Helpful-Substance685 t1_ium8h3p wrote
Reply to comment by xCeladon in Homeless People in Lancaster CA Are Being Forced to Live in the Desert by xCeladon
This is a tricky issue. I live in an unincorporated area of Los Angeles and the homeless have moved in droves (hundreds of trailers and tents) to my neighborhood. There is trash everywhere, crime has spiked out of control, convenience businesses like 7eleven have closed because they were being robbed every week.
I am a bleeding heart that wants help for everyone but I am also a taxpaying citizen who wants to live in a safe neighborhood. My neighborhood was really decent before this and now it's like driving through a war torn trap house.
After two years of living in this, I just want it to stop and if forcing people out is how it has to get done then there is a huge part of me thats all for that.
I think living in the disgusting, unsafe reality of it changes your perspective on the whole matter.
Zerole00 t1_iumdlcv wrote
>I am a bleeding heart that wants help for everyone but I am also a taxpaying citizen who wants to live in a safe neighborhood. My neighborhood was really decent before this and now it's like driving through a war torn trap house.
>After two years of living in this, I just want it to stop and if forcing people out is how it has to get done then there is a huge part of me thats all for that.
It's easy to be sympathetic to the homeless until you start needing to worry about stepping on dirty needles. Compared to being infected with something because of that, I give zero shits about them.
I don't even go to public parks where the homeless hang out for fear of needles.
peaceville t1_iumslgz wrote
Exactly. Why should the needs of a few nasty entitled homeless drug abusers trump the entire community? Why can't I enjoy my own parks and hiking trails without fear?
The_Yarichin_Bitch t1_iunvl1g wrote
I mean, that greatly decreases with proper help for most of them being severely mentally and physically ill. But no one wants to use money for that (less than paying for the cleanup and management), instead they wanna let the problem become a problem... John Oliver did a whole show on it. I'm totally understanding of it being disgusting and dangerous, but we have a cheaper solution than what we're doing right now. And not doing that solution means this problem will be here to stay š®āšØ
focusedhocuspocus t1_iuo6eyd wrote
Thatās why safe injection sites should be more widespread. Safe disposal of needles, less risk of spreading diseases, and potential avenues for people to seek help.
peaceville t1_iupl209 wrote
We have those. They go to the trails and parks. Should we just set up sharps boxes on all the trails and in all the parks so drug abusers can just shoot meth anywhere they please? They completely take over and violently trash every river and bike path close to town. Our city does ok but they can't make anyone shit in an outhouse or throw their needles away, and apparently they can't be bothered.
It's gross and disrespectful to the community and it's not about having other options. They trash every space they take here.
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bigjohntucker t1_iuoffy3 wrote
Or your kidsā¦.as soon as a homeless person ruins a park/playground for kids, my tolerance is gone.
Bison256 t1_iumnnaf wrote
You are far from alone, if the Los Angeles, San Francisco and Sam Diego subreddits are anything to go by.
theolderyouget t1_iun39hf wrote
Boring, rainy, unglamorous Oregon is like this in every single āmajorā city.
If you think we arenāt pretending we are in some kind of depression, you are mistaken. We are being robbed blind by the oligarchs and there is no other explanation needed. I work, my partner works, we have college education. We did everything we were told to do and want the reward society told us we would get, butā¦ well big surprise. We were all lied to.
I voted, thatās the best I can do right now, I hope anyone reading this has also or will also vote.
hsrCwnS t1_iunwx6l wrote
First. You have to come to the realization that we as a group. Need to find the ones who can never take care of themselves regardless of sobriety and some form of structure and take them off the street. Nobody has a right to be homeless within 100miles of the ocean. Sure some regular people are homeless who have jobs. They have a streak of bad luck. They are just trying to make it one more day but if you canāt make it in LA. There is always Fresno. Too expensive to live in Fresno there is always Sgt. Bluff, Iowa.
We need sanatoriums again but this time without the torture and murder. They donāt need to be in the most expensive zip codes in the state of California. But only for the people in the state of California who are residents. You were shipped here on a bus from Tennessee 3 yrs ago or Nevada or Arizona. Send them back, donāt like that. Well California needs to stop taking care of other states homeless. We already subsidize these places economically in other ways.
Once the craziest and unable and the not from here homeless are taken care of. The state can go about trying to help those that are able to be helped. But 70% of these homeless are just not able to do anything for themselves and weāre paying for it financially and emotionally and we need to get something more permanent done.
DookieDemon t1_iupfosq wrote
Yeah, this is a lot of the consequence of not having structured places for people to just live somewhat long term while they get their head right.
Sanatoriums or mental health facilities. Whatever. Can't just keep these populations in jail or on the street, it just makes things worse for them and for us.
focusedhocuspocus t1_iuo6768 wrote
Thatās what a portion of taxes should go towards housing and solving the homelessness and opioid crises.
PapaRigpa t1_iuonaed wrote
True that. We all want a nice neighborhood, we want the lifestyle that we're accustomed to. I don't want trash on my lawn, I don't want homeless living on the street in front of my house. No one seems to have an easy answer to all this - we want the homeless and the crime and the garbage (not to mention the garbage we all generate every day) to just go 'away'. There is no 'away'.
BrutusGregori t1_iup19jf wrote
Bring back accountability. No one wants to own up to their fuck ups.
We need to start yanking rights. They do not have the right to be a community nuisance, to cause problems, to become a problem.
I was homeless for over a year. Lived out of a Nissan Xterra. Worked odd jobs on Craigslist and WWOOF work stay gigs. Kept my occupied. FYI, WWOOF sucks. It's a self governed job board.
Room and board is left up to the host and most hosts are so apathetic and just see you as free labor. Hated it. But I did do 4 stays, so I might do a few more next year. My xterra has no heating, other than the car heater. And I hate wasteful idling.
So you hold all those in the encampment. Run records. Criminals, straight to civilian conservation corps style work camp. Harsh. But I'm done being nice.
Drugs, to the sobering center. You get clean or die trying. Many would die from withdrawls.
Someone legit who needs help. Give help. They say no. To the CCC equivalent camps.
You get a skill, a place to work off your crimes. Sends a message. Tolerance is over.
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Taysir385 t1_iut66s9 wrote
> the homeless have moved in droves (hundreds of trailers and tents) to my neighborhood. There is trash everywhere, crime has spiked out of control, convenience businesses like 7eleven have closed because they were being robbed every week.
You don't have a problem with the homeless, friend. You have a problem with with thieves, litterbugs, and other criminals.
Helpful-Substance685 t1_iut8lk4 wrote
These things hardly happened until the homeless came to the neighborhood. It was not dirty and there was little crime. Correlation and causation are one in the same here.
It is a problem of homeless thieves, litterbugs and criminals that moved into my area 2+ years ago. If a problem didn't exist before they were here then their presence is causing the problem.
Taysir385 t1_iuthmw7 wrote
> These things hardly happened until the homeless came to the neighborhood.
No, these things never happened until the criminals came to the neighborhood.
Or are you seriously arguing that 100% of unhoused people are criminals?
Helpful-Substance685 t1_iutjf3k wrote
Nope.
But clearly you are seriously trying to troll or trying valiantly to miss the point. I don't know who the criminals are within the groups that moved in but I do know that these circumstances did not exist before those groups moved in.
I don't know how you like to live, but I don't want to live in a slum. California taxes (which I pay) are too damn high for me to have to live in filth and crime that neither myself, my neighbors nor the business owners in my area caused.
You can blame (or not blame) whoever you like but it doesn't change the fact that homelessness brings crime and filthy conditions.
Those are facts and that is the end of this silly conversation. Argue with yourself if you like.
Taysir385 t1_iuuir7z wrote
> You can blame (or not blame) whoever you like but it doesn't change the fact that homelessness brings crime and filthy conditions.
I genuinely hope that you yourself are never lumped in to a group of people you're not a part of, and blamed for their actions.
Stay safe, friend.
Helpful-Substance685 t1_iuuwcth wrote
You are saying that every person and situation should be treated individually and with dignity and you are 100% right about this.
I'm saying that my neighborhood has changed drastically for the worse because of a huge migration of people to my area. I didn't say everyone in that group is a criminal but crime has risen drastically and I didn't say everyone in this group litters but it looks like a landfill right around the corner from my house right now.
Your perspective (how an individual unhoused person is judged) and mine (how I'm affected by a drastic change in crime and trash in my area) are from different conversations and really shouldn't be addressed together.
Our goal is the same though. Help every single person in the way they uniquely need to be helped so that all of our issues can be addressed simultaneously.
You stay safe too and I hope you have a good night or day wherever you may be.
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Helpful-Substance685 t1_iumbnfb wrote
How the people who live in it feel about the issue is complicated not the solutions. The solutions you presented are simple and straight forward but they are not being implemented and my neighborhood is still functioning like hell on earth.
I vote and I am voting for any and every candidate who says they will fix this issue but when I see shit like this article about how Los Angeles is spending $1,000,000.00 (per fucking unit!) to build low income housing then my patience in those easy, straight forward solutions starts to dry up.
I'm living in it and if you aren't then you don't understand how your feelings about homelessness can become complicated.
Edited: Last paragraph because it wasn't a fair argument to make.
IamHere-4U t1_iumza68 wrote
If I am not mistaken, hasn't housing first basically saved money that would be spent on ambulances, hospital visits, shelters, jail visits, etc. that would be spent on homeless people?
I know in Seattle, for example, housing first ultimately cost taxpayers less money. It also saved money in North Carolina. I can try to look into more studies from the United States on cost reduction as it relates to housing first interventions, but it has certainly saved money in other nations it has been piloted in. I can continue doing research on this if you want exact figures, but it seems that a lot of the data is still being interpreted in many pilots.
> article about how Los Angeles is spending $1,000,000.00 (per fucking unit!)
I am not going to make a case for housing in this particular instance, or weigh in on if $1,000,000 is worth it, because, frankly, I am not equipped to discuss what the reasonable cost for a housing unit should be in LA.
However, what I do find in a lot of these discussions is that the money spent on an intervention is discussed in isolation. Articles will always emphasize how much money is spent in a given intervention, and not how much is spent otherwise, and in turn, saved via the intervention. This is why I am EXTREMELY skeptical when people push back against housing first.
jschubart t1_iun1zr7 wrote
My county has bought up hotels to house homeless. They own seven or so which can host over 700 people. While great, it is still only a fairly small chunk of our roughly 40k homeless.
People are fairly sick of seeing so much homelessness and think a shelter bed fixes the problem and if a homeless person rejects that bed, they simply want to be homeless. A shelter bed is a very temporary solution. Shelters are often run by religious organizations that can have pretty strict requirements (be in line at a specific time to get a bed and be out at a certain time) and can be hostile to some group's lifestyles (can't be with your partner, hostility to the LGBTQ community, etc). They also are not super secure for your stuff and can be violent. It is not too surprising that only a little over half get a shelter bed after a sweep (although it is never stated whether the beds are rejected or there just is not capacity).
It sucks. Often one city will offer some small amount of services and then homeless sweeps by nearby cities drive the homeless to the city offering services. We also get people sent here from other states via one way bus tickets.
The_Yarichin_Bitch t1_iunvy0q wrote
They are also worse abuse situations than living on the streets most, if not all, times.
The_Yarichin_Bitch t1_iunvrq6 wrote
That is less money than building structures to deter the homeless, cleanup, and arrests/ambulances.....
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Helpful-Substance685 t1_iumtoym wrote
Agree on most of your points but it's not a million per building. It's a million per (1) unit in that building. So a 30 unit building is 30 million.
30 mil to house 30-120 people is corruption. It's flagrant misuse of tax funding. BUT to your point, if funded and implemented properly then yes these are the solutions long term.
I think what you miss here is that everyone living in these areas knows what the answer is but nothing is being done while LA spends a million per unit to SLOWLY build as little housing and mental health infrastructure as possible. I am tired of living like this while my votes and tax dollars are screaming for solutions. You come live like this for 2+ years and then tell me how much time you're willing to spend in the muck and mire while those vaporous "solutions" are being pitched by people who are not affected by it.
Zerole00 t1_iume0bj wrote
Housing's just a symptom, a lot of the homeless have underlying addiction and mental issues that need to be addressed otherwise even if you give them an apartment they'll just wreck it. I think we need to bring back mental hospitals until they reach a point where they can transition to actually living on their own.
Source: I have a friend that's a social worker and another that manages our city's low income housing program
IamHere-4U t1_iumzzu2 wrote
>Housing's just a symptom, a lot of the homeless have underlying addiction and mental issues that need to be addressed otherwise even if you give them an apartment they'll just wreck it.
The problem is that a lot of these articles that talk about things such as homeless people tearing copper out of walls and selling them to get drugs, for example, are purely anecdotal. Do these things happen? Yes. Does everyone involved in housing first become a functioning, working member of society? No.
What focusing on these instances totally misses is the bigger picture... how much money is saved in housing first interventions? How much is homelessness, and pathologies related to homelessness, reduced overall? For these questions, we need hard quantitative data, not qualitative case instances.
So far, the data that I have looked at has implied housing first (a) saves taxpayer money, (b) reduces significantly, with housed individuals less likely to return to the streets, and (c) reduces health pathologies, including addiction, that are related to homelessness. This is the discussion we should be having.... in other words, what does the data say?
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jschubart t1_iun2jpb wrote
Housing (or lack of) can absolutely be a cause of drug use too. Sleeping on concrete every night and not getting any sleep because you are worried about being assaulted can leave many looking for anything to ease their pain or stress.
Housing should be the start of getting people back on track. That, at the very least, makes it easier to provide services to them because you know where you can contact them.
bubblegumdrops t1_iumf9qu wrote
Oh yeah, forcing people into indefinite confinement would do wonders for their mental health. What about the mental health problems caused by being homeless and abused by those in power? You think those are going to resolve in a bedlam house?
Zerole00 t1_iumfmrl wrote
They're definitely not getting better out in the streets, at least in a confined room they don't have to worry about being robbed / killed / raped. It's not the ideal solution, but it's better than them being in danger and bringing down neighborhoods.
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Bison256 t1_iumobcu wrote
So you prefer they rot on the street, victimizing those around them?
IamHere-4U t1_iun04tc wrote
This is a false dichotomy. I prefer housing over homelessness or institutionalization, and there is an amassing body of evidence that favors the efficacy of housing first interventions.
Bison256 t1_iun25n2 wrote
So when they ripe the housing up, or turn it into a drug and prostitution den the what you going do. You live on a Fantasyland.
IamHere-4U t1_iunc5p7 wrote
au contraire, u/Bison256. The quantitative evidence from housing first interventions suggests otherwise. In Seattle, a housing first intervention saved taxpayers over $4 million within a single year of operation. It also led to reduced alcohol consumption amongst rehoused people. In Charlotte, housing first had saved the county $2.4 million. Outside of the US, housing first has led to a decline in homlessness by 35% in Helsinki. 80% of homeless families in Brno, Czech Republic were able to sustain their flats after two years. Housing first has also been successful in reducing homelessness in Canada. The evidence in favor of housing first suggest that (a) once you put a roof over people's heads, pro-social behaviors are selected for, with decreases in crime, addiction, etc. as people are more eager to utilize social services, (b) taxpayer fees on shelters, jails, and hospitals are reduced, and (c) homelessness is reduced overall, with few people returning to the street.
>So when they ripe the housing up, or turn it into a drug and prostitution den the what you going do. You live on a Fantasyland.
Okay, so you are talking in hypotheticals. I am talking in hard data, and quantitative evidence. So, tell me, who is that is living in a fantasyland?
Bison256 t1_iundiag wrote
You realize Finland institutionalizes the mentally ill, yes?
IamHere-4U t1_iundwhb wrote
Many countries do, but Finland is more stringent around the circumstances that one can actually be institutionalized. And, no, it's not the case that the majority of homeless people were institutionalized. Most were re-housed. Your point here is moot.
Bison256 t1_iunewpr wrote
The people you see everyday on the street are mentally ill. That's who we are talking about here. A normal person doesnt scream randomly or attack people for no reason.
IamHere-4U t1_iunf8co wrote
>The people you see everyday on the street are mentally ill. That's who we are talking about here. A normal person doesnt scream randomly or attack people for no reason.
And 30% of Americans suffer from depression alone. There is a range of mental illnesses, some of which fully incapacitate people and some of which don't. Additionally, the impacts of mental illness are exacerbated by homelessness. Not everyone who is mentally ill screams randomly or attacks others. This is a gross exaggeration. Plenty of mentally ill people are productive, non-violent members of society.
Bison256 t1_iunfzrc wrote
I see you haven't seen or read the situation in the West coast cities or NYC.
IamHere-4U t1_iungo2a wrote
What about the study I linked from Seattle, a city on the West Coast? You know, the study I linked using statistical data? It doesn't seem like you have read anything about the impacts of housing first interventions outside of op-eds with frivolous anecdotes. Until you bring in hard, quantitative data, you aren't making a compelling point.
Bison256 t1_iunil6v wrote
IamHere-4U t1_iuniuqi wrote
Okay, so you linked a reddit comment section? Are these experts on housing who had conducted evidence-based, statistical research on the subject, or just residents who think they know everything about homelessness because they live in Seattle? If it is the latter, I am not interested.
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ForwardYak8823 t1_iuos5y5 wrote
Janitors at union station in LA say they need protection from being attacked while they try to work. You dont give a damn about helping people who clean up shit, get paid shit and have to go to go work everyday and get harrassed and some assaulted and treated like shit.
As fellow janitor I stand with them.
IamHere-4U t1_iupburq wrote
And by housing homeless people and giving them shelter and security, you keep them off the streets! In turn, they'd be less likely to commit acts of violence. This is the idea behind housing first... essentially, by housing the homeless, most are going to have happier, healthier lives and, in turn, be more tolerable to be around.
ForwardYak8823 t1_iupldl2 wrote
I am going be honest I have no idea how my comment ended up in a discussion between the 2 of you.
But how long is housing first going take? And who are the contractors receiving taxpayer's money?
Bison256 t1_iunhpiu wrote
Yeah they're doing a great job
IamHere-4U t1_iunio32 wrote
Everything you have listed is an op-ed, a news article opinion piece, not an actual study. It's all anecdotal data, nothing that is indicative of larger trends. As I have already discussed, this can all be dismissed on these pretenses, as it wasn't up to par with my terms of evidence that I had already laid out. Additionally, none of the links refer to housing first interventions in any capacity, so I have no idea what you are even trying to prove here.
Bison256 t1_iunj3sy wrote
Aa I said before you live in fantasy world. You hide behind your cherry picked studies and reject real world conditions
IamHere-4U t1_iunjdfz wrote
I live in a world of hard data. You live in a world of deflections. In other words, you are so many abstractions away from base reality that you cannot engage real world trends in any meaningful way. You make a lot of noise but no substance. Get lost.
Bison256 t1_iunk35j wrote
No you don't you live on fantasy your fantasy world were you ignore the actual realty for cherry picked data.
Oh here's another real world news article
IamHere-4U t1_iunk5xm wrote
Another op-ed? Yeah, try harder. Give me an actual study. Not a shitty op-ed that has nothing to do with housing first interventions.
Bison256 t1_iunkoz5 wrote
Sorry that the real world disagrees with your Utopia non sense.
IamHere-4U t1_iunl9lk wrote
If that were true, then you would easily be able to find actual, statistical data supporting your argument, but alas, you cannot.
Bison256 t1_iunofw1 wrote
I'm not writing a 10 page research paper for a diluted fool on Reddit. If real world evidence isn't enough for you you're hopeless.
IamHere-4U t1_iunov74 wrote
>I'm not writing a 10 page research paper for a diluted fool on Reddit.
What a pathetic deflection. I can see right through it.
>If real world evidence isn't enough for your hopeless.
You haven't provided any. Only shitty op-eds. You are only making a fool of yourself here.
Bison256 t1_iunpmn0 wrote
Photos and information on the situation on the ground isn't good enough for you. You're hopeless.
IamHere-4U t1_iunqhml wrote
If somehow you think incorporating photos in an opinion piece with no statistical data somehow informs how efficacious housing first interventions are, then you are completely deluded. If you were at least university educated, you should know the value of statistical data, but alas, I don't see any on your end, nor any that are related to the success (or lackthereof) of housing first interventions.
HungryHumble t1_iumcnex wrote
Iām sorry but what you described does in fact sound like a pretty complicated issue.
Bison256 t1_iumnzle wrote
The mentally ill and addict ones need to be involuntarily institutionalized. Something tells me you're against that.
bigjohntucker t1_iuog7cs wrote
Never going to build enough housing at the beach to make it affordable for all the people that want to live there.
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