Homeless, How do towns deal with it?

[Sanchez]

I live in a tourist town on the Oregon Coast with very liberal leanings. They do not tolerate visible homeless camps because it discourages tourism. On the other hand they do everything possible to enable the homeless- free food, free tents, free health care etc. . The requirement to get all the benefits is you cannot camp where visible to tourist.

The problem I see in Oregon with the homeless is that homeless care and rehabilitation is a massive industry that is politically very strong. They provide comprehensive homeless care which only attracts more homeless and discourages many from actually working their way out of homelessness.

There are a subset of homeless that needs help, but Oregons problem is much bigger and driven by the industry that enables homelessness/drug addiction as a life style choice.

 

[Hnthrdr]

How can you ban something that is absolutely free, and apparently grows on trees?

70 bucks a pop for intranasal mist, fire and forget type…. 140 for a 2 pack Now why would the drug companies want the opioid epidemic to end?

 

[S-3 ranch]

The homeless I see standing on the curb asking for hand outs are predominantly white males , a few white females , but I’ve never noticed any Latinos or Asians .
In fact a new one showed up , actually a tag team, with a black male and a white woman .
I commented to the wife how odd it was to see a black man begging , she called me racist .

Likely you don’t see them is because if you have 10 baby mamas on welfare and out panhandling, you don’t need to become a homeless beggar

 

[2531usmc]

Yes. Solving complex problems takes boldness and risk. But when they are guided with compassion, morality, and humanity they work.

As a society we seem to have lost most of those attributes. And that is the bigger issue.

Southeast Asia was brought to its knees due to heroin addiction. They resolved their problem without compassion, morality, or humanity. They simply kill drug dealers.

Last time I flew into Thailand, the customs form that you fill in before you enter had a note at the bottom saying, to the effect, if you are smuggling drugs into Thailand, we will hang you.

Not saying that right or if it’s wrong…..

I also believe smuggling drugs into some of the Arabic nations has some pretty horrific penalties.

 

[WeiserBucks]

Not saying that right or if it’s wrong…..

It's right. It should be done every Saturday in the town square for all to witness and strike fear in those that would partake.

 

[Huckelfin]

My town enables it, its absolutely infuriating. Personally witnessed someone taking a dump on the sidewalk in front of tons of people, I live in a town on 20,000 people, cannot imagine what its like in a large city all the time.

 

[Poser]

Durango has cleaned up multiple unofficial camps. For awhile, there was an official camp set up on some city land. Folks were provided with portajohns, a dumpster and even lockers and the klocation was still turned into a dump that ended up costing the city over $300,000 to clean up and human remains were found during the clean up.

Side story. One of my long time friends had a neighborhood hobo -old school guy who had been off the grid for decades, went by the name "The Captain." He ended up letting The Captain move into his cellar. It was a dirt floor cellar with an exterior exit only. The guy lived there for several years and was super helpful -would let the dog out, work on the yard etc. Super interesting guy with a wealth of stories: train hopping, living on a sail boat etc. My friend came home from a long trip and noticed a small when he walked in the house. The Captain had died some weeks back. The police were not able to identify him -he had been off the grid for too long that there was nothing to connect him to.

 

[Dirty530]

It’s most highly correlated with housing affordability, hence big cities in California, New York, Austin, etc have higher rates. I would think that a major push for substantially higher volumes of affordable homes would do some benefit (When’s the last time you saw a new trailer park built?). However this leads to urban sprawl and the fringe country turning into suburban crap. Also, nobody likes their home values declining because there’s a huge influx of housing volume flooding the market and putting negative pressure on prices. No perfect answer

 

[Rich M]

The city has to want to handle this. A D mayor is gonna let them do a lot before stepping up.

Keep an eye on your mailbox, lock your car doors, secure your side and back yards. They’ll steal anything not bolted down that they can pawn or sell.

 

[NRA4LIFE]

We used to go up to Seattle 2 or 3 times a year and stay overnight, have a nice dinner, maybe see a show or art museum, etc. I will not set foot in that $hithole anymore, haven't for 10 years or so.

 

[2531usmc]

We used to go up to Seattle 2 or 3 times a year and stay overnight, have a nice dinner, maybe see a show or art museum, etc. I will not set foot in that $hithole anymore, haven't for 10 years or so.

And this is the big challenge. As individuals, addiction is a medical problem. As a society, addiction and the associated homelessness/criminal activity is a destroyer of societies.

My heart goes out to those people that work their butts off, sacrifice for a better future, buy a home to raise a family and have a homeless encampment spring up next door. The value of their home drops to zero and nobody in govt cares about them.

 

[Poser]

It’s most highly correlated with housing affordability, hence big cities in California, New York, Austin, etc have higher rates. I would think that a major push for substantially higher volumes of affordable homes would do some benefit (When’s the last time you saw a new trailer park built?). However this leads to urban sprawl and the fringe country turning into suburban crap. Also, nobody likes their home values declining because there’s a huge influx of housing volume flooding the market and putting negative pressure on prices. No perfect answer

Trailer parks in HCOL areas are just barely hanging on as the property value is so high. We've had 2 trailers parks locally who have been able to co-op and buy the land (I know one of them was a $160 million dollar purchase), but that was only with the help of a non profit and the landowner's willingness to sell to the co-op at market value out of ethics and desire and refuse higher offers from real estate investment companies.

 

[Taco John]

They're saying the fraud in California is going to make the MN fraud look like amateur hour.


How much money has been poured into programs to help?

 

[Poser]

They're saying the fraud in California is going to make the MN fraud look like amateur hour.


How much money has been poured into programs to help?

Must be true if "they" are saying it.

 

[AKBC]

I live in a place that’s cold as shit 3-4 months a year. Kind of solves itself.

Well that tells me you don't live in Anchorage AK. We have the cold weather and a big homeless problem.

 

[average]

"whatever you do for the least of these"

 

[Mtnmilsurp]

That sidewalk looks like it could use a good cleaning. Maybe have the night shift of the local fire station hose it down one night when things are slow?

 

[pirogue]

It seems like most homeless people are doing so by choice. I used to live in Oregon.

Used to have to work in western OR, and just visited some relatives during the holidays. Although maybe not as many encampments as I’ve seen in years past, it’s still disgusting. As we were heading to the airport Monday, we seen a huge plume of smoke up ahead near the freeway. Yep, coming from homeless encampment, on the freeway right of way. And get this, the residents of the 3 or 4 largest liberal metropolitan cities (on the west side) have to pay a 1% HOMELESS Tax.

 

[96s10383]

I live near to Iowa City, Iowa and the homeless, transient population is welcomed. Bus them in from Chicago, build shelters and then pay the police force to handle the numerous altercations that occur between that specific population on a daily basis.

 

[Serrano]

I was stunned when I saw a shanty on the beach in Hawaii.