I think it was about a year ago the people in my city finally got their panties in a bunch about the homeless. The town had otherwise been very welcoming. Maybe it was because the homeless were migrating from San Fransisco it started pissing everyone off. My city has a rather unjustified vision of itself. And the homeless in SF have a deep kind of poor people in my city had never experienced before. Even I am shocked by the homeless in SF most of the time. It's a depression style grubbiness. Enough was enough for them. Everyone was mad.
All of a sudden the homeless started turning up in these 1970's campers. These are chronic homeless so everyone in town knows who they are. I don't know for sure, but I suspect the city found "grant" money to buy the campers for them. Which did make them less visible. They aren't walking around all day or hanging out in the park. Anyway...
The other day Mr S. and I were doing some errands and I noticed one set of homeless are now keeping a cat. I know many of them have dogs, but somehow owning a cat made it feel like these people are now homesteading. I don't know why the city doesn't run an extension cord out for them. If it was a solar powered motor home I bet they'd come up with some inventive way to pay the power costs for the homeless too.
It was a couple of years into the recession I started noticing they also all had bikes. I guess when peoples shit got tossed out on the lawns, it was sweet picking. I posted about this somewhere but I don't feel like looking for it. For a time I'd even see them with rolling luggage.
I don't know how much it costs to register a motor home, keep insurance, and buy gas at over 4 bucks a gallon. But being homeless sure isn't the way I remember it.
Oh! And remember when I was mocking that beggar a few days ago for having a buzz cut and a somewhat ironed shirt? Yesterday I saw another guy begging and he also looked uncharacteristically clean.
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