The Return of KozeshiIf you call out the cops to do a "welfare check" on that guy with a bad back and scruffy hair living in a van in the gym parking lot,
You are the problem.
Stop.
Anything he is facing only gets worse when he can't have a few weeks to get his shit together without being forced to move or worse, interact with the apparatus of oppression.
If someone is living in a van, they know that parking lot is not legally safe to park on for more than a day.
They know you neighbours in your fancy SUVs and gated community houses don't feel comfortable with the evidence of poverty so close by.
If they had a better option, they'd already be there.
The cops are never a better option.
What is a better option is learning for yourself.
Take a moment to ask him about his van and the solar panels on it, his back, what he's been through, what stories he can share, and why he reckons a combo of cannabis and occasionally a few more powerful drugs are what keeps him going. Ask him what you can do to help.
Ask if there is a community group you can get involved in to volunteer, build networks and mutual aid, so that people like him can last long enough to outlive the imminent collapses of societal systems.
See him not as a blighter or a vagrant, but as a fount of knowledge on resourcefulness and resilience who started living without having to pay a landlord before it was necessary for everyone to live the same way.
The rough and ready survivors spat out of the system today are the pioneers of tomorrow's necessary methods and realities of everyone.
Take a moment to ask him about his van and the solar panels on it, his back, what he's been through, what stories he can share, and why he reckons a combo of cannabis and occasionally a few more powerful drugs are what keeps him going. Ask him what you can do to help.
Ask if there is a community group you can get involved in to volunteer, build networks and mutual aid, so that people like him can last long enough to outlive the imminent collapses of societal systems.
See him not as a blighter or a vagrant, but as a fount of knowledge on resourcefulness and resilience who started living without having to pay a landlord before it was necessary for everyone to live the same way.
The rough and ready survivors spat out of the system today are the pioneers of tomorrow's necessary methods and realities of everyone.