Dismantling homeless camps violates human rights, says federal housing advocate
Dismantling homeless camps violates human rights, says federal housing advocate
It's a bit of a catch-22, unfortunately. Homeless camps are not exactly safe places to live. Fire codes and zoning laws are not arbitrary things, they exist for reasons.
I would find it reasonable to require that the government has to have someplace for those homeless people to go before dismantling their camps, though.
The political problem is that voters who are paying rent tend to be annoyed by the government giving people apartments for free.
Housing first as a model is legitimate and works (at least more than doing nothing or maintaining terrible shelters forever), but the political resentment it builds is a real problem that no amount of finger-wagging makes go away.
Maybe something like these "tinyshelters" would be a good compromise - they're safer and more comfortable than ramshackle tent-and-cardboard encampments, but they're still far short of what I'd call a "free apartment."
Is it any less dangerous than exposure though?
That's a false dichotomy.
Good. Next step is SCoC to finalize it so cities can stop condemning unhoused to death.
Allowing people to overstress an environment that has not been built to allow for the resources they need is allowing a group to condemn themselves to water and sanitation issues. 200 people in a once-manicured park without water or power or washrooms is less than ideal.
What are we owed by the government? Housing the homeless saves more money elsewhere, but what happens when they keep hoarding shared communal space for their own semi-permanent exclusive use?
We need to provide homes, yes. We need to ask them whether they want a home and a leg back up into society. It has to be clear that returning to an area with no fresh water and available sanitation is not an option. Are we building shacks in the woods where density is low enough that a single person won't stress the environment?
I find your hand-wringing over water and sanitation issues to be disingenuous. Obviously the city can provide freshwater and Porta potty's so that's not really an issue.
They are not "hoarding", they are gathering together for survival. You are confusing the poorest and most vulnerable people in our society with corporations and the wealthy who are hoarding housing. They are in communal space because that's all they have, they have no where else, they have to exist in communal space. If the tent communities are smashed the people don't suddenly disappear, they simply disperse into the neighbourhoods making them even more more vulnerable.
What's this nonsense about building shacks in the woods? Do they have support systems there? Where is the food supposed to come from, what about medical care?
Yeah, build them next to politicians/elites houses and watch the full force of the law remove them.
Having an economy which creates the need for people to live in homeless camps violates human rights, says me
You're assuming that the problem is purely economic.
Homelessness is not a one-cause problem.
The only difference between a homeless person and a person is a home. If we provided housing first then it would make it easier to tackle other social and economic problems.