Cleaned Out or Cleared Out, What It Means When a Homeless Camp Goes Down
“Hey thanks, guys. Good to get the litter cleaned up and the bins emptied.” That’s not the usual. More likely is “was it really all that necessary to burn down my tent?”
It’s embarrassing to have all this going on in America, the richest country in the world, the home of the free and the brave
Free enough to live under bridges and brave enough to winter in Pittsburgh. Let me tell you a story about a guy named Sam Tsemberis. I’ve gotta locate Sam first and I catch up with him in 2003 (yeah, 20 years ago) on the floor of a Las Vegas banquet hall populated by droves of suits, all of whom are trying to come up with a solution for Utah and none of whom are homeless.
Chronic homeless in Utah had surged since the early 1970s. People who had lost their jobs, health insurance or gotten divorced, after three months on a friend’s couch, were on the street. Some were kicked out of mental-health centers. No one had taught them in grade school, high school or university how to thrive as a camper and i…