Exiting

The incoming crowd, the next generation of newly homeless in shelters, is comprised almost entirely of evictees.

Evictions have doubled in the past year, many of people formerly subsidized by grants which were short-term to begin with or which had simply been withdrawn.

Low income housing is practically a myth. Waiting lists years long for a closet. Seniors are looking at sleeping on the streets for the rest of their dank abridged lives … waiting.

Shelters have waiting lists too but at least there’s turn-over. Three months is the usual term of stay. And after that while you may be on the streets now some other old guy just got off of them … for a while.

Now, he can take a free vacation, too.

Shelters are occasionally successful at securing housing for clients, but not in three months, and not in numbers large enough to be called a material proportion of the needy population.

Why does the public sleep so well in soft beds while so many … them, in fact, but for fortune … sleep on stone pillows.

It’s a homeless hotel shuffle and living out of bags and if you weren’t an alcoholic when you joined the game, becoming one is the only way to endure it. Drugs rule the streets, booze the alleys. You can buy a boy or girl for a bottle of vodka.

And you pretty much gotta join a gang. Even the old farts have them, shoplifting teams.

Equation: housing for the homeless = a reduction in crime.

And God is pleased … for those left behind with faith.

We as a modern culture have gotten good at kicking people out, “exiting” is the new life-threat … but I wonder … do you realize how unbalanced an equation that is … I mean since there’s nowhere to go.