Last Wednesday, Gov. Gavin Newsom of California used his State of the State address to highlight the homelessness crisis.
“Let’s call it what it is: a disgrace, that the richest state in the richest nation — succeeding across so many sectors — is failing to properly house, heal and humanely treat so many of its own people,” Newsom said. “No amount of progress can camouflage the most pernicious crisis in our midst, the ultimate manifestation of poverty: homelessness.”
Whether we are talking about the state of California, which would be the fifth-largest economy in the world if it were a country–or Santa Fe, New Mexico–homelessness is a complex social problem. It is a community problem, and it will require the entire community, working together, to find a solution.
The first step in that process is for everyone in the community to understand that people experiencing homelessness are just like you and me. There is no “them” and “us.” Homelessness is not a person, it is a condition. As I like to remind people, the line is thin. There but for the grace of God go I. The trauma that most often precedes homelessness is real, and it is indiscriminate. The housing crisis is real, in California, and in Santa Fe.
I lived that in Santa Fe for three years , making a decent salary, helping others find employment, free work clothes, their dignity , but to bounce from hotel, to shelter to a apartment , back to living in my car, camping in the forest and finally returning to family in Arizona to start over , again …….
Charles, thank you for writing. We are hoping you are making a good new start and also, thank you so much for reading!
with my best, from Joe.
Us and Them, You put it best when you said we are the same …because we are the same and if somone is homless you can bet the trauma is very real first the trauma that led to that person not caring enough to take the necessary steps to not become homeless and the trauma associated with being homeless. I would like to take this opportunity to give thanks from the bottom of my heart to all the volunteers and staff that work diligently to keep shelter running in a clean compassionate professional setting 24 hrs a day 7 days a weak 365 days a year. I went there to die and learned how to live instead with a new take on life. Thank you sincerely Thomas Wiggins