By Jake Elkins

Henry Frankum awakes at the crack of dawn with birds chirping and the sound of cars passing by his bed. He rummages through his belongings, groggy yet delighted, as an early wake-up means a higher payday. Henry does not have an extensive morning routine; five minutes after he wakes up, he is ready for the day, wearing the same clothes, no shower, just a couple brushes of a pink comb. Once he has completed his morning rituals, he unzips his house to let in the bright, warm sunlight of Berkeley, California. Frankum is a homeless man; however, unlike most of the millions of other homeless people in America, Frankum has lived in an established homeless town in the middle of UC Berkeley’s campus for 18 years. 

This homeless town has around forty inhabitants and a decently structured town center in the middle of the village, which comprises what is known as People’s Park. Although Frankum’s residence is vastly different from the average American homeless man, his daily routine could be seen as quite comparable, except for one key aspect. “I wake up pretty early in the morning because of the loud noises from outside. After I wake up, I do my hair and make breakfast if I have something to eat. Later in the day, I walk down to College Avenue [One block away from People’s Park and the busiest street in Berkeley] and hang out there most of the day to see if anyone is nice enough to lend me some money or food. Usually, after the day is over, I will do my best to spread the word for People’s Park, so people don’t come and steal it away from us like they’ve been trying to do for the last many years,” said Frankum angrily at the end. 

As Frankum mentioned, People’s Park has been under scrutiny from the local government and UC Berkeley for an extended period in an attempt to rebuild the park into a dormitory or new school building. “They want to take this place away from us, but it’s our right as Americans to be able to live where we want to live. We don’t bother anyone; we just want to keep the land we call home.” To Frankum’s point, many of the Berkeley inhabitants are in support of their movement. Local businesses and signs around Berkeley say ‘We stand with People’s Park’, as the small village is a comforting enviroment for those not fortunate enough to call anywhere else home. 

Although many are in support of the homeless village, a resident of Berkeley for over the last 30 years, Patrick, says he speaks for the majority of the local population when he says that this type of behavior is unacceptable. Patrick works tirelessly to support his family to create a better life for his children. He and his family live modestly and say the People’s Park protest to keep their land is misdirected. Although it is an attempt to “Stick it to the greedy 1%,” it is inadvertently hurting predominantly members of the middle class. Patrick goes on to say that he decided to live in California to move to opportunity; however, with the continuous rise in the “Cost of living and taxes for social security,” he worries that his dream of retiring in California is in jeopardy. Nonetheless, he feels disempowered to speak his true beliefs to the general public as he is worried that his counterparts will shame him due to his “Mistreatment of the homeless population.” 

However, Patrick employs his community to look beyond what they think might be selfish and look at the bigger picture. He notes that “In California, each homeless person is given the right to live in a homeless shelter and to live in better conditions than what they [inhabitants of People Park] are living in now.” He continues, “They don’t want to work or move out because they have all they need, and they don’t have to work for it. Social workers bring them food, and the city gives them an allowance, and they can get almost 100 dollars a day just asking for money on the street.” Moreover, Patrick continues to stress the impact of the park by saying they are bad role models for kids. “I see young kids all the time hanging out and even living in People’s Park. They can be runaways from their home or even college dropouts. Whatever it is, young people shouldn’t have this idea in their head that they can become homeless, and it’s okay.” Furthermore, Patrick touches on the point that with the new easement of shoplifting laws, the increase in promoting homelessness can also have a detrimental impact on crime. 

Since prisons continue to suffer from overpopulation in the Bay Area, especially following the pandemic, the area eased its laws and punishments on shoplifting, making stealing up to 950 dollars worth of merchandise only a misdemeanor. Sadly, according to ABC, this new law has caused shoplifting to increase by over 20% since 2019 and has forced even big chain stores like Walgreens to close their doors. Although Patrick says that all of these new robberies are not directly due to homelessness, “I have personally seen homeless people walk into stores, steal 50 bucks worth of stuff and walk out with no urgency because there is no punishment.” 

Ultimately, with contrasting opinions from both Henry and Patrick, the city is in more than a challenging position on how to move forward with People’s Park and homelessness in general. 

Sadly, Berkeley is just one of the many cases of severe homelessness in America. Traveling across the country to the frigid, snowy atmosphere of Boston, Massachusetts, thousands of inhabitants of the old city suffer from the brutal reality of poverty. Like People’s Park, many of the homeless counterparts on the East Coast blossomed into a community of tents to support each other instead of turning to an “overburdened shelter system.” However, unlike Berkeley’s local government, the city of Boston has taken action and is currently uprooting these communities due to their worry of “increasing drug use and homelessness.” Specifically in the area near the intersection of Melnea Cass Boulevard and Massachusetts Avenue, a sizable tented society has arisen so large that it has earned the name Mass and Cass. “Outreach workers, police officers, and city employees have taken down more than 75 tents, placed personal items in storage, and moved some 90 people in the area into shelters.” Although removing impoverished residents from the streets into a warm home in the cold of the Boston winter seems like an ideal scenario to combat an increase in drug use and a decrease in standard of living, the city continues to grapple with the idea that forcefully displacing hundreds of people may be inhumane. 

Eloise Burke, a long-time resident of Boston and former inhabitant of Mass and Cass, sheds light on some of the social complexities otherwise “Overlooked by politicians.” Unlike most of her neighbors in her homeless community, Burke was away from her belongings during the purger of the neighborhood. Upon returning from her “Daily Dunkin’ and walking,” instead of being greeted by the familiar dark green of her canvas tent, she returned to find an empty lot filled with the rough, ice-cold concrete of a community she used to call home. “MY SHIT’S GONE,” screamed Burke upon realization, frantically pacing around to try and uncover the mystery; she soon came across an individual who told her that the city must have thought her tent was abandoned and that her belongings would have been moved to storage. “They’re moving everyone to the shelters and clearing it all out,” said the unknown person helping Burke. “How do they expect me to make it to storage, find my stuff, and go to a shelter all by myself? I don’t have anyone to bring me, and I don’t have the money to get there.” Ultimately, with Burke’s property in storage and nothing but the clothes on her back, she would have no choice but to turn to a shelter or remain in the cold without the warm embrace of her previous tent. “I hate going to those places; they stink like hell, and I can’t do the stuff I want to do.” With that in mind, Burke has decided to refuse to move to a homeless shelter and save until she can either purchase a new tent or acquire the money to travel to storage to claim her property. 

Nevertheless, the city of Boston is currently faced with the same issue, and instead of creating a long-term solution to the problem, it only puts a band-aid on the gaping wound that is homelessness. Burke and others just like her will continue to be reluctant to participate in homeless shelters, meaning the removal of encampments like Mass Cass and People’s Park could lower the standard of living for the already impoverished homeless population and force the already misfortunate to give up precious belongings due to their inability to travel to storage. Moreover, if removing homeless communities and giving their population warm beds and food isn’t a sound answer to the pressing problem, what is? 

Dorchester Councilor Frank Baker pleads to his fellow officials to employ treatment before housing instead of  “Handcuffing us into housing-first.” Although Baker’s claims continue to fall on deaf ears, his ideology is beginning to obtain support in the Boston City Council. Councilor Ricardo Arroyo, who originally voted to dismantle Mass Cass, reported that “The sweeps and clearing of encampments have failed in every single city that has attempted this.” With this in mind, treating individuals who suffer from drug addiction and homelessness before moving them into a stable home could be the future of handling the growing number of homeless people. Although people like Burke can continue to refuse to participate in these initiatives, providing a long-term solution by reducing drug use and then providing a home rather than just a short-term fix ultimately could be the answer that many policymakers have been seeking for decades. 

Regardless of the recent events in Mass Cass and People’s Park, the nation must rely on all aspects of social service to help resolve such an institutionalized issue for the betterment of the misfortunate and the middle class. Local governments must assess the possible regional unexpected ramifications that each policy can incur while working closely with organizations and the national government to provide access to long-term solutions for the misfortunate to remain off the street. Although each city will inevitably determine a different approach to best address this issue within its district, each policymaker must consider a long-term solution coupled with a short-term fix. Many homeless individuals turn to vast networks of tents to find a sense of community and home in an otherwise cold and decrepit lifestyle. Replacing these homes with stale cookie-cutter shelters is just one of the many reasons that clearing these tented societies continues to fail; it won’t be until policymakers approach the situation with both logic and emotion that our nation has a chance to combat this issue. 

Sources:

Bedford, Tori. “‘They’re Throwing Us out’: Boston Begins Clearing Encampment at Mass. and Cass.” GBH, GBH, 31 Oct. 2023, http://www.wgbh.org/news/local/2023-10-30/theyre-throwing-us-out-boston-begins-clearing-encampment-at-mass-and-cass.

Press, Associated. “San Francisco Residents Upset as Homelessness, Petty Crime Worsens: ‘This City Is Done!’” Silive, 12 Dec. 2021, http://www.silive.com/news/2021/12/san-francisco-residents-upset-as-homelessness-petty-crime-worsens-this-city-is-done.html.

“SF Walgreens Puts Chains on Freezers as Shoplifters Target Store 20 Times a Day, Employee Says.” ABC7 San Francisco, 19 July 2023, abc7news.com/san-francisco-retail-theft-sf-walgreens-shoplifters-geary-boulevard-17th-avenue/13520154/#:~:text=Shoplifting%20crimes%20increased%20by%2020,the%20state%20department%20of%20justice

Wuthmann, Walter. “Boston City Council Passes Wu’s Ordinance Banning Tent Encampments.” WBUR News, WBUR, 25 Oct. 2023, http://www.wbur.org/news/2023/10/25/boston-city-council-wu-tent-encampment-mass-cass.