Committing to Fresno

Some places are building all paper houses of simple construction to house the homeless. These paper houses are pressed pulp, water resistant, light weight, have bathroom, shower, laundry, kitchen, sleeping quarters for up to 8 people and an outside patio.

I know that all new houses are made of “pressed board’ which is bits of wood super-glued together, but I had not heard of pulp being used. Doesn’t sound very waterproof or sturdy! Where is the story? I will read it.

Tonight I attended the ARCHOP to see and observe the urban housing choices exhibition @1416 Broadway in Fresno, California. Dr. Delcore who was involved extensively with the project, as well as many of his ethnography students from Fresno State University, graciously invited attending guests into the facility pointing the way to the “group project.”

What I observed was an abstract of the initial design. There appeared to be a living area, with futon, book space, a bedroom, of comforable size, a kitchen area, with dining table, and a space where we can only surmise a sink with running water, both hot and cold might be. A rathernice adequate bathroom facility, and area where a tub was supposed to be, a toliet, (maybe a compost variety with some sort of ecological water saving device installed) and an outside patio with storage area and potential open air patio. No laundry room. The door between the bedroom, living room, and kitchen were three sliding fabric panels, somewhat similar in design to what you might find in a Japanese style home, adding to the ambiance with an airy spacious quality.

One of the student ethnographers asked me if I would live there, and my reply was, “I am not homeless, but I do live in my car, and this has more room, so, yes, I would live there!” The idea presented was adequate, spacious and homey.

The question I have is, “how much would it cost?” After all their claim is that, “it is aimed at a response to the need for an improved built environment in Fresno.” And two, it provides, “an installation that will demonstrate a space that is conducive of healthy living for formerly homeless.”

So my other question is, “how are you going to satisfy these words, formerly homeless?” How are the homeless going to become “formerly homeless?”

What I saw would cost money. Homeless people don’t have much money, so who is going to pay for the living spaces? Who is able to clean up, and prepare the “homeless” for employment? Will they be able to sustain the lifestyle necessary to maintain the financial stability for them to be able to afford this “proposed style of living?”

Although I was not there the entire time, while I was there i did not see one homeless person, unless I qualify, and yet they are the persons this project was proposed for. (Students might live thre, but students are not homeless in the dire need catagory.)

The question is would homeless people want to live in a living space as nice as these designs are suggesting?

Most of the folks in attendance were designers, business owners, students, artists, but none appeared to be or look homeless, at least of all the homeless people I am acquainted with. And I saw no push carts, shopping carts or bicyles outside the door. So where were the homeless representatives, who are the recipients of this well tacked housing project?

There are many homeless people in my neighborhood. I know their socially pained and strained disillusioned faces as well as my own and I know where they park their shopping carts, blankets, and plastic bags full of their days worth of efforts. They sleep under ripped open card board boxes, cover themselves with blankets and hide behind make shift cloth tent shelters at night, or stand for hours, sometimes all night long in the same spot, swaying to the sounds of the passing rubber tires on asphalt, breathing exhaust fumes, waiting to fall over and collect their death debts.

Sometimes during the day the more industrious ones collect cans, bottles, or plastics from the garbage cans and duck their faces from social embarrassment from Others who appear to be more fortunate, for the moment. These active hustling homeless can make a little money, usually for booze. They do have a tendency to accept handouts and drink all day. Other than recycling they do not typically work, unless they choose to stand at corners with signs…I knew one old man who stood on a corner and made 60 to 100 dollars in two hours every day…but he looked like his skin never touched a bar of soap, nor his clothes either.

Now maybe a bathtub, shower and laundry facilities would help with personal hygiene, and a patio would be usefull, and I deem would become quickly loaded with more recycleable goods, or their daily dumpster diving collections, but sliding doors are too easily broken when a drunk man crashes into them, and the walls of privacy would be hard to come by.

Every human would benefit from a shelter and a home. But some homeless pepople gave those luxuries up for unknown reasons.

Providing shelter for the less fortunate is a wonderful ideal abstration and an altruistic goal. But exactly how are the homeless going to afford these facilities? Where will they get the jobs to earn the money to pay for these essentially luxurious living conditions. Who is going to take the homeless under their wings, clean them up, educate them, find them employers, and health care and help them adjust to their new lifeways and world view…that Others think they should have.

The good thing about the exhibition is that it brings to light the over all grand dilemma of beneficial thought, the abstraction of design thus produced by the charitable desire of Others to help people deemed less fortunate, who are happy to be noticed by Others in more fortunate circumstances.

But, how often in the aspiration of the social climbing does the upper upward thrust, create the lower dissolution of aspiration, motivation, and desire? When affluence acquires its social momentum and from its lofty perch examines the sorched terrain, and with sudden dismay disavows its participation in the destruction of discarded social reminants of humanity, thinking in dissassociation of facts, motivations and behavior, “how or why are you living that way? I did not leave you homeless, nor disenfranchised, you life conditions are not my fault! You did it to yourselves, but how can “WE” help you. don’t you want to live in better environments? What happened to you”…but do you recognize in the pained confused expressions on the faces you see, the very same people you kicked to the scorced earth in your clamour for wealth, recognition, fame and competitive rampagings? How can you help whn you create the very problems you wish would cease to exist…in other words…that your social drives or lifestyle creates?

For the less fortunate their whole world is not in balance, it is all out of harmony.

They see you in glorious ideology sliding down the bowl of your silver spoon with an altruistic greed to “ffed their need.” They will open their mouths and accept your spoonfed abstractions, but the food with all its fluff will never reach their bellies, nor will your high minded philosophies ever lift up their socially dislocated pathologies, because consider what you have not considered: they may or may not enjoy the handouts, their lifestyles, no responsibilities, the aimless meanderings as their souls drift and depart toward a healven bound comfort zone, that ordinary men cannot satisfy with the implimentation of their newly dreamed social tools.

On the other hand, some of these “homeless” may or will love the dream – wow housing! The reality is how can “they” afford it? Using words that they will understand. How can “they” maintain or sustain it? Using words they will understand and committ too.

Another question – if they can not afford it – how can “we” altruistic humanity, afford it? ( ASHOKA?) (BILL DRAYTON?) How much human sorrow can we empathitically extend to people who are not willing to change, in order to adapt to a changing world, or not be even more corrupted or contaminated or spoiled by being trapped in the wrath of social change. They if you hear my words are already victims of this condition of”trapped by social change” obviously at least once and unless you get thick, more than once!

The truth is that when I first moved to the Central Valley, I wasn’t impressed. Many times after telling someone that I am from Puerto Rico they would say, “And how did you ended up here?” with a not so pleasant tone. Later I started to hear about the problems in the Central Valley surrounding high teen pregnancies, high school and college dropout’s high rates and even heard on the news that Fresno was the dumbest city in the nation. This should not be taken lightly as this is nothing to be proud of. I am specifically concerned at the idea of not being successful after my bachelor’s degree because other places may look down on the fact that coming out of Fresno may not be that great. It would be amazing to have someone make changes about the way people think about the city of Fresno. There is a lot to work with but I really hope that the city will turn to be a better place really soon. The Central Valley needs to have a better reputation other than the problems previously mentioned and horrible air quality.