From "Democrats hate Trump’s plan for homelessness. But it’s their plan, too/Liberal cities have treated homelessness like a crime for years" by Berkeley PhD candidate Chris Herring (WaPo).
From Trump's plan (released last Monday):
“Of course, policies intended solely to arrest or jail homeless people simply because they are homeless are inhumane and wrong. At the same time, when paired with effective services, policing may be an important tool to help move people off the street and into shelter or housing.”Herring opines:
Trump’s infusion of federal money and policy directives may merely expand this punitive approach. So the criticism by West Coast politicians of his attempt to “fix” homelessness in liberal cities is accurate: It won’t work, and we know that because their own punitive plans haven’t worked, either....That is, the rhetoric is different — tapping left/right ideology — but the proffered solution is the same unworkable thing. Herring gives the Democrats a minimal pat on the head — "at least" they "see" what they always see.
While Democratic politicians criminalize homelessness, they at least see its root causes in stagnating wages and a lack of government-funded affordable housing — diagnoses supported by research. Trump, on the other hand, blames high taxes, overregulation, poor public service delivery, mental illness and drug addiction.
Posts
81 comments:
this is JUST LIKE the problems faced by the Autistic Peoples !
Neurotypical People NEED TO REALIZE that The Reason WHY they are working, is to provide for those that don't WANT to work
FROM EACH ACCORDING TO THEIR ABILITIES, TO EACH ACCORDING TO THEIR WANTS AND DESIRES
If homeless people want to live in squalor, it's YOUR RESPONSIBILITY to provide warm food and shelter for them!!
The best solution for homelessness is to bring in millions of illegal aliens to compete for entry level jobs and cheap housing.
"I spent 57 nights in 2014 and 2015 sleeping on the streets..."
Mayor Lond Breed: I'm sorry, hon'. Would it really make it easier for you if we settled on just one number?
Chirs Herring: Yeah. Just one, real, simple number that'd be easy for me to remember.
While Democratic politicians criminalize homelessness, they at least see its root causes in stagnating wages ...
Wages at the bottom have been going up under Trump. But explaining that to a Democrat is like trying to explain the consistency of the fossil record to a creationist. The response is denial.
Stagnating wages and the high cost of housing are irrelevant if one doesn't have a job.
Shorter Dems: we need to take away your healthcare and leave the homeless situation as it is.
Let's play the WhatIf game!!
What if;
we address the
"root causes" of "stagnating wages and a lack of government-funded affordable housing" ?
What IF, we RAISED the minimum wage, and provided section 8 housing? Would that solve the problem?
DID that solve the problem?
Now, What IF;
we addressed
poor public service delivery, mental illness and drug addiction
What if? We started locking up, and/or TREATING mental illness?
Would that solve the problem?
To quote Theodoric of York, Medieval Barber.... NAH!!
What wages?
--Homeless guy taking a dump on the street
"a lack of government-funded affordable housing"
Of course, local governments in most big cities have outlawed private-sector affordable housing via restrictive zoning that drives up prices. You don't hear much about a lack of affordable housing in Houston, which has no zoning.
Actually, her name is London Breed, the absurd end of the unaccountably stupid trend of naming girls after London suburbs, though only the wealthy and fashionable ones. I never encountered a Havering or a Newham.
I was at dinner last night outnumbered five to one by Trump haters. When they started talking about how superious Democrats were on this or that, it was like suddenly they all had a hand under the table masturbating. There is really no reasoning people out of positions they never reasoned themselves into in the first place.
It doesn’t help that liberals are in complete denial of the law of supply and demand. Or as HoaxPPTapes says, “They have a more sophisticated understanding of it."
While Democratic politicians criminalize homelessness, they at least see its root causes in stagnating wages and a lack of government-funded affordable housing
I don't believe those are the root causes.
My hint in this story is: people who are afraid to go to the hospital because their tents will be gone. People who need the hospital for (mental illness? addiction? both?) and won't go because of a tent aren't homeless because wages are stagnating.
Oops, the previous comment was me, logged into Google on my work account.
Both of the "Unknown" comments were mine. It appears that not only do you have to log in to your Google account, you also have to sign out of any other Google account you're logged in to for Blogger to pick it up correctly.
The difference is Trump will keep adjusting his plan until it works, like he’s doing at the Southern border, while the left announces a big plan to “fix” something and then runs off to “fix” something else while it flounders and fails.
"Stagnating wages and the high cost of housing are irrelevant if one doesn't have a job. “
Who are you going to hire to do manual labor? The illegal who is standing by the road down near the Home Depot eager to work, or some homeless guy? How does that high school dropout get a job when illegals are right there willing to do any job he is actually qualified for by his strong back, at a minimum?
We can’t ignore these people or they become a problem for us. It’s self interest.
Skylark comes close to a REAL SOLUTION when he said...
The best solution for homelessness is to bring in millions of illegal aliens to compete for entry level jobs and cheap housing
I really think you ARE onto something Skylark!
Once MS-13 controls the streets; the numbers of (white) street people will drop dramatically!
Think of it!
Once there are hordes of murderous hispanic thugs roaming the streets; Killing ANYONE not affiliated with their gangs.... You're Just NOT going to have problems with poor white trash littering the streets: As least, not for long
"While Democratic politicians criminalize homelessness, they at least see its root causes in stagnating wages and a lack of government-funded affordable housing"
Amazing how this guy (girl?) Can spend so much time on the street and come to this conclusion.
My six years of working on a church sponsored program told me a different story. Virtually 100% of the people we worked with ended up on the street and remained there due to drug addiction and alcoholism. Many had families that would take them in and care for them if they would just dry out and straighten out their lives. Of the 70 or so we tried to help, I only know of one who was able to do so.
Stagnating wages? What contributes to that?
How does that high school dropout get a job when illegals are right there willing to do any job he is actually qualified for by his strong back, at a minimum?
Such a good point, skylark.
I also like that Althouse points out the Democrats get patted on the head for seeing what they always see. The cure for homelessness seems to be about the same as the cure for global warming.
"Once MS-13 controls the streets; the numbers of (white) street people will drop dramatically! “
Back at ya! You never saw a lot of homeless people around the North End of Boston when Whitey Bulger was running things out of “The Doghouse” on Prince Street.
If the root causes of people living on the street are stagnating wages and the high cost of housing the voters and elected officials of these cities and states can fix them by mandating the creation of jobs, at higher wages, and the public funding and building of low cost housing. A simple solution to a self-described simple problem.
But they don't do it, so I have to ask why? A cynic (me) would say it is because they don't care about fixing the problem (and helping the street people) they care about perpetuating the problem so that they can use it to attack their political opponents.
Or...they could clean themselves up, LEAVE California, get a job in almost any other state (except those also overrun by Dems such as Oregon, Washington, New York, etc., and earn a wage that will meet the cost of living in those areas.
For those on drugs: quit the drugs and get on with life, or...die in the streets. Its really your choice. Hate to tell you, but Nancy Reagan was right. It's gotta come from within you. No one else can do it for you. So you gotta want to live.
For those in need of mental health help: we need to open hospitals and help centers for the mentally ill again. New facilities with modern care that will be levels above a typical VA hospital. The VA is not where you want to send these people. A government run facility is not a first choice for help.
Really- those are the three choices. To take the standards of western civilization and lower them to meet those shitting in the streets seems...well, not just anti-productive, but stupid. Anti-life. Who in their right mind would want to live in a city that promotes that?
"root causes in stagnating wages and a lack of government-funded affordable housing"
My wage stagnates, therefore I go live on the streets.
The government doesn't pay for my house, therefore I go live on the streets.
Right.
""at least" they "see" what they always see."
And nothing else -- except Orange Man, like all GOPers, Bad, Very Bad.
"While Democratic politicians criminalize homelessness, they at least see its root causes in stagnating wages and a lack of government-funded affordable housing — diagnoses supported by research."
Bull Hockey! Honest studies show no such thing.
As anyone who has hired workers over the past two years can tell you, wages are not stagnating, they are growing and growing faster at the low end of the wage scale than the high end. This is the inevitable result of low unemployment, and because of low unemployment, the US wage growth is higher than any of the other Western countries.
Housing in California is not affordable because the state and local governments of California choose to make it so via land use restrictions, onerous environmental regulations, red tape and extremely high fees which keep property valuations, hence taxes, high. This was true when I moved to California in 1971, it was true when I left California in 1996, and still true today. The dirty little secret of Californian real estate is that return to a normal housing market would bankrupt not only the state and local governments, but also the current property owners who have been forced to purchase at ever more inflated prices for at least the last 40 years. So, rather than allowing more housing to be built so that the market could correct itself, the Cali politicians' solution is always to have the government manipulate the market through "affordable housing" laws that only serve to reduce the number of housing units available and drive up the prices even more.
they at least see its root causes in stagnating wages and a lack of government-funded affordable housing
Their solutions don’t work, but they believe the right things. Which is what really matters.
If they hadn’t let in millions of illegals into California by setting their own separate immigration policy, maybe they would have more water to go around, maybe they wouldn’t need to so highly regulate housing....
Just a thought.
An immutable law: The more you subsidize something, the more you will get of it.
So keep feeding those who shit in the street. Keep sending waves of social workers and religious do-gooders to study and "provide services" to them.
The liberals have no other prescriptions to offer.
Addiction and mental health issues are leading causes of homelessness. This isn't the dust bowl 30s, but the answers of that time still drive the politics. Because people don't want to address how devastating alcoholism and drug addiction is because that would mean addressing favored vices. Addressing mental health means admitting we need more care facilities and that some people don't have ability to regulate their own care. So we coddle the dysfunctions rather than address core issues. But that is the way of politics, which wants problems to continue so that it
s power can be seen as a 'solution'
Recognizing "root causes" is a Democrat conceit. They congratulate themselves for being smarter than everyone else and seeing deeper into things. I think that started with the silly philosopher Marx and it has been a tradition on the left ever since. I wonder what the "root causes" of the left always screwing up are?
The first order problem is that many if not most of the homeless are mentally ill and self medicating substance abusers par excellence. The rest of the discussion beyond this is just noise.
they at least see its root causes in stagnating wages and a lack of government-funded affordable housing — diagnoses supported by research.
Bullshit.
Via Lucianne:
...California Gov. Newsom seized the moment and fired off a letter to President Trump demanding more money — so the local government can fix what it created.
“California requests you immediately act to address the need for more housing options for the homeless,” the letter states.
Newsom and state officials requested 50,000 more vouchers to tackle the homelessness and asked that the value of the vouchers be increased due to the high cost of living and rent in the state. And that was only a small part of funding requests.
The Trump administration rejected the request, laying blame where it belongs… on local leaders who created with the problem.
Ben Carson made it extra clear where the Trump administration stands in a brutally honest letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom and state officials, ABC 7 reported.
“Your letter seeks more Federal dollars for California from hardworking American taxpayers but fails to admit that your State and local policies have played a major role in creating the current crisis,” Carson wrote....
Because people don't want to address how devastating alcoholism and drug addiction is because that would mean addressing favored vices. Addressing mental health means admitting we need more care facilities and that some people don't have ability to regulate their own care.
People blame Reagan for homelessness.
All he did was sign the paper. He didn’t wake up one morning and say. I’m going to close the facilities and throw people into the street.
The advocate movement did this. They have rights, don’t lock them up, integrate them into society and yes, they have the right not to take their medicine.
Seems just like the schools now.
For those on drugs: quit the drugs and get on with life, or...die in the streets. Its really your choice. Hate to tell you, but Nancy Reagan was right. It's gotta come from within you. No one else can do it for you. So you gotta want to live.
Not only was she right, that campaign was working.
Now we’re going to be a nation of potheads with a 15-20% psychosis rate.
I’m glad I’m the age I’m at.
Those’ll be your next door neighbors, kids.
And your going to have to tolerate it, cos “it’s fair and you care.”
Unless you build a wall....lololol.
The Dem party wants chaos. Most ill-used people out of time spent in government facilities (prison), living next to you and no means to protect yourself. Because they love humanity.
Blogger Paddy O said...
Addiction and mental health issues are leading causes of homelessness.
I disagree.
There is but one cause for this current homeless/street living epidemic, and that is drug addiction.
If you ask me, this massive infusion of heroin/fentynol is being facilitated as a form of eugenics.
That's why no one talks about these drugs specifically, and use opioid. Recently, the Mexican navy seized 26 tons (yes, tons) of fentynol from a Chinese ship headed to offload in a Mexican port.
This stuff is rat poison for white people, and does more to explain why liberals want the border open than anything else.
"of fentynol from a Chinese ship headed to offload in a Mexican port.”
The British did the same thing to the Chinese once.
n 1820, before the first Opium War, China's economy was the largest in the world, according to British economist Angus Maddison.[3] In another investigative report published by Michael Cemblast of JP Morgan and updated by the World Economic Forum, similar conclusions were reached—i.e., China's economy was the largest in the world for many centuries until the Opium Wars.[3][4] Furthermore, China was a net exporter, and had large trade surpluses with most Western countries. Within a decade after the end, and as a result of the Second Opium War, China's share of global GDP had fallen by half, and its sovereignty over its territory was seriously compromised until the end of World War II, and the retrocession of Hong Kong and Macao at the end of the 20th century. [4]
....
In the late 18th century, the British East India Company or EIC, contravening Chinese laws, began smuggling Indian opium to China through various means, and became the leading suppliers by 1773.[8] By 1787, the Company was illegally sending 4,000 chests of opium to China a year, each chest weighing 170 lbs or 77 kilos.[9] By 1828, opium accounted for 16% of the EIC's total revenue, while 10% of British government taxes came from the tea imported as a result. The EIC paid its opium agents £7,500 per year, a salary higher than that received by the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the trade drove the expansion of British India. One factor in the annexation of Sindh in 1843 was to protect the EIC monopoly, which was threatened by the export of opium from Karachi aboard Portuguese trading vessels.[10
PhD candidate puts agenda before facts. That should be an oxymoron, but in this day and age it is the new normal.
I agree with browning. People who work with the homeless will tell you that's jusf about all it is, drugs. If you're doing opiates you don't gaf. If course that's interpreted as "mental illness" pet se do let's get them on an Rx drug cocktail and really fuck them up for life. Or, maybe that's how they started, with a little Prozac and Ritalin...
There was a pbs documentary about 8 years ago re young drug addicts living on the streets of Seattle. It was the cool thing to do. You could score there, and sell your body to pay for it.
And so it started.
While Democratic politicians criminalize homelessness, they at least see its root causes in stagnating wages and a lack of government-funded affordable housing
This is a bald faced lie.
I took my students to homeless shelters back when the problem was mild compared to now and the directors of shelters told us that the homeless were 60% psychotic and 60% addicts, half of each group was both. "Situational Homeless," ie job loss living in their cars were less than 10% and usually less than a month in that situation. Children were moved to shelters immediately and those still still not in shelters after a week were usually the children of psychotic parents who were hiding them.
I doubt much has changed but the numbers.
While Democratic politicians criminalize homelessness, they at least see its root causes in stagnating wages
Wages aren't stagnating, they're rising under Trump.
and a lack of government-funded affordable housing — diagnoses supported by research
No, it's a lack of affordable housing caused by government regulation.
However both of these issues are inconsequential. The vast majority of homeless are unemployable, uninterested in work, and unable to maintain a home. They are mentally ill, addicted and unwilling.
It's the same as with illegal immigration. If no one else is willing to do anything about homelessness, eventually the people who care about the issue will turn to Trump because he is prepared to try stuff, even if they don't actually like him.
In the late 18th century, the British East India Company or EIC, contravening Chinese laws, began smuggling Indian opium to China through various means,
That may be one version. The more accepted version is that tea became the drink of choice in Britain, probably because boiled water was safer. The Empress of China refused to sell tea for anything but silver bullion. Tea plants could also not be exported. Soon Britain was shipping all its silver to China for tea. The solution was found by smuggling opium into China and selling it (through Chinese factors) for silver. Thus the trade circle was complete. Eventually, tea plants were smuggled out of China and found to grow well in India. Most tea consumed in Britain is, and was by mid 19th century, grown in India.
Blogger is determined not to allow this comment
Who remembers Joyce Brown, aka Billie Boggs.Back in 1987, Koch, the Democrat Mayor of NYC, had her involuntarily committed. She had been defecating on the street and urinating on money people gave her while living on a street grate.After a few weeks of treatment she was a presentable person again and had returned to living with her family.Then the ACLU stepped in.They sued saying Brown should not be forcibly medicated as she was not a danger to herself or others.The ACLU won and Brown returned to living on the street, shitting and pissing all over.That precedent still prevents forcible treatment of most mentally ill on the streets.
What Gahrie said...
I did the ride along/outreach thing for a while, too. My experience mirrors what others are saying here- there's a couple cases of severe mental illness, a few less severe mentally ill but unable to hold a job, a few scammers, a rare down on my luck story. The vast majority are addicts uninterested in anything else but drugs.
I'll never understand why people believe it's compassionate to let people sleep in the street.
“While Democratic politicians criminalize homelessness, they at least see its root causes in stagnating wages and a lack of government-funded affordable housing”
When I see something like this, I often cannot decide if the leftist making a statement like that completely lacks self awareness, or is just so willing to prostrate themselves for the cause that they just look silly.
As others have pointed out here, wages have been rising under Trump, even with the flood of illegals into this sanctuary state. They just got used to wage stagnation, thanks to the eight year Obama Recession. And, of course if you had to add one name to the list of those most the responsible for that recession to Obama’s, it would be that of Speaker Pelosi, who was one of the strongest supporters of Keynesian stimulus, predicting at one point that the Keynesian multiplier would be 4.5-5. Reality, of course, is that it never exceeds 1. It can’t. Her idea seemed to have been that the way to get the economy expanding was with government spending (long discredited Keynesian economics), and since it didn’t matter how the government spent that money, just that they spent it, so they might as well give it to cronies and family members.
The other humorous aspect of this was that HUD Sec Carson just sent a letter to CA telling them that the Feds were cutting their federal funds for affordable housing because of the rampant abuse there. CA doesn’t have money for govt funded affordable housing because of runaway pension costs for government employees, ridiculous land use and building requirements, and the state flushing billions down the drain on liberal causes, running from the Bullet Train to Nowhere to free medical care (and voting rights) to illegals. Why should the rest of the country pay for that state’s idiotic policies?
To summarize, the left is whining because they have destroyed the Golden state’s economy, and want the rest of the country to bail them out with massive transfers of monies from the more frugal, and much more sane states. They are being thwarted, and so have resorted to the whining.
PhD candidate needs to toe the party line, or will never be a PhD.
60% of Scientic Papers published are not reproducible.
Ca has 50% of the US homeless population.
Berkeley/ Silicon Valley / SF has among the highest rents in the nation.
Due to economics, the only housing being built without subsidies, is high end.
In the Bay Area, there is lots of green space.
Sf has had rent control since 1979.
Berkeley has had rent control since 1980, they claim it’s the strictest in the nation.
Renters with rent control are anti development, since they don’t want to lose their below market rents.
Rent control reduces the supply of available units to rent / vacancies, that results in higher prices.
the way to get the economy expanding was with government spending (long discredited Keynesian economics),
Poor Keynes is dead and cannot complain about the evil done in his name.
His theory, as I understand it, was to use countercyclical government monetary practice. When the economy was in recession, spend in deficit. When economic times recovered, run surpluses to drain excess liquidity.
What he seems not to have understood was that he was giving politicians an excuse to spend no matter what the economy was doing.
Average Rents Bay Area:
Berkeley
1BR - $2712
2BR - $3593
https://www.rentjungle.com/average-rent-in-berkeley-rent-trends/
San Franscisco
1BR - $3600
2BR $4,690
https://www.rentjungle.com/average-rent-in-san-francisco-rent-trends/
San Jose
1BR - $2693
2BR - 3,301
https://www.rentjungle.com/average-rent-in-san-jose-rent-trends/
All the above cities have rent control.
It appears that ALL of California will have rent control, with a 5% plus inflation allowed increase per year. It's on the Governors desk. AB1482, sigh. It only allows just cause evictions. At least no vacancy control, yet...
San Fransisco Bay Area is not representative of all of California, much less the nation.
The rents are super crazy,lots of regulations so almost impossible to build new housing stock, lots of areas not open to development, and environmental lawsuits are a piece of cake, so very easy to stop new development. Lots of high paying jobs in Silicon Valley, that can can afford higher rents. Lots of jobs in general.
So there is a shortage of affordable housing in the Bay Area due to rent control, NIMBY, and assorted regulations /laws.
On El Camino, a major street that runs by Stanford University and close to Google, you can see parked a lot of Motor Homes.
From anecdotal information, such as the Adjunct San Jose Professor, there are some homeless that have jobs that appears in many articles.
Homeless San Jose State Professor Struggles Living Out Of Her Car
So you have a combination of homeless in the SF Area.
Some people with jobs that are homeless,
A LOT with mental and drug issues.
And the change in CA Law makes it harder to put people in jail, so police don't even bother to arrest. This brings down the quality of life.
Another person in SF got attacked by a homeless, this one was trying to protect her from robots...
Another SF attack spotlights city's mental illness and drug addiction crisis
There is a video of this, so it's getting more press.
so, how long before homeless people start killing, and Eating other people?
When hordes of cannibalistic murderers start roaming the Bay Area, will the ACLU defend them?
{ha ha! Just Kidding! Of COURSE the ACLU will defend them}
from Ray's link...
he told her, “I just want to smell your flowers,” grabbed her, pressed his nose and mouth into her breasts and attempted to remove her dress and bra.
“I screamed and said, ‘Get the f— off me!’” recounted the 28-year-old designer at a startup. She ran north on Third Street, and the man followed her. She told him she’d call the police if he didn’t leave her alone. He laughed and said, “The cops aren’t going to do nothing,” she recalled.
At least he just wanted to smell her flowers; instead of making a salad of them
The homeless problem can never be fixed unless we do uncomfortable, politically incorrect things that make us feel bad, but actually help people move out of it. I'm starting to see politics as the system that prevents effective action by masturbating over why action can't be done. It's the art of proposing what can not work to avoid doing what will.
Revitalization. Rehabilitation. Reconciliation.
1) Enforce vagrancy law.
2) Make it legal to pay people in cash for up to 30 days without any paperwork, or regulations.
4) Waive all but the most essential building permit regulations for low cost housing construction, and subsidize the homeless who move off the street for an initial period of time of maybe 90 days, but only once per year. If you screw that up, you can go to another town and do it again.
There is a lot of work that needs done in this country that cannot be done at a reasonable cost becuase of regulations on employment and most of all becuase of lawyers who exploit those regulations.
If I could do it legally, and be protected from liability, I'd tell a homeless person to clean the trash off this block, and I'll pay you $100. Keep it clean and I'll pay you another $50 a week. Doing this currently would get me sued and or fined. Make that legal and panhandling illegal, and imagine what might happen. People could be proud of how they make money instead of ashamed.
Seeing Red said...
For those on drugs: quit the drugs and get on with life, or...die in the streets. Its really your choice. Hate to tell you, but Nancy Reagan was right. It's gotta come from within you. No one else can do it for you. So you gotta want to live.
Not only was she right, that campaign was working.
Now we’re going to be a nation of potheads with a 15-20% psychosis rate.
And increasing numbers of CHS suffering and death.
https://www.webmd.com/mental-health/addiction/news/20170221/vomiting-syndrome-on-the-rise-in-heavy-pot-smokers#1
“I screamed and said, ‘Get the f— off me!’” recounted the 28-year-old designer at a startup. She ran north on Third Street, and the man followed her. She told him she’d call the police if he didn’t leave her alone. He laughed and said, “The cops aren’t going to do nothing,” she recalled.
Another concealed carry argument.
In engineering, Root Cause Failure Analysis (RCFA) has the 5 whys, so that you don't just stop at the first "root cause" and assume that's it. So why do these places have stagnation and high home prices? I think Ray is on to something.
Average Rent in Houston:
1BR - $1123
2BR - $1423
https://www.rentjungle.com/average-rent-in-houston-rent-trends/
Average Rent in Austin:
1BR - $1355
2BR - $1716
https://www.rentjungle.com/average-rent-in-austin-rent-trends/
Austin has a growing homeless problem. Houston has a problem, but not necessarily growing despite several thousand people displaced by flooding in the past few years. But look at Palm Beach. You can get a 2 bedroom apartment near Trump for less than you can a 1 bedroom in Austin. Why is Austin so expensive?
I thought perhaps it is unemployment, as Austin is better than Houston, so people can afford more expensive apartments. But Austin and Madison have similar unemployment rates, yet Madison's average rent is comparable to Houston. And Austin, Houston, Madison are far better than the West Coast and New York. New York's unemployment is worse than Houston.
I'm not a PhD candidate, but I think one might want to challenge the notion that stagflation and lack of government funded housing are the problem. BTW, you can rent a 2 bedroom apartment in Palm Beach, FL for cheaper than a 1 bedroom in Austin.
Is there anything in this article that approaches being a suggestion for what to do instead?
On the topic of Moral Panics, which is what this is.
Due process is the cornerstone of our legal system, but in times of mass hysteria, it becomes the enemy. In Salem, those accused of witchcraft were presumed guilty and, in many cases, denied counsel. The only evidence presented against them was an accusation.
This was similarly the case during the Satanic Panic several decades ago. The only evidence presented against the accused were allegations from children, who alternated between plausible claims of sexual abuse (which lacked even limited physical evidence) to fanciful claims of Satanic ritual killings. Children who attended the Little Rascals day care in Edenton, North Carolina, for example, made accusations that they were taken out to the ocean and thrown overboard for sharks. Children at the McMartin Preschool claimed to travel to outer space in a hot-air balloon. These allegations, of course, were ignored while the accusations of sexual abuse were pursued.
Read the rest. It's pretty good.
The video, Seattle is Dying, had some good ideas.
4.3 million views
My take:
1. Don’t allow outdoor camping, defecating, etc.
2. Throwing money at the issue does not solve it.
3. Focus on mental health treatment / drug abuse / addiction treatment.
4. Decriminalization of petty offenses causes more crime.
5. This is an 80/20 situation (more like 99/1%), where the minority of homeless are driving a huge amount of the costs.
6. 9th circuit ruling have inflamed the homeless crisis.
7. The homeless industry supporting, supposedly so called homeless help, has made the situation worse, and has a lot of political power to keep the money flowing.
8. The homeless crisis has been branded an affordable housing crisis, vs the reality of mental health / drug abuse.
If I had to live in SF, I'd be homeless, too. Not the ideal place to look for cheap digs.
mockturtle said...
If I had to live in SF, I'd be homeless, too. Not the ideal place to look for cheap digs.
My daughter was interviewed a number of times for a job at Apple. It would have been well paid but not enough to find decent housing.
I learned yesterday that at least some Title VIII housing is grandfathered to the offspring of current residents. Don't tell me that Dems don't institutionalize poverty.
Ah, yes; the urban poor. This ain't a new problem; it's as old as walled cities. There have been lots of programs to deal with it, including the biblical system of tithes, leaving trailings of the harvest for the gleaners, and the fallen fruit for the homeless. Shit happens and people fall through the cracks into the gutter. It is neither blight nor plague.
There are many trajectories, often starting with trauma, that lead people to the street. The elderly and disabled on social security that simply do not permit the luxury of an apartment or even a room. Seattle was famous for its Single Room Occupancy hotels all of which are gone replaced by postage sized studios far out of the reach of a thousand a month SSI pensioner.
Yes, there are addicts of all forms and shapes; there are the mentally and physically handicapped; but, there are lots of broken vets ("self medicated" for their aches and pains), people going through the legal horror of divorce, the under educated, the ex-cons with Jackets, busted for controlled substances. Lots come from poor families that practice a variation of the Eskimo geriatricide road tripping gramps or grandma. Many have jobs but find it cheaper and cost-effective to forgo an apartment, etc.
As for shelters, and the reports of missions, they operate a self-selecting population. There are too many similarities to the "strikes" of a hundred years ago around London described by Orwell in, Down and Out in Paris and London. The individuals who repeatedly appear at such places are those who are willing to submit to infantilization, antiquated pastoral methods, and the constant message one is damned unless one accepts their brand of salvation. Like going to social services, one bows one's head, "yes, I am a sinner," and waits patiently for starchy food with Kool Aid beverage, and a pad to sleep on until 4:30 the next morning when the Yard Bulls turn the bums out on the street.
There is also the question of causation of why people are on the street. Is it the dope that drives them out (for many this is true) or is the trauma of being driven out of home (at all ages) that leads to narcotic remedies. Of course, not all Shooters are homeless; many hold jobs balancing addiction with other responsibilities.
I agree with Scott Adams on this point: give the addicted segment of the poor and homeless a place with proper sanitation, clean needles, and something to do until they are ready to get clean. Perhaps they never will or they will die before they do get clean. Porta-Potties are a cheap efficient way to give street people a place to shit, pee, and shoot up. Many also have a drop-box for used needles.
Modern parenting skills across classes suck. "It's my way or the highway," is a common refrain with the answer being, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sb-6A4IGRrw
To the contrary, Daniel, what I'm seeing is young adults still living in their parents' [esp. mothers'] homes well into their twenties.
The plan is to arrest no one for doing drugs. Well, I think that needs a parallel law, that the state is not going to pay for treatment of anyone doing drugs. And they can't sleep on the streets in city-harming squalor. Druggies have to be expected to act like a regular citizen - if drugs are harmless.
Mock Turtle, I see phenomena rather phenomenon. Like the poor, there are several trajectories for this as well. Somewhere in these stories are parental choices and offspring opportunities. Some of these stories are timeless--inter-generational strategies to combine resources or offset stagnant economies. Maybe failed expectations of one generation that impact the next. Middle class realities of the post war generation petered out in the sixties, dwindled in the seventies, and reached drought proportions in the eighties. I grew up in a University Home, went to the University, married a University Babe and hit the University market at the end of the eighties, early nineties, when the vision of tenure evaporated being replaced by an endless round-robin of adjunct and temporary assistant slots that paid exactly what I earned as a TA in 1976.
My bad.
For my son, I emphasized fidelity, honesty, and reliability as the qualities I hoped to see him acquire and use in his life. My wife wanted him to be a doctor, lawyer, or an Indian Chief. She also leaned to the left of the left in spiritual matters. I gave up my work as a hospital chaplain in the states, moved to Israel (where there are no hospital chaplains, too many rabbis and even more sociologists), pointing my son to the army. I knew I was downwardly mobile relative to my parents; but, I knew that military service for young people raised with those qualities brought benefits on the other side. He served two tours of duty as an IDF commando with distinction, has entered university (security systems), is married, a father of a three week old baby girl.
I know parents who are angry with their children because they did not live up to the family standard or level of attainment. They are angry that their social justice warrior children cannot find work, have no direction (it's all Trump's fault), and have no idea what to do next. Ironically, charity begins at home: homeless children at home. How cute is that? It's not as if the paradigm of adult children living with their mothers is something new.
That has been the traditional model for millennia. Living at Home. The alternative is, well, homelessness. And in some cases, it's not such a bad alternative at that.
Leland
Austin has a growing homeless problem. Houston has a problem, but not necessarily growing despite several thousand people displaced by flooding in the past few years. But look at Palm Beach. You can get a 2 bedroom apartment near Trump for less than you can a 1 bedroom in Austin. Why is Austin so expensive?
The difference in homelessness between Houston and Austin is that the Austin City Council has enacted policies VERY tolerant of homelessness.Seeing more tents in Austin? It’s not because homeless people are buying more tents. As an example of how clueless the Austin City Council is, some Austin City Council members have stated that Austin should emulate San Francisco policies on the homeless.
Regarding difference in rental costs between Houston and Austin, the main difference is that Austin has much more stringent construction codes to follow, resulting in higher construction costs. More permits that cost more money, for example.
"The homeless industry supporting, supposedly so called homeless help, has made the situation worse, and has a lot of political power to keep the money flowing."
Oh very much so. My nephew has several peers who have found well-paid jobs among the ranks of Seattle's Professional Homeless Redeemers. It's become a career destination for many of Evergreen State College's unskilled graduates. And explains why Seattle spends so much money on the homeless to so little effect.
know parents who are angry with their children because they did not live up to the family standard or level of attainment. They are angry that their social justice warrior children cannot find work, have no direction
Learn to work a lathe and move.
I agree Richard, and your points go along with Ray's in regards to "Seattle is dying" line #1. Houston still tries to get homeless people off the streets and into shelters. Houston doesn't necessarily enforce vagrancy laws to get people to "move along", and it has allowed a few tent cities to develop. However, it quickly became apparent that the tent cities just accelerated the crime. After a homeless person pulled a gun on a reporter, the leniency for tent cities went away.
The construction codes are a problem as well. I know Austin is pushing their Green City initiative which is driving up costs of homes. It's sustainable if you are rich enough to afford it.
and the constant message one is damned unless one accepts their brand of salvation
Wrong. Faith-based charities can't preach anymore or they'll lose their grant money.
Most "homelessness" i.e., those living on the street, has nothing to do with wages or housing. It is mostly a result of mental illness and illegal drug use and addiction. A solution would be to strongly encourage or forcibly move those people to in-house treatment. The Supreme Court has decided no one can be forced into treatment unless they are a danger to themselves or others -- a very difficult standard as it turns out. That seemed fair at the time but it has resulted in the disaster of what we euphemistically call "homelessness" today. It's tragic for all.
NMO: Agree with your analysis and solution. Forcible removal from the street followed by immediate triage. Drug treatment for those who need it and mental health treatment for the mentally ill. For those with both, get them off drugs first then evaluate their mental health status. The Supreme Court decision of which you speak was a huge mistake. Helpless psychotic people were turned out of hospitals where taking their medications was not an option. It is inhumane to allow these people to remain on the street where they are confused and vulnerable.
I spent a week at a training session in a building across the street from Adobe world headquarters (391000 sq ft of office space), and across the street from a large homeless encampment. I've got news - the locals are getting damn tired of it.
Post a Comment