I didn’t know what to expect as I crossed over the railroad tracks into Sacramento’s Tent City. Part of me was afraid and reluctant. Part of me was excited and curious. More than anything, I didn’t know how they would react to me. “They” being the homeless. “They” being the outliers of society. That was my first mistake. “They” are just like the rest of us.

Tent City has been a primary focus of national media in the past few weeks.

City officials have announced the area will be cleared out by the end of April. The city plans to move some 150 Tent City residents to the Cal Expo fairgrounds, where they will be provided with shelter until the end of June.

“We cannot look away and pretend like this does not happen, because it is happening and we must take action,” said Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, according to a March 27 National Public Radio story. “And that is why we are doing all we can to do right by the people who are living in these difficult circumstances in these difficult times.”

While officials may think this decision will help people, residents of Tent City don’t seem to agree.

John Kraintz, a Tent City resident and spokesman for the Sacramento Homeless Organizing Committee, has become an active representative for the homeless.

“We can make new dance clubs. We can make a park for dogs. But we can’t make room for people who don’t have anywhere else to go,” Kraintz said. “This is a perfect example of how our government is not responsive to their people.”

SHOC is currently working on a lawsuit against the City of Sacramento for taking away property of the homeless people without prior notice.

It’s not just the government that doesn’t know how to respond to homelessness. Society has always discriminated against the homeless and separated them from the rest of society.

Charles Varano, a sociology professor with a focus in urban sociology, believes the government has unjustly disparaged the homeless and created a blurred distinction between the deserving and undeserving poor.

Even the media have contributed to the discrimination against the poor and homeless, Varano said.

Although many people have attributed this surge of homelessness to the recession, it is important to realize that this is nothing new. There has been and always will be a homeless population. Although we cannot change this, we can change the unjust treatment of these people.

One solution, Varano said, could be a homeless bill of rights. This bill would provide “protections against the temporary fixes we have seen historically, and protections against the damages inflicted by an out-of-control market system that privileges property over and above persons.”

While Kraintz believes the government needs to change its priorities, he would also like to see more homeless people stand up for their rights.

Until then, we can at least respect the living spaces that these people have created for themselves. Many of the residents of Tent City have worked hard to preserve a sense of home and family in this encampment.

Boyd Zimmerman and Christina Hopper have been Tent City residents for eight months. Zimmerman, who went to Sacramento State and has a job, plans to leave the camp as soon as possible.

“We try to keep ourselves feeling like we have a home,” Zimmerman said, as he and Hopper invited me into their tent and offered me pastries that had been brought to them earlier by a friend.

And that is exactly what it felt like. It felt like visiting someone’s home for the first time. Like any other hosts, they were polite. They were civil. They were anything but crude and indelicate like the stereotypes so many of us believe.

Moving these people to a short-term shelter will only make matters worse. We cannot continue to uproot people who have already lost so much. We don’t need any more temporary fixes. We need a permanent solution.

While society may know these people as homeless, Tent City has become their home. Only by being forced out of this area will they truly become homeless.

Leidhra Johnson can be reached at [email protected]