Eleventh Death of Homeless Person from Cold Weather of 2010 In Anchorage

The first person of the 2010-11 cold weather season, and 11th death of 2010 occurred in Anchorage a couple of nights ago. Alice Stewart passed away sleeping outside in a field off a busy street in Anchorage.

In the afternoons the temperature has tended to be a warm 40 degrees recently, while overnight the temperature may drop to the low 30's and even the 20's. If using alcohol it is easy not to awaken from the dangerous cold.

While one may cite individual problems for the exposure to cold weather death or injury, it is true that if the victims had their own housing they would have been unlikely to place themselves in a dangerous outdoor circumstance.

When I read of these matters I cannot help consider how the entire U.S. housing and economic structure isn't very well designed for sustainability or access to quality low cost housing. Neither would many homeless individuals have access to affordable transportation when necessary to travel the miles across the dangerously cold city of Anchorage to a free emergency weather shelter.

Concentrating the homeless is an especially bad idea because it dramatically increases the intra-social negative elements and exposure to crime, drugs and alcohol. In some alternative reality there may be an intelligent and efficient society concerned with including rather than excluding as well as defending individual human rights from government and social predators.

http://www.adn.com/2010/10/23/1515779/woman-found-dead-off-benson-blvd.html