Tent cities undoubtedly suck balls at getting people reintegrated into society, but in a society that takes no pains to solve the issue of homelessness they are a better solution than simple, rootless vagrancy. If people are encamped then services can find them, links can be introduced and people can build support networks amongst themselves. The fact is that society is generally pretty hostile to homeless people even when individuals within that society aren’t, because of NIMBYism and other easy-option policies that reduce the cosmetic impact of homelessness - so the idea of organised, connected and collected homeless camps is terrifying to local government - because as is demonstrated reasonably often, once these organised communities emerge and find a voice, it becomes much more difficult to summon the dehumanisation necessary to disperse them.
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