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

[PhillyRising]

Originally Posted by JManc

As long as your cities enable this shit...no. I think there should be assistance provided to the poor and destitute but they should not be allowed to squat on public property in tent cities indefinitely. I never visited Skid Row in LA but SF was pretty gross. We have a problem with it here in Texas as well but the local governments are more hardlined about it and routinely clears these camps out. Well, except for Austin who is at odds with the state on how to deal with their homeless.

The last time I was in the Houston area...I saw several homeless living under bridges along I-35...and this was up in Spring and not downtown Houston. This was 2017 when the economy was humming. So this is a problem everywhere, it is just about how each city handles it. Philadelphia agreed to build tiny houses for the homeless as part of the deal to get the massive homeless encampment off the Ben Franklin Parkway that set up there as a result of last summer's riots.

Homelessness in Philadelphia is certainly not a result of a lack of housing....or even affordable housing. New Yorkers have poured into Philly in the past year because it so much cheaper. The good chunk of the homeless problem in Philadelphia is fuel by opioid/heroin addiction and many of the homeless aren't even from the city. They just end up in Philly to be close enough to the source of supply.

[badrunner]

When it comes to the "walking dead" type of homeless, the Kensington area in Philly might even be worse than Skid Row. Although you don't see as many tents there, maybe because they can shelter in abandoned buildings.

[Crawford]

Originally Posted by badrunner

When it comes to the "walking dead" type of homeless, the Kensington area in Philly might even be worse than Skid Row. Although you don't see as many tents there, maybe because they can shelter in abandoned buildings.

Right, Kensington has a crazy amount of "walking dead". But it's a crappy neighborhood outside the core (yeah I know it's starting to gentrify, but still really gritty), so kind of off the radar. And tents aren't gonna work in the winters. Philly isn't Chicago, but it's cold enough.

Philly doesn't have high housing costs, at all, BTW. I don't think Kensington looks like it does because the rent is too damn high.

[Tom In Chicago]

Originally Posted by Crawford

. . . tents aren't gonna work in the winters. Philly isn't Chicago, but it's cold enough.

It's been bitterly cold here in Chicago the last few days, and yet we have homeless in tents. . .

. . .

[the urban politician]

Sounds like our forum community is aging.

If you're tired of being harassed by the homeless, move to the burbs. They won't bother you there

Homeless are a part of city life. Always have been, always will be.

Besides, you ain't seen nothing yet. Go spend a day in any Indian city

[bnk]

Well I’m coming home from San Diego today

And at least where were almost no homeless
Certainly no tents

But we stayed in the more touristy parts of town

Pacific beach area
Mission beach
Ocean beach
Balboa park, and museums
Zoo


Really impressed
Very clean where we were

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by the urban politician

If you're tired of being harassed by the homeless, move to the burbs. They won't bother you there

you don't have to go all the way out to the burbs.

3 years of living in lincoln square, and i can't recall a single encounter with an aggressive street person here.

yeah, sometimes there's a dude outside our grocery store casually asking for change, and maybe a streetwise vendor over by giddings plaza, but nothing that approaches the kind of severe quality of life issues described by those in other cities where you have a concentrated critical mass of street people like in SF's tenderloin.

[LA21st]

95 percent of LA residents don't interact with skid row.
Tenderloin is different, as it's adjacent to the main entertainment and shopping district.

Skid row is a pocket you Dont need to venture into.

As far as aggressive Chicago Street people, eh.
I've been threatened with murder a few times in the loop.
Happened in DC and Baltimore too.
That's never happened in LA. Sure there's more, but not as threatening violence in my experience.

[JManc]

Originally Posted by LA21st

95 percent of LA residents don't interact with skid row.
Tenderloin is different, as it's adjacent to the main entertainment and shopping district.

Skid row is a pocket you Dont need to venture into.

As far as aggressive Chicago Street people, eh.
I've been threatened with murder a few times in the loop.
Happened in DC and Baltimore too.
That's never happened in LA. Sure there's more, but not as threatening violence in my experience.

DC has some scary street people. Like off their meds kinda scary. In your face screaming obscenities crazy.

West coast street people are more 'medicated'

[Boisebro]

Originally Posted by JManc

DC has some scary street people. Like off their meds kinda scary. In your face screaming obscenities crazy.

indeed.

it's a wonder why we keep voting for them.

[LA21st]

Originally Posted by JManc

DC has some scary street people. Like off their meds kinda scary. In your face screaming obscenities crazy.

West coast street people are more 'medicated'

California has those whackos too, drugs will do that. Sf seemed more aggressive than LA, but that was near the Tenderloin.
But yea. For the most part, they're not looking to bother people.
My friends in DC and Chicago have a different view of homeless than people here.

The whole situation sucks ass, and I wish something is done in next few years.

[badrunner]

LA streets breed less aggressive homeless because of the street gangs. The troublemakers and crazy ones will get KTFO real quick. That's also why you see less of them as you go south of the 10. No one in their right mind is going to want to sleep on the streets in South LA.

[Qubert]

Here in NYC I hope they will convert some of the hotels we don't need into shelters. We need to move away from the "shelter" model and more into hotel like micro units that people can settle into.

[Qubert]

Originally Posted by ue

Jesus Christ.

You claim to have "compassion" for unhoused individuals and hate a "fucked up cowboy capitalist society" but your answer is... we need to impose further barriers to their lives of those who already face so many by restricting where they can exist. Do you not see how egregiously egoistic and classist you sound?

Despite your awareness of capitalism being a problem in this situation, you offer no solutions for the actual people who find themselves without access to safe and adequate housing, and are only concerned with yourself and how you feel about their presence. It really shouldn't be about you. Like, yes, it sucks to have to walk by used syringes, or whatever, but at the end of the day, you get to go back to adequate shelter, have access to income, and so forth, so who cares what you think?

To be frank, what he thinks *does* matter. If cities are rendered totally unlivable where do you think the money for said "solutions" is going to come from? Having compassion for the less fortunate =! telling everyone with a roof over their head to F off.

The focus should not be on basically corralling houseless folks into designated quarters so that essentially gentrifiers can not have to look at this "squalor" or whatever villainous term you'd like to project onto marginalized people. It should be with providing housing, access to education, healthcare (including safe injection sites, mental health resources), and employment, and giving them community spaces.

I agree with all of the above except the housing part. What we should do is be building hotel-esque support units for those without housing and connect the wrap around services to that.

Get over yourself. It sounds like you'd have a better time in a more whitewashed, sanitized urban experience. You know Anaheim isn't very far from you, right? Yes, it sucks to see these situations, but if you truly care, then do something that actually helps these people, rather than advocating for their removal, citing they somehow have less of a right to your "middle class" neighbourhood than you. The arrogance you show against those living without housing is abhorrent. Do better.

IMHO, there nothing that screams white wealthy privilege than those who actually advocate for or enjoy being in squalor. It's like those folks who instagram Rio's favelas or the bad parts of Johannesburg to show their "wokeness" knowing full well they're only a plane ride away from going back to an upper middle class existence. If people actually had to "live" like in the photos posted, there's no damn way it would be allowed.

[Sigaven]

Originally Posted by PhillyRising

The last time I was in the Houston area...I saw several homeless living under bridges along I-35...and this was up in Spring and not downtown Houston. This was 2017 when the economy was humming. So this is a problem everywhere, it is just about how each city handles it. Philadelphia agreed to build tiny houses for the homeless as part of the deal to get the massive homeless encampment off the Ben Franklin Parkway that set up there as a result of last summer's riots.

Homelessness in Philadelphia is certainly not a result of a lack of housing....or even affordable housing. New Yorkers have poured into Philly in the past year because it so much cheaper. The good chunk of the homeless problem in Philadelphia is fuel by opioid/heroin addiction and many of the homeless aren't even from the city. They just end up in Philly to be close enough to the source of supply.

I live in Austin and visited Houston recently. It was refreshing to see overpasses that weren't cluttered to the brim with tents and garbage, like pretty much all of ours in Austin are now. Yes, there were a couple of tents and small camps here and there, but nothing like the explosion we've seen in Austin recently. The most refreshing thing to see were signs at some intersections saying "It's OK to refuse panhandlers."

[TexasPlaya]

Originally Posted by Sigaven

I live in Austin and visited Houston recently. It was refreshing to see overpasses that weren't cluttered to the brim with tents and garbage, like pretty much all of ours in Austin are now. Yes, there were a couple of tents and small camps here and there, but nothing like the explosion we've seen in Austin recently. The most refreshing thing to see were signs at some intersections saying "It's OK to refuse panhandlers."

It's quite a stark contrast.... The homeless in Houston are far less visible than in Austin.

Originally Posted by Qubert

IMHO, there nothing that screams white wealthy privilege than those who actually advocate for or enjoy being in squalor. It's like those folks who instagram Rio's favelas or the bad parts of Johannesburg to show their "wokeness" knowing full well they're only a plane ride away from going back to an upper middle class existence. If people actually had to "live" like in the photos posted, there's no damn way it would be allowed.

YEAH! except that opposition to sweeping homeless people under the rug so you don't have to look at them isn't the same as advocating for continued squalor. don't be disingenuous.

[twister244]

Originally Posted by IWant2BeInSTL

YEAH! except that opposition to sweeping homeless people under the rug so you don't have to look at them isn't the same as advocating for continued squalor. don't be disingenuous.

No, the opposition is actually that we force people into rehab to change their lives and get them back on their feet, which would be forcing conservatives to devote money to the problem and liberals to let authorities intervene when necessary.

Unfortunately we don't have either.

[JManc]

Houston has been pretty hardlined against the homeless camps with the city occasionally coming in and forcing everyone out. They're usually just shifted around but more and more out of visible areas. Used to be all over downtown and midtown but now in far flung overpasses and other areas. Austin is more tolerant of it hence the issues.

[Tom In Chicago]

Originally Posted by the urban politician

Sounds like our forum community is aging.

If you're tired of being harassed by the homeless, move to the burbs. They won't bother you there

Homeless are a part of city life. Always have been, always will be.

I've lived here most of my life and in the last year going back to say mid-late 2019 there's been a visible increase in homeless/drugs/crime in the immediate Loop and surrounding neighborhoods. . .

I've never been harassed by homeless, but it's a blight on the otherwise clean urban landscape we have here in Chicago. . . sounds like some of our forumers don't get downtown much. . .

. . .