7am Is The Wakeup Call To Move Their Homes

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It's 7am, and most of us are hitting snooze or brewing our first cup of coffee, but not for the homeless community in Clarkston, Washington. John Parke, known as "Cowboy," gets up at the crack of dawn not to wake up to an automatic cup of Keurig coffee but to pack his entire home before the local authority writes him up another ticket for sleeping in. 

Cowboy on the move

Many cities across the United States are finding ways to either support or ban the homeless population growing across the country. Some counties are creating permanent supportive housing while other counties are banning encampments, an out-of-sight, out-of-mind solution that, for some odd reason won't cause the issue to disappear. 

When rural counties aren't taking responsibility for their community but instead pushing the problem for others to fix, it isn't creating a solution but creating an ever-growing snowball. When Lewingston County in Idaho banned camping in 2022, the homeless community was forced to move to the next town over in Clarkston, Washington. Slowly gaining traction from county to county and building up as it moves. Locals aren't finding solutions. They're handing it off to others to fix. 

"Since then, cities have sought new ways to regulate homelessness, restricting when and where people could camp, sleep, lie or sit. Homeless advocates argue the restrictions make it more difficult for unhoused people to survive. Grants Pass, a city of fewer than 40,000, fined homeless residents for having blankets and pillows in public parks despite a shortage of shelter beds. "

Clarkston has restricted camping from 7am to 9pm, and while the county has offered solutions, such as a hand-drawn map with barely visible markings of outdated restriction boundaries that offers unrestricted camping, it doesn't provide accessible resources the people need. 

Check out this link to read the trouble Cowboy has gone from fighting addiction to living in a cycle that doesn't seem to end. The homeless in Washington state scatter as cities ban them from public spaces



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