A story on a local organization reaching out to help the unhoused in my current area. The director of the organization is quoted using the term “unhoused”, but the reporter (or their editor) decided to use the more charged term “homeless” in the by-line and the article.
One thing that has always been remarkable to me – I was born in Montreal, and I just figured that tons of people living on the streets was normal in any big city.
Then I moved to a developing country in Asia, to a city 4 times larger, and there’s no such problem. I mean, there are other problems, but not this one. I feel like there’s a lesson in it, maybe something to learn from the family or societal model, but I can’t seem to exactly pin it down.
For example, I know one older gentleman on my street. His home does not seem to be static, he sort of just lives with a variety of families he’s related to at varying degrees, and who live on the same street. I see him working at various shops and food carts those families run. Everyone seems happy to welcome him, and on a daily basis, he seems quite a bit happier than me, if I’m being honest.
I would love to see other people that happy too. I know it’s possible, because I’ve seen it – but I don’t know what needs to change to make it happen.
Where exactly? In the third world there’s often tons of people without an official dwelling, but the dysfunction actually helps them because they’re able to build an unofficial dwelling without anyone stopping them. So they end up in slums that paradoxically can be nicer than a first-world homeless encampment of the same size would be.
It’s a solvable problem here too, it’s just a matter of nobody caring enough to pay for a solution.
In poorer countries where people often have to resort to it being a couch surfer is a lot more socially acceptable, to the point where even calling it that is funny because it might just be normal life. When you hear about African countries and regions with 80% unemployment that’s how it works.
Oh, I’m in Vietnam. I’ve been here about a decade. It’s true that the ‘slums’ here are quite nice, I live in one of them. It’s safe and pleasant, if a bit crowded. 80% unemployment is about right for my area, but mostly people don’t seem to feel the need to work – too much trouble for too little money. I mean, they’re going to get priced out of their own homes in a generation or two, but I admit that they lead happy lives!
Unofficial dwellings are common, but usually take the form of an unregistered dwelling, on land legally owned by the residents. This lets them informally subdivide plots as families grow.
Most families seem to own the home they live in. I don’t know all the details, but it is sort of de jure impossible to be homeless here. I think all families were allocated a piece of land at some point – I don’t know the exact mechanism (since I immigrated here long after that was sorted out). Then you are registered in the ‘house book’ for that land, and have some claim to it. I’ve never met anyone whose family doesn’t have at least one piece of land they can live on, even if it’s far away.
In practice, someone could have sold their plot, it could not be a good enough piece to live on, it could be far from an economic center, too many floods, and so on. There are de facto a few homeless people.
If your land is out in the countryside? There are some good things about that, too. Not many economic opportunities, but you’re also not going to starve. It’s not like Canada where you need a ton of civilization just to survive. Want food? Walk to the nearest fruit tree or go fishing for an hour. Some of my colleagues in tech are tempted to just give up and go back to their hometown instead of doing this ridiculous hustle.
Now that I read your username that should have been obvious, haha.
That was sort of a sketch of the underlying logic, but I’m sure the actual manifestation varies tremendously.
Interesting! That sounds like how communists would go about it, and also how it would break a bit.
Oof ouch my supply chains. It’s a bit of a tangent, but I honestly worry about that a lot. The old timers tell stories of surviving most of the year on domestic flour and a basement full of home-made preserves, so I’ve taught myself to do canning and cook with canned stuff a lot.
Haha, the first thing I did when I got to my apartment in Canada was buy a 10 or 20 kg bag of flour.
You can eat pretty well off onions, carrots, turnips, potatoes, rice, beans, and beets. Also ground horse meat was super cheap for some reason in Montreal, and actually really good. I think I was in the 2-5$ range per meal.
Over here pandemic survival was pretty straightforward. The country was covid-free about a year into the pandemic, but you couldn’t enter or leave the country, and there was mandatory free testing. Positive? Off to military quarantine for you. Not fun, but you’re fed pretty well and receive free medical care if needed. Then once Covid finally arrived, we had 2 months of don’t-leave-home-for-any-reason (you could order food online), followed by a free vaccination campaign. Covid became irrelevant shortly after that. While I’m saddened that it was hard on other people, it was a very pleasant 2 months of quiet study and remote work for me.
So we didn’t quite skip covid, but we nearly did. If we were on the priority list for vaccines (e.g. a rich country), we might have done it!
I would say the biggest effect of Covid was we began to question our assumption that America is some sort of well-organized paradise. People here still have a pretty high opinion of the USA, but it really got knocked down a peg that year. People still have a positive opinion of Canada, at least until they try to get a visitor visa… that process has been an embarrassing mess for 5+ years, even without the recent hiccup!
I’ll add lentils to the list. The dried ones work like beans but cook like rice with no soaking, and cost nothing here because we’re such a big producer. Spices are also pretty much non-perishable in a sealed container. There’s all kinds of niche canned goods you can find, too, and of course fruit. The only thing I’d really miss is greens.
Someday I’m going to write a non-perishable recipe book and start ordering cans wholesale in advance.
We produce a lot for some reason, even though at least the Anglo half culturally doesn’t eat it.
It looks great via Hollywood, but once you’re up close you realise the political gridlock is all-consuming.
Well that’s nice. Yeah, some of our government departments are an absolute nightmare. I honestly wonder if we need to rebuild them from the ground up. It shouldn’t be that hard to get basic paperwork done.
Haha the Anglo half. I’m the French speaking person in an English family, from a French province, in an English country.
Then I immigrated to Vietnam, which is a member of the Francophonie, but very few people actually speak French, but they assume I’m from France.
…I’ve honestly lost track of which half I am now. It’s all too confusing.