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The homeless situation

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Johnez:
I've noticed a few posters have mentioned this in threads where location is brought up and I was curious of places around the US (or outside it even since this forum is global). I live in Orange County all my life and have to say I've never seen anything like it. Right now parks around me are campgrounds in the day and everywhere I go seems like tents popping up. Cops usually run the homeless out, but the problem just shifts elsewhere. Last year before they got cleared out there was a river bed with dozens upon dozens of tents, as far as the eye could see. Turned out 700 homeless lived along a stretch, who all got temporary housing in motels that has since run out. Well, since they were cleared out they're everywhere now, parks, freeways, streets, etc. There are RVs, trucks, vans everywhere that Si for days beside the ones on the streets.

I have to say as a person who wants safe streets and parks, I'm pretty concerned for my neighborhood and my family's safety. As a person with empathy for those down on their luck, I feel for them. I could end up there one day. As a voting citizen, it bothers me that the city and county have done so little in the face of a growing problem. It also bothers me that other voting neighbors stymie any plan to put in low cost subsidized housing for fear of drugs and homeless where they live. I mean where do they expect the homeless to live, a jail cell? They're going to be in their neighborhood regardless, on the street or in a cheap dorm-pick one.

Anyway, not sure how widespread the issue is, but it feels like we're in denial and the other shoe is going to drop as far as our economy is concerned. In this part of the US, quite a noticeable portion of people are sinking, very close to sinking, or have completely sunk into deep poverty.

marble_faun:
A portion of the homelessness problem is related to the opioid epidemic. 

This article about drug addiction and homelessness in one Philadelphia neighborhood was just devastating: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/10/magazine/kensington-heroin-opioid-philadelphia.html

I feel a deep sense of despair about the whole thing. 

In my own neighborhood park, a public art installation has become a place for people to sell and use drugs. I have seen money and baggies of a white powdery substance changing hands while out walking my dog. People sleep on the grass, zonked out in the middle of the day. To me it's just so incredibly sad, a place of brokenness.

A few years ago it wasn't like this at all.  A treatment clinic for opioid addiction opened nearby right around the time I started to notice the problem.  There has been a fair amount of NIMBYism about the clinic, but... if our neighborhood shoos the people out, they'll just go to another park somewhere else. Shifting the location is not a solution.

Beyond the drug issue, our society is becoming more oligarchical.  The expansion of homeless camps in cities (and rural areas) across the US is just the most visible manifestation of the growing gulf between rich and poor. I do feel a sense of foreboding for our society if we keep going in this direction.  It's a massive, slow-moving tragedy that I wish we could find the will to solve.

Morning Glory:
Not all homeless people are drug addicts, although certainly we should do something as a society to help all homeless people whether they are drug addicts or not. (Or better yet, to prevent people from becoming drug addicts). There is a small but growing segment of working people and families who are homeless for whatever reason, mainly that rents are rising faster than wages in many cities, and public housing hasn't grown to accommodate increasing populations. Many other people are couch surfing and one step away from actual homelessness. Someone posted a NYT article about it fairly recently.

I have a relative who was evicted from public housing for failing too many inspections, after living there for 17 years. She is not a drug addict, just a bit lazy with a little hoarding behavior, and also a mild disability that prevents her from doing many higher paying jobs. She was working a full time minimum wage job at the time and could not find another place that she could afford, so she and three of her kids came to live with us for a while (after couch surfing for a couple weeks with friends and running out of options). She had no problem finding a job in our area but rent is more expensive and she has the eviction on her record plus poor credit. Her 19 year old daughter's name was also on the lease at the housing, so she now also has the eviction on her record with absolutely no credit record.

Where I live there is a lot of competition for scarce affordable housing, so landlords can afford to take only people with good credit and rental history.  TLDR it took five months for her to actually sign a lease and move out of my house (she is actually still here but moving out on the 1st). If we had not been able to take them in the kids probably would have ended up in foster care.

Many shelters and cheap housing options are not able to take families with children (my city has a limit of two people per bedroom in rental houses, for example). The free market here keeps  churning out more luxury apartment buildings and mcmansions. The government may need to start building projects again, so that everyone has shelter. People can cry Nimby but I saw one study (help me out here, I can't remember where) that housing the homeless pays for itself in decreased emergency room use alone.

chasesfish:
Have you considered volunteering or serving on the board of a local emergency services not for profit?

My perception changed dramatically once I got more involved.  It was something that was pushed for me to do by my employer and I've found it rewarding.

I say "emergency services" because poverty is an interesting cycle, plenty of people break out of it but there are also working class people who fall down into the trap.  I have a passion for the emergency services side of this because it helps stop people from falling down.  Emergency housing/food/utility assistance helps people fill the gap between loosing their job/medical and getting some benefits so they can stay in their house/apartment and not end up in the homeless camp.

Morning Glory:
Those services are great but pretty much non-existent in the rural area where my SIL was living. I was also taken aback by lack of support for families who are willing to take in their homeless relative. For example, my SIL could not qualify for food assistance while living at my house because there was a requirement that she have a separate kitchen. This meant that I was feeding an extra four people (I probably could have asked the food bank if I really needed to but I would rather just consider this my charitable contribution for the year)

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