Yesterday, I was on a mission to find Tent Town, a community of homeless people living in an enclosed area provided by the city for them to dwell. My imagination told me that the city had erected tents for them to live in an organized and clean environment. I wanted to believe the city was doing a good thing. I wanted to see positive change that with the proper promotion, could be used as a model for other cities.
It’s funny how the mind can set you up for a shock. What I found in reality was a far cry from what my mind had imagined. I believed that Tent Town might offer a level of dignity to the homeless above the common shelter experience. I was mistaken.
Upon discovering Tent Town, my small group of friends and I hurled Profanities and Apophasies at one another in an attempt to describe the ineffable. Sometimes pictures are worth a thousand words.
As we drove up, one person said, “Oh fucking hell”. Another said “Dammmmmnnnn”, and another expressed the apophasis of “We’re not in Kansas anymore”.
Welcome to Tent Town. How would you describe such a thing found within the heart of your own modern downtown city. Keep in mind, that to get here, we’d just passed by the fanciest casinos in town with Bentley’s and Maybech’s in the parking lot. It was quite a contrast.
Tent Town looked to encompass about three acres of land. What I show here is but a small sample. You can see by the pictures that it is large enough to have segregated communities such as Sparta and Dignity Harbor. I don’t know why, but not one person was outside. It looked abandoned, but you can clearly see food on the tables. There were fires burning, ferrel cats running around, and a couple of dogs chained to shanties.
The last photo in the above link is not from Tent Town. It is from a local homeless shelter. They had dozens of rooms set up just like this. Though all of their rooms were filled, they still made an effort to provide shelter to anyone. Sleeping blankets were scattered throughout the entire building, even in the entrance way.