Will The World Turn Into One Big Urban Hive?
There is an editorial in a local Caribbean media outlet entitled, “Cities Or Slums?” It talks about how a scholar in 1961 was trying to predict whether the modern city would disappear in the future, or whether the whole world would become one big city.
Interestingly, the editorial goes on to say that big cities are taking over the planet. And along with these big cities has come homelessness. (Squatters or dwellers, precariously living in slums, favellas, shanty towns, barrios, projects, or in our case, “the streets”… you can call it what you want.)
Los Angeles is one of these sprawling urban cities that has 73,000 homeless people. (In the article they state 100,000). But L.A. is not alone in struggling with homelessness. Beijing has 200,000 “floaters” (migrants living in slums), 1.5 million in the Egyptian capital of Cairo, 10% of the citizens of Phnom Penh (Cambodia) sleep on roofs, 99.4% of the urban population in Ethiopia and Chad are slum dwellers, etc.
In most cities around the world, those living on the lowest end of the economic scale are just a given. They become a permanent fixture in the urban environment. Just like freeways, tall buildings, sprawling housing… there are homeless people. I remember standing on the balcony of a nice hotel in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil with a “perfect” view of the squatters on the hills. Slum dwellers were just a given.
Los Angeles has 73,000 people who are homeless—on any given night. Throughout the year, 250,000 people experience homelessness. Is there really hope? Can we build enough permanent affordable housing to house all of these people? Certainly, we are not going to put them in toxic trailers supplied by FEMA. But is the city and the county willing to invest billions and billions of dollars to house Angelenos struggling with poverty?
For those of us on the front lines helping people overcome homelessness every day, we have to continue to embrace hope. Without it, our city becomes another Third World urban sprawl infested with hopelessness.
Whether our world continues to become one big urban sprawl, is not the point. We need to make sure our urban space—whether large or small—can not be overcome by slum living.
Interestingly, the editorial goes on to say that big cities are taking over the planet. And along with these big cities has come homelessness. (Squatters or dwellers, precariously living in slums, favellas, shanty towns, barrios, projects, or in our case, “the streets”… you can call it what you want.)
Los Angeles is one of these sprawling urban cities that has 73,000 homeless people. (In the article they state 100,000). But L.A. is not alone in struggling with homelessness. Beijing has 200,000 “floaters” (migrants living in slums), 1.5 million in the Egyptian capital of Cairo, 10% of the citizens of Phnom Penh (Cambodia) sleep on roofs, 99.4% of the urban population in Ethiopia and Chad are slum dwellers, etc.
In most cities around the world, those living on the lowest end of the economic scale are just a given. They become a permanent fixture in the urban environment. Just like freeways, tall buildings, sprawling housing… there are homeless people. I remember standing on the balcony of a nice hotel in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil with a “perfect” view of the squatters on the hills. Slum dwellers were just a given.
Los Angeles has 73,000 people who are homeless—on any given night. Throughout the year, 250,000 people experience homelessness. Is there really hope? Can we build enough permanent affordable housing to house all of these people? Certainly, we are not going to put them in toxic trailers supplied by FEMA. But is the city and the county willing to invest billions and billions of dollars to house Angelenos struggling with poverty?
For those of us on the front lines helping people overcome homelessness every day, we have to continue to embrace hope. Without it, our city becomes another Third World urban sprawl infested with hopelessness.
Whether our world continues to become one big urban sprawl, is not the point. We need to make sure our urban space—whether large or small—can not be overcome by slum living.
posted by LA's Homeless Blog at
2:10 PM
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http://www.dailybulletin.com/ci_8277825?source=most_viewed
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