Comments on: Creative Urban Furniture: Convertible, Inflatable & Portable Homeless Shelters

By: “New” ideas for supportive housing « The Campaign Trail

“New” ideas for supportive housing « The Campaign Trail — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 19:30:16 +0000

[...] for families so that they can be self-sufficient. They’re much better than other art-student “activism,” which includes designing urban furniture (park benches) so that it can convert to a shelter at [...]

By: MegaFill

MegaFill — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 17:35:25 +0000

Amazing work. It would be interesting to see them in the city!

By: zen master

zen master — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 18:36:03 +0000

Typical. Here you have home owners that call the homeless “mentally ill” while they prescribe slave camps and mass murder of the homeless to be used as pet food. Obviously, many of you HAVE homes, yet are of questionable mental health.

The best question on the subject would be… Why do people feel so threatened by homelessness?

Surely, mankind was “homeless” from the time we climbed out of trees until the MAYBE last 10-20,000 years. What constitutes a home anyway? A tepee on the prairie? A yurt on the tundra? An igloo in the arctic? A thatched lean-to in the rainforest? A medieval mud hut in Europe? Why does a home have to be a 2×4 and sheetrock crackerbox in the the suburbs? Surely, home is where the heart is… And the lack of a mortgage, deed or lease on a pile of sheetrock and nails does not make a human being a lesser form of mankind.

Is it really the homelessness that is feared? Could it be a form of jealousy? Perhaps those indoctrinated into our consumerist, voluntary slave system of servitude merely resent those individuals that shun the system?

I can hear your inner voice rage… “How dare “those bums” while away their days, while I slave for my mortgage, tuition, car payments, unnecessary utility bills and the like, just so I can conform to this horrid dehumanizing meatgrinder we call western culture.” “What gives them the right to escape the abject polite slavery that is the workplace?” “Who gave them the authority to demean my slave-like servitude by shunning it entirely?” “How dare they be so bold!” “There ought to be a law…”

A law? Is it really the homeless human you fear? Or do you actually fear their bravery and freedom?

…And is it really that terrible when a “bum” asks you for a dollar? It is merely a question. You don’t have to even answer them. Surely, the homeless have the right to ask questions of other human beings. Of course, they have just as much right to be on the sidewalk as you do. Or is there something more to the disdain for interacting with the homeless? Is it because accepting the homeless as a human being, would somehow invalidate all those material possessions you have mindlessly been slaving to possess?

Does the panhandler bother you because you must waste 3-10 precious seconds, or is the panhandler just a convenient place to vent your rage against the machine that enslaves you?

I think you know the answer… And shame on you.

By: jordan

jordan — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 19:03:33 +0000

THE LESS RESOURCES YOU GIVE THE HOMELESS THE HARDER IT IS FOR THEM TO GET BACK ON THEIR FEET. This is common sense. How easy is it to get a job when you have no social support or a house to sleep in at night? And vice versa, how can you rent or buy a home when you have no job? Can you put that much energy into finding a job and/or quitting an addiction if you’re constantly in fight or flight mode and sleeping on concrete sidewalks?
To those who think that all homeless people are lazy or somehow morally inferior; use your goddamn brain! It’s not too hard to figure out why certain peole have such a difficult time getting off the street. And it wouldn’t feel so impossible to them if they had a better support system.

By: bookwormaz101

bookwormaz101 — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 22:07:00 +0000

Alike with what 1idea I believe that it is a phonmenal idea to have the homeless work for thier projects and shelters. I think these projects are a great way to think forward and I hope that they are persevered. Though I am only a 12 year old girl, I hold many subjects like this close to me; and always try to put myself in whosever shoes. A friend in class stated this phrase to me today so I looked it up to find some truely obnoxious comments. If I were you I would probably keep those to myself. And some homeless people do not work because of illnesses or mental retardation. On a trip to California with my father I endured these sad conditions. I wish that projects like these will be expanded; thought above and beyond and thrive to make our country a better place,
Thank you,
Bookwormaz101