this depressed the hell out of me ... 
Shithole country ...
- Thread starter Nick
- Start date
It is a huge problem here. I think statistically the worst in the country. The city keeps making real efforts to fix it. Public donors have opened several centers but the problem just keeps getting worse. Seattle just passed a levy especially for homeless, will see if throwing a bunch of money at it does anything.
I am not sure what is causing it. Housing prices are high but so is the minimum wage and there is a huge demand for workers. If you have kids your completely fucked though. I am sure that there are a lot of people who are homeless but don't look homeless, but the folks you see around here who clearly are, almost always have obvious substance or mental health issues. I suspect opioids are a big contributor, you can tell when a bunch of good heroin comes to town.
I am not sure what is causing it. Housing prices are high but so is the minimum wage and there is a huge demand for workers. If you have kids your completely fucked though. I am sure that there are a lot of people who are homeless but don't look homeless, but the folks you see around here who clearly are, almost always have obvious substance or mental health issues. I suspect opioids are a big contributor, you can tell when a bunch of good heroin comes to town.
We have lots of these camps in the city, mainly in areas like in the video, in tree-lines, down near the bicycle paths, etc. The setups were so elaborate over the summer that they had freaking solar panels and extension cords.
http://www.ktuu.com/video/?vid=469007593&vid=469007593
And yeah, it's something that as a society we just want to "go away", but we don't really understand how to address it. We have shelters in the city, but many of them do not want to go to the shelters, they want to stay on the street, drink alcohol, and so on. There is a huge amount of mental illness combined with people that can't just go "get a job" because they have no ID, address, clothes, personal hygiene, SS card, education, disabilities, illness, and so on. It's a multitude of issues to try and address and we'd rather spend money on "enforcement" or have "someone else take care of it". Some of the more specific issues here are that people get banned from their village due to drinking or crime and they end up on the street in Anchorage, because they can't go back to their village and they have no where to go. There are even a few very honest ones that stand on the corner with "I like beer" on cardboard, rather than "anything helps". I often ride by a few of the places where they pass out after buying alcohol when I commute to work and back. So the question always boils down to, do you really want to do something about this and put the resources into it that are necessary, or is it more important to build a few more sports complexes and city snow-plows?
http://www.ktuu.com/video/?vid=469007593&vid=469007593
And yeah, it's something that as a society we just want to "go away", but we don't really understand how to address it. We have shelters in the city, but many of them do not want to go to the shelters, they want to stay on the street, drink alcohol, and so on. There is a huge amount of mental illness combined with people that can't just go "get a job" because they have no ID, address, clothes, personal hygiene, SS card, education, disabilities, illness, and so on. It's a multitude of issues to try and address and we'd rather spend money on "enforcement" or have "someone else take care of it". Some of the more specific issues here are that people get banned from their village due to drinking or crime and they end up on the street in Anchorage, because they can't go back to their village and they have no where to go. There are even a few very honest ones that stand on the corner with "I like beer" on cardboard, rather than "anything helps". I often ride by a few of the places where they pass out after buying alcohol when I commute to work and back. So the question always boils down to, do you really want to do something about this and put the resources into it that are necessary, or is it more important to build a few more sports complexes and city snow-plows?
<republican speak>
By shitholling on them even harder to incentivize the losers of course!
</republican speak>
I don't think your society is mature enough to work that one out.
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minimum wage isn't that high. it's 13 right now? and rent is WAY higher. in what industry is there a huge demand for workers?
I think it bumped up to 14.at the beginning of the year. Not a huge amount of money but significantly higher than the national minimum wage. Either way I am pretty sure I could get by on minimum wage, it would suck, but a hell of a lot less than being homeless.
I keep reading that agriculture and service jobs are in high demand, again shitty jobs, but better than being homeless.
Like I said earlier, I am sure there are a whole bunch of working homeless in this town and they may be 90% of the population, they just aren't the people one identifies as homeless when walking around.
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There is work in oil, mining, fishing, state stuff that supports transportation, and so on. The problem is they often don't want to hire natives (the bulk of the homeless population) for some of these reasons. Programs are often not designed to fix the problems I mentioned above, the real reasons why people can not contribute to society, a few try to work on getting jobs, but rent is so out of control and some of these people are pretty old too. I'm not saying solutions are cheap and easy, but they require medical care, getting documents, education, shelter, and so on.
convenient timing ... paywall news site so view in incognito tab...
https://www.denverpost.com/2018/01/16/denver-day-works-program-homeless-jobs/
https://www.denverpost.com/2018/01/16/denver-day-works-program-homeless-jobs/
One variety of program that has worked in different European countries are 'city beautiful' programs. It uses government funding, so taxes, but keeps the city clean, pays and houses homeless, etc. People find homeless and trash unsightly, so you can either get rid of them and trash through force or through a helping hand. Personally I'm for a helping hand.
Side note: If you hadn't said that was Southern California, you could have assumed that to be any country in the temperate/tropical zones.
Side note: If you hadn't said that was Southern California, you could have assumed that to be any country in the temperate/tropical zones.
I believe you are way out of touch with some folks reality.
I'm guessing you are white AND rich?
I am just running the numbers and saying that high COL is not the sole reason for the homeless problem. And I am not basing that on imaginary rent numbers, but what friends of mine actually pay.I believe you are way out of touch with some folks reality.
I'm guessing you are white AND rich?
I am doing well for myself now, but that has not always been the case. I lived in this town from 2011-2013 during grad school as a 40 Y/O and survived off of savings, the equivalent of less than $15k/year. I only spent money on food, shelter and a car payment, it wasn't the easiest of living, but not terribly hard to pull off.
It has got to be *REALLY* hard for millenials, though - given that their list of "necessities" is so much more extensive than the list for us old fuckers.
The problem I think, is "homeless" makes it sound as if this is a singular issue. There are cultural and societal macro level issues to address, and then, as @Toshi points out, sometimes the problem is just an individual. @Nick post is a great response to what I think is a macro issue. To @Jm_ point, it proves that if a society is willing to put time and resources into an issue, you can address and help people. Probably not all of them, but perhaps the bulk. I think this is a (mostly) solvable problem, but do I think it will be? No. Because @DaveW is correct. I'm fairly dismissive of any claim that America is adult enough or empathetic enough to address an issue as complicated as homelessness. We can't even guarantee basic health care. Never mind address the economic inequality/race/mental health/drug addiction problems that are most often at the root of homelessness. The camps along the Santa Ana River in the OP Video are not an outlier. Because LA has decided not to break them up/prosecute these people, they have become more visible, but they've always been there, though they are growing. I travel enough, and because an airport is never in the good part of town, I see them everywhere. Its DEN, COS, PDX, BNA, DFW, SAT, OMA, etc, etc..... They are growing in every city. This will only get worse. We are living at, or near, the height of the second gilded age. When it all comes crashing down, the new Hoovervilles will only dwarf the ones along the Los Angeles or Santa Ana Rivers.
Quickly checked craigslist to make sure I wasn't out of my mind as far as rents are concerned. It would seem there plenty of free places to live around here if you are a gay house boy or are a couple who likes to swing.
It doesn't help that immigrants will do the same work for cheaper.
they should have a healthy amount of weed money to throw at the problem.....this depressed the hell out of me ...
It doesn't help that citizens just refuse to do the work. We have been over this before, you seem to mis-remember.
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/washington-apple-growers-scrambling-to-find-workers/
http://www.newsobserver.com/news/business/article160086719.html
https://www.sott.net/article/343257-North-Carolina-needed-6500-farm-workers-Only-7-Americans-stuck-it-out-to-the-end-of-the-season
even hippies are too lazy to work on a weed farm...friend employs plenty of costa ricans...
We could just pay people $30 an hour to pick food. Then pay everyone else more so they can afford food.
commie.
Portland has the largest teen homeless population in the country (or we did last time I heard a year or 2 ago). #1 reason for teen homelessness in Portland? Cheap black tar heroin, some of the best in the country as been told by the teens who move here for it.
Wait, your town has 'rentals' that aren't overpriced, untaxed airbnb listings?
Whoa. What's that like?
Seattle just passed a limiting airbnb rentals. Now we will have a few more overpriced regular rentals on the market.