we can find the money, if we can find the will.
October 10th, the last full day of voting, is World Homelessness Day.
Matt from The Urban Monk: Spiritual Quests contacted me a couple of weeks ago to contribute to the new edition of his zine. I've met Matt a couple of times at Punky Brewster, and the image shared is from the latest edition which you can find for free around the city (keep an eye out!).
When Matt suggested a short piece on homelessness I thought it was a good opportunity to speak my mind.. even if it was in a less diplomatic way than a campaign for Local Government would usually use:
"Very early in my campaign I met with Nicola from Housing First. While it was heartening, I cycled home afterwards angrier than I’ve ever been when leaving a meeting. The following week I sat down with Dame Sue Bagshaw at Thrive Cafe (run by the City Mission). Again, I was buoyed by how much our political thought overlapped. Sitting in the shadow of the stadium – an incredible facility, don’t get me wrong – I couldn’t help but think about how we prioritise public spending in this city.
I ran into Sue again a while later at a housing forum where people working across the sector for community housing, accessible housing, come and discuss the pressing issues they are facing. Before the meeting began an outreach worker I recognised greeted me and wished me luck on the campaign, confiding that they had never met the current incumbent councillor for the Central City. I was surprised to be the only candidate of any kind to attend the forum.
Rather than hearing much commentary on housing, housing affordability, or homelessness this year the local elections have instead been dominated by hysterical complaints about speed bumps and cycleways. If homelessness is mentioned, it often seems to be more about the “aesthetic” of poverty being unappealing, or that residents with significantly more power, status, and money feel “threatened” by those with basically none. What doesn’t seem to factor is the human tragedy and the suffering of homeless people, nor the extraordinary social and economic failure we’re all too fucking comfortable ignoring.
Yes, there are complex addicition issues. I think about how often I hear anyone bemoan the boozed up businessman wandering out of Aikmans in Merivale in a $2000 suit and driving away in a car worth more than a years living wage salary... versus the deep concern many will show at some down-and-out chap on a half munted bicycle and an open box of Victoria Bitter heading to the red zone.
What seems to upset us far too often are things that look bad, not the people who are being tossed aside by a society and economy that does not seem to give a damn.
One NZ Stadium at Te Kaha cost the better part of one billion dollars. I’m glad we built it, yet I’m left wondering how much Housing First, the City Mission, ŌCHT and others would need to eliminate homelessness in Ōtautahi."
