Unhoused Individuals in Golden - aka THE homeless
Poverty By America is one of several books I have read on unhoused individuals. I use that term to also make a point, emphasized in When We Walk By. You and I are not defined by being housed. We are who we are and what we do and we’re individuals of character. So are the unhoused. And while about 30% of the unhoused are on the streets, the majority are couchsurfing, in temporary shelters, or in transition. So those we see who are unhoused are only part of the population that has either no, or very unstable housing. In years past Golden had one or two individuals who were known to the community. Larry, who sat on the wall behind what is now Bella Calibri comes to mind. Described as “tougher than nails” in the linked article, people got to know Larry and didn’t completely define him by his station in life. I could easily see him saying this line though,
“I never realized I was homeless when I lost my housing, only when I lost my family and friends”.
My point in this introduction is not to negate the uncomfortable feelings we have when in proximity to those who are unhoused. But if our solutions are all punitive then I don’t think we have paid attention to some of the root causes or the individual’s humanity. Most of the reasons people come up for people being unhoused are pejorative: Lazy, drug addled, unlovable, poor, bad choices. Whereas another truth is that 50% of working Americans live paycheck to paycheck. That can mean that 50% of people are one paycheck away from an emergency car repair, medical bill, natural disaster, inadequate income, or rent increase from being unhoused.
Why do we equate unhoused individuals with some of the pejorative statements? Because your eyes are not deceiving you! You are seeing someone drunk, any time of day, not working, holding a sign up saying “God Bless”, perhaps they are smelly or are lying in filth. From a visceral standpoint we are all highly tuned to avoid disease as a survival mechanism. So equating the outward attributes you observe with disease is a logical and rational response. But, or and, that is what makes it so hard to see past that to the unhoused as individuals who are mostly NOT unhoused due to a choice.
I am admittedly a liberal and a progressive. But I also try to be informed and have some compassion. From what I have seen and read, criminalizing being poor has not worked to address this societal problem. Having people move from one city to another has not eliminated homelessness. I have heard that one of our regular unhoused individuals in town now has been in Golden for decades. Unfortunately for him he has not created the relationships that Larry Gibbs did in the past. So, to most Golden residents he is “other”. Likewise the other unhoused seen around town. I’ve met some of them, Greg, Rudy, Lewis. I don’t know their stories but I know that Rudy works full time and lives in his car.
As to the suggestion that people be moved from the street to shelters…that is another big issue, but here are some local reasons it has not worked. For one thing, Jefferson County does not have any open shelters! None, zero beds. On very cold nights we can give hotel and transit vouchers to the unhoused individuals so they do not die of hypothermia. But on an ongoing basis there are no shelter beds. One reason for this in my mind is that Jeffco has not de Bruced, that is to say they have to return money to people above the TABOR cap instead of investing in a shelter, wrap around services, or even low cost housing. If you don’t trust the government to help address housing, and the market has shown an inability to address the demand for lower cost rentals, then what is your solution? The book Poverty, By America really lays out how our capitalistic system relies on a class divide to be successful. So, we get the outcome we do because it works for us (U.S.)
Another thing we know about our unhoused individuals is that they come to Golden for the same reasons some of us enjoy it. It is basically safe. While burglaries are not as low as I’d like, robberies and other violent crimes are quite low. Unhoused individuals in Golden feel safer than they do on the mean streets of Denver. They are not here because we provide services, in my opinion. We are providing services because they are here. Every week I read about the impact our Homelessness Navigator is making on preventing more people from being unhoused, or moving people to permanent, or transitional housing. Impacts are being made and the cases left are ones that are multi-faceted and more difficult to solve. We (speaking for myself as a city councilor), are working with the city manager and police to do what we can to keep citizens safe. Some of the unhoused are not that pleasant at times. I have personally be yelled out. But I appreciate my “housed individual” status and I hear the fear, loneliness, and disconnectedness behind the rants.
Do I have answers yet? No, but I’m learning and researching and I’m trying to move past my evolutionary gut response of revulsion to a bit of humanity.