO Box 156
Downtown Bear Postal
1509 K Street
Modesto, CA 95354

Email us at:
thevalleycitizen@sbcglobal.net

Footer

The Valley Citizen
PO Box 156
Downtown Bear Postal
1509 K Street
Modesto, CA 95354

Email us at:
thevalleycitizen@sbcglobal.net

Subscribe for Free

* indicates required

Search

• Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2022 The Valley Citizen

Dedicated to the memory of John Michael Flint. Contact us at thevalleycitizen@sbcglobal.net

Editor and publisher: Eric Caine

Website customization and maintenance by Susan Henley Design