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Homeless Get Out The Way Essay

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Move Homeless, Get Out The Way!

The Clark County city government believe that homelessness is out of control and they put policies in place to discourage it. For example, Metro (Las Vegas police officers) may allow a “Tent City” to pop up here and there for people to live in their sleeping bags lined up along the streets near each other, but when the word is passed down from their superiors for whatever reason to remove the homeless from certain areas (it could be a business or casino complaining that there are too many homeless people scattered in the streets making Las Vegas look ‘bummy’), they will come by and tell everyone to leave or move somewhere else. Eventually the homeless will come back to those same areas when the ‘heat’ dies …show more content…

When I was there, the Catholic Charities offered free meals every morning and afternoon if you signed up for their program. The program consisted of them helping you find a job in return for giving you free access to lodging and showers. The dorm rooms are set up like a shelter with beds stacked on each other and if you were new you would usually get a top bunk but after some time you would quickly upgrade to the bottom bunk, as there was a high turnover rate. The Salvation Army has something similar with free showers that anybody can use but it’s like standing in a jail cell with four naked men or women bathing at the same time. I remember this one guy who wasn't a regular taking a shower and was paying attention to everyone else’s business but his own. He kept saying, “Why yall looking at my dick?” Of course no one was looking at his penis, he was just tweaking …show more content…

When driving over certain bridges you will see them and they look like the aqueducts in Los Angeles that you see in movies all the time, but only a bit smaller. There are several articles that cover the homeless living in these storm drain tunnels from many reliable and not so reliable news sources. From my perspective, the tunnels are where the “antisocial” homeless go and make shelter in their own private sector away from the stresses and burdens of society. The storm drains were not really popular when I was there, or maybe I just didn’t know about them, moreover, the news articles try to make it seem like this is the main place where all the homeless people come to congregate and live, which is not true. I assume these news outlets want to portray the image that the homeless live so far from the casinos and tourist areas that they cannot be seen or heard. When, in reality, they are a subculture that is definitely a part of the city. I believe that since homelessness in Las Vegas have become a hot topic as of date, the city and media outlets want to make potential visitors feel comfortable by alluding to the fact that homelessness is out of sight out of mind. The reality is that homelessness is everywhere. They are regular people who are fully integrated in society. They visit casinos and restaurants, ride public transportation, and sometimes hang out on the Strip selling things.

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