5 Homeless Park

Chapter 5

Homeless Park

Truly is shown how the homeless and street-people are catered for in The Good Country.

One day, not having a fixed schedule, the Professor and Jack Truly took a
stroll around Bontown and, as they went, they came to a gateway with a sign
over it reading ‘Homeless Park’. As they stood there they observed a
continuous movement of raggedy individuals, men and women, going in the gate,
pushing or pulling trolleys, or carrying bundled paper and cardboard, sections
of metal of all descriptions, and many with green garbage bags filled to the
lip. An equal number came out with empty trolleys or carrying plastic bags.

The Professor watched Truly’s face with some amusement at the look of utter
surprise that he saw there.

Truly:- Where on earth do they go to in there?

Professor:- Oh, there’s a complete mini-city in there! We’ll go in just now,
but let’s take a seat here in the shade and I’lll tell you something about it.
Firstly, the name says it all. This is a park-estate created especially for
the homeless. There’s actually more than one in Bontown, and there’s at least
one in all the smaller towns in The Good Country.

They sat on a bench in the shade of a tree on the pavement opposite the gate
and continued to watch the activity as they talked.

Professor:- The first thing you need to understand is that these homeless
people are among the hardest working citizens of the country.

Truly:- Come on! In our country they are lazy, drunken hang-abouts, begging and
scavenging in rubbish bins to maintain their habit.

Professor:- Jack, it could have been the same here. But the attitude of society
is different. Remember what I have said before, the secret of all good
government is to respect the citizens — yes, these are citizens — and meet
their need where it doesn’t conflict with the good and rights of other
citizens. The homeless have the right to live at their own level, and find
their way out of it when they want to, and scavenging in the waste of the city
to get money to buy their wine is within their rights. The community’s
responsibility is to lend a helping hand to anyone in desperate need, and in
the meantime to enable these people to pursue their careers — yes, scavenging
– in such a way as to make a positive contribution to society.

Truly:- I can’t believe it! The nature of these street people is to avoid work
as much as possible. The best thing for society is to rehabilitate them with
training and discipline. Society is under obligation to do all it can to
uplift and restore people!

Professor:- Surely you have seen back home that that sort of do-goodism doesn’t
work? One in a hundred may be rescued and re-channeled, but the truth seems to
be that those would have found their own way up in any case without any
urging. They just needed a helping hand at the right time.

There was silence between them for a while. The professor tried a new approach.

Professor:- Look at it this way. If the needs of the street people and the
needs of the community can be met at the same time, wouldn’t you want that to
be done?

Truly:- Yes, of course.

Professor:- One thing the modern consumer society does very well is create
waste, and one of the great needs of that society is to dispose of the waste.
Right?

Jack Truly nodded.

Professor:- What the street people need is employment within their capability,
their capability being limited by their habit. Even in our own country, many
live by scavenging.

Truly:- We agreed on that point earlier. Yes.

Professor:- In The Good Country the homeless are the self-employed Cleansing
Department ! Instead of employing a large cleansing staff with many large waste
trucks, the community simply handed the job over to the homeless people –
officially. Let’s go inside and have a look around.

Inside the gate they found themselves in a regular park-like setting, with
trees and lawns and tarred pathways leading in all directions. There were
street lights and clumps of buildings, but mainly just areas under roofs with
no walls. Under the shelters they could see places for cooking over gas rings
and water troughs for washing up dishes. There were ‘camping sites’ with
personal sleeping mats and blankets bundled up, cooking pots and eating
utensils. Near each shelter was an ablution block with toilet and showering
facilities. Truly expressed surprise at how clean these facilities were.

Professor:- All over the world people are flocking to live in cities where
there are more possibilities to find or engage in some sort of
income-producing activity. People in town during day or night need two basic
things — eating and toilet facilities. The tendency in most countries and
cities is to shut down public toilets because they get messed up by vagrants.
That, quite obviously to you and me, is very silly because it forces
street-people to urinate and defecate wherever they can find a wall or
anything to crouch behind. Silly officialdom! In The Good Country where all
citizens are treated with respect, their genuine needs are recognised and
public money is diverted tor the need. You will see as you walk around the
city, as you see here as well, that public toilets are liberally supplied
everywhere and, Jack, you can go into anyone of them yourself and you will
find them clean and useable. If it is not, you can immediately report it to
the Mayor’s office and action will be taken as a priority. You see, public
health, education, and security are top budget items at all levels of
government.

Jack Truly scratched his head as he pondered over this novel philosophy, but
had to nod several times because it does make so much sense.

Professor:- The Homeless Park is similarly maintained in a clean state at all
times by public money. It meets the basic cleanliness- and hygiene-needs of
these citizens, and ensures minimal exposure to disease. It is an investment
in preventive healthcare. That is good for the whole community, so the whole
community is willing to pay for it.

Truly (thoughtfully):- And there is no litter anywhere because all rubbish is
picked up and handed in means money and income for some scavenger!!

Professor:- Precisely. Every bit of waste brought in has value for the
gatherers. Whatever has no value in the market place, is purchased by the city
and finally disposed of in a garbage tip site. That’s what you see over there
on the right. That’s a dump site. But whatever is toxic and dangerous to
health is carted away from this in-city dump and placed in a controlled
landfill in a safe area.

Truly (looking at the far end of the park):- What’s all the activity over there?

Professor:- Okay — that is the market place, the Business Centre, where trade
in salvaged waste takes place. (They walk over to the area.)

Professor:- Here is the wastepaper merchant who buys direct from the
collectors, and over there is the scrap metal dealer, and further on a tin can
dealer, and a glass merchant. These are all small dealers who sell upwards to
the bulk buyers who come in to fetch the goods. Over there you also see
vendors, that one for instance cooks and sells ‘vetkoek,’ and next to her is a
woman who cooks ‘pap’ which is a traditional maize-meal dish over here. Let me
stress again that all of these are homeless street people who found for
themselves the opportunities in meeting basic needs of the Homeless Park
community.

Truly:- These merchants seem to be well dressed, and affluent in one way or
another?

Professor:- Yes they are, but but they are still homeless people who live here
in the park. They started off as rubbish collectors like the rest of them.
When they get too prosperous and are ready to move on to a better life in the
community, they will no longer be willing to live like this and will move on.
This is the process of self-rehabilitation which proves to be better than the
soup-and-training approaches adopted by most other countries. People’s gifts
make a way for them. These are natural businessmen and women, and even their
habit can’t repress their talent forever.

Truly:- I’m thinking that there must be some at the ‘bottom of the pile’ who
simply won’t or can’t work because of alcohol or other health reason? What
happens to them?

Professor:- If this homeless community is their preferred environment, they
stay with, and are supported by, their friends. But there are those who end up
destitute of everything, even of friends and all desire to help themselves.
The welfare organisations, identified and supported by the city, cater for
those in well-run homes.

Truly:- That person over there — is that drink she is selling?

Professor:- Yes. She is a private brewer making a traditional beer which she
sells here in the Park. (He continues, looking sharply at Truly) She also
supplies cheap wine which she gets at a subsidised price! — subsidised by the
city.

The Professor stared at Truly, waiting for a reaction.

Professor (continuing):- Don’t look so shocked, Truly. Having their daily fix
is the greatest need of most of the homeless, and the community respects that.
Think of it this way: at home when a beggar accosts you at a traffic light,
maybe you hand him some money, but you know fullwell that he or she is going
to spend it on drink, don’t you? So you are supporting his habit, aren’t you?
And you do it just to get rid of him, or to salve your conscience!

Truly:- I hate to admit it, but you are right.

Professor:- The people here are just more open and honest about it — actually,
they are realistic. Also, it is good for society as a whole because otherwise
the street people will congregate anywhere in the suburbs near to a bottle
store. Haven’t you noticed that back home?

Truly:- Yes, indeed. Those liquor outlets in the suburbs are a real nuisance in
that respect, and we can’t get them closed down because they are such
money-spinners for some influential people.

Professor:- Exactly. But just to get back to the welfare-society homes, there
is always the fear in our country that they will be too tempting for lazy
people and will become over-crowded. Here, the society recognises — believes
– that even the most disreputable looking person is not without dignity and a
sense of independence, so they do not have that fear that the poor-houses will
become overcrowded. Haven’t you seen in our own city back home, how street
people will often camp on the pavement right beside a night shelter because
they prefer to be independent? Here in The Good Country that is the spark that
they nurture, not by coercing or driving it, but by encouraging it in one main way
– by treating even the most ‘down-and-outist’ with respect. No need to tell
you that it works, because you can see it for yourself, both here and in some
businesses in the city centre which are owned and run by persons who were once
down-and-out.

Truly:- I think I’ve seen enough! There’s a lot to think about.

Professor:- Okay, we’ll head back up town, but let me just tell you a couple
more things. You saw back at the shelter that the cooking was done on gas
rings? Well, that’s part of the energy-efficient system in The Good Country.
The gas is methane gas, tapped off the rubbish dump where the garden refuse is
brought to decompose. At the same time, the natural heat generated in the dump
is also used to heat water for the showers. And, afterwards, the decomposed
stuff is used in vegetable gardens outside the city — also run by homeless
people. They sell some of the vegetables here in the park, and the surplus
goes to the market in the city. Oh, and I almost forgot — kitchen waste
collected from hotels and restaurants is sold to pig farmers who come in every
afternoon to collect it. As I said, everything has commercial value for those
prepared to work with it.

Truly:- Why don’t we do this more in our own country?

Professor:- Why? Because it takes application and attention to small things. We
are too busy looking after the big operators to be bothered about the small fry.
Also, our political system doesn’t cater for it. Here it happens because the
citizens of Homeless Park also have Delegates to the Community or Local
Council, and he or she may also be sent higher as a Delegate to the District
Council, the Provincial Council, and the State Council. In our democracy back
home, everything is geared for the successful, and the poor are an embarrassing
appendage. Here in The Good Country, every citizen is valuable and there is no
limit on how high even the most ordinary citizen may fly, provided he or she
has, and uses, ordinary common sense.

As they walked back through the city, Truly stopped, looked at the Professor in
some surprise.

Truly:- I have seen several buildings which obviously were Churches at some
time but are now all used for other purposes. I’ve seen one as a shopping mall,
another as a community hall, another even as private house. Are there no
Christians here?

Professor:- Oh — there are! Plenty of them, but they don’t use dedicated
church buildings any more. It’s another story and I’ll tell you about it
later.