It was about a year ago I started noticing the homeless were being pushed to the edge of freeways in San Jose. Most people probably don't notice them as they zip by on their commute to..... where ever.
Like this camp. I had to make 5 tries to try and get this shot. I almost gave up. They were placed really well so people who might just pull off the side of the road - couldn't because of the on ramps and off ramps.
For the longest time, you would see just a bunch of junk and a mattress. Ya know, stuff that you could just leave if you were hassled. Now it seems they are turning into permanent "campers". I mean, look at how much crap this camp has! Right in the middle of a spaghetti string of freeways.
And why did it take the occupy movement to show them that they could use tents? For as long as I can remember, the homeless were in fact homeless. Now they all have tents and crap? I read that in Sacramento, in their tent community, some homeless have two tents! One for them, and one for all their crap. The homeless!
It makes me wonder - did the price of tents come down? Or did every foreclosed house have one sitting in the garage? It's just unusual to see them all of a sudden with things that most people used to call a fun weekend.
In all areas outside of San Fransisco that I travel to, most beggars have bikes. They have also started hauling around chairs to sit on when they beg. And in the suburbs they carry around rolling luggage. It is the weirdest thing. Some are even rich enough to buy crappy old campers. I mean.... where have all these 1970's campers been stored?! You used to never see these things. Now they are everywhere. You will see them sitting in store parking lots. Then a man will get out, walk straight to the car entrance, and start begging.
It makes you wonder if they will ever return to normal life. Or is all of this other stuff just so cheap and expendable now. I don't know what to make of it.
No comments:
Post a Comment