Before I begin, if I might paraphrase something I read recently, from someone with much better wit than I possess:
‘Please know that any typos or misspellings you find below are my way of proving to you that I’m actually human, and not the latest Ai chatbot pretending to be such.’
Walk through any city in Washington State, and you’ll encounter the issue of homelessness up close and personal. It’s grown so pervasive that it can’t be avoided.
Government has shown that it is unable to actually solve the problem. Indeed, it has been widely reported in the media that the State of Washington spent 143 million dollars to get 126 people into housing and back on their feet. The State spent 110,311 dollars per homeless person moved from an encampment; 164,706 dollars per homeless person moved from an encampment into housing; and 1,137,256 dollars per person to become stable and exit the system. These are the State’s own numbers.
Actually, it is worse than that. The State encourages homelessness through regulations that dramatically increase the cost of a home. New building code regulations have added 39,876 dollars to the average cost of a new home, all while our homeless population is increasing. This is on top of all previous regulation cost drivers, land use restrictions, and zoning.
There is no charity in existence that is large enough to solve this problem, and government has proven far too inept to do so.
So what do we do?
It is certainly not caring and compassionate to leave people on the streets, in the weather, suffering from mental health conditions and drug addictions. Indeed, that is a sign of an evil society, not a compassionate one.
So how do we fix it?
And can we acknowledge that not all homeless people are the same? That some just need a hand up? That we could do well by addressing these people’s needs first? As a first step towards solving the problem?
I would argue that we, as members of the world’s premier moral society are called upon to contemplate such things.
Over the past few years, my city has been overrun by homeless people. People who are obviously either on drugs or suffering mental health breakdowns. People who are caught committing crimes, often senseless crimes. People who scare others, trash and break things, destroying public areas.
But, not all homeless people are like that.
I am going to admit that I resemble the caricature of the old man who leaves his house to go out and scream “Get Off My Lawn!” to the neighbor kids. I keep an eye on what’s going on around my house, and I’m up to challenging what doesn’t seem right. My wife is the same way.
As a result of this, I’ve come into contact with a couple, man and woman, who live in their car. I think I first talked with them six or eight months ago when they made the street in front of my house their home for the day. I went out, talked to them, and determined that they were not looking to cause any problems. Just people down on their luck. I’ve seen them elsewhere around the city since, and talked with them since.
These are just two people, trying to survive, in a very bad situation.
But, they don’t get any attention from government, or homeless help groups, because they aren’t out there causing problems.
Should we not help them first?
And how can we identify people like that so that they can be helped first, instead of last?
People like this are after all, the way we can begin successfully addressing this dreadful problem in our society.
Last night, about midnight, Melinda and I were watching television when we saw them roll up, slowly and quietly, in front of our house. They had spent the day in front of our house before, but never overnight.
We chatted about it for a few seconds, and decided that we wouldn’t object. We know that they don’t mean to cause any harm.
The thing is though, we could object. Unlike cities in our area where the problem has grown completely out of hand, like Seattle and Portland, our city has a law stating that one can’t sleep in ones car or otherwise camp, on city streets and sidewalks. And it is enforced. So, we could have called the police and had them moved along.
It was an easy decision for us to let them stay.
But it is not the decision we would have made had they been more typical of the homeless population.
I did though, wonder what else we could do. I considered, briefly, running some food out to them. But our own dinner had been put away hours before, they have no ability to cook in their car (I presume) and we didn’t have anything of the pre-made variety.
So, I didn’t.
Shortly afterwards, I went to lock up the house as I do each night. They must have seen me doing this, and assumed that I was instead checking up on them, or taking extra care to lock up the house because they were there.
By the time I was finished, they had started their car and rolled away. About ten minutes later I saw them again, traveling the opposite direction, presumably not yet having found a suitable place to park for the night.
They could have stayed where they were, but clearly they didn’t want to cause a problem.
But that’s the key isn’t it? They didn’t want to cause a problem. That is why, when government and charity looks to address the homeless situation, it is people like this that need to be the priority. Because their desire to not cause problems for others means that a hand up truly can help them escape their dreadful situation.
How on earth can those who truly could benefit from help be identified? Especially since they are off the radar because they don’t cause problems?
I don’t have the answers to any of these questions. Perhaps no one does.
But, I do know that large numbers of people, living without homes, in the weather, in the wealthiest nation on the face of the earth is an evil. And I know that as Freemasons, it is our duty to confront evil.
You are asking good questions and I don't have any easy answers. But I think you are right in your desire focus one on one, human to human. One person here on Substack who is really trying to work on this is Matt Love. Here is one of his posts.
Just talking about homelessness is an overwhelming issue. Where do you start, who do you start with, how do you help? The issues of mental health and addiction are frightening topics in the abstract let alone when it becomes personalized. Many of the homeless start out as people who have suffered catastrophic financial loss (many with too much pride to ask for help). Being homeless leads to mental health issues for otherwise “normal” people. The lack of sleep, worrying about their safety or the safety of their family is extremely stressful. Trying to find food, trying to stay healthy, trying to maintain personal hygiene are all stressful and in a very short time paranoia begins to set in. How do they maintain necessary prescriptions. The true homeless person doesn’t want to be seen, they don’t want to interact with society and want to solve their own problems. If a Brother became homeless, to what extent would we go to aid and assist him? What if the Brother was from another jurisdiction? Most of us nor our lodges aren’t in a position to do much.
I didn’t speak to the homeless with addictions because that’s another issue. Many are dual diagnosis so trying to determine which issue to tackle first, the addiction or their mental health can be daunting. Much of the homelessness issues can be trace back to when President Reagan closed the mental institutions. Most of them were horrific places and needed to be closed but at the same time it put the onus of care onto ill equipped families that lacked the knowledge or skills to take care of a paranoid schizophrenic. And who was responsible to provide care to a 50+ year old sibling when the parents were no longer capable or living. I don’t believe dumping the mentally ill into an institution is the answer but neither was leaving them at home and not providing families with the assistance they required. It’s all so very overwhelming, like how to eat an elephant. It’s all one bite at a time.
To add to MW Cameron's post - it's not just the city of Seattle's money. They don't tell you how much they have spent of county and federal's tax dollars. All told, we spend around two billion dollars annually to try and fix Seattle's "homeless" problem. That's Billions with a "B". Two billion dollars to try and help around 11,000 people. And this pile of money is spent through dozens of "outreach" non-profits, which spend little on the problem and most to line their own pockets. It's the biggest grifting scheme ever invented. And, for those people, solving this problem would simply stop the gravy train so it is in their best interests to keep that money flowing.
I have actually had personal experience with this situation. My wife and I had our landlady in February of 2021 inform us that we had to move because where she was living was sold and she had to have us move out so she could move back into her own house. We had to be out by June 1st of 2021. We started looking for a place to move to. As 2 senior citizens on Social Secruity we found no place that fit into our budget, especially with a cat and dog. Rents after Covid had tripled. We decided to try the RV living and soon found out having a place to park near Centralia was costing more than an apartment or free spots were already claimed by encampments. We did finally find free spots an hour to an hour and a half away. Gasoline costs to travel became an issue. We were parked in the National Forests, Morton, Ashford etc. We lived in an RV from June 1, 2021 to September 13, 2022. We had to move every 7 to 14 days. I was WM of Little Falls during that time which greatly influenced what the "best of my ability" was. On top of that I inherited a lot of noncompliance to the code which I tried to fix.
I think we have to figure out better why they are on the street before we can do much meaningful for them. I have spoken with some of those living on the street over the years and I think there are a number of causes, though I am not sure what the percentages are. There are the mentally ill. There are those with addiction issues. There are those who have gotten down on their luck economically (due to job loss, health issues etc). There are those who the economy has changed against them and now the money that used to sustain them does not. Finally there are those who choose to live homeless. Many probably share more than one of these categories. I may have missed some. Each of these will need money, compassion and commitment to address, if we want to end the homeless problem. The way wrote that least sentence I think demonstrates why we have not solved the problem, I used common language used on the subject. I said the 'homeless problem', not the "homelessness problem" Many people see those experiencing homelessness as the problem, not the fact that they are homeless. I think, my opinion, that people living on the street, or in the rough. is the canary in the coal mine. A first warning of a bigger issue.
After my initiation a brother gave a deeply impactful speech. In summary, he argued it was the duty of all moral men to set aright the failures of society. As for how to accomplish this, he was silent.
I appreciate your writing as a reminder to continue contemplating these things, at a time when cynicism and hopelessness is so accessible.
I was pretty stricken to the vote when a few months ago I looked for a friend who I had not heard from in a few years. I knew him personally in the fitness subculture. He had been a writer and photographer and covered many events for the top fitness magazines in the 70s through 2000s. He had followed my short career in fitness and had written a really nice article about me in about 2014 or so. I wanted to get a quote for him and when I looked for him on Facebook I found he had been homeless for a few years since COVID-19. No one could find him. His family was looking for him, and the last anyone heard he was living out of his car. He was cut off from the world from phone and Internet. So who knows maybe he’s just wandering on the streets in LA. That’s just hard for me to wrap my head around. All I can do is pray for him. 🙏💫🙏
You are asking good questions and I don't have any easy answers. But I think you are right in your desire focus one on one, human to human. One person here on Substack who is really trying to work on this is Matt Love. Here is one of his posts.
https://open.substack.com/pub/mattlove/p/eagles-beavers-a-snowy-egret?r=txq7&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
This is why I'm an anarchist. A community can always solve a community problem if beaurocracy didn't get in the way.
NGOs are the solution in other counties but we're too proud to admit we're no different in America.
Just talking about homelessness is an overwhelming issue. Where do you start, who do you start with, how do you help? The issues of mental health and addiction are frightening topics in the abstract let alone when it becomes personalized. Many of the homeless start out as people who have suffered catastrophic financial loss (many with too much pride to ask for help). Being homeless leads to mental health issues for otherwise “normal” people. The lack of sleep, worrying about their safety or the safety of their family is extremely stressful. Trying to find food, trying to stay healthy, trying to maintain personal hygiene are all stressful and in a very short time paranoia begins to set in. How do they maintain necessary prescriptions. The true homeless person doesn’t want to be seen, they don’t want to interact with society and want to solve their own problems. If a Brother became homeless, to what extent would we go to aid and assist him? What if the Brother was from another jurisdiction? Most of us nor our lodges aren’t in a position to do much.
I didn’t speak to the homeless with addictions because that’s another issue. Many are dual diagnosis so trying to determine which issue to tackle first, the addiction or their mental health can be daunting. Much of the homelessness issues can be trace back to when President Reagan closed the mental institutions. Most of them were horrific places and needed to be closed but at the same time it put the onus of care onto ill equipped families that lacked the knowledge or skills to take care of a paranoid schizophrenic. And who was responsible to provide care to a 50+ year old sibling when the parents were no longer capable or living. I don’t believe dumping the mentally ill into an institution is the answer but neither was leaving them at home and not providing families with the assistance they required. It’s all so very overwhelming, like how to eat an elephant. It’s all one bite at a time.
The heart of any organized community response will be a triage system.
Your car couple may need temporary help with housing, maybe job training and the like, or reconnecting with family.
Others may need mental health care, which might mean proper diagnosis, meds, and real ongoing support. For some it might require institutional care.
For those who *like* the impunity of living on the streets, who like committing property or violent crimes - easy, jail.
Solving addiction, or reducing it for some people, will take a variety of approaches.
And for the politicians who approve plans of a $million per person - throw them out of their jobs and homes as a warning to others.
I make that last suggestion (mostly) tongue in cheek, but the poverty industrial complex, as they call it, is a real thing.
Solving “homelessness” is foolish. Identifying more specific problems will at least help some people.
To add to MW Cameron's post - it's not just the city of Seattle's money. They don't tell you how much they have spent of county and federal's tax dollars. All told, we spend around two billion dollars annually to try and fix Seattle's "homeless" problem. That's Billions with a "B". Two billion dollars to try and help around 11,000 people. And this pile of money is spent through dozens of "outreach" non-profits, which spend little on the problem and most to line their own pockets. It's the biggest grifting scheme ever invented. And, for those people, solving this problem would simply stop the gravy train so it is in their best interests to keep that money flowing.
I have actually had personal experience with this situation. My wife and I had our landlady in February of 2021 inform us that we had to move because where she was living was sold and she had to have us move out so she could move back into her own house. We had to be out by June 1st of 2021. We started looking for a place to move to. As 2 senior citizens on Social Secruity we found no place that fit into our budget, especially with a cat and dog. Rents after Covid had tripled. We decided to try the RV living and soon found out having a place to park near Centralia was costing more than an apartment or free spots were already claimed by encampments. We did finally find free spots an hour to an hour and a half away. Gasoline costs to travel became an issue. We were parked in the National Forests, Morton, Ashford etc. We lived in an RV from June 1, 2021 to September 13, 2022. We had to move every 7 to 14 days. I was WM of Little Falls during that time which greatly influenced what the "best of my ability" was. On top of that I inherited a lot of noncompliance to the code which I tried to fix.
I think we have to figure out better why they are on the street before we can do much meaningful for them. I have spoken with some of those living on the street over the years and I think there are a number of causes, though I am not sure what the percentages are. There are the mentally ill. There are those with addiction issues. There are those who have gotten down on their luck economically (due to job loss, health issues etc). There are those who the economy has changed against them and now the money that used to sustain them does not. Finally there are those who choose to live homeless. Many probably share more than one of these categories. I may have missed some. Each of these will need money, compassion and commitment to address, if we want to end the homeless problem. The way wrote that least sentence I think demonstrates why we have not solved the problem, I used common language used on the subject. I said the 'homeless problem', not the "homelessness problem" Many people see those experiencing homelessness as the problem, not the fact that they are homeless. I think, my opinion, that people living on the street, or in the rough. is the canary in the coal mine. A first warning of a bigger issue.
After my initiation a brother gave a deeply impactful speech. In summary, he argued it was the duty of all moral men to set aright the failures of society. As for how to accomplish this, he was silent.
I appreciate your writing as a reminder to continue contemplating these things, at a time when cynicism and hopelessness is so accessible.
I was pretty stricken to the vote when a few months ago I looked for a friend who I had not heard from in a few years. I knew him personally in the fitness subculture. He had been a writer and photographer and covered many events for the top fitness magazines in the 70s through 2000s. He had followed my short career in fitness and had written a really nice article about me in about 2014 or so. I wanted to get a quote for him and when I looked for him on Facebook I found he had been homeless for a few years since COVID-19. No one could find him. His family was looking for him, and the last anyone heard he was living out of his car. He was cut off from the world from phone and Internet. So who knows maybe he’s just wandering on the streets in LA. That’s just hard for me to wrap my head around. All I can do is pray for him. 🙏💫🙏
"The gift without the giver is bare."