Across the US, roughly 500,000 sleep rough on any given night.
The Most Revolutionary Act
Uncensored updates on world events, economics, the environment and medicine
Across the US, roughly 500,000 sleep rough on any given night.
The Most Revolutionary Act 
Well, yippee. I’ve considered homelessness the number one deficiency that, if corrected, would drastically reduce the agony and cost of everyone’s mental health problems. If communities did a better job of attending to this, even something so simple as barracks-style, communal housing for weather extremes, it would make a drastic difference in hospital admissions, incarcerations, and crime.
Considering all the empty buildings in urban areas, these days, providing no-frills housing could be a forward-going method of solving multiple, interrelated problems in one fell swoop.
I’ve long believed public places should be open to the public, even if it means allowing sleeping on public benches. I’m glad the Supreme Court agrees with me, for once.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I, too, am a really strong supporter of public spaces, Katherine. I remain really concerned about all the homeless people I see with mental health problems (and the high numbers of mentally ill in our prisons and jails). That being said, I really like the idea of people having the right to totally opt out of industrially capitalism by living on the streets.
LikeLike
Quote: “I really like the idea of people having the right to totally opt out of industrially capitalism by living on the streets.” I really like your way of looking at this – opens up another way of thinking about an endemic problem. It may turn out not to be the problem we believe it to be, but a solution on its way to implementing itself.
LikeLike
Sha’Tara I often visualize what it’s like leaving on the streets. I think I may be forced into that lifestyle at some point, and I don’t want to be afraid of it.
LikeLike
I think we all have to face that possibility, the way things are going. I’ve been homeless before, by choice, and using natural smarts, not giving in to self abuse particularly, it becomes just another way of life. I recommend doing all in one’s power to keep/maintain some sort of home but “homelessness” is not the end of the world. If it was no one would survive it. I think that the “homeys” are the ones most fearful of homelessness – it demonstrates how thin the line between having a home of some kind today, and finding yourself, through no fault of your own, on the street tomorrow. The adjustment period is the critical part but if one has mind-engaged the possibility in advance, survival instincts kick in. If they do not, you die and that isn’t the end of the story either.
LikeLiked by 1 person