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| After the summer-long debate about what should be done for Eugene's homeless, the city ended up doing what it had previously vowed NOT to do: open the Centennial Car Camp for another winter season. This was actually the second year of three in which they would resort to this, having turned up no other options that enough people would support. And thus begins the next segment of my story in which I began producing the Houseless Journal, just before the second opening of the car camp. Centennial turned out to be very fertile ground for a publication about the homeless. It was easy to get written material from the campers, and the camp itself provided a focal point for discussion of homeless issues in general. It was eagerly read by homeless advocates as a source of guidance. After this initial kick-start got the momentum going which easily carried me through the first several issues, I still had that momentum when the camp again closed at the end of May and our lives veered off in other directions. The time-span represented by the life of this newsletter is a four-year period, during which my own life went through several major changes. The relationship with Rick came to an end, so my writings from that time on reflected more of my own agenda and less of his. (For one thing, the articles and letters about panhandling abruptly ceased.) I was now committed to the camper-dwelling lifestyle, for better or worse, having little hope of ever "ending my homelessness" in any other way. So I was often arguing for the sovereign right of all citizens to choose whatever lifestyle suits them best, saying that alternative "choices" such as vehicle-dwelling should not be outlawed. My camper represented a little island of stability and privacy for which I fought tooth-and-nail while my life was slowly evolving to the next stage. As much as possible I will let these excerpts from the HJ speak for themselves, as a way of informing the readers about the various twists and turns of my homeless life from 1993-1997: Issue #2, January 1994 FROM THE EDITOR Hello again! The unofficial headquarters of this newsletter is now in the Centennial Car Camp, as that's where Rick and I have plopped down our little camper for the winter. Needless to say, there is a goldmine of newsletter material in such a place; even though not a lot of the campers are "into writing", every one of them has stories to tell. The story "Homeless Camp" by one such person, in the guise of a cute dog story, is about how people lose their individuality when they live in one of these ghettoes for the homeless, as they are lumped together in the same category by the rest of society. And the poem by former camp resident Laurel Glenn makes the statement that we are not actually homeless, as Planet Earth is our home, just as it is for other creatures. This, by the way, is the reason some of us prefer the term houseless (thus the title of this newsletter): while we don't live in conventional-style housing with a fixed address, we still make homes, "nests", of some sort in our campsites or wherever we happen to be. Both of these pieces touch on the rather dangerous idea that for some of us the alternative lifestyle of not having an established residence might actually be preferable. I say this is dangerous because it runs contrary to the philosophy behind the establishment of a homeless camp and a government's rationale for funding it. That is, all the campers are expected to regard the camp as a temporary stopgap, a safe place to park while they are looking for work and "proper" housing, a means by which they can re-channel themselves back into the mainstream, where they supposedly want to be. But for some of us this place called The Mainstream might not be such a great place to be, and certainly not all of us agree that having a stationary residence is the only "correct" or desirable way to live. Consider, for example, the many disadvantages of living in a crowded apartment building with paper-thin walls, where one must put up with neighbors' noise far into the night, while paying an overly-inflated rent to a callous greedy landlord for the privilege. Is this really better than living in a camper which one owns free and clear, and which one has the option of parking in quieter places for a good night's sleep? Many of us longtime "homeless" campers just might answer "no" to that question. I will be dealing with this and other unorthodox topics in future issues. Some homeless advocates might argue that to raise these questions is detrimental to the long-term goal of ending homelessness for everyone. But I will take that chance, in the interest of providing a clearer picture of the actual diversity of views that exists among us. The homeless experience is multi-dimensional and cannot be contained in a single neat analysis; all its different angles need to be discussed. And this newsletter does not claim to provide any ultimate answers--only to ask some of the right questions. So, please send in your stuff... (click here to view next page) |