About Me
- Name: Sagepaper
- Location: United States
An only child and service-brat, I was born in Panama. We lived on Indian Reservations when I was two to four-and-a-half -- crucial years for social development. Culturally, I am a mixed-up White Eyes from Mescalero. I began college at fifteen, enjoying a luxurious seven years of rigorous liberal arts education. Since graduating with a B.A. in Psychology, I have avidly read non-fiction, adding enormously to my formal education. Disabled by Tourette's Syndrome and other conditions, I live in Atlanta's suburbia. My father and husband are both physicians, and share a consulting business. (I am very proud of what they do, but I mention their occupations because people cannot seem to move to another small-talk topic if I simply say I am disabled. They must be told an occupation, and will start asking about family members to get one.)
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Herein find essays, musings, Haiku, and other traditional poetry.
Saturday, July 23, 2005
Haven, Not Heaven, For Phoenix Homeless
These people aren't seeing things the right way. This is not a social work problem. Police say some won't go into shelters that require drug and alcohol testing for admission. Others refuse help because they are mentally ill. These are references to individual problems about placing individual people in the most appropriate program or facility. This isn't about social programs to help homeless people get back on their feet.
People are dying. This is a natural disaster with many people suddenly in need of shelter. Why aren't the hallways of every floor of every downtown office building lined with these thousands of people who are facing death if not sheltered? Because the people in SUDDEN need of shelter are labeled "homeless" they are thinking small -- business as usual, only a little worse. This is NOT business as usual.
Ordinarily, the homeless are okay in the summer. That's why they have a winter-only shelter. Their need for shelter has shifted dramatically. It's not a matter of finding a place with a bed, showers, good quality used clothes and job placement services. People will die if they stay outside.
How do you step over someone, hoisting your briefcase, to walk into a shelter that could house many, many people? Part of the problem is we aren't used to third-world practicality in saving lives. You don't let those things into law offices, don't be absurd!
These people had homes: on the streets. Their homes have been destroyed by a natural disaster, and no longer provide adequate shelter. Were it not for the heat, the natural disaster, they would not be without adequate shelter. When a natural disaster suddenly leaves thousands without homes, they at least open the school gymnasiums.
Wake up, Phoenix, and smell the corpses!
