War on Poor

"Why is it that we act like the problem of homelessness is homeless people themselves? Central Atlanta Progress has proposed, and City Hall has often agreed, to the designation of the Central Business District as a "Vagrant Free Zone", a "Sanitized Zone", a "Hospitality Zone". And dozens of "Quality of Life" ordinances have been churned out of here like counterfeit bills: throwing bad money after bad money. And have we ever heard a word about the miserable "quality of life" for those who have no place to call home?

No, I don't think so. Instead, we have consistently treated the poorest of the poor as a threat and a danger. And so, anything concerning the homeless goes to the Public Safety Committee. In other words, we act out a belief that the only way to respond to the homeless poor is with police power. Nobody likes to be accosted or harassed, but how would you and I act if we spent last night on the concrete and hadn't had anything to eat? I think it's time we acknowledged that the poor have as much right to be obnoxious as the rich, and don't we all know some obnoxious rich folks? One well-heeled white downtown loft-owner actually said in this chamber several years ago, "We want our city back, so the homeless need to go." So we've had laws against sleeping on a park bench, "remaining" in a parking lot, public urination, "Urban Camping", etc. ad naseum.

This proposed anti-panhandling ordinance is one more stupid, short-sighted, expensive game to avoid the real issue. And the real issue is this: it is not the behaviour of homeless people that is the crime. The crime is that this city tolerates the misery and deprivation of so many of its citizens."
-- Rev Murphy Davis of The Open Doors Community speaking in a council meeting against a new proposal to ban 'panhandling' or begging in the CBD of Atlanta, Georgia.

Davis links the proposal to an older "Negro Removal" policy of the city. That policy deliberately destroyed all low cost African-American owned housing and replaced it with high-cost apartments only to see a massive increase in homeless on the city streets. Now the protested proposal is suggested in order to remove the people themselves from the city centre.

It's now my job to read articles like this.

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