Police arrested homeless advocate Rev. Larry Rice May 16 as he led an attempt to create a new tent city, named “Integrity Village,” for homeless residents who had been removed when St. Louis officials ordered another tent city, “Hopeville,” torn down. Hopeville was located at the riverfront down the street from the famous Gateway Arch.
When Rice refused to remove the new encampment, the St. Louis police department arrested him and three other activists.
Rice had leased a plot of land for the new tent city between South Vanderventer Avenue and I-44 near the McRee Town district of gay bars and the Missouri Botanical Garden. City officials and some neighborhood residents criticized the action. One resident claimed that Rice was “using” the homeless and that he should put them somewhere other than her backyard where her children play. Alderman Steve Conway called Rice’s action a “publicity stunt.”
Other residents spoke in favor of an emergency shelter instead of permanent housing for the homeless. Some expressed fear tent city residents would do harm to them and their children, ignoring the fact that families with children are among the homeless.
According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, there are 3,630 homeless people living in St. Louis. Despite the fact the city has money to fund housing for the homeless, officials instead choose to allocate funds for a sports stadium and other things that only people with money can enjoy.
City officials expect homeless citizens to get vouchers for housing, but anyone who has seen what happened in Texas last year knows that vouchers are at best a band-aid, only providing short-term relief for a long-term problem. In Dallas, Texas, in July 2011 government officials offered a limited number of housing vouchers, and some 5,000 people needing housing rushed the doors. Eight people were injured in the stampede.
Homeless people are not the problem, as is often portrayed in the media and echoed by some St. Louis residents. Homeless people are the victims of a capitalist system that builds housing for profit and not for human need. The result is millions live on the street because the bankers would rather have millions of homes remain vacant if they cannot be sold or rented for a profit than recognize housing as a basic human right.
The solution is to provide free housing for the homeless in St. Louis and the whole country. If housing were a human right, no one would need to worry about people living in a tent nearby, because everyone would have a place to live. The complaining residents should think about the people who do not have homes like they have. Instead of complaining about a possible tent city in the neighborhood, they should complain that housing is not available for 3,630 human beings and that only band-aid solutions are being offered. This is why we need socialism.
