Do we care about homelessness, and/or about the homeless? If 'we' means society, then the answer is obviously, inarguably, absolutely and emphatically No. We don't give a quarter-ounce fart in a twister about the homeless.

We care enough to have the homeless arrested if they're too boisterous, or come to the wrong neighborhood, or sleep on a bench, or smell funky outside a fancy restaurant. If the homeless gather any place for mutual safety and support, we care enough to have their encampment "swept" by police, their meager possessions dumpstered, and arrest any of them who object. That's how much we care.

There are safety-net programs to help the homeless, of course, but they're ridiculously under-funded and intentionally over-complicated. A person who's seriously off-in-the-head could never navigate the red tape to qualify for most programs allegedly designed to help exactly such people, not without someone to guide them through the maze of proofs and requirements. And anyone who can make it through the application and verification process probably gets only a spot on the waiting list, for future help. "Please take a number, and come back in 6-8 weeks, or 6-8 months, to check your status in the queue."

Any time there's a discussion of homelessness, Republicans and other cold-hearted orbs that rule the night will complain that the homeless are savages, dangerous. "Why, they pee in the doorway and shit on the sidewalk," say people who have homes with toilets, of the people who wander the streets, where an actual open-to-the-public restroom might be three miles away, with showers nowhere at all.

Let's acknowledge where the homeless come from: For the most part, they're the sawdust that's left over as people pass through the gears and teeth in the machinery of American corporate capitalism.

Can't hold a steady job?

Health issues?

Got a drinking problem, or drug addiction?

Maladjusted in your head?

Unexpected expenses?

There's very nearly no easily-accessible help in these or other such situations. If there is help, it's not publicized, or only for certain people, not for you. Can you prove you're homeless? Sorry, due to budget cuts we're not accepting new applicants. This office has been closed, but we have another office twelve miles away that's open for six hours, two days a week. On the off chance you qualify for this aid program, it's limited to 90 days.

Once you're hobbled by an unlucky happenstance or a stupid choice, it snowballs, you're more susceptible to other pitfalls, and making your way back to being "ordinary people" gets more and more impossible.

It could happen to anyone. With one or two unexpected expenses or mistakes_,_ you're on the streets. Every person you see begging, drunk and disorderly, or asleep on a bench is someone who could've been helped long ago, but wasn't, because in America you're supposed to make it on your own.

If you can't make it on your own, we stop caring about you.

If we cared, here in the world's richest nation, there would be easily-accessible help for every issue I've mentioned, and a hundred issues I didn't. There should be (but isn't) a genuine safety-net for people who otherwise tumble through the jumbo-jet-sized holes in our uncaring systems and crash-land onto our streets and sidewalks.

Until recently, I lived in Madison, the 82nd largest city in America, with just a quarter-million people. Even in such a smallish urban area, there were always a few dozen homeless people downtown, and anywhere in the city you might see someone sleeping on a corner, in an alley, in a doorway, on a bus, in the library, in the park. I'd guesstimate at least hundreds, perhaps a thousand people are homeless in Madison, a city of a quarter-million souls.

Now I live in Seattle (three-quarters of a million people in the city; 2-million-plus in the county), and the homeless are everywhere, in every neighborhood. Whatever the 'official' estimate might be, it's probably a ridiculous under-count. My unofficial census says many, many, many thousands of people are wandering this city's sidewalks and alleyways.

And wherever you're reading this, they're there too.

What would we do if we gave a hoot? First and most obviously, there would be housing, free and open to anyone who needs it, with no questions asked. Show up and ask for a room, and you'd be given a room with four walls, a bed, a blanket, a pillow, a door that locks, and a key to lock it. Down the hall there'd be free toilets and showers, with toothbrushes, toothpaste, and towels provided. Free human dignity. Come and get it.

In the same building, there'd be well-staffed health care available to anyone at no cost, and mental health care, and dental care, and three square meals a day, free of charge. There'd be drug-use facilities, needle exchanges, and drug counseling. There'd be whatever other services are needed, which might include job-hunting help, public phones, AA and NA meeting rooms, community kitchens, etc.

Ah, you're wondering, how much will all this cost? You can't begin to imagine how much I don't give a damn about the answer to that question. It would cost a hell of a lot and so frickin' what. If we cared, we would spend what it takes to help these people.

Again, I'll state the obvious: America is the richest country in the world. The rich got rich off the work of the poor, and the rich should be taxed whatever it takes to take care of the poor. That's all I have to say about the cost.

If we cared, constructing and operating free housing is only the beginning of what we'd do. We'd do much, much more than merely what I've mentioned.

If we cared.

But we don't, of course, so we don't and won't.

5/14/2022