Who are the people who occupy tent and cardboard box encampments in city centers?
1 Answer
A combination of mostly the homeless, the unemployed or marginally employed, sometimes people with mental health problems who can't find other shelter. Occasionally activists trying to get noticed.
Explanation:
The reasons why people find themselves on the street are numerous. North America, along with much of the world has a problem housing marginalized people. Between the 1840s and the 1950s there were shanty towns on the edges of many cities in North America. From the 1950s to the 1970s there was less of this as America prospered in the post World War 2 boom. Beginning in the 1980s as public funding for social programs began to be cut more people found themselves without a home.
Police at various times have been used to remove such camps and individuals away or to more appropriate areas. The large amount of people in US prison system are often part of the homeless when they are out. Police have learn that it is pointless to arrest people for being homeless.
Homeless people can often not access services as they have no permanent address and an uncertain daily routine so medical personnel and social services cannot keep in contact with them.
Homelessness since the 1990s has become an increasingly difficult problem and there have been various efforts to solve it.
Institutionalization is not a popular option as it is expensive and does not provide opportunities to the people who are the object of the exercise. It is too easy to warehouse people and forget them.
A "housing first" alternative has been popular lately as it puts people in a community and gives them a place to stay where other services can contact them. It has been found to be cheaper than prison or other institution. Solutions vary a great deal from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.
The "Occupy" demonstrators have been of recent times are a broad grass roots group protesting wealth inequality who have used a tent city approach to raise awareness.
