Not to be the bitch where I only care because this problem effects me now (because I did care a lot about this even before this situation)... But I am sick of the inaction and hands off approach various levels of government have about the homelessness problem. The homeless person/vagrant with mental or drug issues problem gotten a lot worse in my little town since I moved here. There were a few homeless about at first, but everyone knew them by name and kind of kept an eye out for them and helped them. Now it's everywhere, especially if you look in the nooks and crannies like behind vacant buildings and certain brush areas. There are some local measures to help recently, like some housing being built for the homeless, but it's not enough and doesn't address some of the core social issues. It's a step in the right direction though, and I'm glad it's happening. My issue is that ALL the stores are closing their bathrooms. In some of the less corporate places I can beg someone to unlock it for my 4 year old but I basically quit my shopping trip in the middle of things today because even Walmart closed their bathrooms down. I've visited some other towns and cities in the area and they are all dealing with their issues the same way. If we are going the European route, can someone open a public WC there j pay a dollar to come in and shit? Jesus fuck.
A lot of services have been provided over the years by churches. Church attendance is less, and the funding stream is smaller. I don't think the government needs to fill this gap, but other services agencies are going to have to step up.
We have non profits that are helping locally. They are doing a great job. But, they have to work with the local government in a partnership if they want to actually work. There was a lot of red tape and problems even finding a location for the housing that's being built here. They had another property a couple years ago and that unraveled. I also disagree that we should rely on churches to solve this problem. For a book's worth of reasons. Shutting down all the mental institutions under Reagan was a mistake. They should have been improved and scrutinized, but not closed down.
It's 9pm in Dublin and I've been throwing back Guinnesss (Guinessi?) all day so don't take it snarky, but what would you propose? All I know is that in CA, they've thrown BILLIONS at the issue and have succeeded dick. Unless the plan was a huge increase in homeless. In that case, it worked like gangbusters
I believe this problem is multi faceted and will require a multi pronged approach. I don't have all the answers. It seems clear to me that our for pay health system, inadequate mental health services and facilities, inadequate laws to address adults with severe mental health and drug issues, and explosion of cost and limited stock of affordable housing are all parts of the problem. It's an extremely expensive problem to fix and would require a change in the "system" itself, which is why I think government should be involved to fix this. It won't be cheap, quick, or easy. These changes would require a national change in how we do things. Things like... Not allowing corporations to own big swaths of housing for investment purposes. More shelters and tiny homes to allow people a sec to get back on their feet. Kicking funding up hardcore for Medicaid and funding a lot of new facilities and training new workers (this is something that would greatly help rural areas, too, which are currently in a crisis for healthcare needs). Changing laws to address people who are clearly unsafe in public due to unmedicated health issues or drug use. There are short term measures to help people now, but they need to be overlaid with long-term solution system changes. Many homeless are from places in other parts of the state and even country and find their way to more favorable areas, like you've seen @GTE . They are just trying to survive, too. I think charity and nonprofit help is great, but their actions are a bandaid on a big septic wound. So basically I need to get used to locked bathrooms.
Roughly where are you in the PNW again? I have a theory that one of the reasons homeless numbers are so high in the Seattle-Portland area is due to the Rajneesh cult that tried to skew local elections in their favor when they lured in hundreds of homeless to the Dalles back in the 80s. When it didn't work, they dumped the homeless off in Portland and it created a larger homeless population within the I-5 region up there that still exists to this day.
My husband and I have talked a lot about that cult. We have visited The Dalles for day trips before. It's a fascinating slice of history. I did not considered your idea about that being a factor before. I'm on the east part of the state, but near a kind of main interstate area. When I first moved here about 6 years ago, there were some known homeless people around, maybe a couple unknown, and then a handful of people who were clearly drifters near the Walmart usually. Fast forward to today, it's a noticeable issue. There was an encampment in a park near the police station that was deemed a safe zone. There are a lot of drifters, a ton of homeless in every part of town but concentrated near the Walmart, there's sketchy drug behavior frequently (saw some woman grab the coin tip jar outside a coffee shop and run), desperate poverty issues like solicitation (my husband was approach while he was exiting Walmart), etc. It seems like they are coming from the Portland area maybe? I actually really want to get tied into the homeless population here and talk to these people to hear their stories. How the fuck does a person end up here like this? I'll find little ways.
You might want to watch out with that, 'Wildered. Homeless drug addicts can be dangerous. Also, since a good portion of them are mentally ill, you'd probably have to listen to a bunch of crazy ramblings. Did I ever tell you about the homeless guy who was writing a book about the evils of the Profession Golf Association? Because that happened. Also, you will 100% be asked for money. I have a really bad feeling about the homelessness situation: I think that eventually it's going to get bad enough that the government finally does do something about it, and there will be a brutal crackdown that cleans up the streets, but average citizens will lose more freedoms. Think about what we lost after 9/11.
I'm thinking more of people I would have natural and frequent interactions with. There's a guy who lives at the end of my street that seems like he is housed but home insecure? Like he lives with others but daytime, he is out and about on his bike collecting cans and appears kind of disheveled. I've spoken to him before. He's a neighbor. There's a handful of other opportunities. I would not endanger myself.
In college I worked in a fedex warehouse. We cycled through a lot of homeless people who would only last a few days. In my experience they generally have a mental issue and treat it with drugs and alcohol. They get to the point where they have no interest in taking care of themselves beyond getting high. Family and friends have been hurt by them. They don’t care to take care of their domicile. They don’t care about their job. Most aren’t bad people. They just value getting high over any other part of society. And this life lets them live with 0 fucks.
Good points from everyone. I have more to say but I hate typing on my phone* so it'll have to wait until I'm home in a few days. *Anyone else with a Samsung and having the autocorrect suck ass lately? I swear it's become so much worse in the last few months. It'll change properly typed words to words that make no sense grammatically.
Here in our part of the world there is a big uptick in homelessness and they generally fall into three categories: Drug addicts Mentally ill Homeless by choice There once was a time the mentally ill would have been kept in a safe place, medicated and helped to live their best lives with assistance. But because of the sins of the past, those facilities were closed and now they’re on the streets, unable to care for themselves well. Drug addicts, you’re always going to have. Unfortunately thanks to NY’s bail reform, instead of being sent to jail when they break the law, and getting treatment while there, they’re back in the streets an hour after being arrested. Some of them have multiple court dates, not that they’ll show up. And then you have the homeless by choice. They don’t want to follow the rules so they sit under the bridges all day drinking beer or whatever else it is they choose to do. The garbage and filth from our areas homeless is staggering. The city takes away dump trucks full of trash and soon it’s piled up again in the places where the homeless congregate. They chase away citizens who want to try and help keep the area clean. We’ve had shelters available, but one or two of them closed because of safety concerns for staff. The people coming to stay there didn’t like the rules which required them to leave their drugs and weapons at the door. Another one opened recently, but I doubt it’ll remain open a year. That’s just what things are like here in a. Little section of Upstate NY.
That’s why I hate working in places that take in temps. They are, fifty percent of the time, users just trying to get one or two shifts in to pay for their next fix. They suck at the job intentionally and they steal everything not nailed down while there— your tools, your lunch, anything copper… fucking anything. Don’t use temps, never hire off the street.
I would add two more categories to this: The working poor Abuse victims (typically women escaping a partner, or (frequently gay) children escaping parents) These two groups are probably the least visible form of homelessness, because for one they don't present as homeless, and for two they are much less likely to be sleeping on the street, instead crashing with family or friends and/or sleeping in shelters. They might however be the largest segment of homeless, and as a result soak up a huge fraction of the resources dedicated to homelessness. They utilize shelter beds, food pantries, etc. They are also the group most likely to be lifted out of homelessness by straightforward solutions like direct assistance, and/or a reduction in housing prices. So while it's true that getting the housing crisis under control won't magically turn a drug addict into a productive member of society, what it will do is allow the working poor to support themselves and free up resources that can then be more targeted at the chronic homeless.
I don't think there is a more fucked up comments thread than that of Scoota Brice's Facebook posts as he's committing triple homicide. Then he's killed after being pulled over on his way to kill a fourth person. Anybody else see that?
One thing I want to point out is that a majority of homeless became homeless first, then became addicts. Also, the skyrocketing cost of housing has directly contributed to an enormous increase in homelessness. That should be obvious, but they needed research to confirm it. It's not just rent either, it's the cost of repairs, transportation when the only affordable place is far from work, etc. I met a lady in WA who was "microdosing homelessness" because she'd drive 3-4 hours to work, and sleep in her car, find a place to shower, go to work. Putting yourself in her shoes: you're trying to sleep in a Wal-mart parking lot or something, you don't get rest. So you double down on caffeine, but you build up a tolerance to that. Coworker offers you an adderall and that gets you through your shift, some chores and the drive home. Holy shit. That works like a charm. You can't afford to get an actual prescription, but you can buy/bum them off of coworker. Until they quit. Now you're asking for it, and it's no longer a "nice to have". The Wal-mart parking lot has called cops on you, so you now have to find different places to park your car at night and sleep, and some of them are legit scary. So, once you find some addy's, you decide not to sleep at all. That works, and you crash when you get home...except you don't really. Eventually the person you found that gets you adderall says "look, I don't have it in pill form, but I have some you can smoke." You figure, what's the difference? I worked with a lady who needed mild dental work, but it was the kind that was going to get worse. Every spare dollar went to her kid, and she was fine with that. The bill eventually comes due, and she found herself in tremendous pain, at risk of a dangerous infection, and every medical outlet available to her was life-wreckingly expensive. She was even told if she couldn't pay medical bills, she'd lose her kid. True or not, it definitely swayed how she sought care. I can certainly see how she could have wound up homeless, because she couldn't afford rent, couldn't afford to recover from her ills, and couldn't afford medical care. I shudder to think of what sorts of "relief" she could get if not from a doctor. The reality of most addicts I know is they started on prescriptions to let them keep working. Amy Winehouse got into heroin because "artist" everyone else got into it because "back injury" and they still had to work. There's a few places that "draw" homeless, because they can exist there somewhat comfortably. I saw encampments in WA that were kind of enormous, and they existed in part, because the weather was mild enough, and the encampments were in land that was pretty sparsely populated. There was also just enough hippies trying to live off grid, but who weren't destitute and enough folks who sought to make it a community that took care of one another that it...worked? They had phones, they engaged with police and nonprofits, and when someone had an issue, they worked to help them. The bottom line is you can't have record housing prices year after year and also have affordable housing for the working class. It's the same number. I am a Millennial with violent rage when it comes to how much housing costs right now, especially since I entered adulthood around the last housing bust that made us all unemployable for a few years. Right now there's no connection between what a house costs to produce and what it sells for, and eventually that has to break. Housing markets in FL are starting to fracture, and as someone who works for FEMA, the steady increase of uninsured housing scares the shit out of me. I'd love to see federal regulation against multiple property owners, investment banks owning homes, etc. that just raise the cost of owning this stuff if you're not a homeowner, but....lol, the wealthy always win. The recent ruling against real estate agents, some of the stupefying infrastructure spending, and an eventual return to sanity now that the pandemic boom is over will help, but barring a major leap forward in modular housing construction (ie, pre-manufactured homes that retain and appreciate in value just like regular ones), or a construction boom that somehow leverages labor that....manifests?, it's not going anywhere. I think we'll see a tipping point any pretty soon where gains in housing prices are offset by disaster-caused losses. Ie, in Florida: they build cheap condos, but hurricanes knock em down and maintain a shortage, keeping the price high. Bottom line: until housing gets affordable, homelessness will only continue to spiral, and it makes me furious.