January 10 Friday roundup

This week’s “Next Comes What” episode on homelessness looks at the ways those without housing have been used in the past to scapegoat mass detention of citizens around the world, and then focuses on Black working families facing homelessness in Atlanta today. You can see it on YouTube, or you can listen to it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and anywhere else you get your podcasts.

As we return to our regular Monday/Thursday/Friday schedule, three cheers for producer Jason Sattler, who worked his magic on both Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve to get episodes out, despite having a preschooler loose in the house.

Recommended reading this week includes Carol Rosenberg in the New York Times on the transfer of eleven Guantanamo detainees to Oman, leaving just fifteen prisoners at perhaps the most legendary detention camp in the War on Terror. (Rosenberg was there to witness the first detainees arrive in 2002 and has been a tireless narrator of this debacle. She was also of tremendous assistance to me during my first trip there.)

An end to all Guantanamo detention should be a serious priority, because detention without trial is a danger to everyone, and particularly in gray zones like Gitmo, where legal protections are deliberately limited and unclear. I’ve complained about the policies of every president in power for the last 25 years (and then some) on this issue. So I’ll take a moment to give a little credit and say that it’s a good thing Biden administration officials made such definitive progress on this during their final weeks.

During the podcast episode, I promised that I would include links in today’s post to groups combatting homelessness. I mentioned two already: the Autonomous Tenants Union Network and the National Low Income Housing Coalition. But this week’s episode guest Brian Goldstone sent several more.

They include the National Homelessness Law Center, the National Coalition for the Homeless, the National Alliance to End Homelessness, the Tenant Union Federation, People's Action - Homes Guarantee, Housing Justice for All, LA Can, LA Tenants Union, KC Tenants, and Atlanta’s own Housing Justice League.

Some of these are national; others are local. Those of you looking to address homelessness where you live can see if there are similar organizations near you focused on the same approaches. If there aren’t, and you want to organize something, these groups might offer a starting model or be able to give you pointers as you plan.

Next week, we’ll have a big inauguration post and episode, covering ways to think about the next four years now that they’re upon us. The biggest one, of course, is for us to find ways to take care of each other. But I’ll be a little more specific than that next week.