Sometimes when I talk to homeless people in the Bay Area, I ask them how they became homeless.
Sometimes, they say that they lost their homes in a wildfire.
More painful than seeing people lose their homes in a forest fire, is watching them lose their humanity, as our empathy for them evaporates.
Sometimes, they say that they lost their homes in a wildfire.
More painful than seeing people lose their homes in a forest fire, is watching them lose their humanity, as our empathy for them evaporates.
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Insurance will often take months to pay out and if you don't have a place to live in the interim you are boned.
Folks don't seem to realize how precarious life can be, and how performatively cruel the US can be
But as days turn to weeks and months, we stop caring *why* someone doesn't have a home, and only care *that* they don't have a home.
We start planning to throw away their remaining possessions.
Some credit where due, there were those who did the right thing and a number did.
Many homeless people just experienced a sequence of unfortunate events that led them to this place.
"No! They're drug addicts! They did this to themselves!"🤡
Again, ask people with addiction how they became addicted.
They'll tell you
That's a lie that fortunate people 🙋🏿♂️ tell ourselves.
California homeless are almost all California residents (90%) who just had a bunch of bad luck in a row.
And like yeah, maybe some do! But the vast majority are folks who have lived here for years and got pushed out of their homes by housing prices.
Because if tomorrow you lost your home and your job to wildfire, and only had your car and a few hastily gathered possessions, and you needed to earn some money?
Your car would become a burrito taxi too.
I care that we live in a country so cruel, that some people deliver food in the cars that they live in, while those receiving the food don't even know or care.
Safety nets provide the much needed time to recover from bad stuff.