Homeless, How do towns deal with it?

[Poser]

Why are homeless disproportionately male?

Couple of reasons that I can think of:

"women and children first" -there exists more societal safety nets for women that will help help prevent them from hitting the concrete.

Prison to homelessness pipeline. 90% of inmates in the US are male. The correlation is obvious to most. Its is much more difficult to get a job with a prison record, therefore it is difficult to obtain housing.

 

[KurtR]

Seems winter fixes it here we have an estimated 1400 homeless people in the state

 

[Pony Soldier]

My wife runs a program where they buy school clothes for low income kids. They have to cut the labels off so the parents can't return them for money to buy drugs.

 

[WRO]

1- state/fed sponsored shelters with a work program
2- sanctuary city (send them there)
3- if any drugs, arrest them

Just send them to Portland or California..


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[solarshooter]

Just send them to Portland or California..


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And people wonder why homeless numbers are increasing in metro areas that spend lots of money on their homeless issue...

In a way the red states should be thanking blue taxpayers for taking care of their problem for them.

 

[307]

And people wonder why homeless numbers are increasing in metro areas that spend lots of money on their homeless issue...

In a way the red states should be thanking blue taxpayers for taking care of their problem for them.

This seems to be related to the idea of "a fed bear is a dead bear".

Unintended consequences of altruistic behavior.

 

[Burnsie]

I don't know where you live or the details of your city's budget, but whoever wasted 750mil and helped no one should hang. Seattle has over 16k homeless and we spent less than 200mil on them last year. Yes the number increased since 2022 but that's a symptom of the national housing crisis getting worse since 2022, not the spending. I agree it sucks that people and businesses near these camps bear the brunt of the theft. This is effectively the state forcing individuals to bear the costs of survival of these homeless people. We need to attack the root causes of the housing crisis and the broader affordability crisis in this country to make any of these problems really get better over time.

I agree the availability and cost of housing is a problem, But - what type of housing could ever be built that the homeless would be able to afford and maintain or pay utilities? - They have little to no money! So, what we're really talking about is building a whole bunch of free housing that will be in squalor within a year or two.

 

[2531usmc]

I agree the availability and cost of housing is a problem, But - what type of housing could ever be built that the homeless would be able to afford and maintain or pay utilities? - They have little to no money! So, what we're really talking about is building a whole bunch of free housing that will be in squalor within a year or two.

The bigger question is why do you get a free govt provided house for being utterly wreckless with your body and getting addicted to opiates. And the assumption is that the hardworking taxpayer has to buy his house and help pay for some junkies house?

Sure, provide safe and very cost effective housing. Maybe something like the old time barracks. Double bunks and a locker for clothes

 

[GSPHUNTER]

Most towns don't deal with it, other than packing them up and sending them somewhere else. I have seen it done many times.

 

[NRA4LIFE]

It was rumored a number of years ago that Salt Lake City was bussing them all to Seattle. Don't know if it's true but there was a DRAMATIC increase in the homeless population in a not so short of time.

 

[307]

Quck, maybe helpful search about the underlying reasons for homeless. Obviously, no hard and fast numbers exist because, it's complicated. But this is at least a reasonable guestimate.

1. Lack of housing, economic hardship. Approximately 50%

2. Drug/alcohol abuse. Approximately 30%

3. Mental Health issues. Approximately 20%

Any proposed solutions would likely need to be aimed at the underlying cause(s) to be most effective and efficient.

 

[displacedtexan]

I mean, mostly just because I like to stir the pot.
But the whole construct of homes & homeless has been around significantly less time then then is was to migrate around living off the land in temporary shelters.

Maybe this is how non hunters view hunter’s , just as archaic and disgusting.

They may be just living there best life in a style gone by.


And I got to tell you, I’m single with no kids and paying 50% in taxes.
I’m not so sure a job and paying for all this for essentially no reason is in the cards much longer for me.

Why should I go to work every day just to have half stolen, and the majority of the rest go to a house I don’t really need?

I know a guy who was homeless for around a decade.

He just thought (still does) that the system is stupid. He bounced around the country, hopped a lot of trains, did what he wanted. Never stole, never begged. Worked odd jobs, cleaned parking lots for food and booze, etc...

Shoot, when I was 18 I lived in my truck for 6 weeks... It was great. Still chasing that freedom when I head west with a tag or fishing license or time and no real plans.

 

[solarshooter]

The bigger question is why do you get a free govt provided house for being utterly wreckless with your body and getting addicted to opiates. And the assumption is that the hardworking taxpayer has to buy his house and help pay for some junkies house?

Sure, provide safe and very cost effective housing. Maybe something like the old time barracks. Double bunks and a locker for clothes

Again, it's not a "reward" to get these things. It's a shitty and dark chapter in anyone's life to end up in state subsidized housing, rehab, work programs, counseling, surrounded by others going through the same thing, not making any money, etc, etc. However that is exactly what recovery and correction looks like, and it keeps people off the streets, reduces theft, reduces relapses, improves outcomes. Yes it costs money but I guarantee you that no one who goes through it would wish it on anyone else even though there are material upsides to it.

An analogy here would be AA. Not sure if anyone here has been to meetings, but I have, and I guarantee none of those people would wish their journey on others, even if they got a few "freebies" from the good will of strangers along the way.

As far as "getting addicted to opiates" again this is not really a choice for some. For one there is a well documented history of extremely predatory prescription of opiates by "doctors" which has been found to be malpractice and even national conspiracy. Google Purdue Pharma to learn more.

And sometimes a person's particular chemistry is such that they can very easily become addicted to opiates, alcohol, etc. All it takes is one unknowing dose and someone's whole life can be taken over. I think people who have not experienced severe addiction do not understand this, but some people become irrationally addicted to things. Yes they know it's bad for them and destroying their life but they still go back for more. Look at people who are morbidly obese, people who get ghastly excessive plastic surgery, people who gamble away their whole family's life savings, same thing.

Just be glad your addiction is coffee or endorphins from exercise or adrenaline from hunting, and not something more destructive.

And a last comment on the burden on the taxpayer. Again, this should be one of the least outraging things your taxes are being spent on. And the burden of payment should really be put on the institutional investors and big companies that are driving insane price escalation in our housing market and metro areas and creating this crisis to begin with. If you want to be harsh and punitive throw THEM in the gulags and you will really solve the problem.

 

[2531usmc]

I understand what you are saying, in theory. No decent person would disagree, in theory.

However, in execution, compassion for illegal immigrants and the homeless has apparently evolved into systemic fraud and theft. Compassion for immigrants has become a systemic multibillion dollar fraud in Minnesota. California has untold billions of dollars unaccounted for as it funded NGOs to help the homeless. And to nobody’s surprise, the more the govt funds homeless support the more homeless show up. It’s become a racket.

So how do you tell struggling families they need to pay more taxes for homeless benefits and support?

The left will tell you “we need to make sure the money is better spent” while knowing all along nothing will change.

And since nothing will change, the blue cities will continue to lose people and businesses until they become Detroit. Suicide by empathy and graft.

 

[Boarmaster]

Its a big problem. Here they give them notice the encampment is going to be removed. Then they remove it. Not a solution as they just move somewhere else. Sometimes they move back to the same place after a while.

 

[Fireflyfishing]

Missoula is a bum sanctuary. It’s awful. It’s not uncommon for me to be driving down by one of the shelters and see one flopping on the ground as they just OD’d.

If we need to give them a space to live, I think we should carve out a spot in the dump. Anywhere they set up shop, they make it look like a dump with the trash they horde. We could keep them and their drug use in a safer place than our streets, alleys, playgrounds, etc. When they OD, just call one of the dozers over to add to the landfill.

If that’s too inhumane, I vote we bus them to Bozeman.