Mindsets Are Ensnaring Tens of Thousands to The Streets
Shelters Have Malfunctioned
Introduction
When thinking about this complex, unseen, unknown situation in most urban cities, homelessness is not your first thought. However, it is a direct result of both force and has reach a tipping point that we will not be able to recover from. The very ones in condos and townhomes that held onto these processes are themselves losing their housing now
It is a topic of conversation that one does not have in proper company, but it needs to happen, for if we continue to do nothing, the homeless numbers will explode. Treatment beds, civil commitments aside, plain, old-fashioned housing is an equalizer that cannot be denied.
Gentrification quietly removed the established owners out for a higher class, whereas NIMBY openly refuses housing, housing projects and building conversations that might impact home values and the aesthetic of the area.
An Opening Word
Isaiah 11: 4
But with righteousness and justice shall He judge the poor and decide with fairness for the meek, the poor, and the downtrodden of the earth; and He shall smite the earth and the oppressor with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips He shall slay the wicked.
Micah 6: 8
The Lord has told you, human, what is good; He has told you what He wants from you; to do what is right to other people; to love being kind to to others, to live humbly, obeying your God
Data for this Discussion
7.1 million homes short in America right now, we cannot build our way out
For extremely poor people we need a say 100 per month and we have only 35 available
Economic impact is already in the trillions of dollars and will only increase
Pandemic Funding Ended, shelters closed
Lack of immediate shelter cripples the chance of returning to a home
NIMBY allows housing authorities to not build affordable units, encourages restrictions on shelters and transitional housing
Gentrification’s Direct Impact through, evictions, displacement, decreased affordable units, exclusionary movement, and increased costs
What is NIMBY
NIMBY: Not In My Back Yard! This is an old, entrenched city, county, unspoken rule to prevent, limit and stop any building or conversion of a building to low or extremely low income. They often do not want ‘those kinds of ‘people’ in their neighborhood, stating it is not good for property values and the overall health of the area.
It is quiet, sly, and slick, the zoning and permits are limited and kept out of the hands of shelters, rehabs and those that want to help the ones that need housing the most. It is the most powerful, incredibly wicked, and least challenged form of discrimination, and no one dares challenge NIMBY!
It is all about perceptions and perceived risk of those people in this neighborhood. Those established in each area, zip code, or neighborhood, will resist and thwart any development that does not meet their set standard and will demand that the planning or zoning board refuse the permits required for whatever building or conversion was being scheduled.
Why is this such a problem currently? America is 7.1 million housing units short across the board. With rents running at an all-time high, property taxes getting higher, condo assessments, and insurance companies struggling, homelessness is about to visit a vast number of unique zip codes.
NIMBY has had a long run and long been acceptable, but it is about to hand in its bill and demand payment!
What is Gentrification
The simple, basic explanation of this is, a building you have lived in for 25 years is suddenly becoming empty, all your old neighbors are moving out. You are being offered money to move, but you cannot afford to move, so you say no thanks. Then you notice repairs are not being done, trash is piling up, more, higher offers for you to move are coming in, pressure is mounting, but you can’t move, can’t afford it.
But after months upon months of intense pressure, you give in; they told you the old building must come down. Then you are walking past that old building, it is not torn down, but all made over and fancy, and the rents are 4 times higher. Gentrification! Yes, the scenario was made up, but the truth is totally real.
The United States and certain cities have protected and promoted privileged building and zoning rights for so long that building is lagging far behind the need, and housing for the regular Joe is critically short, which leads to housing insecurity and economic impact for generations. Now most articles want to cast this as a white based issue, but I will not go there; it is a human problem and mostly a money problem when it is not used properly.
Gentrification accounts for housing shortages, neighborhood shifts, racial tensions, family structure disruptions, the loss of generational wealth, and it can even creep into the loss of small, independent businesses. But it is encouraged, welcomed, and given favor with the zoning and planning boards. NO one has or will attempt to answer this: where do the people ousted from their homes go to live when the rents have doubled or tripled?
How is it Ensnaring the At-Risk Population
Homelessness is entrenched, allowed, ignored, blamed, banned, legislated, hated, feared, avoided, not talked about, argued about, laws written about, emergency workers made to aid them outside their training, hope denied, life aborted, freedom denied, made to suffer and die in the street unlike homeless dogs, called criminals, animals, thugs, deerlicks, but the one thing that is not done or given or returned is dignity.
You and I cannot even understand the loss of dignity, let alone understand what a homeless person suffers when their dignity is stolen. Yet we blame them wholesale for the problem, when the United States has repeatedly chosen not to answer the call for solutions, which would have kept dignity with the humans going though homelessness instead of being trapped in it.
This is a situation of every race, every financial class, every color, every title that one can hold, saved or unsaved, with family or without family. This could have been dealt with decades ago, and the human passing through could have dept their dignity, today no one is immune from homelessness.
Yet, we blame the homeless person for being homeless, how? How do we rationalize that answer in the light of human suffering and deprivation? No, institutionalization and jail are not the answer to the suffering and struggles of the homeless population, as that only makes it easier for the ones who have made all the bad decisions to sleep better at night. Out of sight, out of mind.
Ensnaring humans to the streets and making them fear for them for lives and safety and security is about to come home to roost when we are called to give an account. The elderly are now flooding the streets in our post-pandemic world and thanks in large part to the horrible Biden economics and his choice to flood our nation with illegals. It has caused the population of the homeless to explode out of control and sadly will not live to see the end of homelessness in America. But do not get it twisted, I said an end to homelessness, not a forced disappearing act.
Why Should We Be Concerned
Let us flash back 60 years and look at our recent past. Coming out of World War 2 and the generation that fought during that time or were born directly after it, was a time of prosperity and wealth and nation-building for lack of a better word. Jobs, homes, businesses, and endeavors were prospering, and very little homelessness was noted. From what I gathered from a quick read, the homelessness that did exist was dealt with on a government and community basis. The main item of note was the ending of institutionalization of the mentally ill, with very poor community preparedness. But remember it was more community and less government involvement.
How have we gone in sixty years from hardly zero homeless to three-quarters of a million and the actual removal of community and church involvement of dealing with the issues as they arise? Where did the ball get dropped? Where was the opportunity lost, where did we not see this train rushing at us, where did we switch to government experts, what happened in those sixty years that we are in such deep trouble? Now we are at the apex of a slippery moral slope, civil commitment. How did we get here? Do you not understand that we allowed this to happen!
NIMBY and Gentrification mixed in with the demands that housed humans and governments place on protecting “our citizens, our businesses” speaks volumes about the known bias. You can read in most anti-homeless laws the division of humans that the leaders separate in the laws, our citizens, instead of including all people. This is why we need to be concerned, the at-risk, low-income, elderly, single disabled, veterans, are at all seriously on the edge of homelessness, and if it happens, they are ensnared for a great period of time, and they may not recover.
Overall Impact on the Housing Markets
The Seismic shift Affordable housing, in recent times, without going deep into history, started into unaffordability in the early 2010’s, after the crash. That bubble hit a lot of people right where they lived and many lost savings, and their safety net. And as the economy tipped the wrong direction, so did housing, and it has not recovered yet. Then 10 years later the Pandemic swept through and was used as a sneak and sweep to turn this nation upside down under terrible leadership of the Biden era. Once we lost the housing game, homelessness was doomed to explode and it did.
The destruction of the neighborhoods, both NIMBY and Gentrification, assaults neighborhoods and destroys networks and foundations that have been set in place and doing quiet work of keeping people safe for decades. The old says we did not know about Johnny and Jane struggling, they were kept and provided for and brought back by the family and the neighborhood, who was there for them, and it included a strong church foundation as well. But, now with the single-family homes gone, the high rises coming in the neighborhoods are gone, the infrastructure is also and then we are now seeing the problems that once were dealt with more effectively by family, which do not exist anymore.
Vulnerable People Group impacted the most. We have looked at a lot of data already, but number by number we are seeing a picture, the numbers are showing us this, the government uses to paint a picture that shows them in a good light and the humans in need of help in a bad light. What I mean is this, the government gathers, uses, manipulates, and changes the numbers to justify jail, civil commitment, harsh laws, and ending of housing first, but they will not admit that these practices have and are failing, leaving vulnerable people dying on the streets worse than abandoned dogs.
Conclusion
Let me insert this note that just flashed through my emails from Hollywood News. A brand new residence has been built, where formerly two homes were torn down. There now stand two towers, apartments for rent, but no affordable housing. It was gentrified, so this medium wealth neighborhood now has studio apartments going for over $2,100 per month. And we still cannot understand why homelessness is rising rapidly! And from living in the general area for over 15 years, the area is not five stars by any means.
NIMBY says, not here, not those people, no way and Gentrification say, new and better and higher earning people by any means. It is like the potato chips in your old fashion peanut butter sandwich; the ones caught in the middle get crushed. Now America is paying in spades, housing is expensive, poorly constructed, and expensive.
CTA…
Please Answer This:
Not here, not those people, do you know their story, do you know their why, do you know what went wrong, or are you just jaded enough you do not care, and you want them to die on the streets
Please Answer This:
Gentrification, all new fancy, upgraded, and pretty, but now grandma can’t live here anymore, auntie is out, they had to leave their familiar circle, their church, their coffee shop, why for you to enjoy a better life
MINDSETS
Manipulated Impartations
Negative Determinations
Seeking Entanglements
Targeting Souls
Why, to control outcomes, decisions, money and lives
For what, to make it easier for the homeless to disappear
How, overwhelm with numbers, anger, frustration, helplessness
Whom, those who are to govern without medaling, but have failed the American people, they created mindsets