On a frigid evening last winter a homeless disabled American war veteran died unnoticed under a bridge in Providence, RI. I suppose you could say he died peacefully because he just went to sleep from the cold, but it’s a miserable way to go. He died on a pile of dirt. And he suffered greatly. His obituary did not read that he died peacefully at home surrounded by his loving family, as so many do. After his death and when the frigid weather had abated, a group of homeless persons established a tent city under the bridge near where he died. Thus started the saga of three homeless encampments in the city on state land under the bridges soon to be demolished as part of the new highway system.. Public officials are staging a fight in court to get rid of the establishments. Homelessness is the shame of America, and it has endured for decades. Its roots were the Vietnam War and the nationwide deinstitutionalization of hospitals for the mentally ill in the 1970’s. |
| The first tent city was called Hope City. Beneath I95 and the new Iway, its residents numbered up to100 persons. They gathered for camaraderie and safety. In April after the cold weather had abated another encampment started called Camp Runamuck. The names indicate idealism was gone. There were tents, cooking apparatus, food supplies and a portable toilet donated by a generous citizen. An American flag decorated a column underneath the highway. Their names were ordinary ones: Barbara, Carol, Randall, Michael. One had broken her wrist, lost her job and apartment. Some were mentally ill. Others were drug addicts. But they all were homeless. |
| One had enough knowledge of state programs to counsel her friends on how to get food stamps and medical attention. Another was a nurse and tended to her new- found friends. Most shunned shelters because they didn’t like their rules and didn’t feel safe in them. There is a long wait for public housing and shelters are overcrowded. The residents pooled their meager resources and bought macaroni and cheese to be cooked on an outdoor stove. Interestingly, the camp had strict rules and those who disregarded them were asked to leave. |
| The state started issuing eviction notices. Some of the group dispersed to the streets. Another group, asked to leave by state officials, moved to a new site under a bridge by the Seekonk River in East Providence and called itself Camp Runamuck II. Their leader was vocal in the news media about their cause, saying they just needed homes, not shelters which only housed them for the night and sent them on their way during the day. Then the leader was arrested for failure to register as a sex offender. The state was determined and arrested the leader as he sought help at a local VA hospital. The best way to break up a group is to go after its leader. To disperse the remaining residents the state sent in mental health workers and social workers to talk with each group member. The counselors wore mesh jackets not unlike the FBI that had the word “counselor” printed on the back. Residents were intimidated, as well they might be, and the jackets came off. Tempers flared and one resident threatened to pitch his tent on the lawn in front of the State Capitol building in view of the governor’s office. |
| And then a minor miracle happened. Chief Wilfred “Eagle Heart” Greene, chief of the Seakonke Wampanoag Tribe invited the residents of Hope City to move to tribal land in Cumberland. It could not be more ironic. The very beings we have tried to eradicate and discriminate against are offering a helping hand yet again. At this writing the mayor of Cumberland insists the land is not a recognized reservation and is also part of a federal superfund site. Another door is closing. The remaining residents of Camp Runamuck II are awaiting court action next week. In the meantime a building contractor in Massachusetts has offered jobs to the residents of Hope City. One of three lawyers for the tent cities’ residents reminds the state that it has a moral obligation to the homeless in accordance with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of the United Nations. |
| Why does it have to come to this upheaval and drama to fix the problem of homelessness? Yes, we are embarrassed by those living on the street or in tents and turn the other way when we see someone in the center aisle of a road with a sign begging for food and work. We dismiss them because some are addicts and alcoholics. What would Jesus do? I think we know he would help them, just as he helped the sick, the lepers and the poor. I know a moral obligation when I see one .My son tells me that some of his friends in the technology field have lost their jobs, apartments, homes. Some are living in their cars. Others have just disappeared into the fabric of cities. My son has five children. Were he to lose his job, he and his dear family would be in similar straits. They would live in the homes of our family. Homelessness is just getting too close, too real to ignore. When I think of all the money that was used to bail out the banks and” too big to fail” companies, I wonder what would have happened if just one institution’s bailout had been used for the homeless. A superfund could have been created for them, accepting and campaigning for donations from large corporations and individuals who still live in luxury homes, hire gardeners and maids and cleaning companies, drive luxury cars and take exotic vacations. |
| There is something wrong with this dichotomy of the rich and famous and beautiful aside the homeless. There is something wrong when we send billions of dollars in aid to other countries and we can’t feed and house our own. There is something wrong when we ask a soldier to defend his country with his life and then bring him home to nothing. |
| There is something terribly wrong with our country. |
| Sheila W. Mooney |
| August 2009 |