Submitted by Tacoma Democratic Socialists of America.
Tacoma, WA – On Tuesday, April 20, the Tacoma City Council will discuss whether to pass a public spaces camping ban, which would only bring more sweeps.
Camping bans have no place in our city when there’s nowhere permanent to go. We told you this in 2019 with the Metro Parks tent ban and calling for the sunsetting of the prior camping ban. No matter what platitudes you include in your proposal, camping bans criminalize homelessness. Bans will not solve our crisis, but only cause violence.
TDSA is a group of socialist organizers who live and work in Tacoma and Pierce County, Washington. We seek to facilitate the transition to a truly democratic and socialist society, one in which the means and resources of production are democratically and socially controlled by workers themselves.
The views expressed in this article are the writer’s own.
The title of your organization only needs one word to describe your goal, that word, SOCIALIST. We live in a democratic nation, one if it were not for the democrats, these homeless people with no permanent residence would not have lost there job, homes, and families. Your socialistic goal is to control this nation for your own good. This goal is to rid residents of all they own, allow illegals into our country and support them and the one thing I learned in college, tax the legal people of this nation and spend the tax money on those who choose not to work, pay taxes and to receive all they can for free. I worked hard to get where I am, not to have to support those who choose a life being illegal here.
“We seek to facilitate the transition to a truly democratic and socialist society, one in which the means and resources of production are democratically and socially controlled by workers themselves.” Oh! You mean like the ex-Soviet Union socialist paradise? The government and its privileged bureaucrat class, not the workers, are the central controllers of the means and resources of production. Read up on your history before you start advocating for communism. With that as your value statement, your call against a ban on camping in public spaces rings hollow. Homelessness is not a crime; criminal activity associated with homelessness is. How many of those on the streets prefer to live in that manner due to mental illness, substance abuse or just the “freedom” to come, go and do whatever it is they want? There are shelters available if only they want to conform to the rules thereof.
This is an attempt to use the homeless as a tool to achieve radical socialist goals that only destroy civilized society and would turn Tacoma into another third world dump like San Francisco or Los Angles.
Using people with drug and alcohol addictions coupled with mental illness to advance socialist political goals does nothing to address the homeless problem. The addiction and mental illness problems are not helped by allowing tent cities with crime (assaults, robbery, rape, murder), garbage, disease spreading rodents, and needle problems to make those areas dangerous for humans. Tent cities also destroy property values and become no man lands for both business and residential housing. Property values decline as do property taxes available to provide needed city services.
Camping bans belong in EVERY CITY and do not criminalize homelessness but prevent someone from using public property for an unintended use. If TDSA is a group of socialist organizers maybe their time talent and treasures would be better spent providing a solution. If the group strongly believes housing is a “right” then maybe TDSA members can share their own personal residences with a homeless individuals. If some members havr homes with yards maybe they can allow those in need to camp in the TDSA members yard. I for one find the homeless camps on the road verges in downtown Tacoma to be unsightly, uninviting and unsafe. Surely TDSA doesn’t think it is appropriate for a person to live this way! How is it fair to an operating business to deal with the loss of income from @ public that doesn’t want to deal with the conditions in front of a business? (drugs, needles and unsanitary conditions) If someone wants to camp vs. use a homeless shelter there are campgrounds!
“TDSA is a group of socialist organizers who live and work in Tacoma and Pierce County”… ok, have you offered the inhabitants of these camps jobs? Turn your activism towards building a community where homeless may go and get shelter as well as social services.
But in true socialist fashion, you point out the problem and expect others to find the solutions, oh and fund it too.