Urbanization and the Homeless

I enjoy road trips. There is something refreshing and exhilarating about hitting the open road with no particular destination in mind. Over the years I have made countless jaunts through the Pacific Northwest and each time I roll through Post Falls, Idaho, I notice how much that city seems to be stretching towards Spokane. I can even recall a time when Spokane proper and Spokane Valley seemed continents apart and not just different stretches of Interstate 90.

Urbanization.

The world is urbanizing at a rapid rate with alarming results. Because we live in a more rural setting, we don’t often notice the concrete evolution unfolding in other parts of the country.  But what are some of the consequences of urbanization? Why does it matter and should I just cope with the fact that often it will take me longer than 15 seconds to turn left onto Highway 93 sans the saving grace of a traffic light? Now is where you can sit back and wish for the “good ‘ol days…”

City landscapes are potent signs of visible gross inequality in America. Monstrous skyscrapers enveloping makeshift shacks; men and women sleeping on the pavement silhouetted against the neon signs of all varieties. Our urban centers have become polarized: two cities existing side by side but separated by status and rights.

Urbanization is a classic tale of the haves and have-nots, where some profit immensely while others struggle to survive. One of the most tragic manifestations of this sort of inequality is persistent and growing homelessness – people left without the protection of a physical space or the security that their inherent human rights should offer. We’ve addressed this topic before, that housing should be a right and not a privilege.

Homelessness presents itself in different ways in different contexts. The most common and visible are those who are forced to live in the open. Over the years, we see these people in increasing numbers in the Flathead. They sleep, eat and stay in public spaces, often subject to daily public scrutiny, harsh weather, condemnation and potential violence. Others are invisible, especially where homelessness manifests in very poorer housing conditions without basic services and security of tenure. Homeless people face stigmatization, criminalization and discrimination every day.

Inequality is the most consistently identified cause of homelessness, and yet homelessness is the least discussed representation of inequality. Think about that for a minute. When the last time homelessness was was was addressed as a key talking point at a national political convention?

Perhaps this is because homelessness is too often attributed to individual circumstances and moral failures instead being seen as the result of systematic failures or just simple misfortune that is so severe a family or person cannot recover and loses nearly everything they own.

I also surmise that things would be different if the homeless voted in large blocks. But since they don’t, their plight is not addressed with as much vigor or tenacity as, say, a lobbyist or an industry that makes substantial donations. The response should be clear: states must commit to leading the way in regards to ending homelessness. This would line up with the global target to ensure adequate housing for all by 2030, which was recently committed to in the UN’s sustainable development goals.

A good start would be for states to begin creating national strategies based on human right, but do so through legislation and not merely activism, to claim the right to housing for those who continue to live in homelessness. Everyone benefits when the community works together. Urbanization doesn’t have to be a detrimental thing.