Homeless show how true community works

Latest

Denise calls the bed of the Santa Ana River home.
PHOTO/MARIAH CASTANEDA

 
In Richmond VA, homeless people sit up all night on torturous wooden seats in a dank basement courtroom, or freeze outside; this is what passes for ‘shelter’ there. Others simply die of exposure outside. This country has had almost four decades to solve homelessness, but every year it gets worse, growing by leaps and bounds while more people get pushed out of an automating economy.
Instead of making sure people are housed, as a fundamental social necessity and priority, towns and cities—from San Jose to Santa Ana in California, and all across the country—move to raze tent communities where people band together for shelter, privacy and mutual support. These at their best, like ones in the San Francisco Bay Area, that have also been raided recently, could be a model for how true community works. Instead they are smashed and people scattered to the streets and the elements. The rest of our class, working and no longer working, understand the immorality of this and are stepping forward to help and to protest.
An economic and political system that causes mass homelessness is bankrupt and needs to be replaced. This is the vision of an increasing number of people as they watch the sad spectacle of people being attacked simply for being the victims of this failing system. The demands of the homeless for housing and for all they need to survive and thrive are revolutionary: a demand for a transformed system based on cooperation and the fulfilling of human needs.
 

Evicted in Googleville


 

Thoughts from our readers on the People’s Tribune’s homeless coverage


 

‘All we have is an idea’


 

‘We just reach out and help’


 

PT Logo collage
+ Articles by this author

Free to republish but please credit the People's Tribune. Visit us at www.peoplestribune.org, email peoplestribune@gmail.com, or call 773-486-3551.

The People’s Tribune brings you articles written by individuals or organizations, along with our own reporting. Bylined articles reflect the views of the authors. Unsigned articles reflect the views of the editorial board. Please credit the source when sharing: ©2024 peoplestribune.org. Please donate to help us keep bringing you voices of the movement. Click here. We’re all volunteer, no paid staff.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Featured

Pushing People into a Really Bad System Will End Really Badly

President Trump's executive order fuses drug use and homelessness, ignoring that homelessness can cause or exacerbate substance use because people use drugs to cope with pain. Forced institutional settings rather than housing will not help the ill or unhoused.

Chicago Resistance Speaks: ‘Until All Are Free, None Are Free’

An uprising is growing as the government tries to impose a dictatorship. Chicago resistance leaders recently offered their thoughts in public remarks made at demonstrations and press conferences.

Los Angeles Continues to Rebuild and Resist

Angelinos, suffering from the profit over people economy, continue to rebuild after the fires and to protest immigration raids, while also experiencing joy in such difficult times.

Chicago Teachers Union Says: Trump, Stay Out of Our City

Chicago Teachers Union rejects any unlawful federal occupation of their city, while welcoming federal leadership that fully funds public education, restores SNAP, and expands Medicaid to healthcare for all.

Journalist Says Why ‘I Can No Longer Work With Reuters’

A photojournalist says why it is impossible for her to maintain a relationship with Reuters "given its role in justifying and enabling the systematic assassination of 245 journalists in Gaza."

More from the People's Tribune