"We need to stop relying on the compassion of individuals but instead build compassionate systems." —Monica Maalouf, MD
We live under deadly systems that can destroy lives with a single expense.
A hypothetical person can get hit by a reckless driver and end up dying, in jail, of an infectious respiratory disease they contracted from another inmate, or maybe just freezing to death on the streets because there isn't even a warming shelter available. Things like this happen far too frequently.
The US Supreme Court's ruling that municipalities can criminalize sleeping on public property even if there's nowhere else that's safe to sleep means that being homeless and trying to find a safe place to sleep can land you in jail. A punishment for trying to exist (to be clear, this was already happening, but it's currently deemed 'Constitutional' here).
And don't forget, it's the authorities who get to decide what a safe place to sleep is. In our town, they've decided it's the lawn behind the police department. And the cops have been known to turn on the sprinklers during the times that people are allowed to stay there. A town that said the warming shelter couldn't be opened when the temperature dipped to below freezing, because it's only insured for 90-days occupancy, and those 90 days had already been used back at the beginning of the year (plenty of time to find a solution, but they didn't bother until it was already needed and they were pressured by the public and managed to find a church that would help). A town that has decided that if you're caught being too homeless in public, you can be 'excluded' from huge chunks of town.
What happens when you have no money, there are no public restrooms, you have to be a paying customer to use any business' toilet, and you can land on the sex offender registry if you're caught peeing in public? What happens when you've just been told you'll be arrested for trespassing if they ever see you on that side of town again (because you had a cardboard sign asking for help and were sitting at the exit of a parking lot) but all your stuff is on that side of town? What happens when you're given a fine you can't pay, for the crime of existing, and are threatened with jail if you can't pay?
Many people will not rent to folk who have a police record. It's nearly impossible to get a job without a home address.
Especially when you're still recovering from getting hit by a reckless driver.
Or maybe our hypothetical person's spouse died suddenly, the home isn't paid off, and the surviving person was the stay-at-home parent, so they have no work experience for a resume, and two kids in school. What happens to them?
Or maybe it's just an autoimmune disorder and they can't afford the treatments without insurance, and their insurance is through their employer, who overworks them and won't give them accommodations they need to be able to work safely, so they work unsafely and take a decade or more off their life—but at least get medical treatment... when they can get the time off for it. Systemic problems will not be resolved without systemic change.
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