Why do only poor ‘choose’ homelessness?

The chronic poor air quality wielded by the Dixie Fire is a “ball and chain” drag on our communities’ health and wellbeing. The venomous cocktail of unhealthy air, pandemic surges and ghastly heat is an emotional and physical hardship affecting everyone.

Stay indoors, limit your outdoor activity, mask up and run air purifiers are the most salient of mitigation practices. As tough as it is for people of meager means to do this, it’s tactfully impossible for community members without a roof. In combination with squalid living conditions lacking sanitation, privacy and dignity is an excruciating survival mode existence for the destitute — many of whom are seeking out an existence with physical and mental disabilities, while being subject to the 24×7 threat of violence, theft and intimidation.

The next time you hear someone say people are homeless by choice, simply ask them why only poor people make that choice. As for the ignorant coloring the destitute as transients living off the tit of mythical bountiful services, tell them they are wrong. If they persist offer to buy them a tent and stake it down at Comanche Creek or Teichert Ponds, as long as they promise to be subject to everything that their new neighbors are. Which is mostly the bad and the ugly with the good being subject to the kindness of others. I have little doubt this will be a transient experience as they rush back to the safety and comfort of living indoors in a heartbeat.

— Bill Mash, Chico