Where Did All the People Go?
[From Grace D.]
Growing up an hour from Chicago, seeing homeless people in the city was only natural. This being said, when I visited NYC right before coming back to Wake, I was surprised when the streets were free of the disabled, frequent beggars, and the one homeless person directing profane comments at passersby. By the end of the trip, I found myself searching and was left unsuccessful. When I questioned my mom, her response had to do with the new laws imposed by the state. I found myself asking all too familiar questions like the ones being asked by James Scott in Seeing Like a State.
Scott writes about finding the state in constant effort “to make a society legible” (2). In his opinion, the state controls and patrols every part of society for its own benefit. Scott argues that in doing this, the government is able to intervene when necessary, track whether laws are being upheld, and use this knowledge to the state’s advantage (77). Pertaining to the situation in NYC, I ask how the government could benefit from moving the homeless community into shelters? I suppose one could argue that the state is now able to track the general homeless population with the shelter regulations. New York also passed laws, which allow police to bring any homeless person to a shelter (Dawsey). This could be seen as intervening when need be. Lastly, the homeless community, in being appreciative of the improved shelters, may also repay the government with general cooperation.
This covers all three of Scott’s reasons for the state’s close, and possibly secretive, regulation of communities. What Scott’s work doesn’t help us answer is why did the state just now address the issue of homelessness? How are we supposed to understand the state’s motivation behind policy? Every action made by citizens is watched by the state, but very few of the state’s actions are communicated back to us.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/new-york-city-makes-progress-on-homeless-shelters-1471045951
