[Drama Notes] The Shellless Elegy Behind the American Dream - "Lead Me Home"

The "Homeless Homeless" introduced this time is not a drama, but a 39-minute documentary about the life of the homeless in the western United States. Since it is a documentary, there are no so-called actors, but through the two directors' personal visits, the audience can get a glimpse of the lives of these homeless people, so that they are no longer cold statistics, but living people.

"How can you be homeless?" The simple question at the beginning of the trailer is the deepest pain for many homeless people. The filming process lasted for 3 years and recorded more than 20 homeless people, including drugs, mental illnesses, physical disabilities, etc. There are thousands of stories of these homeless people living on the streets, the only constant is "Everyone has the potential to become homeless” fact. Even though the time is short, "The Homeless's Return" seems a bit slick, but these clips are enough to make people feel the huge problem behind it, and at the same time make people aware of the fact that another parallel world exists.

"Homeless Homeless" short story: "Gold Mine" from the bottom of society

Residence justice is not a sudden issue in the United States, but as the epidemic persists for a long time, more and more people are missed by social welfare. According to statistics, in Los Angeles, on average, 1 out of every 100 people is displaced or can only live in a campervan, just like the protagonist of the 2020 movie "Nomads".

However, this group of people who seem to have nothing, in the eyes of another group of landlords, they are fat sheep that cannot be missed. With the failure of the public housing policy and the imbalance of the rental housing market, the plight of the poor has become a business opportunity, and many people have begun to take advantage of their lack of choice to rent houses at unreasonable prices, and even become rich. At the same time, the government and laws that are supposed to pursue fairness and justice have also become the best assistants for landlords, and "eviction" is the best bargaining chip they can use flexibly.

If you want to understand the structural problems in more detail, the author also recommends you to read "Where is the Next Home: Evictions, The Residence Direct Report of Undercover Sociologists", follow the author's footsteps, and understand why residence justice is in the United States can't be resolved.