Walk More
One of the things which makes homeless individuals stick out like a sore thumb is the fact that many of them live without a car. So they walk a lot -- and/or use a bike and/or public transit, but for purposes of this post, I want to focus specifically on the fact that homeless individuals walk a lot more than most Americans.
I have literally had the cops called on me for walking in a neighborhood where no one ever walks anywhere. So simply walking in some places is such weird behavior that it makes you very suspicious, and there can be serious consequences merely for walking.
There is an excellent essay called Walking While Black (PDF) which is about a black man's experience of walking in his own neighborhood after his car broke down and getting stopped by the police for it. I am a white woman who rarely had anything to do with the police prior to being homeless, yet the piece resonates with me because of my experiences since becoming homeless.
So one thing you can do to help the homeless is simply to get out and walk more. In areas where more people are on the street as a normal everyday occurrence, homeless people are much less likely to get stopped by the cops merely for walking somewhere. But that's not all there is to it. That alone is an important benefit but there is more to it.
When more middle and upper class people walk more, there are knock off effects in terms of the geographic area being subtly (or not so subtly) made to be more pedestrian-friendly, but there are also cultural side effects. When people walk more, they fundamentally understand certain behaviors differently. People who drive everywhere make a lot of assumptions about what people would choose to do and why they would choose to do it that simply do not fit with the choices made by pedestrians.
As I noted in my last post, I was recently asked why I would drive to a store everyday to turn in less than a dollar of recyclables. Of course, the answer is that I am not driving. I walk everywhere. I bring this up as an example of the kind of disconnect that occurs between pedestrians and people who drive habitually: My behavior was something literally "questionable" because it isn't logical and reasonable from the perspective of someone who drives everywhere. It does not occur to people that my behavior is reasonable and logical for someone who walks everywhere.
This may seem like a small thing, but I live with a long list of small things that set me apart from the rest of society, and not in a good way. Part of why it is a problem is because walking is seen by many Americans as evidence that one is poor. It is thus seen as stigmatizing. So if the explanation for my personal choices is that it makes sense because I am on foot, part of the problem I face is that making the explanation can be stigmatizing and can make people less sympathetic to my choices, not more.
So, again, if you want to help the homeless, one thing you can do is just walk more, especially as part of running errands and/or getting to work, not just for exercise. It helps homeless people be less conspicuous, it helps make the general area more walkable and pedestrian-friendly in practical terms, and it helps re-shape the local culture so that making choices that make sense for someone on foot is not seen as weird and stigmatizing and just more evidence that they are doing it wrong.
Some decades ago, the author Jane Jacobs made the observation that safety in a neighborhood was dependent on there being eyes on the street. So, one reason it helps the homeless is because it makes it safer to be out and about if you are not the only one walking. More feet on the street means there are more eyes on the street, and that has a proven track record of improving neighborhood safety for everyone. Homeless individuals tend to be more vulnerable than average, so improvements to safety will tend to benefit them more than average without costing anyone else anything to make the area a generally safer place to be.
I have literally had the cops called on me for walking in a neighborhood where no one ever walks anywhere. So simply walking in some places is such weird behavior that it makes you very suspicious, and there can be serious consequences merely for walking.
There is an excellent essay called Walking While Black (PDF) which is about a black man's experience of walking in his own neighborhood after his car broke down and getting stopped by the police for it. I am a white woman who rarely had anything to do with the police prior to being homeless, yet the piece resonates with me because of my experiences since becoming homeless.
So one thing you can do to help the homeless is simply to get out and walk more. In areas where more people are on the street as a normal everyday occurrence, homeless people are much less likely to get stopped by the cops merely for walking somewhere. But that's not all there is to it. That alone is an important benefit but there is more to it.
When more middle and upper class people walk more, there are knock off effects in terms of the geographic area being subtly (or not so subtly) made to be more pedestrian-friendly, but there are also cultural side effects. When people walk more, they fundamentally understand certain behaviors differently. People who drive everywhere make a lot of assumptions about what people would choose to do and why they would choose to do it that simply do not fit with the choices made by pedestrians.
As I noted in my last post, I was recently asked why I would drive to a store everyday to turn in less than a dollar of recyclables. Of course, the answer is that I am not driving. I walk everywhere. I bring this up as an example of the kind of disconnect that occurs between pedestrians and people who drive habitually: My behavior was something literally "questionable" because it isn't logical and reasonable from the perspective of someone who drives everywhere. It does not occur to people that my behavior is reasonable and logical for someone who walks everywhere.
This may seem like a small thing, but I live with a long list of small things that set me apart from the rest of society, and not in a good way. Part of why it is a problem is because walking is seen by many Americans as evidence that one is poor. It is thus seen as stigmatizing. So if the explanation for my personal choices is that it makes sense because I am on foot, part of the problem I face is that making the explanation can be stigmatizing and can make people less sympathetic to my choices, not more.
So, again, if you want to help the homeless, one thing you can do is just walk more, especially as part of running errands and/or getting to work, not just for exercise. It helps homeless people be less conspicuous, it helps make the general area more walkable and pedestrian-friendly in practical terms, and it helps re-shape the local culture so that making choices that make sense for someone on foot is not seen as weird and stigmatizing and just more evidence that they are doing it wrong.
Some decades ago, the author Jane Jacobs made the observation that safety in a neighborhood was dependent on there being eyes on the street. So, one reason it helps the homeless is because it makes it safer to be out and about if you are not the only one walking. More feet on the street means there are more eyes on the street, and that has a proven track record of improving neighborhood safety for everyone. Homeless individuals tend to be more vulnerable than average, so improvements to safety will tend to benefit them more than average without costing anyone else anything to make the area a generally safer place to be.