Homeless encampments: Difference between revisions

 

In some cases, this choice of term may reflect and signal an authorization under which the settlement is operating: for example, in Portland, '''Right 2 Dream Too''' residents and supporters often deliberately refer to their location as a "rest area" because it is authorized as a campground under state law, similarly to highway rest stops. Residents, supporters and observers may also choose to avoid 'camp' or 'encampment' because the site may be non-temporary (e.g. with '''Dignity Village''', or '''Emerald Village''') or aspiring to be. Or, residents/supporters may employ a name intended to define themselves as a community or organization not necessarily fixed in one location: Right 2 Dream Too's web site states, "We are a nonprofit organization operating a space.."

In the context of the [[Village Buildings]] book project, we see 'encampments' as a common but contested, often incautiously or tendentiously used term that tends to conflate and illegitimize a diverse range of dwelling situations, and which is often not the term people dwelling in these sitautions themselves use. Also, the usage tends to obscure what may be positive potentialities of the situation, such as marginalized people's solidarity, creativity, agency and self-determination, political organizing and expression, self-building, mobility, and the possibility of incremental development of site, community, or dwellings into permanence. 

 

Persistent, informal, houseless camps have been widespread in the United States at various previous times, particularly from the post-Civil War (1865) to ca.1900, and during the Great Depression ca.1929 until late 1930s. In many cases, camps from the 1980s have arisen particularly in areas that were major camp areas in those previous eras; for example, the South of Market area of San Francisco. They are commonly in relatively concealed or non-residential urban areas, that are near railroad corridors and railyards, bodies of water, and/or services such as boarding houses and relief agencies. After the Civil War, many of the people that would now be called 'homeless' were migratory or seasonal workers who rode railroad freight trains to travel or worked; so camp sites (often called 'jungles' in 19th & early 20th Centuries) tended to develop in sheltered areas near trainyards or stations, or where trains could more safely be boarded.

 

 

=== "Tent Cities in America: Pacific Coast" (NCH, 2010) ===

from intro:

 

 

"Unlike other homeless encampments that are sponsored by local governments or outside nonprofits, Dignity Village’s model of complete self-governance and funding gives the homeless a unique sense of autonomy and ownership of their community. Having a permanent site (unlike other Pacific Northwest homeless encampments, which move to different churches every ninety days) furthers this sense of ownership and allows the homeless to make both tangible physical and social improvements to their community in a way that is not possible in a mobile community. Many of the homeless describe the village as a “stepping stone” to a better situation and the stability offered by the permanent nature of the village, which allows people to keep and store their items in one place, improve their residence and public assets, and be a part of a community that defines itself not simply as one of homeless people, but an eco-village and intentional community founded on socialistic and communal beliefs. All of this contribute to Dignity’s mission and sets it apart from the other encampments."