Despite visits from Oprah, and talk about making Sacramento’s Tent City permanent, the homeless population that has resided there are being forcibly evicted from their temporary shelters.  Whether people had lived there due to the economic recession or had sought refuge long before due to other circumstances, the fact remains that so many of these people now have nowhere to go.  Mark from Invisible People has traveled to Sacramento to meet and interview the homeless who are living there, and his most recent interview with Eve highlights the challenges they now face:

Eve from invisiblepeople.tv on Vimeo.

While tent cities are obviously far from ideal accomodations, simply kicking people out does not address the challenges of homelessness.  For many people, the encampments provide a safer community than most shelters, and allow them the flexibility to look for work, which is limited when curfews must be obeyed.  Ultimately, more funding needs to go towards transitional housing and support programs, but as the Sacramento Homeless blog argues, legalizing encampments would go a long way towards helping those in need, while sufficient funding is allocated.  Let me know your thoughts in the comments section, and help support Mark’s efforts to raise awareness about homelessness by following the link below and leaving a comment.