Once again, read Grapes of Wrath if you haven’t. If you look back at depression era shit you’ll see this is exactly the sort of thing we’re gonna need to do a lot of in the future, because the state’s solution is gonna be prison.
Good on this guy for doing what he can. I’m optimistic about the work of orgs in NC. The south is prime real estate for agitation, with a long history that some are coming to remember.
The spike lee Katrina docs are amazing and eye opening. I think most people just assume that after a big natural disaster the government will have their backs. Couldn’t be further from the truth. If you are lucky you will get a FEMA trailer to live in for the rest of your life. More likely than not you’ll just be homeless
I did outreach to a rural community that faced a natural disaster, and of course FEMA was involved. Many of the people who owned homes had handshake agreements or the house was passed down for generations. If you didn’t have copies of every piece of paperwork needed to confirm that it was your home, even though youre scrambling for your life, you were completely fucked. Renting? Totally fucked, they didn’t care. Homeless in the community? “The local agencies will help with that”. They had families with kids and pets living in emergency hotel rooms for a year, often more. Most people had to just figure it out.
Homeless in the community? "The local agencies will help with that
I’ve unfortunately had a similar experience with the red cross. They’ll pull out the stops to help homeowners but homeless/unhoused people you’ll be lucky if you get a sleeping bag
I had no idea FEMA doesnt help renters that’s fucking crazy
A lot of orphans from Katrina ended up being sent to other states and never returned. I’m a fuzzy on other groups’ situations if families or married couples left the state and went back. I know there was a lot of destruction even a decade later that was never repaired.
Seems like there might be some doubt about whether this guy’s operation is on the up and up. A lot of it can be chalked up to the same kind of smears and fearmongering that is used against homeless encampments everywhere, but some stuff in the article still gave me pause.
I feel like the news didn’t do due diligence here, like the article heavily features this Carr guy but they never talk to any of the other residents. Then they go ask the cops about how the operation doesn’t meet permits. This is a common thing in mutual aid, landlords and local cops will come to fuck with you at the slightest whiff of you doing anything to house people for free. Of course in a situation where you’re letting 100 people park in a meadow its going to not be sanitary, but clearly those people have nowhere else to be and its not like the governments going to help other than tack on fines.
But yeah there is a real issue with thieves, grifters, and opportunists getting in on these sorts of things, but I feel the governments response and the article to be very bad.
Yeah the article definitely sucks and is full of libshit, being like “ackshually its illegal to house people only existing property owners are allowed to set up unlicensed campers/tiny homes for themselves” is so scummy.
And yeah, like I said the smears and fearmongering do pop up any time you try to house people. And the personal background of the guy running the place is immaterial to me, so not the best journalism there either.
But if theres any truth to the allegations about hijacking donations from other relief orgs(incl. cajun navy who afaik are well regarded) and getting his crooked whacko county commissioner buddy to go track down this guy for talking bad about the operation, then that’s pretty fuckin questionable regardless of the county being in the wrong for trying to enforce building code on people just trying not to freeze to death. I’m not on the ground, I don’t know, just putting it out there since the status coup vid provided no additional context beyond this guys word and a couple residents
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Neither one would surprise me. The system is gonna shit on it being done, and people are gonna grift from it. That’s why leftist have to get to the forefront of this, imo.
yeah I’ve seen both things happen personally, even outside of a disaster scenario, which is why I can’t just dismiss the article out of hand
