by living insider
Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2014 at 4:18 PM
Homeless folk are wanting their own bill of rights, it is noted. And yet the actual difference between those without inside living spaces to reside within and the others who find some way to share space, rent space, trade for space, and thus live indoors may be one of more than money they have available for rent.
The sharing of public park spaces, or sand, sidewalk spaces with those who Reside there [live in the public spaces and thus do not share those spaces] and those who want to just temporarily sit or enjoy that space for a short time seems to be in conflict.
The venice homeless folk do not look or usually act like the Skid Row hard core or maybe other LA ghetto areas where less lavish vistas and open spaces -- with this sun, sky, sea being there to heal and also feed the souls of those without cash or jobs.
The problem that is never openly addressed is not that the 'homeless' who do not have inside living quarters should not or cannot fairly share the use of public lands - the parks, sands, streets, and even dark corners of businesses at nite-time - but that when they do take over and use that space, they either do not have the means or courtesies or sanity to leave it as they found it.
And the ones w/o home to return to sleep then just park and stay anywhere they chose or find…. for extended times - stretching out their belongings beyond the usual personal-space-of-ordinary-folk.
The ones without personal living spaces indoors take over the public outdoor spaces for long periods of times or days or weeks or longer and others cannot share or use that space at all. It is a ‘take-over’ and a demand to be allowed to use that ‘space’ for longer than most people would temporarily stay.
The lack of hygiene and smell or uncleanliness when staying in these public spaces and often also left behind when homeless do leave a space, leaves other people unwilling to clean up after them or leave fear of contagions or unsanitary conditions left behind…if and when the un-home-d person does move from that spot.
Who has not seen a bus bench stop that is inaccessible to anyone but the 1 homeless person - that has strewn and spread out their belongings to insure that ONLY THEY have that space, and no one else would dare question that usurping or even ask to share the space ? Some of us have tried and been rudely and loudly beaten back.
Who has not called their city council to repeatedly plead for help for those homeless – those who take over a whole areas of sidewalk - with their waste, their stuff, their carts, their beddings, their food/drinks = some of which smells putrid or is spilled liquids or body wastes...all that is otherwise not common nor tolerated by civilized common people...and nothing was then done to remove or restrict that homeless person's monopolizing that area?
a whole 10 ft of it. unusable by anyone else but that ‘homeless’ insisting it is now theirs !
And who has wanted to quietly sit at a park or bench or grass or beach and not be asked for money or pot or anything - but just be able to be solitary with nature, or a book, or a friend, or rest their feet - instead of being part of someone else's neediness demands ? Or who has not grimaced at the smells or dank that accompanies the person who lives in the streets ?
And why are there not enough living spaces for those who do not have any social security / SSI incomes or food stamps and who then wander the neighborhoods instead in search of a toilet , or a spot behind a bush that belongs to a home of someone else, or tinkles behind a car when no one else is looking to urinate or drop a plastic baggie of their “stuff”…b.m. or rotted food ?
And why are some of the mentally insane or challenged or deranged or unable to be emotionally competent enough to get the necessary social services that may be available – so that they re refusing to live where they ARE offered an apt, that maybe not in the beach neighborhood of their preference !
Why do many w/o living resources only want to live in Venice or Mar Vista and not in Baldwin Hills or Inglewood or downtown or elsewhere ?
Who is it that is demanding a separate individualized Bill of Homeless Rights that pertain to those who have less or different to that which is common to all USA legalized citizens ?
Why is poverty and thus homelessness described as a worse victimized condition than having a serious medical problem that cannot be paid for ? or living in an apt with drunks, druggies or mean people that are not homeless but as difficult or dangerous ?
The sanitation of the poor and homeless by themselves and their self-proclaimed rescuers - some of which run silent non-profits and are thus NOT as poor as they pretend either… but that saint-i-fication of not having a living inside space is not always such an actual real image - but a lure and demand to 'get more' and 'hate them who have' and 'spite those who wont give more’.
Those who can't dont/ wont or for whatever godly reason are stuck in misery and poverty here in LA, in CA, in USA ...what makes these sufferers more angelic or better than anyone else elsewhere ? .... or suffering more than anyone stuck in a nursing home, or laying in a hospital bed, or living scared in another warring country or surviving barely at a working level class in a poorer nation ?
That is why other nationals laugh at our stories of poverty because they know and live within worse conditions and do not always ‘suffer’ or cry as much as Americans tend to do.
why is it that there is plenty of food continually brought down to feed the homeless in Venice ? By all kinds of groups and individuals who want to "help" the poor. And yet, much food and even clothes are thrown away - and uneaten, fed to the birds, left out in the sun to be bird dropped on , discarded by these same poor people - who are picky and choosey when not served as if in a restaurant ?
Many do eat and thank and move on, go back to their favored spots - where they beg or hide – or sleep - or buy or use drugs - or lay down or do whatever else they do to pass time, unto nite, when they find their sleep spot on a cardboard in warm LA [ as compared to most of USA in Feb] and then lay down w/blanket or friend.
Many survive tho not as imagined in magazines/TV who either over-inflate the images of poverty and sadness or underestimate the amount of goodies passed out on Venice beach walk.
It is not a great place to be - without a home base, a bed, a bathroom to use with others down the hall, a kitchen, running water and some safety from the others who want to bully or steal or harass – others down and out - out of their own distresses and craziness perhaps.
Remember, it is still different than homelessness elsewhere, in 80% of the rest of the world -where what these homeless already have is envied and wondered about, because poverty elsewhere is a daily lifestyle, tolerated and adapted and used in forming communities of the poor, with less anger and less envy and less demanding – wanting to have the same as those who live otherwise.
Been elsewhere to see that too ?
Been where no food is left uneaten or thrown away for birds or left to rot in sun ?
Been where all is recycled not by big companies but by the poor groups that scour thru garbage to make use of every little item possible ?
No marching bands with shiny instruments ...no fancy signs and smiles and phones in hands. No. Not the same as where the poor are actually caring and friendly with Each Other because they care, they survive, and see that they are a community. Not like this entitlement story here.