Down the streets of Berkeley, California, homeless people are seen at nearly every corner. Before I arrived, it was almost unimaginable to me the extent of their ubiquity, and the tolerance the community and state could show to them.
They sit on benches and reside along the sidewalks, some of them walking aimlessly while towing their trolley of belongings, and others playing the guitar while singing. The community goes on about their daily business without forgetting to give a penny or a dollar to the homeless, and occasionally stopping by to chat with them. Perhaps it is their pervasiveness that makes it impossible to ignore, or more possibly they are seen as part of the community. It is difficult to imagine Berkeley without its homeless people.
On my second day in Berkeley, I met a homeless woman who asked for a dollar in a curt and gruff manner. Taken aback, I instinctively shook my head, despite it being evident that I did have a dollar, as I was carrying bags of groceries. A passerby turned to me, with a shrug – and a sad smile- said, “She’s just homeless.” This encapsulates society’s tolerance of them and their role as a defender of the downtrodden, which is reflective in the state government’s policies.
The California state government administers short-term housing grants and federal Recovery Act funding that provides priority job training and placements to the homeless. The police do not make incursions into the lives of the homeless people unless they are creating trouble. There are laws against lying down on commercial streets during the day and smoking on sidewalks on main commercial corridors is barred. But the notion of homeless people in itself is not proscribed as a nuisance by the state, unlike in Singapore.
Singapore is a well-manicured city – nothing will seem out of place because deliberate efforts are employed to ensure everything is kept in an orderly manner, even its people. While seeing homeless people around is not a ubiquitous sight, it should not be assumed that there are none. Rather, the government is bent on keeping its image as an efficient institution with the best housing policies in Asia.
Ex-Minister of Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS), Vivian Balakrishnan said, “If you were a poor person, anywhere on this planet, Singapore is the one place, where you have a roof over your head, where you will have food on your table.”
Yet in 2010, when the government took wind of Al Jazeera’s arrival, a news station base in Qatar, they raided Changi Beach where most of the homeless temporary encamped. The latter were evicted from their only shelter and some were even fined $200. This was not reported in the news, except by alternative media, The Online Citizen, an online website covering socio-political news in Singapore.
Instead of providing social services, the government’s refusal to accept responsibility while clamping down on the homeless to retain the façade of its efficacy meant that homeless people were marginalized and seen as unworthy of any space. It is a dismal thought on twofold: that one is not given a second chance in life, and the government in its urgency to create a simulacrum of perfection has lost its heart.