Homelessness is a plague. It costs everybody money, and leaves all of those subject to it in destitute misery. It leads to pain, which leads to addiction, which leads to further ostracisation, which leads to more pain and more addiction, and you can see how this becomes a vicious, merciless cycle, can't you?
Homelessness, however, is actually blamed on these things, rather than these things being blamed on homelessness - as perhaps they ought to be, a little more than they are now, at least - and this leads us to some rather frustrating problems.
Person A is homeless. Person A doesn't want to be homeless. Person A goes to Person B, a person of some money and authority in the community, and asks for help, be it in the way of temporary accomodation, or in the way of somewhere to work, for a source of income.
Person B, however, is a Tory.
Now, regardless of whether or not Person A is actually addicted to any illicit, controlled substances - or indeed, to any of the legal ones, whose legality should really come into question when you realise how much damage they really do - there is a stereotype about the homeless that they are all addicts, for one reason or another, and that the reason they are homeless is because they are addicts.
Person B tells them to sod off - more politely than that, perhaps, but it amounts to the same - and only come back when they've cleaned themselves up and been off whatever they're using for some time. Only when they're presentable, respectable members of society can anybody think about helping them in any meaningful way, thus allowing them to... become presentable, respectable members of.. society...
Yeah. The logic starts to break down there, actually.
But really, homelessness is good - for the Right Wing, at least.
Because it provides an example for the working class of what will happen to them if they stop rolling over and doing as they're bloody well told. It provides them with a class of people lower than them, so that they don't have to feel as bad - so that they have someone to take out their anger at their own lack of progress on. Homeless people get burned alive, and for what? Because they're homeless, that's why. Thugs on the streets go out after dark, and kick the homeless to death for no reason. They're arrested - sometimes - yes, but that's mostly to give everyone the idea that they don't enjoy it when the workers focus their rage on something other than the people who are really holding them down.
Yeah.
I mean, come on, have you ever given some money to a homeless person - someone like Person A - and seen people turn their heads and walk away, or murmur something about how they'll probably just use it for drugs? Surely you have, because I know I have.
So Person A? They're fucked. Another human being, just like you or me, made of the same stardust, made of the same kinds of dreams, hopes, and desires, is fucked because they screwed up once, or because someone else screwed them up, or even just because of bad luck.
And nobody is going to help them up.
Well, except Canada, it seems.
No, seriously, have you seen this?
Housing First is a Canadian initiative that has allowed one fairly large town to completely annihilate the problem of Homelessness.
How? By simply giving every single homeless person a house. Nothing too big or fancy, but somewhere warm, safe, and registered. From there, with safety worries mitigated, they can start getting work done. They can become presentable, respectable members of society, even by a bastard Tory's standards - and this is not to say all conservatives are complete bastards, remember, there were three Tory MPs who rebelled in a vote for more cuts, and voted against, and they've won my respect, truly - and then everything is fine.
And get this.
Housing them costs much, much less than dealing with their presence on the streets! It reduces A and E costs, it reduces costs for police teams investigating drug problems - as the clientele for the dealers is diminished - and it reduces the unhappiness of not just the homeless, but the whole city.
This is Socialism at work, people! It works and it does real, tangible good.
To hell with our opposition, because they might be The Right, but we're IN the right!
And I have to say, before I go... I am very excited to see what cool things Canada is going to do next - after all, they're basically Gandalf the White to America's Saruman, right?
They're America - as they should have been.
With more snow, and the French language thrown it.
~ Baxster Brand
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