Homeless Thread

CatsbyAZ · Post by **CatsbyAZ** » Mon Nov 18, 2019 2:04 pm

Living in California and regularly traveling through the West Coast's larger cities - Seattle, Portland, Bay Area, LA, PHX - the much talked about homelessness problem is only getting worse. Every time I return to Portland or LA the encampments that were even bigger the time before, are larger than ever. Large, grassy-embanked portions along the I-5 through Portland are completely lined with tent dwellers. Same in Central LA along I-5, where the silhouette of tent after tent lines the overpass sidewalks. Living in high rise living myself, the homeless set up tents or sleep right under the stars in the surrounding parking lots every night. A Police sponsored security patrol motions them out before the morning rush hour. It's gotten to be so many in past year that every time I step outside my building to hit a happy hour, ATM, Post Office, or 7/11 I take a pocket full of Nutri Grain bars with me as handout to those on the sidewalk asking for change.

Having a lot more to eventually say about all this, I figured we were due for a Thread on the very visibly growing homeless population, especially on the West Coast.

Merkin · Post by **Merkin** » Mon Nov 18, 2019 2:12 pm

One of my sons used to live downtown San Diego. The camps would take over a whole stretch of sidewalk where you could only walk on one side.

A couple years ago I was visiting my daughter in Hawaii. The homeless took over a complete city park near the Honolulu Costco.

Where I live in the central coast, the homeless started taking over the washes. After a number of fires were accidentally started, the cities around here started kicking them out. Not sure where they ended up. The city where I live close to (Santa Maria) put signs up at shopping plaza's exits stating panhandling is not allowed there.

cats101 · Post by **cats101** » Tue Nov 19, 2019 2:38 am

This thread is interesting to me because I just went to San Francisco this weekend. I haven't been since I was 12 and I'm 30 now.

It was eye opening for me because I didn't know it was that bad. Went from slightly terrified to somewhat sad. I couldn't believe a large concentration of people lived the way they did. Half seemed to be on hardcore drugs too. Even at 3am when I walked to get pizza, people were up doing crazy shit.

dovecanyoncat · Post by **dovecanyoncat** » Tue Nov 19, 2019 9:30 am

Portland was real shocker just a few years ago. The Monopoly game continues even through a constant economic expansion. Populism on the left and right will only increase as inequality rises.

Merkin · Post by **Merkin** » Tue Nov 19, 2019 9:35 am

I lived in SF in 1985-6 and homelessness was pretty bad back then. I lived in the Sunset, and Ocean Beach was the big homeless camp. The used to wash up at the laundromat I used to use near there.

Recall this one homeless lady who would just sit on the N Judah MUNI light rail and just go back and forth all day. No bathrooms on the MUNI, so she would just wet herself. No matter how crowded the MUNI was, no one would sit next to her.

CatsbyAZ · Post by **CatsbyAZ** » Wed Nov 20, 2019 12:14 pm

Merkin wrote:One of my sons used to live downtown San Diego. The camps would take over a whole stretch of sidewalk where you could only walk on one side.

Downtown is where I live now. From what I've seen the San Diego PD is a lot more proactive than LA, Bay Area, and Portland in their oversight of the downtown homeless. The homeless are allowed to set up encampments under and along the freeways away from the waterfront all week until they're uprooted (for tourism's sake?) by the weekend.

If they're sleeping on the downtown sidewalks they're left alone until morning when security patrols pedal by around 6 or 7am making sure they're OK, waking them up for the day, and handing out brochures for where to get showers, meals, and medical attention.

For anyone who knows downtown SD well enough, the big hot spots for camping are the two adjacent blocks surrounding the old library and the Main Post Office. The sidewalks are wide, a Salvation Army open to the homeless is across the street, and their tents are mostly away from sight OF the foot traffic of tourists and the nightly bar hoppers.

Merkin · Post by **Merkin** » Sat Nov 23, 2019 9:02 am

ASUHATER! · Post by **ASUHATER!** » Sat Nov 23, 2019 9:41 am

Merkin wrote:

Has a very Deep Space 9 "Past Tense" episode feel. In the star trek timeline in the late 2010s the government created Sanctuary Districts where homeless, mentally ill, and poor people were herded and locked inside basically ghettos so that they could be kept off the streets and away from the eyes of the more well off. They only got the most basic food/shelter/medical care provided. Seems like Trump wants the worst parts of Star trek to come true.

CatsbyAZ · Post by **CatsbyAZ** » Tue Jan 21, 2020 9:12 am

Unfortunately a homeless man died downtown. Ever since the start of the year te police have been a lot more aggressive about respondng to these situations.

Chicat · Post by **Chicat** » Tue Jan 21, 2020 9:50 am

An old friend who lives in Vallejo came to Chicago to visit family over the holidays. When she got home, she went out to her garage to get in her car to go to the store. She couldn't get into the garage however, because the door was locked from the inside. She then noticed that one of the two retractable garage doors was open.

She then heard loud noises and shouting and saw about 10 people run out into the alley from inside. When she got into the garage she said it was like something out of her nightmares.

While she went to the front yard to wait for the police, she heard glass breaking and ran back out to the garage and more people were in there, now breaking windows and being destructive. She called 911 again and told them they needed to get someone out here immediately.

When the cops arrived, they entered the space. It appeared that for an extended period of time, squatters lived in her garage. They shit and pissed on just about anything that was remaining and what was remaining was air mattresses that they'd set up, injection needles, used condoms, fast food wrappers, sheets where it looked like they set up dividers to make multiple sleeping/sex rooms, broken glass and garbage.

And then there was her car.... The engine had been pulled out and was half burnt on the ground, all the windows were broken, the inside was used as a toilet. All of her vintage typewriters, wood working tools, books, electronics, and collectibles were either stolen or destroyed.

Over the next week, people kept coming back and trying to break into her garage. She had the police out nearly every night to chase them away. She finally packed the rest of her shit up and moved out. She’s just too scared to stay there anymore, not that anyone would blame her.

I just cannot imagine that kind of nightmare. Just fucking awful...

Chicat · Post by **Chicat** » Tue Jan 21, 2020 2:17 pm

On a different note...

84Cat · Post by **84Cat** » Wed Feb 05, 2020 9:49 am

Merkin · Post by **Merkin** » Thu Feb 20, 2020 8:34 am

First the Muslims, then the migrants seeking asylum, now the homeless...

WildcatLouis · Post by **WildcatLouis** » Thu Feb 20, 2020 10:12 am

I cannot understand how homelessness has become such a partisan issue, or why people think that it is only an issue in liberal states like California. Places like Arizona (not exactly a liberal bastion) are also experiencing a surge in their homeless population as rising rents have outpaced wage growth.

Merkin · Post by **Merkin** » Thu Feb 20, 2020 10:16 am

WildcatLouis wrote:I cannot understand how homelessness has become such a partisan issue, or why people think that it is only an issue in liberal states like California. Places like Arizona (not exactly a liberal bastion) are also experiencing a surge in their homeless population as rising rents have outpaced wage growth.

Some retirees flocking to Arizona now homeless because of rising rents: ‘Not as affordable as used to be’

https://www.foxnews.com/us/silver-tsuna ... ss-phoenix" target="_blank

ASUHATER! · Post by **ASUHATER!** » Thu Feb 20, 2020 11:25 am

Arizona is still cheaper than a lot of places but it's getting more expensive by the day. Phoenix has the fastest rising rent prices in the US.

UAEebs86 · Post by **UAEebs86** » Thu Feb 20, 2020 11:29 am

Merkin wrote:
WildcatLouis wrote:I cannot understand how homelessness has become such a partisan issue, or why people think that it is only an issue in liberal states like California. Places like Arizona (not exactly a liberal bastion) are also experiencing a surge in their homeless population as rising rents have outpaced wage growth.

Some retirees flocking to Arizona now homeless because of rising rents: ‘Not as affordable as used to be’

https://www.foxnews.com/us/silver-tsuna ... ss-phoenix" target="_blank

The Californication of Arizona in effect.

ByJoveByJingle · Post by **ByJoveByJingle** » Thu Feb 20, 2020 2:05 pm

UAEebs86 wrote:
Merkin wrote:
WildcatLouis wrote:I cannot understand how homelessness has become such a partisan issue, or why people think that it is only an issue in liberal states like California. Places like Arizona (not exactly a liberal bastion) are also experiencing a surge in their homeless population as rising rents have outpaced wage growth.

Some retirees flocking to Arizona now homeless because of rising rents: ‘Not as affordable as used to be’

https://www.foxnews.com/us/silver-tsuna ... ss-phoenix" target="_blank

The Californication of Arizona in effect.

Glad I bought a home before it really kicks in. I’m working on plans for an addition and renovation right now—hoping to start construction this year. Maybe some California couple will want to pay me an unreasonable price to take the house off my hands when I’m done. Ok, maybe that whole train of thought is completely tone-deaf, given the topic of the thread. Just pretend I didn’t say all that.

ASUHATER! · Post by **ASUHATER!** » Thu Feb 20, 2020 2:28 pm

UAEebs86 wrote:
Merkin wrote:
WildcatLouis wrote:I cannot understand how homelessness has become such a partisan issue, or why people think that it is only an issue in liberal states like California. Places like Arizona (not exactly a liberal bastion) are also experiencing a surge in their homeless population as rising rents have outpaced wage growth.

Some retirees flocking to Arizona now homeless because of rising rents: ‘Not as affordable as used to be’

https://www.foxnews.com/us/silver-tsuna ... ss-phoenix" target="_blank

The Californication of Arizona in effect.

If they being an all Democrat state government with them then I'm all for it.

Merkin · Post by **Merkin** » Thu Feb 20, 2020 2:45 pm

I don't know any Californians who have moved to AZ in quite some time, maybe over 10 years. Some go to the PNW but so far most retirees just stay here. Mostly it's the young people moving out who can't afford a home.

My wife had a friend that moved to PHX 15 years ago or so.

Just me, but I could never go anyplace outside of coastal Cali only due to I like being outside and I can go outside pretty much every day of the year, and barbecue or do whatever I want puttering around. Along with the politics here being much more to my beliefs than shithole states like in the South and plains states.

PHX, especially, is way too hot, and Tucson is getting that way too with all the concrete and climate change.

BigSkyCatinMT · Post by **BigSkyCatinMT** » Thu Mar 05, 2020 6:02 pm

My Pharm company just lost our 3 biggest customers, and all of our organics. Tomorrow, I and a line lead from the Missoula facility have an arranged tour 27 miles away where we have presented ourselves as a package deal. If we fail, I could be homeless soon. But we the best team in the state.

dovecanyoncat · Post by **dovecanyoncat** » Thu Mar 05, 2020 6:19 pm

Best of luck. Bear down and keep the faith.

RichardCranium · Post by **RichardCranium** » Tue Mar 10, 2020 5:59 pm

UAEebs86 wrote:The Californication of Arizona in effect.

I started the "Don't Californicate Arizona" campaign (with a few friends) over 50 years ago. We had bumper stickers and billboards and everything. We sorta lost momentum when the radically violent 'Eco-Warriors' stuck their nose in and started destroying bulldozers and threatening people.

Merkin · Post by **Merkin** » Tue Jun 23, 2020 8:39 am

CatsbyAZ · Post by **CatsbyAZ** » Tue Jun 23, 2020 9:08 am

Thanks for the share.

Now that I've had more time to think the past few months (working from home) this is something bothering me - the economy killing pandemic's skyrocketing of homelessness. With homelessness an unfortunate problem during the last 8 - 10 years of having a productive economy I can't image how bad it'll get with an expected bad decade ahead of us.

To go along with homelessness - #CancelRent was a big topic trending on twitter yesterday, and as we get into August I believe this becomes a huge national issue, causing more protests and even civil unrest. For large parts of the nation August is a confluence of a number of temporary safety nets ending - the moratorium on student loans payment ends, the ban on evictions in many cities ends, federal unemployment benefits end, and later into the fall the six-month break on mortgage payments end. All this, with 40 million Americans losing their jobs in wake of the pandemic.

I'm really worried. We're only halfway through the year and circumstances are likely to get worsen before getting better.

ASUHATER! · Post by **ASUHATER!** » Tue Jun 23, 2020 10:19 am

A lot of people who have been hanging on by their fingernails since March are going to find themselves on the streets by September/October

azgreg · Post by **azgreg** » Tue Jun 23, 2020 10:44 am

Merkin wrote:

Don't they know all they have to do is pull themselves up by their bootstraps?

Merkin · Post by **Merkin** » Sat Mar 13, 2021 9:53 am

CatsbyAZ · Post by **CatsbyAZ** » Thu Mar 18, 2021 8:54 am

The tragedy posted below occurred earlier this week about 4 blocks from where I live in downtown San Diego. It really goes to show how we take the expression "living on the streets" for granted. With homeless sharing space with cars racing by, it's a surprise this doesn't happen more often. Just last summer the parking lot next to my building was cordoned off by police to recover the body of a man who'd been run over while sleeping on the pavement of a parking spot. Will be leaving prayer candles at the vigil this evening.

84Cat · Post by **84Cat** » Tue Apr 20, 2021 1:27 pm

UofAlum05 · Post by **UofAlum05** » Tue Apr 20, 2021 5:39 pm

80% of the homeless in LA County where in the foster system as children. It takes some some systems thinking to understand why homelessness exists. But the 1st step would be making sure kids aren't without parents.

Chicat · Post by **Chicat** » Tue May 04, 2021 6:42 am

azgreg · Post by **azgreg** » Tue May 04, 2021 7:42 am

Sure it costs money but the police have a blast harassing the homeless.

UofAlum05 · Post by **UofAlum05** » Tue May 04, 2021 8:59 am

Clearing Skid Row is going to be an absolute disaster. All it is going to do is spread the problem throughout Los Angeles. Judges and Politicians keeps demanding that streets be cleared while not providing funding for housing or social programs. And guess where most of them will end up? The Jail.

I was filling up my car yesterday and a 13 year old kid approached my car asking for money. You could see the meth scars on his hands and face. I handed him $10 and told him if Police bother him to ask for ODR which is my wife's program. 13!!

dovecanyoncat · Post by **dovecanyoncat** » Tue May 04, 2021 2:34 pm

We're in downtown San Diego at the moment. Perhaps I don't understand the dynamics of its homeless population but it seems as if there are much fewer homeless than I would have thought.

legallykenny · Post by **legallykenny** » Wed May 05, 2021 9:23 am

UofAlum05 wrote: ↑Tue May 04, 2021 8:59 am Clearing Skid Row is going to be an absolute disaster. All it is going to do is spread the problem throughout Los Angeles. Judges and Politicians keeps demanding that streets be cleared while not providing funding for housing or social programs. And guess where most of them will end up? The Jail.

I was filling up my car yesterday and a 13 year old kid approached my car asking for money. You could see the meth scars on his hands and face. I handed him $10 and told him if Police bother him to ask for ODR which is my wife's program. 13!!

They do provide funding, it just goes into politically connected developers' pockets to build 500k per unit "affordable housing".

Chicat · Post by **Chicat** » Wed May 05, 2021 9:38 am

Housing is the way out of this problem. But it has to be a comprehensive solution, not just incentives to build slightly cheaper than average condo buildings.

I'm really hopeful that the tiny home movement can be the solution here. Cheap to build and maintain, and affords people a measure of dignity and safety. It also allows couples to stay together and for people to have pets, which the current shelter system won't allow.

UofAlum05 · Post by **UofAlum05** » Wed May 05, 2021 10:21 am

Chicat wrote: ↑Wed May 05, 2021 9:38 am Housing is the way out of this problem. But it has to be a comprehensive solution, not just incentives to build slightly cheaper than average condo buildings.

I'm really hopeful that the tiny home movement can be the solution here. Cheap to build and maintain, and affords people a measure of dignity and safety. It also allows couples to stay together and for people to have pets, which the current shelter system won't allow.

One of the biggest issues that my wife is seeing that California shelters won't allow you to stay in them if you test positive for drugs or alcohol. So let's be realistic here, a lot of the homeless are victims of addiction and will stay on the street rather than confirm to that policy. NYC waived that policy and it has done a lot of good in getting people off the streets. She said the Department of Mental Health in California is just an evil, evil, organization. They are hogging a lot of the funding and not redistributing correctly at all. Her program aligned itself with the Department of Health Services and the money has flowed down much easier.

In terms of housing my wife's program has done a lot of good here. It gets people out of the jail and into a home where they can get medicated/treated for their Mental illnesses. They graduated 400 today who would have been on the street but now are rehabilitated/medicated and can get an income and their own housing.
https://dhs.lacounty.gov/office-of-dive ... d-reentry/

The biggest issue by far right now in LA County is that they do large jail releases and then gives them no where to go. They can't get a job or housing because they were in jail and they probably suffered a great deal amount of trauma while in jail (rape, assault, etc).

My wife says LA putting everyone in jail for extremely minor offenses and then just releasing is one of the biggest factors in the homeless crisis right now.

Merkin · Post by **Merkin** » Wed Jun 23, 2021 12:05 pm

Merkin · Post by **Merkin** » Mon Aug 30, 2021 5:54 pm

About 20 miles from me. The city of Santa Barbara (60 miles away) is also getting some too.

UAEebs86 · Post by **UAEebs86** » Sat Oct 02, 2021 8:30 pm

I guess they have been putting these up for over two years, saw my first one today:

Merkin · Post by **Merkin** » Wed Jan 11, 2023 9:04 am

Carcassdragger · Post by **Carcassdragger** » Wed Jan 11, 2023 10:28 am

Lately I've been watching the YouTube videos of a guy that's interviewing the homeless in Phoenix. Almost every single one of them are addicted to "blues" which apparently is fentanyl. Apparently the pills are real cheap and they're smoking them. So much sad humanity on these videos.

Our drug policy continues to be broken. Although we need an interdiction and enforcement component, we really need to move money towards education and treatment. Our present policy just doesn't work and never has.

Merkin · Post by **Merkin** » Wed Jan 11, 2023 2:03 pm

I never give money to the homeless, it just feeds their addictions. Either alcohol, cigarettes or booze, not paying for it for them. Not that I don't mind supporting those that need help. I used to volunteer in the kitchen at the homeless shelter for families.

The city I live near has parking meters that are used for donations for services to the homeless.

CatsbyAZ · Post by **CatsbyAZ** » Wed Mar 29, 2023 9:17 am

A buddy was telling me about their trip to Egypt, commenting how much of its population lives in Third World conditions, with a number living right on the walkways. Was thinking to myself - America has people living on the sidewalks too, especially in the Pacific Coast cities, though overall, yes, the U.S. is incomparably better off than what’s to be encountered in the Third World. But what’s vital to point out is a defining difference between the homeless in America and the rest of the world’s homeless. The masses of beggars seen in New Delhi, or the seven hundred thousand slum dwellers of Nairobi’s Kibera district, or throughout the unpowered barrios across Mexico – homelessness persists because of widespread poverty. What differs with homelessness in America is 99% of those living on the streets are there because of substance abuse.

In my own West Coast neighborhood, where “post-COVID” monthly homeless counts by city social workers are topping 2,000, this quote from a Portland non-profit homeless outreach comes to my mind nearly everyday: “Substance abuse is well documented as a contributor to homelessness, but it’s also established as a byproduct created by the trauma of living on the streets.“

For the rest of the world, replace “substance abuse” with “severe poverty”: “Severe poverty is well documented as a contributor to homelessness, but it’s also established as a byproduct created by the trauma of living on the streets.“

For all the many ways America stays a head above systemic plights plaguing the Third World – unstable currencies, endemic government corruption, permanent economic stagnation, and selectively enforced laws to name a few – along with obesity, America is uniquely suffering a targeted drug addiction reality. This is compounded by three fronts:

A) the vast over-prescription of highly addictive medications such as Percocets, Benzodiazepines, Adderall, Ambien, and Anti-depressants…

B) the rising recreational consumption of designer party drugs such as ecstasy, acids, and especially cocaine which is often supplemented with pills from Group A…

AND C) the focused influx of heroin, meth, counterfeit pills from Group A, and especially Fentanyl which is noticeably spiking street overdose numbers.

All three groups reinforce each other. A highly addictive Benzodiazepine like Klonopin, meant to treat panic disorders but somehow the sixth most prescribed medication in the U.S, conditions its consumers (mostly young women) to the life of an addict, thus greatly increasing the willingness Benzo consumers will opt for the dirtier street drugs of Group C.

My point in all this is America has a uniquely worrisome drug problem because America is the wealthiest and most willing drug customer across global drug market – A) wealthiest, because America can afford its drug habit AND B) most willing because decades of over-prescribing, dating back to Valium, has conditioned large portions of the population to addiction.

Nowhere else in the world is facing such a steep rise in overdose deaths:

dovecanyoncat · Post by **dovecanyoncat** » Wed Mar 29, 2023 9:35 am

I can't recall the %, but something in my aging brain says I heard that 20% of the world's population lives on less than $US10 per day. Whatever the actual # was, it was shocking. Compare that to what America's homeless likely "spend" on substance abuse and you have a telling comparison of what economies around the globe produce in terms of poverty.

I could never understand why conservatives would rue the coming to America of impoverished immigrants when immigrants are likely the class of folks most able to make do with very little and to avoid the mortality cited above.

Merkin · Post by **Merkin** » Mon Jul 10, 2023 7:34 am

CatsbyAZ · Post by **CatsbyAZ** » Tue Jul 11, 2023 11:42 am

Speaking of Phoenix, last week spent a very hot few days crashing in the Coronado neighborhood just north of downtown. Centering the mostly residential neighborhood is Coronado Park - of pale grass, baseball fields, and a kid's water park. It's a quiet place, and the few homeless who call it home are known throughout the residential streets as the "neighborhood homeless." As opposed to the more "transient homeless" whose drug abuse and noise result in police calls.

My hosts who live on the edge of the park and experience the difference explained how there was a guy living out of an RV alongside the park, rumbling his music and attracting "buyers" at all hours, likely for meth. The Phoenix PD ran him off after three weeks.

This in contrast to the pair who spend their aimless days beneath the shade minding their own business. I came across the two on a walk through the park. I offered them my bottled water but was turned down. Turns out they are a father and son pair. Ron and Joe in their fifties and twenties. They've lived like this in Coronado Park for six years. With deep red-sunned skin and subsisting on mostly ready-made pizzas and fried chicken from the a Circle K on Roosevelt.

A few months ago my hosts arranged for a social worker to give them a visit about enrolling in a housing program. She got nowhere in trying to open a dialogue. Fortunately for their sake, after six years of keeping to themselves and remaining some of the only drug free homeless you'll ever find, the neighborhood is happy to look out for them.

Merkin · Post by **Merkin** » Sun Mar 03, 2024 10:37 am

Chicat · Post by **Chicat** » Sun Mar 03, 2024 11:09 am

It being illegal to be un-housed is one of those things that people from other countries look at and decide that Americans are just the absolute fucking worst.

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