City tries to drive out poor By Anita Beaty
The latest and most diabolical effort to cleanse Atlanta of visibly poor and homeless people is brought to us by many of the same people who created the Mayor's Homeless Commission. The marketing of this economic and racial cleansing proposal depends on the fear and prejudice of people who do not yet understand poverty and homelessness: to them, anyone appearing on the streets must need police intervention because surely there are services enough for all who want them. We want people to know that for every one person asking for shelter and a good job and health care and treatment, there are thousands more behind them who do not get what they ask for because this city is CLOSING shelters and housing and opening jails. The city is now rounding up people and forcing them through a "gateway" that leads nowhere.
Rather than spending money on creating programs to help all of us in this city understand the needs of poor and homeless people, and rather than deciding together to include the excluded people -- to house and employ and treat all people with respect and delight, rather than being the "blessed community," these downtown officials and leaders are willing to spend millions of dollars to incarcerate, to belittle, to separate and further exclude our sisters and brothers. And they are in a frantic hurry to get this done.
Why, we ask, are they willing to rush to incarcerate and criminalize, continuing the draconian policies and practices that a Federal judge ordered them to cease using? What was coming downtown that required getting rid of people with real needs and real value? What kind of city are we to sitting by and allowing these fear mongers to create? One where all of us live, work, play, create together, and brush up against people different from us, and say "hi there"? Or one where we call the nearest policeperson and report that man over there who looks kinda scary?
We ask why the city officials and leaders would continue this policy that began with slavery and continues breeding fear and loathing? Why would they incarcerate rather than house? Why would they be willing to continue spending millions on building jails instead of building housing? Why would they use fear to sell their plans and policies?
They know by now that homelessness is the result of unrestrained greed and policies that support that greed. They know by now that everyone who is homeless was once housed and has the right to be housed again -- amongst us. They know by now that sick people whose housing is withheld will become sicker and need more and more care. They know by now that demonizing a group of people only serves the interests of the people in control and those who are protected. As a minister friend of ours once said, "There aren't enough fences and gated communities to protect us from 'them.'"
The most frightening aspect of all of this legislation and policy making is that the authors of the 'Vagrant Free Zone' do not want to see community grow toward being an inclusive and celebratory community, where people who don't look or think alike actually enjoy a bustling downtown, with lots of vendors and sidewalk activity. Or a community with colorful street festivals and crowds jostling for seats at bright, funky sidewalk cafes.
That is the vision for a downtown Atlanta that we hold dear. That is the vision of the blessed community -- a community where everyone works for a livable wage and gets the health care s/he needs or wants, and has the time to enjoy life and friends and family, and create meaningful relationships that produce a city too busy and happy to hate. That, believe it or not, is the vision for Peachtree-Pine.
Instead, the fear mongering, created and instilled by City Officials and their policies, produces suspicion and unhappiness and prejudice that in turn produce exclusion and deprivation and sometimes violence bred of desperation.
COME AND LET US REASON TOGETHER AND SERVE EACH OTHER IN PEACE AND DELIGHT.
The author is executive director of the Metro Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless.
Where is Atlanta's soul?
