出版与作家生涯2017guernicamag.com
在流浪者收容所驻留的作家
Writer-in-Residence at a Homeless Shelter
导读
这是一篇驻留作家在无家可归者收容所中的非虚构写作记录。它值得写作者读，是因为它示范了如何把制度性苦难（住房、精神疾病、成瘾）落回到具体的人、具体的物件和具体的日常场景里；下面的评论也提供了一线亲历与志愿观察，帮助写作者避免把弱势群体写成单薄的符号。
可以直接用的写作要点
- 01
写作者最好亲身进入现场：做驻留作家、做志愿者，你看到的细节比统计数字更能说服人。
- 02
呈现人物的复杂性，例如那位时而温和博学、时而突然发作的前教授，比单一的“可怜人”形象更有力量。
- 03
把“三重创伤”这类结构性概念拆成可感知的层次：失去亲友与财物、在危险中生活的压力、成瘾，让抽象议题有具体的叙述落点。
- 04
保留第一人称证词里的具体名词，如帐篷、最后的家当，因为具体的物件往往比概括性的形容词更能传递人的处境。
HN 评论精选
亲历者指出收容所体制本身可能造成二次伤害，写作者应把“三重创伤”写成可感知的具体层次。
这让我更庆幸自己无家可归的那几年拒绝了收容所。一顶帐篷、对自己生活的掌控，比文章里读到的要人道得多。无家可归本身就是对受害者的创伤，甚至可以说是三重创伤：先是生活崩塌——家人朋友关上门，财物消失，像一种活着的死亡；然后是活在危险中的压力带来第二次创伤：收容所里毒品和暴力横行，街头寒冷，你最后一点家当也岌岌可危，还要被人鄙视；如果绝望没把你逼向成瘾就算走运，而成瘾是第三重创伤。这就是我们必须解决可负担住房的原因。
Mz查看英文原文
Makes me feel so much better about refusing to stay in a shelter during the years I was homeless. A tent and control over my life were vastly more humane than what I am reading here. Homelessness traumatizes its victims. We might even call it a triple trauma. First, your life falls apart: family and friends shut their doors; your belongings disappear. This is a kind of living death. Then you’re traumatized again, separately but relatedly, by the stress of living in danger. Shelters are lousy with drugs and violence; streets are cold and your last possessions are imperiled. You’re disdained by your fellow man. You’re lucky if the despair doesn’t drive you to addiction, but addiction is a third kind of trauma when it arrives. And this is why we need to solve affordable housing. It is unconscionable that we do this to so many Americans.
一线志愿观察能打破刻板印象，而人物身上的矛盾性（温和与崩溃并存）比任何结论都更有说服力。
好文章。来美国读大学后，我有段时间每周六去施汤厨房帮忙，其实就是煎饼加咖啡的早餐点。无家可归者中精神疾病之普遍让我震惊；对很多人来说，成瘾是一种自我治疗，或者只是逃离持续压力的方式。我记得有位前社区学院教授常来，他平静、聪明、博览群书（忘了教历史还是文学），但常来的人提醒我要小心，他有时会突然发作、看见恶魔、大喊脏话。有些人总是乐呵呵的，令人意外；多数人安静低头，拿了食物就走；有人来要第二份，说家里还有孩子或别人等着。这段经历很有价值，它打破了“无家可归者只是懒、不会理财”的老话，这其实是个很复杂的问题。
rdtsc查看英文原文
That was a good article. After coming to US for college I decided to help in a soup kitchen on Saturdays for a while. Well it was more of a breakfast pancake and coffee kitchen but same idea. It was eye opening how rampant mental disease is among the homeless. It seems addiction for many was a way to self-medicate and or just get away from the constant stress. One person I remember was a former community college professor and he would come regularly. He was calm, intelligent, well read, I forgot what he taught maybe history or literature. But then I also heard stories from people who were there longer to be careful, sometimes he would snap, see daemons and yell obscenities and so on. Some people were always cheery and happy, that was surprising. Most were quiet, looked down just took the food and left. Some would come for seconds and would tell us they have a family, a child or someone else waiting for it. Anyway the point was that it was a very good experience and taught me a few things. It definitely dispelled the often repeated myth how homeless people are just lazy and don't know how to manage their money and so on. It is a pretty complex problem. I understand that a while back there used to be state mental institutions. Those closed down and states just let the homeless out onto the streets. Why don't they open them again, was a budget issue? There was talk about YC trying out basic income, wonder if there is any space there having a non-for-profit startup which provides a shelter like that with psychological help and counseling. If it is worth disrupting coffee making, or nutrition or taxi monopolies, maybe it is also worth seeing if there is something to be done for those who need help the most.
把个人故事接回制度成因（法规与住房供给），写作才不会停在同情层面。
分区规划（zoning）是无家可归问题的主要成因。几乎没有城市允许你建单间公寓（SRO）或微型房屋来真正帮到人。如果贝索斯还在找事业做，希望他考虑建一座免费城市，大概在沙漠里，谁都能来免费住。
unabridged查看英文原文
Zoning is the major cause of homelessness. There are almost no cities where you can set up a SRO or tiny houses and actually help people. If Bezos is still looking for a cause I hope he considers setting up a free city, some place probably in the desert where anyone can come to live for free.
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