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Cities grapple with homelessness, as tent clusters proliferate
各大城市整治无家可归的人，随着帐篷群激增
It is nearly noon, and a Los Angeles sanitation crew is wrapping up dismantling the home of Jack Rivers. A yellow-vested worker rakes the narrow strip of dirt where the veteran’s tarp-covered dwelling once stood – part of a highly controversial homeless encampment of about 200 people jammed along the iconic boardwalk at Venice Beach.
接近中午时分，洛杉矶的一名环卫工人正在拆除杰克-里弗斯的家。一名身穿黄马甲的工人在这片狭长的泥土上耙着泥巴，这个地方之前是这位退伍军人住的地方，住所上面覆盖着油布—这是一个有争议的无家可归者营地的一部分，大约有200人拥挤在威尼斯海滩的标志性木板路边。
All morning, Mr. Rivers has been sorting his mounds of belongings, his head wrapped in a T-shirt to protect him from the sun. With a small crowd looking on, he flings a sweatshirt, pants, rolls of toilet paper, and a flurry of blue face masks toward a shopping cart. He rolls a round tabletop out of his way and heaves a bicycle frame. The sanitation workers have already tossed carpets, a nylon awning, and boards into the maw of a nearby garbage truck. They use grabbers to pick up hazardous waste such as needles. From time to time, a mouse or rat makes a quick getaway as items are moved.
整个上午，江先生一直在整理他的成堆物品，他的头裹在一件T恤衫里，以保护他免受阳光照射。在一小群人的注视下，他把运动衫、裤子、成卷的卫生纸和一大堆蓝色的面罩扔向一辆购物车。他把一个圆形的桌面滚开，然后把一个自行车车架举起来。环卫工人已经把地毯、尼龙遮阳篷和木板扔进了附近一辆垃圾车。他们用抓取器来捡拾针头等有害垃圾。当物品被搬动时，不时有老鼠迅速逃走。
This is a voluntary clearing – an exercise in patience that some describe as a more humane approach than a one-time sweep by law enforcement. There’s no hard data, but experts and advocates agree that encampments like this one have grown in size and number in cities across the United States. The COVID-19 pandemic forced shelters to reduce occupancy, and while thousands of unhoused people were moved into hotels and motels, many others lost homes and were simply displaced.
这是一种自愿的清理—也是更有耐心的行为，有些人将其描述为比执法部门的一锅端的清扫方式更人道的方法。没有确凿的数据，但专家和倡导者同意，像这样的营地在美国各城市的规模和数量都在增加。COVID-19大流行病迫使收容所减少入住率，虽然成千上万的无家可归者被搬进了酒店和汽车旅馆，但还有许多人失去了家园，只是流离失所。
