Homelessness is a constant struggle in many countries. People of all ages can find themselves without a house for many reasons, and those reasons are increasing as costs rise and individuals struggle more with things like substance dependency, loss of job or struggle finding a job, missed rent or bills, and so on. Many people, and many cities, demonize homelessness for the harsh impact it has on public area and on city plans. What’s going on with this in California’s big cities, where homeless folk are at an all-time high? Let’s talk about it.
Nowadays we are seeing a huge increase in cities becoming exasperated and fighting back against the population of individuals and families trying to survive in the open. They often have things like tents to sleep in out in the air, and homeless people create camps together where they band together within an area to stay safe and provide assistance to each other.
Homelessness camps aren’t anything new. But many cities are creating more regulations restricting the ability of homeless camps to exist, and moving them from safe spaces as well as adding anti-homeless architecture such as spiked park benches preventing sleeping on them and so much more.
California’s biggest cities are facing this at an all-time high, where many are stuck homeless and alone in the cities that have such huge costs of living creating even more homeless youth and adults all over. More and more homeless encampments filled with tents are popping up in city areas such as under bridges or near public parks.
Even though most homeless folk are respecting private property and trying to stay out of the way, multiple cities including Los Angeles are becoming angrier towards the homeless population and how they use the land in the towns. In Sacramento, a crew of state workers was sent to push a homeless encampment out from under a bridge, where they moved and resettled.
The homeless folk that were moved by state workers settled not even 100 feet away on more public property, not having anywhere to go and struggling against quite the hot day. Sacramento is working hard to continue attacking these folk through their legislature by imposing a city-wide ban on public camping, which would effectively ban homeless tents as well.
Many people are split on these decisions and actions, thinking it’s quite inhumane and not-caring to just continue to move and ban homelessness in the open for sake of “city appearances” while not offering any additional aid to the thousands struggling against this housing crisis. But plenty of the politicians are framing it as a “generous and compassionate” act.
Either way, no matter how harsh or not harsh it may seem it looks like California is continuing to become more aggressive towards homelessness as far as in visible public spaces and it doesn’t seem to be ending anytime soon. For now, this crisis continues to rise and prices aren’t going down. It’s likely more folk will end up on the streets with coming raises in costs for rent, utilities, and basic needs. What we don’t know is how this will end for the legislature and treatment surrounding homeless individuals in California’s big cities.