To a Homeless Person Who Blames Capitalism

I cannot respond to this post (below) where it was posted since I would be instantly suspended. No one was suspended for agreeing with everything she says or who blames free market capitalism, Donald Trump or the Christian church (the usual suspects for the left). Sarah Beauchamp, the homeless author, is angry because she was made to move from private property to a government sponsored "campground". She is angry because the bureaucrats that run it aren't delivering all the services they were promised. She wonders where the 800K that was spent on this homeless resettlement project went. But does she blame anyone who was actually responsible for her predicament? Look, I'm not a mean person. I spent 4 decades working to help the homeless, disabled, seniors with disabilities, low-income families, abused women and children and the mentally ill. I have no 401K or retirement plan. They don't call them nonprofits for nothing.

I've even been homeless before. It was not fun. We weren't taking drugs. Circumstances not in my control left my wife and I out on the street. I scraped enough together to get into a cheap motel room with WiFi. I got busy online and earned enough freelancing to keep us in the hotel and scrape together food. My wife cleaned the room to a shine worthy of a surgical suite. We borrowed a little from family to help us get through and from an organization that owed me for a lot of free labor I did. We prayed a lot and God sent us landlords who were wonderful Christians who helped us get through months where we weren't able to pay the rent.

Once I retired and social security started up our situation stabilized and we caught up. We'd have recovered more quickly, but we elected a president who killed my business (and it wasn't Trump). We were recovering during 2017-2020, even during Covid, but in January 2021, the bottom fell out of my freelance and grant-writing market again. I work from home because both of us are pretty much disabled now. So the spiraling cost of living has added $400 a month to our expenses in the past two years. So it's a struggle. But socialism has done little to help us, that I can tell you.

To Sarah:

You know, you indite capitalism for the failures of the socialist style program that dragged you out of the woods into what sounds like a government gulag. I'm from Texas. Where I lived in East Texas we have some amazing homeless shelters. They come with warm food, safe indoor rooms, clothing programs and job placement services. The churches created a common social service setup to prevent people from shopping church to church preying on people's sympathies for money for drugs. There's a huge train yard there and we used to get a flood of hoboes and homeless off the Interstate. After we organized ourselves, set up food banks in dozens of churches, folks who wanted to stop being homeless were able to. Word quickly got around the homeless community that if you get off the train in Tyler, they'll make you work.  That cut the homeless population drastically. The corner panhandlers got to where no one would give them money. You'd see guys with a bag of cold uneaten McDonald's hamburgers which was a dead giveaway they weren't hungry like the sign said.

This homeless guy was taking in $200 an hour.

 

Your situation is exactly how socialism works. If there's no incentive to do better, you get bureaucrats who sit in the office and embezzle from the organization. A lot of homeless folks are angry at Christian churches, but the irony is, they can be the best route to recovery. Our churches in East Texas did so well with the church-based food bank program that the feds cut the Food Stamp Program by 800K. They tried to recuperate their funding by spending 150K, not on food but on a marketing program. The theme of the ad campaign was "Food Stamps is not part of welfare reform." When asked they said nothing would change with regard to the proctological application program people had to go through, they just wanted more applications. It turns out the homeless numbers their appropriation is based on is according to how many "applications" they get, not how many folks they give food stamps to. There's your government social programs. That famous one in five go to bed hungry statistic is based on how many applications they get. And if you make an extra hundred bucks to pay on your back rent, they pull your food stamps and make you reapply. And they count every time you reapply as another hungry person. Government programs play with the numbers like that.

Kiddo, if you're looking for government social programs to save you, you are going to be very disappointed. The purpose of federal social programs (Lyndon Johnson's Great Society) was primarily a tool to break down families of color and make them dependent and reliable Democrat voters. The big corporations the anti-capitalists hate pay billions to support Democrat candidates because they protect them from competition by small independent (dare I say "Mom and Pop" businesses.

You're mad at the wrong people; victimized by Marxist propaganda. Capitalism is the only system in history by which the poor have been able to rise in the world by working hard, providing quality goods and services through mutually beneficial fair trade with others of all class, race and culture groupings.

There's a Great Lie being perpetrated, but it's not the one about Russian collusion. Here's Sarah's manifesto is appended below; written apparently with the help of her boyfriend who's spelling and grammar I've corrected.

© 2012 by Tom King

My name is Sarah Beauchamp and I'm one of many homeless people who's home has been destroyed and forced to relocate to the encampment ran by the Tacoma rescue mission. My friends and neighbors have been forcefully relocated and promised safe housing, bathrooms, hand wash stations, laundry facilities, hygiene services, community tent, community food tent with access to food, microwaves, kitchens to cook, case managers to help with more permanent housing, job searching, and social worker services. There is supposed to be a donation center where the residents can go to claim dry clean clothing, blankets and other materials, but what we got was unlivable, dangerous, wet, cold stinking tents with no waterproof floors where the rain just pours into the living area ruining everything in it's path. The tents were made for snow.... Not rain, and made for ice fishing, not living in. Square footage allocated to each person is such that it barely allows for someone to lay down... on the cold wet floor. No bedding is provided or bed roll of any kind. I was given a power strip with 2 outlets and a USB port and the last heater they had in supply. Many more people came after me and still have no heat. Everyone's personal belongings are getting ruined by the rain.

The staff from valeo don't know what there doing and are usually sleeping or hiding in their office which is filled with donations of food but not given to the people who need it most. My friend who is a war veteran for our country who lives onsite has diabetes and in desperate need of fluids and sugar he ventures to the office and asks staff for a Gatorade or something to halt his plummeting blood sugar and was met with nothing but refusals from staff. They said "no you can't have any of this food in here it's for staff only." The Tacoma rescue mission is so keen on saving face and not admitting that they have fallen so short of the mark they promised that they are turning away donation's of food, clean dry blankets, tarps and ties and canopies to keep people dry. Why? They don't want witnesses to the deplorable inhuman conditions they are forcing these people to endure with no alternative as camping is now basically illegal in Tacoma. 

We were better off in our tents because at least we were warm and dry and could feed ourselves. With rules like no cooking in your tent how are people supposed to feed themselves and with all the promises made dozens of people are suffering waiting for someone to advocate for them. 

Well here I am! I was lucky enough to get housing but I have been waiting 8 years I lived at the camp and know everyone there. There is no Tacoma rescue mission staff on duty there only heartless, uncaring security staff. There's no laundry facilities or kitchen or food or donation closet there's no kitchen tent or case managers trying to help us better our situation. The tents are still leaking the conditions are getting worse the trash is overflowing and people are starting to get sick. This is a text I got from a good friend living there: "Okay, so we're all still getting wet all they did was throw tarps over the tents some people don't have heaters and the people who do have heaters some of them broke. There's food and drinks in the office I'm pretty sure they were donated for us but Earl went up there and asked for a Gatorade because he has diabetes and he needed some fluids and they told him no it was for the staff only which I was appalled by that. 

All my new blankets rug was ruined from the water which is still getting in but we're trying to keep it out by stapling the bottoms of our tent to the wood the pallets we have like three or four tarps over our tents it's not under control yet not even close to being under control we can't cook in our tents but we don't have no kitchen no microwave . The garbage is out of control it's overflowing. We don't have no kitchen no laundry anything no place to heat up food the over here by our 10th where your tent was in my tent and Angie's tent is flooding no donations coming in no blankets we're out of tarps and blankets. How are we supposed to wash laundry we're going to have to convert back to hustling so we can get money to go do laundry and get food and such security is sleep most the time say night. The staff really comes out of their office" 

The whistle needs blowing and these people need help before something terrible happens that can't be undone. Please help me help them and let's get the real news out there not some stuffy press release filled with lies to cover up what should be considered criminal actions by taking our homes away and putting us in a literal concentration camp reminiscent of the Holocaust. Being homeless shouldn't be a crime. That's against everything America stands for. Our founding fathers carved their homes out of the wilderness CAMPING UNTIL THEY FINALLY SETTLED AND WERE ABLE TO BUILD A LIFE FOR THEMSELVES AND THEIR FAMILIES. Everyone deserves a fighting chance to not just survive but thrive in this harsh world where the system made to save us actually harms us worse in the end. 

And make no mistake, capitalism is the real enemy here. these people aren't unwilling to work, to find a better way to live. sure there's a bad element in every walk of life, every circle. Shouldn't we try to help those that are willing to help themselves? Struggling under the weight of oppression and greed's mighty heel? not everyone has all opportunity and the winning hand dealt to them. Some of us begin life with nothing and no one to show the way. If those of us with all the wealth and power could experience what these people are going through i guarantee this whole situation wouldn't even exist in the first place. What i want to know is how did this camp full of ice fishing tents cost some $800,000 for the city of Tacoma to construct as they claim? Where did that money really go and whose pulling the strings behind the scene getting rich on other peoples suffering? Solid American Peoples suffering in your neighborhood. And do you rest easy knowing that these same wealthy manipulators are running that corrupt system dictating the "laws" and "regulations" supposedly keeping you safe? Its time to wake up. Its time for a change. 

We cant sit idly by and do nothing while our fellow Americans freeze to death or starve. Right down the street from where you live! Are we now advocating for the new holocaust? Are we accepting this yoke of tyranny and greed as the mantle of truth? I tell you right now i do not. I will not sit idle as my friends and neighbors suffer. I mean to see that change. Today. Right now. Something must be done.

Sarah Beauchamp (2012)