I found an article from almost six years ago talking about a homeless encampment in Redlands. At first glance I didn’t think it was going to be of any relevance, but I found a couple useful ties to our class in it despite its length.

The main thing highlighted in this article is the idea of homeless people being pushed around (the leaf blower effect). We’ve learned about how cities don’t want their homeless people to be in public view, and I think the negative public view of homeless people is portrayed in the article with the author’s use of language; when he says “a homeless encampment set up along the train tracks in Redlands,” that doesn’t tell the reader where the homeless people are, that’s like giving directions and saying “go downtown” without actually describing how to get there. Whether or not the author intended it this way we can see the social stigma engrained in our language.

The next thing I found interesting was the police being reluctant to enforce laws forbidding homeless folks to sleep in public. I have no idea if this encampment still exists, and we’ve talked about how the Redlands Police Department hasn’t handled this issue in the most effective way so I’m curious as to whether the police are actually turning a blind eye and letting the encampment stay or if this was just for positive media attention.

Overall what struck me the most was the fact that there was an encampment in Redlands at some point. Personally I don’t see very many homeless people in parks or really at all on the street, maybe every now and then I’ll see a couple, but its rare. Nor do I see them in groups, most often they’re by themselves which made this article that much more insightful for me because  it helped solidify the reality that they are homeless people in Redlands, and they are blown around like leaves. Again this could be due to being a part of the isolated student demographic, it just resonated with me when I found an online article confirming what’s usually just comments in our class that add meaning to a bigger point.