| Issue #19, July 1995 ...I still have to keep reminding people that living in a camper which one owns is a form of home ownership--and home ownership is supposed to be a step up from renting. Yet the owner/dweller of a camper is still considered less of a citizen than the owner of a stationary house or the renter of an apartment or even a fleabag hotel room. Why? Why am I still called "homeless" even though I own a home? Because, of course, my camper isn't legally defined as being a home. It's considered a "recreational vehicle", regardless of the fact that I live in it year 'round. People who live in Rv's are imagined to be on a perpetual vacation; therefore we supposedly belong in the mountains or in other campgrounds far from the city. It is not recognized that a lot of us who live in those things have regular, legitimate business in town and don't have the time or the gas money to go driving all over the county. Wherever I park my rig so I can live in it, whether on public streets or on private property, I am in violation of the law. So it's the laws that need to be changed--that's a much simpler matter, technically, than re-locating me to legally-designated housing that I don't even want. It wouldn't cost the government any money to simply legalize "camping" in the city, whereas it costs tons of money to keep maintaining the shelters they expect us to go to instead. A lot of these homeless "services" wouldn't even be needed at all if they would just make it legal for us to do things for ourselves. But no, the government prefers to spend the money to keep us powerless and dependent on the "services" they pretend we need, rather than letting us have our privacy and our own lives. Then the working people with homes complain about how much they are taxed to "support" the homeless. . . .but these same people will also call the cops if they see our campers parked on "their" streets! WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE?!!! Wherefore are the residents of the fixed houses and apartment buildings allowed to say, "This is our neighborhood, not yours! We can live here and you can't!" Are we less American citizens than they are? Are we less citizens of Planet Earth than they are? And why should people be afraid of me just because I live in a camper and I happen to be parked on "their" street? Of course we know that fear is the primary reason for this huge resistance society has against legalizing our life style. Fear of the unknown. Fear of people who seem to be "different"--the same kind of fear that engenders racism. There is a very urgent need for people to look inside themselves and examine these fears they have--even moreso now that the car camp has closed once again and more of these vehicle/homes have once again spilled out onto the streets. During the three years that the car camp has opened and closed, no visible progress has been made toward overturning the anti-camping laws or the zoning laws that prohibit "camping" on private property. A fraction of the car camp residents did manage to find "legitimate" housing this time around. But still, increasing numbers of people are finding themselves in the situation I'm in, through no fault of their own. WHEN is society going to wake up and realize how utterly pointless it is to keep on criminalizing us, when we're doing no harm?! We are sick to death of being shuffled around and treated like second-class citizens. We need desperately to settle down to the business of living in our homes and having private lives free of fear and harassment. We are no less entitled to this than the people whose homes are attached to the ground. And we have had enough! (click here to view next page) |
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