Sometimes when I talk to homeless people in the Bay Area, I ask them how they became homeless.
Sometimes, they say that they lost their homes in a wildfire.
More painful than seeing people lose their homes in a forest fire, is watching them lose their humanity, as our empathy for them evaporates.
https://www.redding.com/story/news/2019/06/11/annual-count-helps-identify-some-origins-homelessness/1409772001/
In the immediate days after someone loses their home in a wildfire, our talk is full of empathy.
But as days turn to weeks and months, we stop caring why someone doesn't have a home, and only care that they don't have a home.
We start planning to throw away their remaining possessions.
https://www.calhealthreport.org/2022/08/03/as-wildfires-grow-so-does-californias-housing-and-homelessness-crisis-here-are-some-solutions/
Homeless people aren't different people than us. They are us.
Many homeless people just experienced a sequence of unfortunate events that led them to this place.
"No! They're drug addicts! They did this to themselves!"🤡
Again, ask people with addiction how they became addicted.
They'll tell you
https://www.sfcityattorney.org/2023/05/17/san-francisco-city-attorney-announces-230-million-settlement-with-walgreens-after-victory-in-opioid-litigation/
There's a pervasive myth that people still believe about California homeless: that homeless people "come to California for the weather."
That's a lie that fortunate people 🙋🏿♂️ tell ourselves.
California homeless are almost all California residents (90%) who just had a bunch of bad luck in a row.
https://homelessness.ucsf.edu/our-impact/studies/california-statewide-study-people-experiencing-homelessness
Anyway, I skipped the "burrito taxi" discourse, AKA the meal delivery discourse.
Because if tomorrow you lost your home and your job to wildfire, and only had your car and a few hastily gathered possessions, and you needed to earn some money?
Your car would become a burrito taxi too.
I don't care if you know how to cook food for yourself for cheap, or if you treat yourself by having burritos delivered to your house.
I care that we live in a country so cruel, that some people deliver food in the cars that they live in, while those receiving the food don't even know or care.
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