“Las Vegas parking lot turned into ‘homeless shelter’ with social distancing markers”…What’s Wrong With This Picture?
In response to the London Guardian headline above, Jim Andrews posted on Facebook, “The homeless shelters are closing. Social distancing not possible there. Put these people in hotels and motels. They can observe social distancing and will give the hotels/motels some probably badly needed business. Mind you, that also puts the hotels/motels in a situation where the cleaning is more dangerous and awful and much bigger work load.”
Adeena Karasick responded: “They’re all over the street in NY. Huddled In groups of 3 or 4 trying to sit a few feet from each other but sharing a blanket.. it’s all so heartbreaking.”
For my part, I noticed that the recent drone photography of empty Victoria BC’s downtown streets avoided filming the areas where homeless people wander near their sprawling tent cities, the municipality’s ‘solution’ to their plight, and only showed the inner harbour areas where they don’t tend to congregate due to the increased wind, rain and cold.
It is indeed very, very sad. If nothing else, this virus shows us that the homeless need to be homed, rehabilitated and cared for. As if they were human beings in a civil society. Governments and communities need to bite the New World Order bullet and, if neither ideologically nor compassionately equipped, fake it ‘till they make it. Turn this societal ship headed for disaster right around.
Of note: Municipalities are ALWAYS financially and economically equipped to home, rehabilitate and care for homeless populations, at least 87% of whom suffer addictions or mental/emotional problems, as NOT homing, caring for and rehabilitating sufferers costs WAY MORE than biting the bullet and doing the right thing as a community, polis or collective. Way more! — in policing, medical, real estate and commercial viability losses for downtown merchants, not to mention community morale and collective shame — as has been demonstrated by several townships on the U.S. Eastern Seaboard, demonstrated in the full-length documentary ‘Seattle is Dying,’ available on Youtube, and in Canada.
‘Coralling’ homeless people outdoors, putting them in a pen, as in Las Vegas, doesn’t cut it.
