It’s an absolute mess here in so Cal. Laws are not enforced, tents are everywhere and needles, trash, etc. Around the block from us is an old four-plex that is being torn down. It’s had a chain link fence around it for about 5 months. I walk everyday and in the past two weeks I have seen three people climbing over the fence to get into the property and four (different) people climbing out. I’ve called the cops each time, but it keeps happening. And recently a homeless person threw a cup of hot coffee on my daughter for no reason. And our local park where my daughter played as a child is practically a homeless camp.
I understand that it’s expensive to live here, but laws should be enforced. Tax-paying citizens should not have to deal with tents, trash, needles and aggressive homeless people.
I have heard a little bit about Housing First plans, and also about Wet Houses (vs Dry Houses—shelter that allows drugs & booze).
It’s a distressing problem. Drugs, mental health, prisons, hopelessness. 
This is one of the reasons cops don’t touch the sidewalk tents:
https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-homeless-9th-circuit-20180904-story.html
I really do think it’s mostly weather dependent. We live in the flyover midwest. sub-zero winter temps; feet of snow. You can not live outdoors here. You just can’t. We have some homeless, but nothing like we’ve seen in California. Our relatives in Chico CA were mentioning how the homeless are gathering there now.
Does sunny florida see many homeless out of curiosity ?
@bgbg4us - Florida cities take 11, 12 and 19 in this list.
https://www.acsh.org/news/2016/10/13/which-cities-have-most-homeless-people-10300
My d volunteers at a homeless shelter that provides a temporary place to stay and help finding a job and other resources. D was surprised how many kids were staying there.
Most there are addicts or recovering addicts.
We have an enormous drug crisis in this country.
Very helpful link, @OHMomof2
In an attempt to protect many patients and respect for the dignity of life, the courts and states took a hard look at institutional commitments.
They were poorly run and it was akin to imprisonment vs care.
So they were shuttered.
In turn another problem arose, chronic homelessness. It doesn’t explain all the issues but a piece of it.
The unemployable, long term mentally ill have very few options without family resources and time.
Then you add in a opioid crisis and other issues. It becomes a big problem.
The median house cost in Portland is north of $400k. I’ve watched the value of our previous house in close-in SE Portland rocket from $55k (our original purchase price) to $850k in the span of 30 years.
The housing market had cooled off in the past 6 months or so but it hasn’t appreciably dropped prices.
Sure, you can go way further out and get a house for $200k but your car better be quite reliable because you’ll be spending a lot of time in it. More people are moving up from California and finding actual bargains. It’s just that their view of a bargain is vastly different than that of long time residents.
It doesn’t surprise me at all that there are tons of homeless folks. There are families in tents. There are working people in tents. They aren’t all violent or mentally ill. The issue is so overwhelmingly huge I’m not sure where the solution is- just that it’s a multifaceted issue with no single solution.
The next mayoral candidate can run on this issue alone. Folks are fed up.
This is a very big subject in San Diego and especially the beach cities. The San Diego City Council had to repeal a law prohibiting sleeping in cars from a federal case. Suddenly, every beach and residential street has Van Lifers living permanently with no supporting sanitation or trash facilities. It is an uproar and a terrible mess. We have transients (we call them trolls) who are mentally ill or drug addicts permanently camped in the beach parks and on the streets. These people have no interest in shelters or any programs. For the majority, it has nothing to do with the cost of housing
The City government better come up with a solution quick because our economy is heavily based on tourism and I would not bring my family with young children anywhere near these beach parks
Many of the homeless (and potentially homeless) people are additcts. Sometimes they’ve had short term recover via inpatient treatment program, but when released there is no support system. I’ve heard that the Recovery Cafe organization, based in Seattle, has been making progress on this challenge … it gives me hope… https://recoverycafe.org/
A lot of homeless don’t want to go to shelters because they feel unsafe there. Lots of people sharing space leads to fights, theft, sexual assaults, etc. So many of those people who refuse to go to a shelter would gladly accept free or affordable housing. The cities on the west coast have very high cost of living. Where do you expect the people who serve your french fries or clean your hotel room to sleep? Now factor in children. You can’t live too far out because then your transportation costs are too high. It’s literally an untenable situation for many people. And then add on to that a soaring drug addiction crisis in this country with insufficient beds and inadequate health care coverage, insufficient mental health resources because the government incentivizes plastic surgeons and radiologists rather than psychiatrists by providing reimbursement for procedures at much higher rates than patient consults, and you have the mess you’re describing. Incarcerating people for being poor, mentally ill, or drug addicted is inhumane and ineffective. The way to address the housing crisis is to give people housing. It’s cheaper in the long term and certainly better for everyone involved.
The story about Rebecca Twigg that BB posted is tragic. A traumatic childhood, including homelessness, gold medals and walking away from it all.
She didn’t want to discuss mental health, but it’s pretty obvious there are issues.
Mary’s Place, referenced in the article is an amazing place, but they can’t do it all.
I’ve lived here all my life and yes, things have changed, but they’re also a lot the same. What’s happened? SRO housing downtown was replaced with rehabbed apt units renting for much more. Mental hospitals were closed in the 80’s and involuntary commitments are very difficult to get. People were pushed out onto the streets. Some shelters required attendance at religious services first.
No more cheap housing in the downtown core or areas immediately surrounding it.
A lot of people moved to the area thinking jobs!, but those jobs were skilled labor and they didn’t qualify.
Yeah, I hate the tents and the trash, but I don’t see how they can be eliminated entirely. I’d like to see one tent city org run out of town on a rail.
Yes, I think one of the reasons folks live in their cars at the parks is they can lock their cars, move the car to another place if chased away or harassed, and feel they have more autonomy.
Many of the shelters have limited hours—can only go there from 7 or 8pm and gave to leave by 8 am. They can’t remain there during the day and there may not be much privacy.
The only time police in NYC move homeless people to shelters involuntarily is when the weather is very, very cold.
New York City has a legal obligation to house the homeless. The shelters are far from perfect, but better and safer than they used to be. Homeless people with mental illness are referred to adult homes (where there are three meals a day and many services; again, by no means perfect but vastly improved over the past 20 years) and then if they are capable of living more independently, to supportive housing–apartments with support.
I am an MSW student (graduating May 23!). This academic year, I have worked at a day program for mentally ill adults. Most of our clients live in adult homes or supportive housing (most of the rest live with their families). The systems of support save money by keeping mentally ill adults out of the hospital and out of jails and prisons. None of our clients want to live on the street and none of them ever want to go to the hospital (although some realize that they must go when they decompensate). Adequate services keep them out.
And the shelters really can be unsafe, especially if you are young.
Its the laws that are allowing this to happen and the policies in cities such as San Francisco, Portland and Seattle. There is a common thread among these cities and the residents either continue to live with it or vote their leaders out. I could’’t even imagine visiting anymore. While we closed our mental institutions which is a problem in itself, its also a problem these cities allow people to live like this.
When the mental hospitals were closed, patients were supposed to be treated in community facilities. Those facilities never opened, and the former patients were abandoned to the streets. But that was a long time ago, starting in 1955. Presumably most of those patients are long gone.
It really isn’t the homeless families or the working homeless living in cars that people fear. There seem to be a lot of single men, usually mentally unbalanced or stoned and unemployed, who occupy many urban parks and public places in certain cities.
@roycroftmom, mentally ill, self-medicating, inadequately treated (if treated at all).