In July, when we asked Mississippi what kept him outside, he offered a poignant response: HOUSING! Mississippi remains homeless in San Diego to this day.
On the day of this interview, police forced Mississippi to move twice. If he didn’t move his things, he was threatened with jail.
Politicians across the country are pushing for more criminalization, however, at the same time homeless people are being displaced, homelessness is growing. Services and housing are not being offered. This growing displacement of homeless people, while homelessness is growing, is already making homelessness worse.
I love running into people I know on the streets but hate that they’re still outside. In our great country, there’s absolutely no reason that everybody should not have adequate housing.
Mississippi shares about sanction tent camps, and with the growing criminalization, this is all headed to forced internment camps. Mississippi prefers the term concentration camps. Smart and most effective evidence-based solution is to provide housing and get people off the streets. Forcing people into camps is not only wrong, cruel, and a waste of money, it’s not going to reduce homelessness.
We must raise our voices to our legislators. The clamor for criminalization grows louder by the day, but our advocacy must match, if not surpass that volume. We must urge our lawmakers to cease the criminalization of poverty and instead focus on preventing and resolving homelessness.
Here’s the monthly data on San Diego homelessness
