And Shanty Towns will spring up all over America, as Americans lose their homes. On the depressing video the depressing video maker said Shanty Towns are already springing up, some big, like in Fresno, California, visited by that savior of the downtrodden, Oprah Winfrey.
The depressing video did not mention depressing Fort Worth and its Shanty Town. I knew of Fort Worth's Homeless Person Problem. But I did not know we had a Shanty Town of around 50 tents, until one of Fort Worth's Best Texans, Steve Doeung told me about it.
The Shanty Town is not all that far from my abode. Just a short distance west of the Tandy Hills Natural Area, on the south side of the Trinity River near Riverside Drive and Lancaster Avenue.
The Fort Worth Shanty Town has a mayor, There is a kitchen tent with two camp stoves. Another tent serves as the camp's food storehouse. The residents of Fort Worth's Shanty Town are pretty much a cross section of America; Black, White, Mexican, a mom with a baby in a stroller, some old, some young.
Some of the residents have lived in Fort Worth's Shanty Town since it was first founded, over two years ago.
Despite sending out study groups to other towns to take a look at their Homeless People Programs, in places like Portland, Seattle and Denver, the City of Fort Worth has not come up with any new solutions to the Homeless Problem
Local churches fill the void, delivering supplies to Fort Worth's Shanty Town.
And now, despite Fort Worth's Shanty Town not really creating any real problems. And despite the fact that Fort Worth's Shanty Town is providing a community where Homeless People can sleep safe at night, the City of Fort Worth apparently has decided the Homeless People must abandon their camp and move elsewhere.
City Code Officers descended upon Fort Worth's Shanty Town and supposedly found many violations.
I can't help but wonder if the veracity of those violations is just as legitimate as what Fort Worth Code Officers found during their Gestapo Raids on Steve Doeung's Carter Avenue home, in ham-handed attempts to stifle Steve Doeung in his successful fight against the City of Fort Worth and Chesapeake Energy.
Supposedly the Fort Worth Shanty Town is on private property with the owner unaware his property has sprouted a town and with the owner telling the Code Officers that the Shanty Town residents did not have his permission to set up camp.
The residents of Fort Worth's Shanty Town believe they have been given 10 days to get out of their Shanty Town. However, Brandon Bennett, he being Fort Worth's Code Compliance Director said no vacate deadline has been issued, but criminal trespass citations could start being issued if the property owner wants the Homeless People off his property.
The whole scenario reminds me of the Grapes of Wrath. The part where the Joad Family finally got to a safe camp, ironically run by the government, with the locals not wanting them there and trying to stage an incident to cause the shut down of the camp.
Methinks that since it seems obvious that Fort Worth's Shanty Town is solving a problem the City of Fort Worth has not addressed, as in, finding a safe place for Homeless People to seek refuge, that rather than working to destroy the Shanty Town, the City of Fort Worth, working with area churches, should find an acceptable piece of land, somewhere, land with running water. Bring in Port-a-Potties. Fort Worth has a big supply of Port-a-Potties in its parks. And bring in a couple big trash bins.
Fort Worth's City Homeless Program Director, Otis Thornton, claims Fort Worth's homeless shelters have room to accommodate the Shanty Town's residents and blames the church groups for causing the Shanty Town to grow by delivering food and supplies.
I really find it hard to believe that all these people would prefer living in tents in a Shanty Town if there were decent facilities available to accommodate them.
And, please, don't let me hear some City of Fort Worth official get all high and mighty about supposed code violations in Fort Worth's Shanty Town, not when more than one Fort Worth City Park lacks running water or restrooms, but has picnic facilities.
I wonder if my favorite Cambodian-American ever thought he would see something like Fort Worth's Shanty Town in the America he envisioned when his family escaped Cambodia to start a new life in the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave?
That is, the Brave who have a Home....
