There’s a story going around the Internet about how some people in San Francisco put boulders on their sidewalk to prevent the homeless from putting up tents.
It’s apparently working. The homeless are moving to other sidewalks or sleeping without tents.
The people who did this did not want to be identified. They also didn’t want to be made uncomfortable in seeing the homeless either.
Danielle, one of the other neighbors who walks through the area said this about her neighbors: “I know the reality of homelessness and moving people from one sidewalk to another doesn’t solve it,” she said. “It’s as if the people who are for [the boulders] have the attitude, ‘We want to be privileged’ not to deal with problem.”
Pretty spot on Danielle. At least someone has enough sense to state the obvious.
Here’s the other piece that is so interesting to me. “Through Facebook, the neighbors organized and raised more than $2,000 for the boulders.”
So the neighbors who didn’t like seeing homelessness in their neighborhood organized and did a fundraiser. And it was successful. They raised $2000. And they spent it on rocks?!? Not on actually trying to help people experiencing homelessness. Not on trying to get people out of homelessness for good. Not on getting people off the streets. Nope, on rocks. I wonder how many weeks in a motel could have been bought for the the homeless with $2000, even if only for one person. I wonder what kind of housing $2000 could have been used for.
Instead, people bought something that symbolizes the hardness of their hearts – a boulder. Way to go San Francisco! You may want re-read Matthew 25 and reconsider.
Laced up Lutheran 
Amen! I hated what they did but have seen it before. When we were homeless we had something similar happen to us. Their response comes down to ‘self’. It is all about them. They want their neighborhood. They don’t want to see the homeless. They want their city to be clean. Nothing about caring for the poor and needy. It makes me sick.
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Yup.
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I saw that story too.
Reminds me of the rich man and Laz.
Insulated rich people – probably came to my church in Lubbock and actually paid $30 to take a class offered by Lupton, Corbett, and Fikkert (and others) teaching rich Christians to NOT give to the poor, but teach them a lesson instead. This way we “seek Shalom” instead of “meeting needs.”
Hmmm…
Wow! How heartless?
I visited SF when I was very young – not yet 20 – with my parents. I was mystified by that lovely city at the time. A world-class beautiful place! But it was rather ritzy then too, and only more and more ever since.
Now days, even working class people are priced out of the cost of living there.
I can’t help but think about how I went to college and found all kinds of grants for first generation college students (I was not one of those). Special attention given to such people to help them advance their lot in life.
I think it’s time to consider first generation homeless people too. These are not merely fringe people. These are people who are well equipped to play the game when the rules are reasonably fair. The cracks are widening so wide now that it’s not really accurate to call them cracks anymore. And more and more people are falling through the gaping holes.
Those who have not fallen through yet are not nearly as secure as they think. But the denial is strong and persistent. Raising money for rocks to keep the homeless safely out of sight and out of mind is DENIAL – desperate denial! It’s lying to your self as well as the world.
Just my pre-coffee two cents…
God bless…
X
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Well said. I think of the cracks as a black hole. Just as someone makes some kind of progress out of it, the black hole pulls them back in. I’ve seen it too many times. Our systems are designed to maintain the privileged and to make things about respectability. That idea has invaded the church. Yet, it goes against everything Jesus taught.
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Black hole is better observation. True. But my point is that the systems are NOT in fact maintaining the privileged. That is a myth. More and more of the formerly privileged are going over the edge of the tipping point, and once you are over it, it’s too late for you to be maintained.
This too is obvious, I think, and only hidden by our own denial.
There are LOTS of people who are “normally” vulnerable to homelessness even in “normal” economies. However, we have a predator economy these days, chewing deeper and deeper into the middle-class all the time. Pride, insulation, denial keep us from seeing that lots and lots of hardworking, cautious people are finding themselves waking up in tents.
Homelessness is like a growing cancer. There are actually a LOT of forces at work here, not merely predatorial economic forces, but those, of course, are where the political winds blow, I think, AND they do contribute in a major way.
Denial.
It’s a lie, but it is what we tell OURSELF as well as others.
My thought is that the people raising money and putting up rocks are very fearful of lots of things at lots of levels. However, they are taking comfort in the fact that they could raise $2000 on the one hand and put rocks out to keep the demons away! They FEEL safe and hermetically sealed off, but they are not. They, at least some of them, WILL BE OUT THERE SOON, and they are desperate to not face the demons they fear so deeply.
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Well said. I completely agree. Any privileged system actually fails to either maintain the status quo or protect those it is designed to protect. That’s why humans instituted scapegoating – another release of pressure and guilt. Those privileged are hurt just as much as those that are not privileged – often just in different ways. And yes, we have a predatory system. No different than past system. Pharaoh had a predatory system in place. Babylon did too. So did Rome.
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It is very telling that the energy and elbow grease is available to drum up $2,000 for boulders, but they failed to see that homelessness is about people in need. What could that $2,000 dollars do to help someone out?
Love your neighbor has been replaced by love your property and privacy. Although it’s easier for me to see the right answer when I don’t have a person sleeping on my driveway.
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Amen.
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Yikes. I agree that this is no way to handle homelessness. Money that could’ve gone to a donation for a nonprofit helping the homeless is instead used on…this. Shaking my head.
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