A city within the city

[IndianaGreen]

I read Michael Harrington's The Other America: Poverty in the United States when I was a teenager. The book had a deep impact on me. Harrington wrote that poverty was invisible in the big cities, and he detailed how politicians used the police to ensure that poverty would remain invisible to people. Arresting of the homeless for vagrancy was a common charge.

Little has changed since Harrington's book was published in 1962.

A city within the city

Homeless take up residence under bridge
By Will Higgins
Posted: February 15, 2010

For years, the homeless have sought safety in numbers, and fellowship, by gathering together come nightfall in hidden, out-of-the-way "camps" in the Downtown area.

They tucked into "the tubes" on the underside of the Washington Street Bridge in groups of six or seven, and among the thick brush of "the jungle" on East Washington Street.

Now, they are gathering in a new location -- and in numbers not seen since the Great Depression.

On Davidson Street, under a railroad bridge barely a mile from Monument Circle, more than three dozen homeless people rest their heads each night.

Experts say it's the city's largest homeless camp, by far. It's not hidden, either. It's right there on the sidewalk.

It's unclear whether it's a sign of the recession -- while some advocates speculate that the numbers of homeless have lately risen, the latest count is a year old.

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=20102150340