We are homeless people. We are formerly homeless people. We are supporters of homeless people.
It is quite clear that the extremely poor and homeless are viewed as throw away humans.
We are pre-judged as being useless, irrelevant and a waste of space on Earth.
Like all stereotypes and bigotry throughout history, nothing could be further from the truth.
We are parents, laborers, college educated, workers, artists, musicians. We are survivalists. We have value. Society just refuses to take the time to understand us and work with us.
If society continues to succeed in keeping the houseless separate and struggling just to survive they will succeed in keeping us down and desperate. We will never have any hope of standing up and demanding basic human rights. (Maybe that's their ultimate goal.) We demand to be treated as what we are: AMERICAN CITIZENS.
The goal of the Houseless Movement is to make is so ALL Americans can live in their own country no matter how much or how little money they have. Truly, we believe that the outward way we aggressively judge and oppress homeless people is how we judge and oppress many other minorities. America can be a cold, brutal place for those that are not the "in" group.
We are lobbyists that seek to create systemic change for our houseless brothers and sisters.
We need safe, protected, sanctioned emergency shelter space and parking spaces for ALL houseless people that need it NOW!
America is so backwards and so hateful towards our homeless neighbors that the Houseless Movement is forced to start at the most fundamental level. We are fighting for the fundamental right to legally be allowed to live in our own country. This is currently not the case in America.
Being homeless is a crime in America. If you can't afford the outrageously priced housing in America, if you can't get a space at the over-crowded homeless shelters for countless reasons, you are forced to live outdoors. And then you are harrassed and attacked by police, nuisance departments and so-called homeless service providers. Everyone hates you before they ever took one minute to meet you.
Homeless people are repeatedly targeted and branded as safety and health hazards. The government seeks to make homeless people out to be diseased non-humans. To be less than even the lowliest animals.
We need $300 OR LESS a month non-government subsidized shelter for ALL people that need it or want it. But that is such a fantasy world that we'll take pretty much anything that is near homeless services.
A chicken coop, a dog house, a bench, a box, a tent. It is not us that wants to live this way. It is America that forces us to live this way. (We would LOVE an affordable tiny house village that meets our economic and personal needs.) But for now we'll take any piece of dirt near homeless services where we can safely and legally stay.
WE NEED SANCTIONED TENT VILLAGES NOW!
We MUST end the not-in-my-back-yard (NIMBY) houseless bigotry that is protected by police and government.
If a person cannot shelter in one location they MUST be given an alternative location that suits their needs before they are moved.
We are Americans. We demand the right to live in our own country.