Tag: unhoused

Unpleasant Topic

Houselessness is an unpleasant topic. Those who do not need to talk about it prefer to not do so. No one has all the answers anyway. It is just too complex and too daunting.

Yet, for quite a while, it had been the primary theme of this blog. Only a few years ago, it was a much more significant social problem.

It is not so daunting now. It might even be less unpleasant to discuss than it had formerly been. However, there are so many more pleasant topics to discuss, such as how well those who had formerly been houseless are doing now.

If writing about the personal affairs of the formerly unhoused Community here were not so invasive, it might make a good blog. This blog could have transitioned into that theme rather than be discontinued.

Of course, regardless of the improvements, houselessness remains a problem within the Community. It may not be an important topic to as many as it formerly had been, but to those who are affected by houselessness, it is still a major problem. It is a topic that is never completely irrelevant. As those who are unhoused become housed, others become unhoused to replace them.

Sometimes though, it is gratifying to realize how fortunate we are to live within a society that is so sympathetic and generous with the unhoused, and that so many benefit from such graciousness. Otherwise, houselessness might still be as major of a social problem here as it is within so many other Communities.

Glamorous Houselessness

(reblog from June 4)

Prior to modern history, both cowboys and lumberjacks had been esteemed within American culture. Inventors, explorers, industrial pioneers and the wealthy had been also, and perhaps more socially so, but not so personally. The cultures and lifestyles of both cowboys and lumberjacks somehow seem to be easier for more to identify with.

Throughout my career, I have been involved with both cowboys and lumberjacks. Because I attained my degree in Horticulture from an agricultural school, many of my academic colleagues are cowboys. Because I am a horticulturist and arborist, many of my professional colleagues are also arborists, and many of them had formerly been lumberjacks. Both professions are as admirable as society considers them to be.

However, for many, both professions involve houselessness.

The open range is certainly not what it had been only a few decades ago, but even now, some cowboys still drive cattle through undeveloped regions that lack accommodations for them. Such cowboys must be completely self reliant for several consecutive days. During the 1980s, some of my academic colleagues drove cattle through entire summers. They only rarely retrieved supplies that were left for them along their drives, and camped in different locations nightly.

At about the same time, and into the 1990s, some of my professional colleagues were lumberjacks who harvested timber in remote and undeveloped forested regions. Some of their camps were remarkably simple and primitive. Some sites lacked organized camps. Like cowboys, they were essentially houseless.

Nonetheless, not so long ago, American culture admired both cowboys and lumberjacks for their self reliance, resilience, independence and nonconformity.

American culture has certainly changed. Not many know what cowboys and lumberjacks do nowadays. Independence and nonconformity are discouraged. Self reliance and resilience are more typically phony components of superficial vanity. Houselessness has become criminalized, vilified and derided.

Glamorous Houselessness

Prior to modern history, both cowboys and lumberjacks had been esteemed within American culture. Inventors, explorers, industrial pioneers and the wealthy had been also, and perhaps more socially so, but not so personally. The cultures and lifestyles of both cowboys and lumberjacks somehow seem to be easier for more to identify with.

Throughout my career, I have been involved with both cowboys and lumberjacks. Because I attained my degree in Horticulture from an agricultural school, many of my academic colleagues are cowboys. Because I am a horticulturist and arborist, many of my professional colleagues are also arborists, and many of them had formerly been lumberjacks. Both professions are as admirable as society considers them to be.

However, for many, both professions involve houselessness.

The open range is certainly not what it had been only a few decades ago, but even now, some cowboys still drive cattle through undeveloped regions that lack accommodations for them. Such cowboys must be completely self reliant for several consecutive days. During the 1980s, some of my academic colleagues drove cattle through entire summers. They only rarely retrieved supplies that were left for them along their drives, and camped in different locations nightly.

At about the same time, and into the 1990s, some of my professional colleagues were lumberjacks who harvested timber in remote and undeveloped forested regions. Some of their camps were remarkably simple and primitive. Some sites lacked organized camps. Like cowboys, they were essentially houseless.

Nonetheless, not so long ago, American culture admired both cowboys and lumberjacks for their self reliance, resilience, independence and nonconformity.

American culture has certainly changed. Not many know what cowboys and lumberjacks do nowadays. Independence and nonconformity are discouraged. Self reliance and resilience are more typically phony components of superficial vanity. Houselessness has become criminalized, vilified and derided.

Bureau of Land Management Camping

Bureau of Land Management land is available for camping. It is less popular than more refined campgrounds because it is less refined. The least refined lands are classified as ‘primitive’. They are merely bare land without any facilities. There is no fee for camping on primitive Bureau of Land Management land for as long as two weeks monthly.

It was tempting. I noticed a few locations for such camping while vacationing in the Southwest during the past two weeks (while I neglected to post on this blog). I made the same observation while vacationing for two weeks in the Pacific Northwest about a month earlier. After all, while away from home, I was essentially homeless.

Furthermore, I did happen to indulge in camping for a few days while in the Los Angeles region. It was not within a campground though. It was in the backyard of my colleagues home. Both the weather and the situation were splendid. I could have stayed in a hotel, but there was no need. Actually, I could have engaged in more camping if accommodations had not already been arranged at my various destinations.

So, why is such camping so socially acceptable while houselessness is not? Houselessness is not vacation. Nor is it typically a choice. For most, it occurs within their home Community, where they formerly lived within homes, worked and paid taxes. While vacationing, I choose to go to regions where I have never lived, worked or paid local taxes, and am unhoused while I do so. I essentially exploit local resources. No one seems to mind.

Perhaps I should indulge in primitive camping on Bureau of Land Management land as an alternative to more refined accommodations. Now, I am wondering how many of the unhoused do so as an alternative to stigmatized houselessness.

Pioneers

Pioneers made America what it is now, and continue to do so. The first migrated from northeastern Asia many thousands of years ago. During the past several centuries, many more migrated from Europe. More migrated from Asia during the past few centuries. They all came for something better than what they had where they came from, although few knew what that entailed. Slaves from Africa had no choice about coming here, but their descendants eventually also participated in pursuit of legendary American opportunity.

Arrival was merely the beginning for earlier pioneers here. Many arrived with minimal resources. Many were unhoused when they arrived. They all needed to go somewhere. Many migrated west into regions that were inhabited by descendants of earlier pioneers. They built homes, farms, industries and towns as they went. This is how every American industry and city began. Actually, this is how every industry and every city in the World began at one time or another.

Everyone is a descendent of someone who lacked resources. Many are direct descendents of pioneers who arrived in America with nothing more than aspiration. Many actually are such pioneers. Many are direct descendents of slaves who were freed into an oppressively bigoted society, but were compelled to be circumstantial pioneers.

Many of our pioneer ancestors were unhoused as they migrated across America. Many were unhoused as they prospected for gold during the Gold Rush. Many were unhoused as they harvested timber from American forests.

Houselessness is a common theme within American history and culture. However, it has become less respectable over time. Ancient tribes that were formerly nomadic within America were considered to be uncivilized savages early within American history. Refugees of the Dust Bowl were shunned as they migrated mostly to California and Arizona. Even the formerly glamorized undomesticated lifestyles of traditional American cowboys who prefer a home on the range is now difficult for most to understand.

Vacation

It would be nice to leave on Wednesday morning, but that seems unlikely at the moment. The next opportunity may not be until late next month, which would also be nice. I only need to get to and from Kitsap County in Washington prior to the bloom of the apple trees, which is weeks later than here. I return only two weeks after leaving. Then I will plan, or try to plan, my next two week trip to Los Angeles County and Maricopa County, which I hope to return from prior to June. Although both trips include significant horticultural pursuits, they are supposedly vacations.

I find that vacations take quite a bit of effort. Are they really any less stressful than staying at home in this idyllic situation and region that I inhabit, and working at employment that is as fun, relaxing and rewarding as mine is? They are certainly fun. However, by some interpretation, even that could be questionable.

I mean, I leave the stability and security of my home to drive to distant regions and temporarily inhabit unfamiliar situations. Regardless of how much more luxurious than my own home most of such situations are, they are not my home. While traveling, I am essentially homeless and transient, staying only briefly at various locations, and living out of my car. Homelessness is generally not fun.

Perhaps the security of knowing that I will eventually return to my stable domestic situation is a primary difference between vacation and homelessness. Perhaps a lack of harassment and discrimination comparable to that which the unhoused experience is another major difference.

Do destinations really define vacation? While on vacation, I get to go to some very interesting places. Yet, without going anywhere, those who are unhoused locally get to stay here. Which is better?

Declining Homelessness?!

A decline of homelessness within Felton is not too implausible. Felton is not a very populous town. Not many unhoused people live here. If one procures a stable domestic situation, it causes a nearly ten percent decline of homelessness.

If most procure stable domestic situations, as during the past few years, the decline is much more significant for Felton, although less significant regionally. In other words, such a localized decline does not accurately represent a more important regional trend.

However, when other towns and more populous cities also document even minor declines of homelessness, it suggests that such declines could potentially be the beginning of a trend.

Malibu collected statistical data regarding homelessness there last winter to determine that only a third as many as those who had been homeless a year earlier remained unhoused. That is gratifying information for those involved. Yet, as major as such a decline is locally, it is minor relative to the collective population of Los Angeles County. It is difficult to attribute this minor localized decline to a more broadly regional trend.

The possibility of a trend became more evident when cumulative data regarding homelessness within all of Los Angeles County confirmed an encouragingly major deceleration of the formerly rapid increase of the regional rate of homelessness. Like Malibu, a few municipalities confirmed minor declines of homelessness.

Could this be the beginning of a trend? Could the rate of homelessness be declining?

Orange County and San Francisco County also reported declines of homelessness. Statistically, relative to their respective populations, such declines seem to be minor; but even minor declines within such significant populations are surprisingly major.

Perhaps it is too early to recognize these declining rates of homelessness as a trend. It will be interesting to observe statistical data regarding homelessness within other Communities.

Refugees

Ukraine is a topic that I have been avoiding. Friends and colleagues talk and write about it, but likewise seem to be hesitant to get too involved with such discourse. It is a difficult topic, from every perspective. Every topic within the primary topic is unpleasant. Politics are so vague. War is so violent. The potential for escalation is so terrifying. So many people are displaced.

Ukrainian refugees have been fleeing into and through Europe since the beginning of this war. Some have been coming to America. A colleague in Los Angeles has already assisted with temporary settlement of a few refugees who left Ukraine as the current situation began. Some came to Los Angeles intentionally, but not all. Some refugees could possibly relocate locally.

It is gratifying to know that the vast majority of people here will be graciously supportive of refugees if necessary. That is how healthy Society operates. Those of us who lost homes to the CZU Fire are very aware of this.

Furthermore, those who lack domestic situations for any other reason besides the CZU Fire are likewise aware of the gracious generosity of our local Community. It is why so few of us presently remain unhoused here, even while homelessness is such a major problem elsewhere in America.

A refugee is someone who is in need of refuge, likely after deprivation of former habitation. Prior to the current situation in Ukraine, refugees came from a variety of regions, and for a variety of reasons. Many refugees are local.

It is impossible to predict how many from Ukraine will relocated permanently to America, and how many will eventually return to Ukraine. The future or Ukraine remains unknown. We do know that Society here and elsewhere will do what it must to accommodate, and help if necessary.

Autumn 2021

Wednesday, September 22, will be the first day of autumn. The nights have been getting a bit longer and a bit cooler for a while already, and will continue to do so for a while more. The rainy season could begin at any time. Although days begin to get longer on December 21, the first day of winter, weather continues to get cooler through the early part of winter. Indian summer may or may not delay the inevitable prior to November.

Most of us will spend more time inside as the seasons progress, perhaps with a fire in a stove or fireplace. Walls and ceilings retain warmth. Roofs exclude rain. The cooler and wetter weather of autumn and winter is generally not a serious problem. It is an asset to gardens and forests, and temporarily relieves the anxiety of fire season.

However, for those who lack walls, ceilings and roofs, the impending cooler and wetter weather can be very unpleasant. Options for generation of warmth, and the retention of such warmth, are both limited. Exclusion of rain may necessitate the use of obtrusively visible tents or tarps, which draw attention to already precarious situations. Those who reside temporarily within the dry spaces below bridges might be displaced if substantial rainfall overwhelms the drainage capacity of the associated creeks or river.

Several families who formerly inhabited homes that were destroyed by the CZU Fire last summer will continue to inhabit their respective properties without their homes through this autumn and winter. Some inhabit campers or similar vehicles, which are significantly more comfortable than tents. Regardless, houseless lifestyles of any sort are certainly not easy. Some who were deprived of their former domestic situations by the Fire are unable to inhabit their respective properties, so needed to relocate, even if just temporarily.

New In Town

The significantly declining rate of houselessness here during the past several years has been gratifying to say the least. Somehow, while houselessness has been increasing so substantially in so many other Communities, most who previously lacked a stable home here have procured domestic situations. It is so gratifyingly contrary to the external trend. 

The situation is certainly not perfect though. A few remain houseless because of inability to function within domestic or professional situations, or to exploit very limited resources that should be available to those in such condition. Sadly, some are the most vulnerable of society. Others have potential to inadvertently cause problems for other within society.

Furthermore, although uncommon, a few transient houseless people continue to migrate through our Community. Some have reason to be here. Others are here only incidentally. Most seem to be respectful of society; but it is impossible to know for certain. Even those with good intentions are unfamiliar with the cultural expectations of the local Community. 

While a few more of the local Community were houseless, this minor houseless transient Community was afforded significantly more opportunity for ‘local’ Community interaction. Ironically, this distinctly local interaction is limited by the declining rate of houselessness. Fewer of the few who remain unhoused locally are qualified to represent our Community. 

Some of the transient houseless people relocate to another Community before becoming acquainted with our Community and the associated resources that are available to them here. Those who stay longer eventually become somewhat familiar with our Community, but perhaps less efficiently than they otherwise would, with more Community interaction. 

Community outreach by those who have not been houseless is effective but impractical. Obviously, they have homes, domestic lifestyles, and, most likely, employment to devote their time to. Also, they likely lack adequate familiarity with houseless culture.