Homeless But Wholesome (Part I)
Part I of DM Lawrence’s Homeless But Wholesome Afro-rights essay/podcast
*Click here to read Homeless But Wholesome (Part II)*
This is dedicated to those called “homeless” all around the world, and especially here in Amerikkka… — DM Lawrence
We call you “homeless”, but I think you are wholesome.
You’re amazing. It’s amazing how we can’t see the maze that we’re in. Like the propaganda used to promote faces of poverty. Contemporary American homelessness has no face and was created by Reagan.
Housing is a right, and homelessness isn’t a fact of nature — it’s another social construct. Homelessness was deliberately created by public policy.
It’s a part of underdevelopment and development — the see-saw effect of our global political economy.
When I look at you I see a soul. Every person has a soul and every soul has a purpose.
We call people “homeless” as if they chose that label, or want to be called that. We act like we are better than those called “homeless” because we can afford to sleep inside a residence.
We know that society does not take care of “homeless” people.
All this hubris — that’s just the tragedy of the commons. Common sense is uncommon, and we commonly overlook what we have in common.
We all need housing and jobs, and an end to the ongoing 40 -year war on the working class — in a system where 20% of the population is stuck one step away from homelessness because the structure of the economy demands it.
Americans have accepted the emergence and evolution of homelessness, and gotten used to seeing people sleeping in the streets of big cities, and the “homeless” seem to be a fact of nature, like the weather. That’s our group-think, but what do you think?
We call people “homeless”, but they aren’t any less human, so why does our superiority complex persist? They deserve as much respect as anyone, and have rights, dreams, ideas, responsibilities, and potential like all who exist.
If what we do for those we believe cannot help us is an indication of our character, then does calling people “homeless” make us feel better about ourselves?
We assume you are no good, but you are better, if not just as good as us. People measuring their worth based on possessions and their ability to consume — industrialization clearly confused us.
They call you “homeless”, but I think you are wholesome.
You are amazing…
— Unbreakable…
— Wise….
…a beautiful sensation.
If you sleep outside or are without someplace to call home, are you any less blessed? If you sleep inside or have some place to call home, are you any less stressed?
When did they first begin measuring “homelessness”? When did homelessness become an indicator of social-economic status?
Reaganomics created homelessness in five (5) years by defunding programs that supported low-income residences and by 1985 — we suddenly had widespread “homelessness” throughout the nation.
But the papers said it was “mental patients” and“recession,” so you accepted that explanation.
In reality, Reagan provided a stimulus package for “homelessness” by cutting $65 billion of housing money and ONLY replacing it with $880 million in shelter funding.
In 1978, the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD)budget was over $83 billion. In ’83, HUD’s budget was ONLY $18 billion, and general public emergency shelters began opening in cities nationwide. Then, in ’87, Congress passed the McKinney Act, providing $880 million in homeless assistance funding.
The lost funding was never replaced, and the percentage of low-cost housing and subsidized housing has been dropping ever since.
Just like how crack raised the murder rate in DC and Maryland, we invested in that, and got Merrill Lynched. When it comes to “homelessness”, we been hangin’ from the same tree ever since.
[To be continued]…..
*Click here to read Homeless But Wholesome (Part II)*