Allentown Homeless Want to be Homeless

One thing I think we forget sometimes is how close many people are to being homeless. Honestly, if there wasn’t an unemployment compensation system in this nation there would be many people going “Holy crap I literally have no money to stay somewhere.”

Luckily, there is an unemployment compensation system and some level of help in place to keep most people from literally having to sleep on the streets.

Some people, however, WANT to sleep on the streets. And, this brings up the question of “Why not let them?” Well, because…. you kinda can’t….

Allentown officials are shutting down an encampment beneath a section of the Eighth Street bridge that has served as one of the city’s oldest and most enduring spots for the homeless.

Early Monday, police issued trespassing notices to five people sleeping underneath the bridge and posted signs ordering all others to vacate the property by Sept. 13 or face arrest. Social workers offered options for housing and medical treatment.

“In a civilized society, you cannot allow people to live under these conditions,” police Assistant Chief Joe Hanna said during a news conference to announce the city’s actions.

The actions are part of the city’s broader efforts to put an end to chronic homelessness by 2017. The Eighth Street bridge, formally the Albertus Meyers Bridge, is the fourth encampment targeted since the initiative began more than three years ago.

After shutting down a similar homeless encampment underneath the Linden Street Bridge in 2007, city officials hauled off 21 tons of illegal trash that was dumped at the site, officials said.

The Eighth Street bridge site is one of the city’s oldest encampments, and officials say its permanent closure marks a significant step in their fight against chronic homelessness. After Sept. 14, city crews will clean up the site, then the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation will install a chain-link fence to keep people from returning.

Tom Walker, human services director for the Conference of Churches, a partner in the struggle to end chronic homelessness, said the city’s early efforts have paid off. He said many of the homeless removed from previous encampments have found permanent housing, reducing Allentown’s chronic homeless population. Source

Here’s the deal. When you become homeless you literally have pretty much nothing except whatever personal pride you may have left. So, I can see why someone living under the 8th Street Bridge, who has essentially “survived” living without a home for some time, would take offense to someone coming in and telling them “Well, you can’t do this.”

See, to them, they ARE doing it and, I would imagine, that gives them a sense of worth that they feel would be taken from them if they would be forced to move into a shelter, even if that shelter meant a hot meal and a place to sleep.

But, at the end of the day, homeless people who can’t read this because RCN just cut their service to the 8th Street Homeless Camp, just take the free food, ten start from scratch and run for Mayor or something.

Or, at least start a rap group about how you were homeless. I would totally go see that.