Are there any cities in this country that have dealt with this problem effectively? This city has not. The problem is creeping city-wide and is a blight.
There are tents blocking sidewalks - how are those in wheelchairs supposed to navigate this?
People defecate and urinate in public. Typhus is an issue downtown where fleas with typhus are biting those living in the tent squalor and those who don’t.
Public transportation is becoming a filthy mess. Commuters don’t want to use busses or trains due to human waste on the seats or the threat of being harassed by people who are high as kites.
Children are finding needles on the beach and in the parks.
A nearby Starbucks took away all the outside seating because the vagrants were purposely vandalizing chairs and tables. Actually Starbucks seems to be adding to the problem. A Starbucks in a town in Oregon seemed to be a magnet for the shopping carts piled high with trash. They leave their stuff on the sidewalks outside the Starbucks where they linger for hours. Meanwhile the sidewalks are blocked particularly for people who can’t squeeze past, like those in wheelchairs. I won’t go to Starbucks anymore except at a mall or airport. Those with access for the homeless are now filthy.
The police say there is little they can do. Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Portland. The cities of the West Coast are a mess.
Although housing is expensive, it’s not housing. The charity groups approached a local group of homeless and offered them beds in a shelter and all refused. They want to live on the streets.
In HI we have the highest per capita homeless in the US (good climate and folks who find its much more expensive than they had imagined). The problem is spreading all over—some live in their cars at beach parks and parking lots as well.
Homelessness is not a crime, however, in the city in which I live, some street dwellers are creating an environment that is rife with crime ie drugs, knives, muggings, there was even a shooting last week. We have similar problems with diseases ie typhus, shigella, TB etc. The homeless crisis is fast becoming a public health crisis, but, the sad fact is - some people prefer to live on the streets, and for others, they have been priced out of affordable accommodations - a 2 bedroom apartment in a decent school district, can for for as much as $3k a month; that is more than many families make, and that is what I think is a ‘crime’ - greedy landlords.
I’m sure many people on here will object to this, but Houston keeps its downtown clear by arresting such people, and transporting them to either county jail or mental hospital. The parks and such are safe.
Not everyone who is homeless wants to be. Not all homeless cause trouble or are addicts. It’s not easy to find affordable housing if the only income is minimum wage. And it’s not easy to find a job if you are homeless.
There is probably something of that nature to arrest someone for (and police often are called for “someone being annoying to someone else” cases, often resulting in transport to a hospital for mental health evaluation)… though whether the jurisdiction has enough (expensive for taxpayers) jail space to hold arrestees for such things (as opposed to those arrested for more serious crimes and those convicted of misdemeanors) is something else entirely.
Similarly, involuntary commitment to mental health hospitalization is not trivial, since it involves taking away someone’s freedom (and permanent hospitalization makes the person a burden on taxpayers).
NYC and Boston have dealt better with this than the west coast cities. Police force the people on the street to go to homeless shelters, drug treatment places, and mental health facilities, etc. Yes, it seems extreme (I think many don’t want to go), but living on the street is dangerous and causes health problems (mental and physical). The cities need to have these facilities to take people to, especially the mental health ones - you need that infrastructure in place first.
I spent quite a bit of time in Seattle and they don’t have a clue on how to handle this. People don’t seem to care that there are tent cities in the middle of their most important tourist sites. They need to put the care facilities in place and then make the people go there. A public library is not a homeless shelter, you need real homeless shelters that are staffed and provide the services that these people need.
I really don’t believe it is housing costs,at all. Yes, housing is outrageously expensive in West Coast cities. But even if the average price dropped 2k per month tomorrow, the crazed, stoned and lost souls in the parks and on the streets would not suddenly be in apartments. They either can not, or will not, care for themselves in most cases.
San Diego keeps trying to get a handle on this but cannot solve it. There are too many lawyers claiming that anyone has the right to live anywhere they want and behave however they want.
So sad that a decorated Olympic athlete is now wasting her life on the streets. She says it is lack of affordable housing. I don’t agree that is the only issue - if you read the article, it is clear that she has never been able to hold a job even though she has useful skills. Sounds like mental issues. IMO, she needs to be diagnosed and get treatment, but you can’t force someone to do it.
Yes, the weather contributes to the Northeast having fewer people living on the streets. However, I am old enough to remember the 70’s when NYC had a big problem with this issue. In Seattle it rains 90% of the time, who wants to live outside in constant rain?
I am talking about the cities of the West Coast. Recently I visited Portland. There are tents in the forests along the expressway. I visited other parts of Oregon. There are homeless people in the downtowns and the Willamette River is full of trash from the homeless encampments along it.
Los Angeles has a huge problem. People are accosted in cafes and shops by the homeless. Fires are started. The police say that there is nothing they can do. If they steal less than $900, it’s not a felony and misdemeanors are not arrested, so they go into the supermarkets and steal liquor and the market managers do nothing. Told so by corporate, I suppose to not get involved.
It’s ridiculous and in a sense not compassionate to let the mentally ill make their own, very poor, decisions, to sleep out in all weather, to refuse help. They don’t have the mental capacity to make those decisions. It is really not compassionate to fuel their addictions by giving money to them.
