What these conversations often lack is a real engagement with the perspectives of unhoused people and a rigorous sociological understanding of the underlying logics and impacts of current policies. First Step is a sanctioned houseless encampment that was opened in under the supervision of local nonprofit Athens Alliance Coalition with money from the Commission. This encampment may appear progressive. However, an examination of sociological theory in conjunction with the words and experiences of unhoused communities reveals that it functions under a transcarceral framework to remove unhoused communities from sight while bringing them closer to the carceral and legal system.
Encampments like First Step can function as convenient release valves for this removal, and do not address the roots of chronic houselessness. When solutions to houselessness start with labeling and policing behaviors and people rather than understanding and solving underlying conditions, they are ultimately ineffective and often harmful.
COVID, like all disasters, has exacerbated pre-existing crises on an individual and a societal level, and chronic houselessness is no exception. There are a few particularities about houselesness in Athens that differentiate it from other towns with comparable populations and budgets. First and foremost, Athens must cater towards students and their parents in order to continue to attract money to the town, as opposed to non-college towns whose economies do not rely on an influx of students.
Additionally, when UGA has large events like football games, thousands of people come to town, and they bring similar attitudes with them.
Over years of working closely with unhoused communities, I have witnessed Athens struggle to understand and plan for its unhoused community while responding to fears from the UGA community, as unhoused people continue to face police violence, evictions, and a huge resource shortage. In , the City of Athens opened First Step, a sanctioned encampment, to try to close this gap. Unfortunately, the resources available to unhoused people in Athens, including First Step, are products of transcarceral ideologies and mainly work to remove unhoused people from view and bring them into contact with the carceral system.
