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   mekka okereke :verified: (mekkaokereke@hachyderm.io)'s status on Friday, 10-Jan-2025 02:17:35 JST mekka okereke :verified:

   Sometimes when I talk to homeless people in the Bay Area, I ask them how they became homeless.

   Sometimes, they say that they lost their homes in a wildfire.

   More painful than seeing people lose their homes in a forest fire, is watching them lose their humanity, as our empathy for them evaporates.

   https://www.redding.com/story/news/2019/06/11/annual-count-helps-identify-some-origins-homelessness/1409772001/

   In the immediate days after someone loses their home in a wildfire, our talk is full of empathy.

   But as days turn to weeks and months, we stop caring *why* someone doesn't have a home, and only care *that* they don't have a home.

   We start planning to throw away their remaining possessions.

   https://www.calhealthreport.org/2022/08/03/as-wildfires-grow-so-does-californias-housing-and-homelessness-crisis-here-are-some-solutions/

   Homeless people aren't different people than us. They are us.

   Many homeless people just experienced a sequence of unfortunate events that led them to this place.

   "No! They're drug addicts! They did this to themselves!"🤡

   Again, ask people with addiction how they became addicted.

   They'll tell you

   https://www.sfcityattorney.org/2023/05/17/san-francisco-city-attorney-announces-230-million-settlement-with-walgreens-after-victory-in-opioid-litigation/

   There's a pervasive myth that people still believe about California homeless: that homeless people "come to California for the weather."

   That's a lie that fortunate people 🙋🏿♂️ tell ourselves.

   California homeless are almost all California residents (90%) who just had a bunch of bad luck in a row.

   https://homelessness.ucsf.edu/our-impact/studies/california-statewide-study-people-experiencing-homelessness

   Anyway, I skipped the "burrito taxi" discourse, AKA the meal delivery discourse.

   Because if tomorrow you lost your home and your job to wildfire, and only had your car and a few hastily gathered possessions, and you needed to earn some money?

   Your car would become a burrito taxi too.

   I don't care if you know how to cook food for yourself for cheap, or if you treat yourself by having burritos delivered to your house.

   I care that we live in a country so cruel, that some people deliver food in the cars that they live in, while those receiving the food don't even know or care.

   • Embed this notice
     Amanda Bee (amanda@an.errant.cloud)'s status on Friday, 10-Jan-2025 02:39:30 JST Amanda Bee

     in reply to

     @mekkaokereke I was a foster parent for years and every kid who came through our home was coming from a family with no safety net. Or the net was in tatters.

   • Embed this notice
     veritas (veritas0x0@infosec.exchange)'s status on Friday, 10-Jan-2025 02:39:38 JST veritas

     in reply to

     @mekkaokereke I tip excessively when I use delivery apps because I have no idea if it’s a side gig or survival.

   • Embed this notice
     Rebecca Hartman-Baker (hpcgal@mast.hpc.social)'s status on Friday, 10-Jan-2025 09:07:29 JST Rebecca Hartman-Baker

     in reply to

     @mekkaokereke I read a great quote on here a while ago, that basically all of us are 3 bad months away from being homeless, and none of us are 3 good months away from being a billionaire. I remind myself of that hard truth every time I want to turn away from a homeless person.

   • Embed this notice
     waffles 🇨🇦 (waffles@masto.yttrx.com)'s status on Friday, 10-Jan-2025 11:12:41 JST waffles 🇨🇦

     in reply to

     @mekkaokereke it’s human nature to protect yourself emotionally from the fear that you too could become homeless, and the best way to do that is to invent reasons why a person is homeless. Alcohol. Drugs. Mental illness. The reason doesn’t matter, so long as it can assuage your fears because “that would never happen to you”.

     The things we tell ourselves when we’re living paycheque to paycheque and living life on the edge of homelessness.

   • Embed this notice
     wasabi brain (virtualinanity@toot.community)'s status on Friday, 10-Jan-2025 11:56:39 JST wasabi brain

     in reply to

     @mekkaokereke slightly off topic but I always love your perspective on the intersection of class, power and business: people who lived in Malibu are for the most part veeery wealthy and powerful. They were able to weaponize environmentalism to make it very hard to build in Malibu in order to prevent high density apartments for the most part. How will this impact the reconstruction of Malibu and pacific palisades?

   • Embed this notice
     C. R. Collins (crcollins@writing.exchange)'s status on Saturday, 11-Jan-2025 03:23:49 JST C. R. Collins

     in reply to

     • David Njoku

     @davidnjoku

     Some homeless people had to flee domestic violence. My kids & I were in that group many years ago. Fortunately, I found a good women's shelter to help so it was short-term for us, but situations vary.

     @mekkaokereke

   • Embed this notice
     David Njoku (davidnjoku@mastodon.world)'s status on Saturday, 11-Jan-2025 03:23:50 JST David Njoku

     in reply to

     @mekkaokereke I used to volunteer with a homeless charity over here in Britain. One thing I learned from the experience is that we're all little more than 2 strokes of bad luck away from homelessness.

     Yes, some homeless people are addicts. For some, the addiction led to the homelessness; for others, the homelessness led to the addiction. But you're right, they're us - people with homes are not superior to people without them.

     mekka okereke :verified: repeated this.