Local outrage over garbage devolves into dehumanization of unhoused community
The latest round of reactionary outrage over the “garbage” that has steadily been accumulating in and around downtown Aberdeen began as a Facebook post by local business person Kellie Carlson Daniels. Mrs. Daniels had enough of the wrappers and shoes strewn about her city and decided to do something about it. She began snapping photos of pieces of garbage lying around town, this soon lead her to the unhoused community behind City Hall. Soon she had abandoned the garbage documentation escapade for bigger game, taking highly intrusive and exploitative photos of the private spaces where these folx live. Going so far as to enter the camp and take photos of peoples living quarters trying to document…garbage?
As of February 12th we were on the phone to CCAP trying to figure out how to get more spaces opened up to shelter folx on an emergency basis. We learned a lot in those talks and were somewhat deflated to learn that neither the city or county had any plans to open up more spaces.
This under staffing is what contributes to its low capacity, since GHC imposed stricter restrictions on the ratio of sheltered individuals to staff following a COVID positive test there earlier this year. This test, the restricted spaces, and a general lack of trust in the institutions running the Cold Weather Shelter (CWS) have led to it being under utilized as a shelter. The county’s own estimates put the number of unsheltered people living in the county at anywhere between 500 and 3,000 people. They delineate, define, and qualify between types of “homeless” from “literal homelessness” to “unstably housed“. Split apart these numbers range from roughly 500-700 people who are literally homeless and 3,000 unstably housed. Needless to say the county’s 25 bed shelter is insufficient to shelter even the lowest estimate.
It will not come as a surprise to hear that we were ecstatic when we were made aware of another mutual aid group in town opening up an emergency shelter. This shelter was being set up on the fly in a matter of hours by a separate mutual aid group and NOT city or county officials. This is what community looks like. We were delighted and immediately went to work offering our support to that project including sharing the info and volunteering our time. Unfortunately for all involved this shelter was only open for one night because of circumstances outside of our control. We were sad to see it close and no new shelter has opened up in its place.
Our sisters, our brothers, our friends, ourselves; we could be in this very same position quicker than we think. In a time of increasing back rent debt due to COVID-19 and the number of people unstably employed and/or housed, this sort of callous lack of regard for the material conditions of our neighbors seems misguided at best, and sinister at worst. With all of the high stakes problems our community faces today, garbage has to be among the pettiest. Some people in the comment section were there to offer counter narrative to point out that it is not a “homeless” person problem but a litter problem. Or perhaps more broadly, a lack of affordable housing and health care problem.
While some blamed city officials, past and present, others simply blamed the unhoused folks who have daily concerns about where to sleep and eat, not for operating their own garbage services. All this “social media chatter” especially from business leaders, led to the smallest of actions by elected officials. They hired two temporary workers to clean up the streets until another plan can be thought of. It also contributed to an article on The Daily World about the so-called “garbage problem”. This thread on Facebook soon turn just as toxic as the last; with a photo of peoples homes, not garbage, credit of Kellie Carlson Daniels.
The previous mayor Erik Larson even commented to remind everybody that the current mayor had CUT the clean up program after taking office, only to reinstate it now. So, in short a right wing mayor was elected, he cut a program that helped clean the city streets of garbage, the people who voted for him didn’t appreciate the marked increase in garbage and complained to have him reinstate it. A fine example of electoral politics if ever there was one. What we need is not partisan politics, but mutual aid.
Reacting to the amount of money the city allocated for the temporary workers some suggested the unhoused folx clean up the streets of their city, or face some sort of banishment from the city. Perhaps not realizing that while the unhoused will clean up after themselves if given the proper resources, they are not responsible for cleaning up all of downtown as they are certainly not the only people littering. As evidenced by the cleaning done by them today after being provided dumpsters by the city and garbage bags by us at Chehalis River Mutual Aid Network. Most people tend to clean up after themselves, but it’s hard to DIY a dumpster or garbage truck.
Calls for MORE incarceration as an answer to being unhoused and good old “tough love”, when data actually shows that the best way to end honelessness is both to raise minimum wage and lower rents. Incarceration actually proves to be one of the most expensive options as shown below. Common refrains such as “they dont want help” and “they chose to live this life” fly in the face of the stories we personally hear everyday in our interactions with the community.
If you are wondering if anyone stepped up to defend the idea of forcing people to work have no fear. There was no shortage of tired out arguments and tropes from the past. As we all remember from history its not free labor if you house, feed, and “care” for the people you are exploiting. A project to extend the carceral state further into everyday life by criminalizing poverty and erecting prison camps for the poor and unhoused would be the next logical step in our continuing descent into this capitalist dystopian nightmare.
