Screw Those People

Ever wonder where the homeless people being displaced by Seattle's aggressive new campsite clearance policy are supposed to go? Here's the simple answer: somewhere else. The rural homeless are relatively invisible and, unlike the urban poor, don't especially bother the rich. So, no Ten Year Plan for them. This excellent article from High Country News offers a glimpse of the growing rural homelessness problem, to which not much of anyone is paying attention. Here's my favorite paragraph:

Philip Mangano, head of the Interagency Council on Homelessness, coordinates the federal response to homelessness — and he agrees that it’s harder for rural areas to get federal money. But “rural folks need to get beyond the idea that someone’s going to come from Washington to solve their problem,” he says. “They have to be strategic and creative in fashioning a solution.”