Do you think the homeless situation in west coast cities will ever get better?

[JManc]

Originally Posted by dktshb

Do they not want structure or are they incapable? I presume the latter. I imagine the amount who are otherwise able bodied and allegedly choose this as a lifestyle are negligible or a drop in the bucket.

Like I mentioned a few pages back, my mom was a social worker who often worked with this population and according to her experience, a lot of them simply weren't interested conforming to the structure required to maintain a normal life; job, stable housing, etc. It was easy to grift and hustle and make up your own rules. Sure, some weren't capable but that's where some of the mental illness came in.

[dktshb]

Originally Posted by JManc

Like I mentioned a few pages back, my mom was a social worker who often worked with this population and according to her experience, a lot of them simply weren't interested conforming to the structure required to maintain a normal life; job, stable housing, etc. It was easy to grift and hustle and make up your own rules. Sure, some weren't capable but that's where some of the mental illness came in.

You sure have a romanticized version of homelessness in America. Like it is lot of people with privileged beginnings who walk away for "easy life" on the streets. Many of the youth on the streets are leaving abuse and did not have the opportunities most have to advance in life. Skid row in LA is not filled with people who just chose to live on the streets because they chose not to conform to the structure to a normal life. Living on the street is not an easy lifestyle. You're most likely to be a victim of a violent crime, if you're a woman you're likely to be raped and you're generally hungry and it is either too hot, too cold or too wet. You generally cannot shower or find a place to use a bathroom. Life is bleak lonely and monotonous. The problem with homelessness in west coast cities is not because a lot of people with privileged beginnings and lifestyles suddenly decided to say fuck it I am going to stick a finger to society and live a wonderful life on the streets. They fell on hard times, were escaping abuse with no alternatives, have no familial support and are incapable of being hired by someone who is going to pay them a living wage.

Originally Posted by jtown,man

Its called a job bud. They can get a min wage job and actually afford a place to stay.

I know in SF having a low wage job and not being homeless is a novel idea, but it can be done in many parts of America.

right, because it's super easy for a homeless person to just relocate halfway across the country and get a job that pays a living wage, particularly when there's mental illness or addiction involved. if it were so f*cking easy it would be happening. i honestly love hearing coastal pearl-clutchers bitch about how all the poor and homeless should relocate to the icky Midwest so they can soul cycle in peace. music to my ears. it's no wonder our shit society is collapsing.

[JManc]

Originally Posted by dktshb

You sure have a romanticized version of homelessness in America. Like it is lot of people with privileged beginnings who walk away for "easy life" on the streets. Many of the youth on the streets are leaving abuse and did not have the opportunities most have to advance in life. Skid row in LA is not filled with people who just chose to live on the streets because they chose not to conform to the structure to a normal life. Living on the street is not an easy lifestyle. You're most likely to be a victim of a violent crime, if you're a woman you're likely to be raped and you're generally hungry and it is either too hot, too cold or too wet. You generally cannot shower or find a place to use a bathroom. Life is bleak lonely and monotonous. The problem with homelessness in west coast cities is not because a lot of people with privileged beginnings and lifestyles suddenly decided to say fuck it I am going to stick a finger to society and live a wonderful life on the streets. They fell on hard times, were escaping abuse with no alternatives, have no familial support and are incapable of being hired by someone who is going to pay them a living wage.

I'm not talking about places like Skid Row or tent cities here in Houston but I'm talking about homeless in general. There's no romanticizing about it but I think there's a good deal of infantilizing of the homeless. No one chooses to live in the streets but there are some of them who choose not to adhere to society's expectations and norms which often limits their options which often means living on the street.

[Crawford]

Originally Posted by dktshb

What is your point trying to call homeless people street people?

Because this thread is constantly conflating two separate, but overlapping, topologies. This isn't a thread about homeless, it's a thread about street people. The Tenderloin is overrun with street people, not homeless. The Tenderloin is packed with SROs for street people. Most of the "scary" people have homes.

My wife used to be involved in a public-private committee to identify the homeless population in NYC. The highest share of homeless, by far, are in the fringes of the city, in places like Far Rockaway, Queens. But good luck finding a "bum" in Far Rockway. Manhattan had the lowest share, but Manhattan is obviously where street people are most visible. The homeless are coming from public housing, mostly, and are heavily African American and Hispanic single mothers with small children. They aren't visible; they're couch-surfing, or living in cheap by-the-week hotels, or with random friends or dudes. They rarely have issues with alcohol or drugs, and tend to not have mental illness issues outside of depression.

The schizoid junkie you see shooting up in the Tenderloin likely has a permanent address. Some literally live on the streets, but this is a subset of the street people population. So why are we calling both populations "homeless" and conflating the issues?

[ChrisLA]

Originally Posted by LosAngelesSportsFan

This. In LA, we need to get rid of Garcetti who enables this bullshit and doesn't allow anyone to do anything. Any homeless person can put up a tent anywhere and we have to accept it. No recourse

Something big must have happened in my LA neighborhood of Woodland Hills as of the last 8 or 9 months the homeless seemed to all but disappeared. In fact I’ve noticed all of the underpass along the 101 in the west valley have been cleared of tents. I know there is a lot of money in this area so someone pulled some strings.

I can also add that I grew up in Watts and the east side of south central, by the way was the poorest parts of the hood, and never did you see homeless people penetrating the residential areas of the neighborhood. Yes we had wino’s (old saying) who hang out by the liquor stores but that’s it. Even those were only 3 or 4 on most days and usually it was someone’s relative in the hood so we knew many of them.

The homeless problem is out of control but it is still mainly concentrating in central city neighborhoods. Still 95% of the metro area you won’t see a trace of homelessness. I just drove downtown LA today and one you pass the Hollywood district along the 101 freeway it’s just in your face. All of what used to be beautiful landscaping along the freeway is nothing but hundreds of tents. It’s not something you can easily miss, I can only just imagine what a visitor would think seeing this in one of the the most popular tourist city in the world in the richest country in the world.

[badrunner]

Originally Posted by ChrisLA

Something big must have happened in my LA neighborhood of Woodland Hills as of the last 8 or 9 months the homeless seemed to all but disappeared. In fact I’ve noticed all of the underpass along the 101 in the west valley have been cleared of tents. I know there is a lot of money in this area so someone pulled some strings.

Probably all went down to Venice beach.

[destroycreate]

Originally Posted by badrunner

Probably all went down to Venice beach.

Rose Avenue, otherwise known as Skid Rose, has gotten really bad in Venice. I would be furious if I was a resident living in that area. It's filthy.

[Centropolis]

to answer the original question no. it will get worse as the middle class rots out from the bottom. seeing homeless encampments in norcal wine country was sobering.

the west coast collects the nations homeless. not all of them obviously but hard winters, family support systems (what are left of them) and whatever else tends to either brutally push out or attenuate homelessness in the rustbelt to an extent. the gradient flows west (and south) though. people don’t tend to like getting whacked by cops and pushed into crowded indoor housing when its -4 F in chicago or detroit or having tent cities literally bulldozed in st. louis every few weeks.

[MonkeyRonin]

How long do you figure 'til some of these encampments turn into permanent shanty towns?

[Centropolis]

Originally Posted by MonkeyRonin

How long do you figure 'til some of these encampments turn into permanent shanty towns?

well, as i mention above we are already there. i know first hand that there would be fairly large favelas built in st. louis and east st. louis except for the fact that they literally bring in bulldozers once the structures start to appear semi-permanent and hordes of people get pushed back and forth between st louis and illinois via pedestrian access on mississippi river bridges. honestly i wonder if shanty towns are not better than the brutality we have, as this is going to get worse.


st. louis post-dispatch

[badrunner]

Originally Posted by destroycreate

Rose Avenue, otherwise known as Skid Rose, has gotten really bad in Venice. I would be furious if I was a resident living in that area. It's filthy.

Hunter Biden just moved into a house in the Venice canals, so money is still moving in. Or maybe he just feels at home with all the junkies.

[badrunner]

Originally Posted by Centropolis

to answer the original question no. it will get worse as the middle class rots out from the bottom. seeing homeless encampments in norcal wine country was sobering.

the west coast collects the nations homeless. not all of them obviously but hard winters, family support systems (what are left of them

Back in the day they had the decency to take the midnight train back home to Georgia if it didn't work out. Now they just camp out on the beach...

[jtown,man]

Originally Posted by IWant2BeInSTL

right, because it's super easy for a homeless person to just relocate halfway across the country and get a job that pays a living wage, particularly when there's mental illness or addiction involved. if it were so f*cking easy it would be happening. i honestly love hearing coastal pearl-clutchers bitch about how all the poor and homeless should relocate to the icky Midwest so they can soul cycle in peace. music to my ears. it's no wonder our shit society is collapsing.

I am talking about a homeless person who is homeless due to housing being too expensive, not someone with a mental or drug issue. I was responding to people saying that this is a home affordability issue.

Moving would solve that. Making 8 an hour in many small to medium-sized southern towns is enough to survive.

[jtown,man]

Originally Posted by dktshb

You sure have a romanticized version of homelessness in America. Like it is lot of people with privileged beginnings who walk away for "easy life" on the streets. Many of the youth on the streets are leaving abuse and did not have the opportunities most have to advance in life. Skid row in LA is not filled with people who just chose to live on the streets because they chose not to conform to the structure to a normal life. Living on the street is not an easy lifestyle. You're most likely to be a victim of a violent crime, if you're a woman you're likely to be raped and you're generally hungry and it is either too hot, too cold or too wet. You generally cannot shower or find a place to use a bathroom. Life is bleak lonely and monotonous. The problem with homelessness in west coast cities is not because a lot of people with privileged beginnings and lifestyles suddenly decided to say fuck it I am going to stick a finger to society and live a wonderful life on the streets. They fell on hard times, were escaping abuse with no alternatives, have no familial support and are incapable of being hired by someone who is going to pay them a living wage.

That exactly what my cousin did. Her dad is a doctor in Wisconsin and she decided to hop trains and make her way to California over a 2 year span so she could be "free", do drugs, and just explore. There are actual people who refer to themselves as "street people", proudly.

[Tom In Chicago]

Originally Posted by badrunner

Probably all went down to Venice beach.

I was under the impression that the city was starting to move these tent people out of Venice or at least off the beach. . . there was that building fire recently that appears to have been started by an adjacent tent encampment, so perhaps that had put some pressure? Hopefully what I'm hearing is correct, but maybe someone more local can comment on it. . . I was appalled by how bad it's gotten just in the last 5-10 years. . .

. . .

[James Bond Agent 007]

Originally Posted by jtown,man

That exactly what my cousin did. Her dad is a doctor in Wisconsin and she decided to hop trains and make her way to California over a 2 year span so she could be "free", do drugs, and just explore. There are actual people who refer to themselves as "street people", proudly.

One time when I was living in Issaquah outside of Seattle, I got on a bus and two guys in the back of the bus were talking about stuff, and one of them was a homeless dude, and he kept talking about how great his homeless lifestyle was - free of responsibility, etc.

Though I'm sure those types are a small minority of the homeless.

[Emprise du Lion]

Originally Posted by Centropolis

well, as i mention above we are already there. i know first hand that there would be fairly large favelas built in st. louis and east st. louis except for the fact that they literally bring in bulldozers once the structures start to appear semi-permanent and hordes of people get pushed back and forth between st louis and illinois via pedestrian access on mississippi river bridges. honestly i wonder if shanty towns are not better than the brutality we have, as this is going to get worse.

Yeah, every time the encampments get into downtown the city slaps them back rather quickly. The last year alone I can recall the tent city near city hall that was taken down almost immediately and the one that went in on Wash Ave under the 44 overpass right at the entrance to the Landing and the Eads. After that it seems like they moved north along the riverfront just past the Four Seasons. I think that might have been demolished as well, or at least there was talk of it.

Meanwhile the city is still screening residents for their tiny home encampment at Jefferson and MLK.
https://www.kmov.com/news/tiny-house...251232f7e.html

I still think that the city just bought up all the sheds that Home Depot and Lowe's had, but it's better than nothing I guess.

[Doady]

The ever-widening gap between rich and poor, the increasing concentration of wealth among fewer and fewer people, that is the number one problem in the US right now, and worsening homelessness is just another symptom of that. Unless the USA finally commits to redistributing wealth more evenly, make it easier for people to support themselves, make it easier for people to get support when then need it, in terms of transportation, housing, health care, and so on, then the homeless situation will not ever get better.

Originally Posted by jtown,man

I am talking about a homeless person who is homeless due to housing being too expensive, not someone with a mental or drug issue. I was responding to people saying that this is a home affordability issue.

Moving would solve that. Making 8 an hour in many small to medium-sized southern towns is enough to survive.

i expect that the fraction of homeless people who had the means and the mental stability to first relocate and then survive somehow until finding viable employment, but instead chose to live on the streets in San Francisco (or wherever), is vanishingly small.