My security guard job is working at a police department monitoring cameras for a program called City Watch. There is a homeless camped out at a bus shelter and I’ve been actively monitoring him because he’s older and in danger of becoming a victim to assault or any of the other maladies that life on the streets offers. Anyhow, the damn camera failed so now I cannot ensure his safety. It’s clear that he’s down on his luck and has nowhere to go because all of the shelters are full. He’s not even even on drugs or alcohol. There are no alcohol bottles surrounding him. He’s only got soft drink bottles and wrappers from food. Sad situation.
We’ve a real problem with homelessness in the United States and the problem is exacerbated by the Faircloth Amendment which makes it illegal to use federal funds for building new public housing units. As with any law, one must follow the money trail where it leads and it leads back to the landlords and their respective lobby group. The landlord lobby was concerned about competition from public housing. Landords got their wish of market protection and manipulation from the passage of this amendment to the Housing Act of 1937.
Now we have a system of housing vouchers that turned out to be a giant gift to the landlords. Basically, the landlord receives a guaranteed payment of rent and some additional protections to prevent abuse of the unit for rent. As an added gift, the laws make qualifying for being a housing provider easy and inexpensive. In fact, a landlord is only required to do very minimal upkeep so many of the housing units are, in effect, slums. As usual it is the impoverished ones who suffer the greatest under this system. It is laughable that they even call the program a “housing choice” program. The choice is usually between shitty and shittier places to live. There is no choice.
Repealing the Faircloth Amendment is the first step in solving the US housing crisis. Honestly, this is not even the best approach because there are already enough vacant homes to solve the housing crisis once and for all. As always, this problem lacks the political will to solve. It is an easy problem to solve but none of our elected officials want to do anything about it. Then I get really angry when I hear about people designing cheap, portable housing tent-like structures and then thinking of ways to commercialize them. This is not a solution! It’s a fucking bandage.
I know these people mean well and are trying to help but these designs and and ideas are only stop gap measures. Why not take the time and energy to fight the system directly rather than doing this? It’s not solving the problem. It seems like people took the easiest solution available. Attorneys are required to do pro bono work as part of maintaining their licenses to practice. Make them help file briefs and challenge the Faircloth Amendment. Advocacy for a solution is better than kicking the can down the street which is all these portable shelters do. And in many cases, the law favors the cities and the cities will come with their law enforcement squads and destroy these shelters anyway. I am just furious over the whole thing.