They Want to be there

I spent some time in Austin, Tx. this week. As we drove around the city, my work colleagues and I, in our elegant rental car, we passed the Occupy Austin group. One of my coworkers made the comment, "most of those people aren't really Occupy protesters, they are just homeless bums."
He said this in an offhanded manner, as if those homeless people had infiltrated and ruined the movement. As if the homeless are not part of the 99%. Well, everyone knows the homeless want to be there. They are shiftless bums, drug addicts who have chosen their lifestyle... right? At least that is what some conservatives and the 1% would like us to believe.

But... lets take a look at the facts, shall we?

According to the National Alliance for the Homeless:

There are 643,067 people experiencing homelessness on any given night in the United States.


Of that number, 238,110 are people in families, and

404,957 are individuals.

Only 17 percent of the homeless population is considered "chronically homeless," and

Almost 1/3 of the homeless population are war veterans in the United States.  VETERANS. If you have a "support the troops" bumper sticker on your car, why don't you think long and hard on that one.

65,000 prisoners will be released from incarceration within the next year, 75% will not be able to find jobs or housing and will end up homeless.

The Alliance, and HUD estimate that there are 600,000 homeless families in the United states. Families, not junkies, not people who want to be there. Families.

According to the McKinney Act, 60 percent of homeless women are single parents who could not afford housing.

While we like to think that all homeless are drug addicts, 40 percent of homeless people do NOT abuse drugs, medications, or alcohol.


Most agencies have determined that while lack of income, substance abuse, and mental health are all factors that can contribute to homelessness, the number one cause of homelessness in the United States is lack of affordable housing. The housing market went to hell, people can't afford to buy a home, or to keep the home they were trying to buy. Now they are renting, and so, of course, the rents have been raised. The rents have gone up considerably here in Denver since I moved here in 2005. Unfortunately, the salaries have not matched suit.

 It is easy to become homeless. All it takes is getting evicted from a house you can't afford to pay for and not being able to find another that you can afford. We haven't even begun to talk about people who live in substandard housing because they can't find anything else.


The numbers of homeless are most likely larger given the difficulty of tracking a population with no home location, no address or phone number.

25% of homeless people will become mentally ill because of thier situation.

It makes it easier to swallow when we dehumanize these people and tell ouselves that they deserve to be where they are. That they have made their own choice, and there is nothing we can do for them because they are all just junkies and swindlers.

Even if they are addicted to drugs or alcohol, does that justify or mean that they deserve such a demeaning and terrible existence? Does that mean they WANT to be where they are? Addiction means a person can't help themself, it doesn't mean they want to do what they are doing.

Take a look at Leslie here... does this face look like someone who wants to be addicted and homeless?

When she was a little girl and someone asked her, "Leslie, what would you like to be when you grow up?" do you think she said...

"well. First.. when I am 12, I would like to come home and find my mother dead of alcohol poisoning on the kitchen floor. I then aspire to a life of abuse. I intend to become addicted to crack cocaine, and I would like to live on the street in San Francisco's Tenderloin. I plan on making this my career, along with the inevitable prostitution and physical abuse that goes along with it, until I am about 49. Then, when my situation is finally starting to look up because I will begin working with homeless advocates who will try to get me housing and mental health care, I would like to be harrassed by two hateful women who claimed my 'boyfriend,' owed them money. First, I plan to let them steal my clothing and all my belongings and beat me, leaving me naked behind a dumpster. Then I will report them to the police, and when they hear about it, they will kidnap me, take me to a park and douse me in gasoline, and my final accomplishment will be burning alive."

yeah. they want to be there.

If the homeless are not part of the 99%, I would like to know who are? Who is more deserving to stand and raise their fist at the 1% than the most marginalized people in this country? When will we stop ignoring what is going on here? We have a bad case of apathy in the US... as long as nothing encroaches on our comfort zone, we sit back and do nothing with our blinders on.
What happened to the social contract? What happened to the common good, the common welfare?

Weren't We The People trying to form a more perfect union? Didn't we want justice and domestic tranquility? Weren't we supposed to provide for the common defense? Didn't we want to promote the general welfare and ensure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity!?

Don't fool yourself into thinking this can't happen to you, because it can. Does that scare you?

Then get up off your ass and do something before it's too late!