the hallowed 70's

    One thing I remember about the 70's--the homeless people. Our city seemed to suddenly have a lot of homeless people, in about 1976. You could see them sleeping in doorways, even in the cold weather, or you could see them sleeping in the train station, if you went to work early.  Homelessness seemed, at the time, to be a new problem, but it wasn't. The homeless had been sleeping in the churches. The doors to most churches were always left unlocked, so the homeless had a place out of the rain and the cold. The churches began to have vandalism problems, and decided they needed to lock their doors at night. The homeless had nowhere to go. Most people didn't blame the homeless for the vandalism, but the effect was the same--there were suddenly people sleeping in doorways and over steam vents.