Nước nghèo như Việt Nam nếu có nằm đường là chuyện bình thường, nhưng nước giàu nhất thế giới như Mỹ với những đại tập đoàn đa quốc gia làm ăn trên khắp thế giới, thừa tiền núi để chế đủ thứ bom đạn vũ khí giết người, có hàng trăm tỉ cứu vớt các nhà băng tư nhân sắp phá sản nhưng không có tiền chứa những người dân đen mất nhà mới đáng nói.
Vòng quanh nước Mỹ những "thành phố lều" mọc lên như nấm. 61% những liên đoàn người không nhà của địa phương và các tiểu bang báo cáo số người không nhà tăng lên từ khi vụ giá nhà sụp đổ vào năm 2007. Báo cáo đó được làm từ tháng 4, tình hình đã trở nên xấu hơn nhiều từ lúc đó vì giá xăng, thực phẩm tăng và thị trường lao động bị thu hẹp.
Tình hình tệ hại nhanh chóng này làm các nhóm thiện nguyện ngạc nhiên.
Bộ Nhà Đất và Phát Triển Đô Thị (HUD) gần đây báo cáo số lượng người không nhà giảm 12% trên toàn quốc từ 754.000 xuống còn 666.000 vào tháng 1/2007. Nhưng con số của 2007 bỏ qua số người mà những năm trước đó được xếp vào loại không nhà - ví dụ như những người sống nhờ bà con hay bạn bè của họ hoặc trong những khu cắm trại hoặc nhà trọ hơn một tuần.
Để so sánh, toàn bộ quân số tại ngũ hiện nay của Việt Nam là 484.000 theo wikipedia
Hơn thế nữa, báo cáo trên của HUD được soạn thảo một thời gian trước khi thị trường nhà đất bị đổ vỡ và khủng hoảng kinh tế bắt đầu. Người phát ngôn của HUD nói rằng con số đó biểu thị tình trạng của ngày hôm qua chứ không phản phản ánh hiện tại. "Vụ khủng hoảng nhà đất đã ảnh hưởng đến số người không nhà như thế nào là một câu hỏi lớn. Chúng tôi đang tìm câu trả lời." Brian Sullivan nói.
Ở Seatle, nơi đang chứng kiến một sự bùng nổ xây dựng và sự tràn vào của những chuyên gia giàu có ở những nơi mà trước đó là những khu vực của người lao động, những trại lều cũng đang mọc lên - ở những nơi vắng vẻ để tránh sự ruồng bố của cảnh sát.
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In hard times, tent cities rise across the country
Since foreclosure mess, homeless advocates report rise in encampments
RENO, Nev. - A few tents cropped up hard by the railroad tracks, pitched by men left with nowhere to go once the emergency winter shelter closed for the summer.
Then others appeared — people who had lost their jobs to the ailing economy, or newcomers who had moved to Reno for work and discovered no one was hiring.
Within weeks, more than 150 people were living in tents big and small, barely a foot apart in a patch of dirt slated to be a parking lot for a campus of shelters Reno is building for its homeless population. Like many other cities, Reno has found itself with a "tent city" — an encampment of people who had nowhere else to go.
 | Homeless encampments are springing up around the country, including this one next to the homeless shelter in downtown Reno, Nevada |
From Seattle to Athens, Ga., homeless advocacy groups and city agencies are reporting the most visible rise in homeless encampments in a generation.
Nearly 61 percent of local and state homeless coalitions say they've experienced a rise in homelessness since the foreclosure crisis began in 2007, according to a report by the National Coalition for the Homeless. The group says the problem has worsened since the report's release in April, with foreclosures mounting, gas and food prices rising and the job market tightening.
"It's clear that poverty and homelessness have increased," said Michael Stoops, acting executive director of the coalition. "The economy is in chaos, we're in an unofficial recession and Americans are worried, from the homeless to the middle class, about their future."
Caught by surprise
The phenomenon of encampments has caught advocacy groups somewhat by surprise, largely because of how quickly they have sprung up.
"What you're seeing is encampments that I haven't seen since the 80s," said Paul Boden, executive director of the Western Regional Advocacy Project, an umbrella group for homeless advocacy organizations in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland, Calif., Portland, Ore. and Seattle.
The relatively tony city of Santa Barbara has given over a parking lot to people who sleep in cars and vans.
The city of Fresno, Calif., is trying to manage several proliferating tent cities, including an encampment where people have made shelters out of scrap wood.
In Portland, Ore., and Seattle, homeless advocacy groups have paired with nonprofits or faith-based groups to manage tent cities as outdoor shelters.
Other cities where tent cities have either appeared or expanded include include Chattanooga, Tenn., San Diego, and Columbus, Ohio.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development recently reported a 12 percent drop in homelessness nationally in two years, from about 754,000 in January 2005 to 666,000 in January 2007. But the 2007 numbers omitted people who previously had been considered homeless — such as those staying with relatives or friends or living in campgrounds or motel rooms for more than a week.
In addition, the housing and economic crisis began soon after HUD's most recent data was compiled.
"The data predates the housing crisis," said Brian Sullivan, a spokesman for HUD. "From the headlines, it might appear that the report is about yesterday. How is the housing situation affecting homelessness? That's a great question. We're still trying to get to that."
In Seattle, which is experiencing a building boom and an influx of affluent professionals in neighborhoods the working class once owned, homeless encampments have been springing up — in remote places to avoid police sweeps.
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| Scott Sady / AP Robert Scott Cook, originally from Alaska, sits with one of his dogs, Zoey, at the tent city that sprung up next to the homeless shelter in Reno, Nev. |
"What's happening in Seattle is what's happening everywhere else — on steroids," said Tim Harris, executive director of Real Change, an advocacy organization that publishes a weekly newspaper sold by homeless people.
Homeless people and their advocates have organized three tent cities at City Hall in recent months to call attention to the homeless and protest the sweeps — acts of militancy, said Harris, "that we really haven't seen around homeless activism since the early '90s."
In Reno, officials decided to let the tent city be because shelters were already filled.
Officials don't know how many homeless people are in Reno. "But we do know that the soup kitchens are serving hundreds more meals a day and that we have more people who are homeless than we can remember," said Jodi Royal-Goodwin, the city's redevelopment agency director.
Those in the tents have to register and are monitored weekly to see what progress they are making in finding jobs or real housing. They are provided times to take showers in the shelter, and told where to go for food and meals.
Hopes for casino jobs dashed
Sylvia Flynn, 51, came from northern California but lost a job almost immediately and then her apartment.
Since the cheapest motels here charge upward of $200 a week, Flynn ended up at the Reno women's shelter, which has only 20 beds and a two-week limit on stays.
Out of a dozen people interviewed in the tent city, six had come to Reno from California or elsewhere over the last year, hoping for casino jobs.
"I figured this would be a great place for a job," said Max Perez, a 19-year-old from Iowa. He couldn't find one and ended up taking showers at the men's shelter and sleeping in a pup tent barely big enough to cover his body.
The casinos are actually starting to lay off employees.
"Sometimes I think we need to put out an ad: 'No, we don't have any more jobs than you do,'" Royal-Goodwin said.
The city will shut down the tent city as soon as early October because the tents sit on what will be a parking lot for a complex of shelters and services for homeless people. The complex will include a men's shelter, a women's shelter, a family shelter and a resource center.
Reno officials aren't sure whether the construction will eliminate the need for the tent city. The demand, they say, keeps growing.
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