Olympics to Shelter, Homeless Models, and the Right to Camp

Mixed bag this time around. I promised myself that this week I'd look for good news. I'd make like a bee to the flowers of positivity on all various and sundry related to homelessness advocacy, etc. But as we know, things aren't always so rosy. There's a couple things in the news to be grateful for at least, one of them being a fashionista who actually knows how to incorporate the homeless in his work in a (mostly) responsible and progressive way. British Columbia homeless came from behind to save their tent cities while a world class athlete finds himself on the streets. I'll start with the bad news. I find that makes things just a little easier to take.

From Gold to the Cold

Not even the Olympic team knows what teamwork and social support mean in this country. Consider Calvin Harrison, now homeless, an Olympic track-and-field upstart from the 2000 event in Sydney. He was found guilty of doping, true, and subsequently defrocked, but for a time he was a minor star in the brilliant constellation of American sports.  Now he and his family stand without medal or famous friends doing a stint at San Diego's YWCA Cortez Hill shelter.

What's tragic about this story isn't necessarily the failure of our social system to support those we rely on for proof of human potential and physical genius (if you think this is an overstatement on my part, think about the furor surrounding Tigergate). What's a real knife in the back to those of us who want to believe in people or anything else is that all this has already happened. Harrison had already written a memoir about his struggle out of homelessness to greatness in a memoir called Go to Your Destiny back in 2000. Now here he is again.

The sometimes cyclical nature of homelessness is exactly one of things I find so difficult about doing this work. Preventing this means building stronger systems. Meanwhile, even sports demi-gods like Harrison can be left out in the cold.

Homeless Promote T-Shirt Vendor

In a gutsy move, online clothing site Fat American made a play for the elite niche market of (universally attractive) homeless advocates by featuring homeless models. The excellent poverty law blog 13th Juror shares a quote from the photographer responsible for the serial photography series, "It may be an unorthodox way of flaunting our t-shirts, but we feel it is appropriate when we consider our feelings about the failure of the United States social system. Throughout the photo shoot we didn't meet a single person whom the US government hadn't failed...The only system caring for this group of people is the prison system."

We cover the fashion world's sometimes bizarre perspective on social violence quite a lot on End Homelessness. In none of these stories have I read a T-shirt company rep offering such astute social commentary. That's enough to make me smile for a day. My only question is whether the models were compensated.

British Columbia Court Upholds Right to Camp

After a 4-year fight, poverty advocates and the homeless have won a legal battle in Vancouver that should prevent sweeps of tent cities. From Global BC, "The B.C. Court of Appeal on Wednesday upheld a lower court ruling that said banning so-called tent cities from city parks violated a homeless person's constitutional right to security if there is not enough shelter space available." What unusual common sense.

And what a shock to my American naivete to learn that Canada has a "right to security," included in their constitution. Egads. Incidentally, in the spirit of respecting human rights for a change, the appeals court made a dryly humorous recommendation concerning how best to guarantee the elimination of tent cities: make sure the homeless get housing.

Image courtesy of Victoria Times Colonist.