Re: Prop B and the aesthetics of homelessness
As wealthy tech bros and northern carpetbaggers move into new luxury towers, taller everyday, another community has emerged in their shadow. Tents line Cesar Chavez St., dot Riverside boulevards, and spill from under highway overpasses, artifacts of the previously-unseen homeless community in Austin. The people in the towers can’t stand the garbage, the unwashed hands, the gap-toothed smiles; they can’t stand to see the image of their city of gleaming towers tarnished.
The discussion surrounding Prop B, a proposal which would restrict homeless camps and panhandling in highly-visible parts of Austin, is highly dehumanizing. Rather than tackle the long, hard, expensive work of treating the unhoused as the struggling human beings they are, Prop B instead centers the discussion on whether the issue should be seen at all. It does nothing to address the societal rot that made and keeps these people unhoused, but it does push them into less-desirable neighborhoods so the wealthier homed population doesn’t suffer the aesthetics of homelessness.
As a society, we so often judge communities by the height of their towers and neglect the lived experiences of the vast majority who will never live there. The real strength of a community lies in its ability to care for its least-fortunate members, not in how much it manages to polish its penthouse suite. If we can’t stand to suffer the aesthetics of homelessness, then we should attack the issue at its heart rather than sweep it under the rug where the lives of those affected can continue to rot sight unseen.
