A friend of mine is just back from the US, after visiting his family there for a few weeks. I haven't caught up with him yet, but I will be interested to hear how his perceptions were, and if things have changed much since his last visit. He is from West Virginia, so not "too far" from Washington DC, but I suspect they won't be kicking out the homeless in his area.
I remember when I was living in Cairns, Australia back in the day, there was a bit of an uproar when the council rounded up all the Aboriginal people in the parks, and drove them up north about a thousand kilometres to a community up there, whether they were from that region or not. If I remember correctly, they did it a few times, and over the space of a month or two, the removed would eventually filter back into the city. As a tourist destination, extremely drunk people in the parks and bothering people on the streets wasn't ideal. For the locals, it wasn't ideal either - and at times, quite scary.
But, "moving them on" isn't an answer to the problem, is it? And it is a worsening problem with homelessness all over the developed world increasing, as more and more people drop out of society. And while there are many reasons for it, in a place like Finland, at least to begin with, it is pretty much a choice, as help is available to keep people with a roof over their head and food, if they want it. But it seems that for many, they don't actually want the help, other than the money to get their next hit of whatever they are into. They have resigned themselves to that life.
Does anyone ever really come back from it?
I was reading another article today from an education expert that happened to align with many of my posts about how schools are failing children, because the majority of resources are spent on the bottom twenty percent of kids that even if they improve, might not improve very far. The expert was saying how the top ten percent are being left alone to fend for themselves - my sentiments exactly.
And I think that it is a bit the same in society in general, where there is so much resource spent on people who don't actually appreciate the help at all. They don't care about community, or others, and they don't even care about themselves apparently. All they care about is getting a better feeling now, or avoiding a worse one now.
And again, I am not blaming the homeless here either, as if it is all their fault and their decisions. It is more that we have created a society that this is possible, that dropping out of the society is a standard option, that is "viable" in the sense that it is possible to survive. I don't believe it is a good life for any of them, and they would probably agree - but more and more are ending up living that life.
There are many reasons for it, but the increase in social disconnection is likely one of the core parts of it today, where people end up looking for community in the wrong places. It is a lowering of the bar to be part of a group in some respects, where people who are struggling for whatever reason, end up in a spiral that just leads them into a hopeless situation that even if they wanted to, they couldn't climb out of. And many don't want to.
Especially since the "average life" these days is getting pretty shit anyway, with more people suffering from emotional and mental problems, more financial issues, and the opportunities are shrinking away. This means that more people are on the edge and can fall over, but it also means that there isn't a great deal of incentive to step back from the edge, as it only amounts to a slightly better life anyway.
When I first came to Finland, I was "shocked" by the number of homeless old men in the summer, that would be drunk in the city centre. However, that average age rapidly fallen and they aren't just old men, they are young men and women too. People who should otherwise be enjoying the prime of their lives, dirty, sick and wasting away on park benches.
Moving them doesn't help?
Getting housing for them doesn't help either. Because they aren't in the state of mind or attitude to live in a house, so it would just be a wasted investment. Money down the drain, rather than helping people who want to be helped.
I don't know what the whole solution is, but I believe that these problems are just going to escalate in the coming years, as more people are unable to be productive members of society. Many will be pushed out of work as automation takes its toll, and many more will just disconnect socially, as they climb further into digital beds and pull the blankets up over their heads.
Society is collapsing.
But if you close your eyes and turn your head at the right time, it is possible to pretend that everything is okay, and that the biggest problems the world faces is which reality program to watch, or which selfie angle is the best to post on Instagram.
There are enough resources, but the distribution model doesn't cater for many to have enough.
Taraz
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