In a proposed two-week campaign, the City of Fresno is destroying all of the homeless encampments in Fresno. The destruction of the shelters on G Street took place during the first week of the proposed two-week time frame.
This leaves the already homeless without anywhere else to go. Their possessions were ransacked as they watched their homes being destroyed. It is times like these where the public loses faith in the system.
Those shelters were the last places available for homeless people and now they really are left on the street. The City of Fresno is supposedly giving them time to “move out” but where exactly can they go?
There are no options being given and no outside resources being pulled to help them find new places to live. These are human beings that we are talking about. They deserve to have a safe, warm and sheltered place to lay their heads at night no matter their circumstances.
The fact that they are homeless inspires a sense superiority in those with homes. What needs to be realized is the sobering fact that we are all just one paycheck away from being in that same position. All it takes is one disaster or one slight mistake and all of the comforts and amenities that we have will be torn from underneath us.
There are veterans that are homeless. This is deeply troubling. Those who fought for our country are not taken care of. The thanks that they receive for their sacrifice is a few coins handed to them at an intersection. At what point does a society need to say that enough is enough?
Everyone has a story and everyone has a reason for where they are at in their life. There was a man on a street corner a few years ago that I sat down and talked to. This man was a college graduate and he was living on the street. His wife had died in a car accident with his son and he could not go on.
This man was just that a man. Society deems the homeless to be lesser mammals because of their unfortunate stations in life. A shocking aspect though, is the notion that they may be superior to society. Having the strength to soldier on through the curves that life throws them is more than the comfortable people of this society can possibly understand.
Having the last shreds of their dignity stripped from them by having their shelters destroyed for aesthetic purposes are not only wrong but also it is a gross violation of basic humanity. The cruelty and apathy generated towards the homeless population is a disgusting display of an unimaginable superiority complex.
Not only should the homeless be given a place to go but they should also get a public apology from the City of Fresno for the tribulations that they have endured. I would like to ask members of the City of Fresno to imagine their homes being destroyed and the effect leaving them on the street. It would then be a priority to find them a new place to live or compensate them for their troubles.
The homeless population does not have that option. They do not have family that they can stay with nor do they have the ability to just go and find an apartment. The City needs to realize that what they have taken every last thing away from the homeless community. They have nothing left to give yet they stay humble and resigned. How much more of them can be eroded away before action is taken to stand up for humanity?