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Andrea Stoeckel's avatar

"Having nowhere to go is a crime".

I am with you there. A year ago my soon to be ex literally kicked me out after 25 years and put a hotel lock on the door (which is illegal) and left me in the parking lot of our apartment building. Thanx in part to my "cloud if witnesses" I never had to spend a night outside ( sometimes the system works) nor at the unsafe Rescue Mission.

I have worked with the Salvation Army and helped run both a Homeless Shelter and an elder group home. I also empathize with the person in the back pew on Sunday morning waiting for a hoped for coffee hour where they might get something to eat.

"Having nowhere to go is a crime"

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Kate Bayley's avatar

You have spelt out the meaning of the little-known (for us down under) term "hostile architecture".

Although it's probably not a buzz-word in my town I have heard of the concept of designing public benches to make homeless users too uncomfortable to linger.

The homeless are mostly not mentally-ill but have lost first their job and then their home (and possibly their family in the process). These dominoes fall one after the other in an inevitable fashion. Some of them are youngsters who're running away from home or state child care.

In the first case people have no option (having already temporarily imposed on friends/family) whilst in the second "hostile emotional architecture" at home has made the person abscond.

However people become homeless police make their lives even more disagreeable than they already are by harassing them and moving then on all the time. We know that benefits are not payable without a permanent address, so no benefit.

Emergency Housing is under attack by the right/libertarian/populist government with thousands of places no longer supported. So, it's the streets and then the deprivation, stigma and threats to health.

We don't like seeing them - they offend us. But if we can possibly, a kind word or a bob in the hat can make a homeless person's day.

A much better government would have full employment by growing the public sector and giving the economy a boost whilst creating more consumers so the money goes round. But it would also have balls and heart.

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