As scary as their name might sound, the Capitol Hill Knitters of Doom brought gifts of joy and warmth to Cal Anderson Park last week, a good reminder that we probably all can do small things to help bring more comfort to the neighborhood.
“Those who knit and crochet (are) those who are naturally generous,” one knitter told a television news crew there to cover the group’s efforts. “We all make so much more than we can use ourselves.”
CHS reported here on the annual effort from the Knitters of Doom to decorate Cal Anderson with gifts of handmade scarves, hats, and socks. The items were hung with care last Friday in plastic bags labelled with the type of item, size, and fiber. The group says some new knitters showed up to also share a few creations and join in the new neighborhood tradition.
You can also place the work inside growing efforts around mutual aid in communities like Capitol Hill as individuals and groups are needed more and more to fill gaps in systems like human services, health and medicine, and food. CHS reported here on mutual aid efforts around Capitol Hill earlier this year.
Want to get involved with the Knitters of Doom? Learn more at knitcaphill.blogspot.com.
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We need to focus on a coordinated response to the drug/homelessness crisis to get people the help they need to get off the street and into recovery and stable housing. Mutual Aid is a great way to virtue signal for the young Marxist ideologues but it is equivalent to bringing bread to the park to help the pigeons. At best it makes a mess. More likely it makes a mess and grows the problem.
*anarcho-communist is a more fitting ideological descriptor than Marxist for the Mutual Aid crowd.
providing desperately needed warmth to our unhoused neighbors in these cold months is a coordinated response to this crisis. it is also a beautiful form of direct action/mutual aid and way more effective than anything done by politicians. viewing it as messy is part of the problem.
I’m sorry for whatever happened to you that you think neighbors providing neighbors in need with basic necessities to stay warm is virtue signaling… What exactly are you doing to help out?
You are talking about people, not birds, not animals. Feed the hungry, and clothe the naked. Or did Jesus just say feeding the poor was like feeding animals on the street and just makes a mess?
Your world view is so warped that you see giving food and warm clothing to human beings as a bad thing, a useless thing. You are literally Scrooge talking about decreasing the surplus population. Your humanity is defunct. You can try to hide behind the idea that you want “real help” for folks on the street, but you aren’t doing anything to secure thee people housing or services. You’re sneering that they don’t deserve socks or food in the mean time until they start acting exactly how you prefer.
Reality: you are right, however, in the spirit of being thankful for our abilities we wanted to share with those who don’t have what they need NOW! All of our offerings were taken by the next day, and we have had requests for more give aways like this one. I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving, by giving to those with less.
It’s a funny thing, they will tell you if you can’t fix all of the problems a homeless person in the neighborhood is facing, that you are wrong to help them with anything! Sorry we are not housing providers. But we are knitters and cooks who can help in our small ways while we wait.
Suprised the “moderates” here aren’t complaining about them for littering. Oh wait…
Mutual aid is anything but. Helping people in horrible situations remain in such situations is a feel-good indulgence that benefits the ideology or misplaced beliefs of the knitters. Why not just buy the drugs that a great many on the streets consume? Want to really help. consider advocating for treatment and for entering available shelters, restrictions and constraints and all.
Why not both? I think all of us participating also advocate for treatment and a more sustainable coordinated response. However, in the meantime, there are real humans outside in the cold. If I can share some extra hats I made, rather than have them sit in a bin in my closet, then that seems worthwhile. I don’t think any unhoused person is going to say, “I was just about going to get myself off the streets, but now that I have this HAT I think I’ll stay outside a while longer.”
I hope you find someone with more empathy if you ever find yourself down on your luck… I’m guessing the folks that are spending their time knitting for their unhoused neighbors are also advocating for treatment and shelters. The best evidence-based practice is to provide safe injection sites and low-barrier entry to treatment, housing, and wrap-around services. The current system has too few opportunities to gain real help, and far too many opportunities to get kicked out and abandoned.
Some of us, like these knitters, also want to treat our neighbors with dignity while we wait for the rest of the city and our institutions to catch up 🤷🏻♂️
ParkPlace. A fitting name for a troll who worries more about having to step over the homeless as you enter your fancy high-rise apartment, than doing anything tangible (or physical–as these folks do) to help people in need.
Talk about armchair quarterbacking!
Try getting your own hands dirty before you criticize people trying to make a real and personal difference.
So helping the homeless … makes them homelesser?