For Katrina Victims: Homelessness Illegality By Cities Nationwide

For those who slip between the cracks of America's response to the tens of thousands left homeless after Katrina and the other 2005 hurricanes, here is a breakdown of the different ordinances and laws that different cities around the country use to persecute the homeless (this was last updated in 2004, and with the national trend to crack down on homeless people, laws in somce places may be even harsher. Homeless people with a choice of cities may wish to choose a city wisely.

A quick look at the list of top twenty cities that are meanest towards homeless people will reveal that many of the cities regarded as "safe havens" for homeless people have in recent years become the most hostile of all. Of course, any homeless person here in Madison, WI will tell you that this narrative glosses over many horrifying realities, like the hell of being shut outdoors in sub-freezing temperatures in the winter, since Madison's shelters have a ninety day limit which many homeless people use-up by the end of February, periodically leaving people to die in the cold.

Of course, nationwide hostility toward the homeless has been growing for over a decade, so this is at least one thing that can't be blamed just on the Bush administration.

Note to Katrina Victims: Please help shatter the myth that homelessness is largely caused by drug use or mental illness. While I would argue that the main cause of homeless is the inequity and unfair distribution of society's wealth, a homeless guy in Nashville reveals "that the reason why the overwhelming majority of people become chronically homeless is due to painful negative social events, of which becoming homeless is the only way the person can escape them."

Although the outpour of compassion, mutual aid, and private charity may be well and good in the aftermath of the 2005 hurricanes, it is but a temporary patch and isn't sustainable under present conditions. To the extent that most of this private charity will burden the middle and lower classes, the unfair distribution of society's wealth will be worsened. This is why the problem must be confronted by taxation of the ultra-wealthy billionaires who not only can easily afford it but who can't possibly even feel the loss. That wealth, exacted from the exploitation of millions of poor and middle class workers, should be redirected to the deserving, if not in salaries and wages, then in the form direct subsistence, health care, education and training, as well federal jobs programs. In time, this need will grow increasingly self-evident and imperative as tens of thousand more homeless people are instantly scattered around the country, as millions more continue to fall into poverty, as the middle and poor classes become so strained that their ability to offer charity will fall dramatically shorter and shorter, as homelessness and poverty explodes to the point that it becomes a unbearable expense in terms of public health and incarceration, and as global warming and more intense hurricanes cause such castastrophic mass dislocations to continue for decades to come. The time for change is now, before it's too late.