The last time I posted here was two weeks ago when I lamented a city council member’s plan to propose a camping ban. Things did not look good. Well, I’m here with a happy update: this past week, the city council voted down that council member’s motion! And not only that, the council voted in favor of further research and discussion around sanctioned camping areas and sanctioned parking areas for those living in their vehicles! They’re also looking into additional public restrooms and trash receptacles! None of this is a done-deal but they voted down the worst of the proposals and in favor of some humane policies. For that, I’m grateful.
How did this happen? Community involvement! After an earlier council meeting at which people with the “lived experience” of getting clean shared their stories (which were very much in favor of criminalizing homelessness and insisting “the only way to get clean is go to jail and be forced into drug treatment”), it became clear we also needed to hear the lived experience of community members currently living outside. So we gathered statements from about 20 people without housing, asking a handful of questions including:
- what happened in your life that you ended up living outside?
- what would a camping ban mean to you?
- what do you wish people understood about what it’s like living outside?
- how long have you been a resident of this county?
We then transcribed their responses and lined up volunteers to read the statements at the next council meeting. It was eye-opening to hear stories of a death in the family or a divorce or job loss or rent increase that lead to them living outside, circumstances that could happen to any of us. Equally informative was that the vast majority of people were long-time residents of the county, some for their entire lives, and that information poked massive holes in the haters’ lie that “homeless junkies move here because they have it so good.” Each statement read at the city council meeting ended with “What do I wish people understood about what it’s like living outside?” followed by insights such as :
- “People drive by and throw cans at us.”
- “We’re just trying to survive.”
- “When our belongings are taken and thrown out, that includes things like doctor appointments and court dates. Losing that stuff makes it even harder for us to pull ourselves together.”
- “It’s not easy. Our nervous systems are in permanent survival mode.”
It was a powerful public comment period, both for those in the audience and the volunteers who amplified the voices of the most vulnerable in our community. I can’t help but believe those statements played a role in this week’s vote by the city council.
Local activism for the win!
I’m sharing that here as both an update to my earlier post and because these days are so very difficult. It feels as we’re powerless in the face of all the cruelty and violence being inflicted on people, not to mention the very real threat of nuclear war. It’s tempting to check out. True, we have zero control over this regime or the actions of our so-called opposition party, something I find both terrifying and rage-inducing. But we’re not powerless. Each of us can work to strengthen our own communities.
As Mariame Kaba and Kelly Hayes and other veteran organizers say: pick something that matters to you and focus on that. For instance, do you have a public library in your community?
Libraries are under attack from those who fear learning and knowledge. Book banning has reached such horrifying levels it’s affecting children’s publishing. (An excellent resource for learning about books and book banning, including what may be happening in your state, is BookRiot.com.) Library budgets are being slashed, but there’s some recent good news. Librarians are losing their jobs and they’re coming together to support each other. There are all sorts of ways to get involved (my easy/fun experience is below):
- Free and easy strategies for helping your library obtain funding and fight book banning
- Check out Libraries for the People which includes a variety of strategies for defending and strengthening our beloved public institution.
- Check out Every Library for “tools to make sure that libraries remain the cornerstone of well-educated communities throughout the country.”
My fun and easy experience? Yesterday, I gathered with others in our mutual aid group to support our local library system and we wrote 100 postcards to voters, expressing our support for a Proposition to restore the library levy rate (which would result in a $0.17 increase per $1,000 assessed value). It felt great to take action on behalf of our community. During our time together, I didn’t think about the smorgasbord of atrocities going on in the world. Instead, we talked and laughed and marveled at the gorgeous Eric Carle postcards provided by the Proposition organizers. Take a look at a sampling of those beautiful cards:
Eric Carle postcard sampler
As a parent who owned and read many Eric Carle books with my sons, it was a trip down memory lane. And it felt very right to use gorgeous pieces of art to ask for support of the library. Books literally save lives.
Okay, this is much longer than intended so I’ll stop here. 🙂 Thank you for reading this far. Please, if you’d like to share a sentiment about your public library or maybe a community effort you support, or really, just anything not-awful, I’d love to hear from you.
Until then, solidarity.
Tracy Abell 