Notes on Homelessness

Ever wonder where all the transient people come from?  In Portland, it's said they're bussed up from San Francisco.  In Austin, it's said they're bussed down from Portland.  Although the majority of the city voted for Prop B in May 2021, the tents keep multiplying.  

My aunt and uncle have lived in Austin since the early Eighties, and remember when mental health facilities were available, and after they were not, suddenly we had people living on the streets.  When I separated from my (now ex) husband during Covid quarantine, that same aunt and uncle allowed me to live with them for three months while I sorted through the wreckage.  I often wonder what I would have done had I been in that same abusive marriage with children or without family to shelter me, much less through a global pandemic.

Part of the reason I don't have children of my own is because I've never been brave enough to allow such a precious part of myself float around the world during times like these.  It's been heartbreaking enough watching my brother suffer bitter consequences of poor choices, but I don't think I could have forced accountability the way my parents did by allowing him to live out of his car.  Then he really leaned into it - for 6 years in 2 different states, but there was always a limit to how far our parents would let him fall.

I'm not in the business of solving these problems, but I am tired of our lawmakers failing to acknowledge their complexity. So long as I’m working to pay for it, I want solutions that address the root causes of homelessness and addiction, rather than quick fixes chasing symptoms.  Instead taxes keep going up, up to a place I can't afford any real assets of my own - back to living off my parents again.  What happens when there's no one left to fall back on?

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