Anchorage's new summer strategies for dealing with homelessness

They do seem to revel in doing everything they can to make the lives of the homeless as miserable as possible, all the while mouthing doublespeak about how they're "helping". The homeless get their shelters razed because they're visible. But if a homeless person tries to hide their shelter, the powers that be don't like that either, and design things to make it nearly impossible for the homeless to hide out of sight so they don't bother anyone. And now they're launching a program of coerced labor at minimum wage, which nowhere in the nation is enough to afford an apartment, just one step up from slave labor.

I see why the homeless are viewed as a problem and parasites. But they're also human beings. And they're suffering far, far more than the people complaining about them.

It's okay for a rich person to do drugs or alcohol, they can still be beloved. Jim Belushi, Kurt Cobain, Ozzy Osborne, Craig Ferguson. But if you're homeless? Not so much.

Remember this, though. Most homeless don't fit the stereotypes of the ragged dirty wino junkie beggar. Most are just normal people down on their luck. But those aren't visible as they quickly learn to hide their homelessness just out of sheer self-protecion. Many employers will fire people if they discover they're homeless, regardless of how good and reliable an employee they are.

Remember, too...lots of celebrities and famous people were formerly homeless. William Shatner, Kurt Cobain, Sinbad, Jewel, Mick Foley, David Letterman. Many others.

The group of homeless people is no more homogenous than, say, the group of apartment dwellers, or the group of mansion owners, who can run the gamut from corporate CEOs to beloved celebrities like Robin Williams, to Ozzy Osborne (man, imagine HIM as a neighbor!) to crime bosses like El Chapo. You don't punish the entire class of mansion dwellers because a few cause major problems. But it's very common to punish all homeless people because a few, the only visible ones, are a problem.

Homeless run the gamut from the stereotypical beggar in rags, junkies, schizophrenic, to the hidden homeless, ordinary folks who hide their homeless status. That McDonald's cashier or the part time supermarket stock clerk could well be homeless. But you wouldn't know it because their jobs depend on hiding that. They also include future and former celebrities and business tycoons.

Think about this, too. Imagine you used to be middle class, maybe even affluent. You used to live in a house, had a spouse and kids, a decent job, nice car. But you got downsized, lost the house and the car. The spouse can't handle this and leaves you. So do your friends cause who wants to hang out with Debbie Downers anyway? You just lost EVERYTHING. Can't even go to the movie theater because you're not welcome there. People would complain. But what you can afford...is drugs..alcohol. Get drunk or high and you can forget all about the pain for a while, forget you're homeless, forget you lost everything and everyone hates you now and treats you like a cockroach.

I'm not saying being a problem to the neighborhood is okay. I don't like the drugs or alcohol or the eyesore or the trash or the petty crimes or begging any more than you do. But most homeless don't do that--not the ones I've met personally. Most are just trying to get by anyway they can, in a society that utterly rejects them. Safety doesn't exist for them--EVERYONE is a threat to them; from neighbors, to cops, to employers and coworkers. People will call cops and lie about you to get you in trouble. Nobody gets treated worse than a homeless person, except maybe illegal aliens (I'm not using the PC term as it's BS).

I'm just saying, they're human beings. And things go a lot better when you try working WITH them, instead of treating them like cockroaches. They have hopes and fears and dreams, too. Drugs and alcohol are a way of coping with hopelessness and misery. The trash and petty theft is a kind of...retribution against a hate-filled society. Why should I care about my neighborhood when the neighborhood doesn't give a good goddamn about me? They just want me to not exist. Imagine the anger from knowing that.

I was homeless for 15 years straight. Not from choice. I never begged, or dressed dirty or did drugs or alcohol. I was one of the hidden homeless. I often had a job--still didn't manage to earn enough to get out of homeless all that time. I feel incredible anger at the non-homeless for what was done to me, for how I was viewed and treated.

I'm not homeless anymore but I still live in hiding to this day. I shun human beings all I can. I don't want anything to do with them. They're so filled with hatred for anything not exactly like themselves. I have no friends anymore and stopped seeking any. No, thanks. Humans are too demonic for me.

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