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I kinda made this post out of spite for the fact the most previous post in this community, whose title I quoted/copied, was getting so many downvotes... At the time I posted this, the previous post had about a 30% downvote rate, and it really, really made me mad.
I am relieved tho to see people in the comments here who have real, actual empathy for their fellow humans. Thank you for contributing here.
It blows my mind how normalized it is to hate on those who are struggling. Especially in 20fucking23 when so many of us now are on the verge of it ourselves. Let's be better, everyone - to everyone. I beg you.
Tent cities are a public safety hazard. Needles, fires, weapons, toxic chemicals, shit everywhere, violence, etc. There are good reasons for cities not wanting them on city/public property.
Sure, some people are homeless. If they take care of their tent and the space around it to keep it safe, the rest of society won't have a fit when they and their closest hundred buddies move into a local community park.
i mean, you have to know that isn't true, right? people call the cops on homeless people for just existing all the time.
i get so baffled every time people talk about needles, fires, shit, and garbage around tent cities. why do you think unhoused people would set fires? because they get cold just like you. why do you think there's shit there? because they shit just like you. why do you think they're garbage there? because they make trash just like you. the only difference between people and unhoused people is that there isn't any infrastructure in place to give these people shelter, keep them warm, dispose of their trash, flush their toilets. why is there violence? because these people are living in abject poverty, in close proximity, and with very little privacy. why are there weapons? because they live in public. of course, your perception of these things is warped, a lot of times large camps will try to organize places to dispose of their waste, try to keep things tidy, and are relatively safe, but that isn't easy, and you only think it is because you have the invisible infrastructure of a modern nation holding up your standard of living.
all the things society would "have a fit" over are things that you yourself can only keep under control with vast quantities of modern infrastructure. you have pipes to take your shit away from you, cans to put your garbage in that get picked up on a regular schedule, a power grid and gas pipes to heat your home when it gets cold, a home with locking doors, doctors offices with sharps container for shots, and on and on and on. the cleanliness and safety of where you live is almost never about how much you care. its about how much you have, and passing judgement on people for having less than you is wrong.
Tldr; lived next to a tent city with exactly these problems. Stop excusing it.
I do agree there they are a fire hazard and have to be regulated but there are ways to mitigate that like gun control, installing porta-potties or public bathroom near tents, making sure tents are well spaced out, etc... People have to go somewhere and if they can't afford housing and you simply disband their settlement they will move somewhere and become someone elses problem. This does not solve the issue. Helping them does and so does making denser housing to bring down house prices.