Thanks for the posted references. In regards to the
“cleanup effort” what is being proposed specifically ?
The majority of homeless people don’t live in boxes under freeways. They live on people’s couches, hotels, abandoned homes and with family.
Ruby Red East Texas has some of the highest poor, unemployed, and uninsured in the state. Follow the Walmarts and Dollar Generals.
And of course this is about politics. No differently than Tom Delay aned his gerrymandering revolution.
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I was in charge of the homeless task force for the chamber of commerce about 15 years ago (wow time flies). So I threw myself in to actually find out about the problem. Harris county at the time was seeing an uptick in panhandling and so it was a problem. So I went out with law enforcement and actually went to where the homeless were. In harris county, at least at the time, the camps were spread out and mostly in wooded areas. You would never guess they were there. Some in very nice areas.
But the camps are filthy and they are dangerous. Plus the sympathetic image of children sleeping in cars or people all of a sudden down on their luck is for the most part not accurate. They are mostly mentally ill or doing drugs / alcohol. Don’t give them money unless you want to give a drug addict more drugs.
Society has the right to not be ok with squatters and not be ok with you defecating where ever. In Austin and California and Seattle and New York they tolerate it.
Should you help someone down on their luck? Yes. Should you tolerate homeless camps? No.
There is no doubt that there is mental illness link with homelessness. Nobody is denying this. Instead of fueling drug use put the same effort toward mental health and how to combat/help it.
What is unacceptable is the following:
Snapcrap
https://www.kron4.com/news/bay-area/feces-on-streets-increasing-in-san-francisco/
So who do you think is at fault?
All major or smaller cities catering to drug addicts are failing miserably. This is a fact. What are drug addicts going to do if they know where to go? They will go to these destinations. I was in Austin for a business trip. This was my first visit in over eight years. It is day and night from my last trip. Tents are under over passes at multiple locations. This was not the case at this level in 2012. This is valid for all cities that Coog51 pointed out.
Statistics do not lie.
San Franciscans are leaving in droves. Violent attacks are skyrocketing. You can no longer park your car thinking it will be safe even in an “upscale” neighborhood.
Now read between the lines
Another eye opening article
These same leaders have the money to protect themselves. Does the current resident does? No, she/he does not and is leaving the city. What are you going to be left with in S.F.? An even bigger financial divide. Maybe these leaders wanted this all along.
You know who is thriving in San Francisco?
https://www.unitedweguard.com/security-guard-services-san-francisco/?gclid=Cj0KCQjwppSEBhCGARIsANIs4p4hmq4pRTAPrjQVRo4wLKBzPiX-Zuwt69wEkU4uz73l5cOkleDATmUaAmlIEALw_wcB
Do you remember what Dirty Harry’s message was back in the early 70’s?
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Bingo ; there are more resources, so they come.
So we should shutdown shelters, close food pantries, and heavily police public areas. No more
Mr Nice Guy ?
Sigh…
We know there is problem. We dont know or
willing to commit to a real solution or even have a real discussion about it. Unless your solution is
we shoot them all like Dirty Harry.
You miss the point. This is not about closing shelters and food banks. It is about promoting drug use and not enforcing basic laws. This has to change now. The San Francisco example is a crystal clear eample. . These politicians are promoting drug addictions. These policies do not work. The issue is getting exponentially worse. Do you think this is a coincidence maybe?
You 100% missed the point what Dirty Harry is all about. It has nothing to do with shooting people. It has everything to do with exposing IMCOMPETENT POLITICIANS and exposing the results of such incompetence.
Sorry for sarcasm. You missed the bigger point.
The “ cleanup” involves what …? Enforcing existing laws ??? Where do they go ? Do they magically all go away then by 4th of July ?
What would the competent politician do ?
Be specific and explain consequences ( what happens to these folks next ) in your explanation?
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I’d just like to take a moment to really talk about how impressively off track we got here.
We’ve started at DC statehood, Texas splitting into states and from that to homelessness in America. Coogfans ADD at it’s best well done to us one and all.
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#1
You bring down every camp
#2
Everyone living in these camps is to be evaluated by a doctor specializing in addictions and mental illness. This cost is about everyone but most importantly about these human beings. WE ARE FAILING THEM!!!
#3
Every human being is to follow a treatment. Failure to do has to result in public works such as cleaning streets
#3* Everyone diagnosed as mentally ill is to be admitted
#4
Others not diagnosed as mentally ill and not compliant are to go to jail.
These camps started way before the pandemic started. They started with politicians adopting catastrophic measures. The numbers do not lie.
Bryant, d.c. by its incompetence mirrors a tented over pass. This is what it has became. Politicians on both sides getting more and more money instead of needles.
We like to exhibit deep and productive tangential
thinking 
Fair assessment of state of the thread. My apologies
for contributing to thread delinquency. Enjoy the rest of the weekend !
Query: are they truly “homeless” if they live with family?
Sounds like those folks have a “home” with their family, presumably at their family’s address, unless, of course, the whole family is out on the streets together.
A lot of this is when people act like they care but they really don’t care at all. Whether it is on a border or homeless in Austin and California you attract the people and then create the misery. It is the theatre of compassion. It is where people want to appear like they care.
When the problem grows they just act like it doesn’t exist.
Be admitted where? Are the mental health facilities, complete with trained mental health professionals and all of the support staff just going to materialize overnight? Mental health beds in Houston number in the hundreds; they’d hold maybe 20% of our current mentally ill homeless population, if they were otherwise currently empty (they’re not.)
Our jails are already well over capacity, so #4 isn’t an option, but even if it was, where do they go when they get out? How does that solve the root cause of the issue?
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There are ~200K unsheltered homeless people in the US on any given night. I’m guessing that number is on the low end too.
That’s a lot of people to do something with.
Fun thing about most ideas involving the unhoused population, they cost even 90210’s woulf be incredibly expensive at a state and local level
Which then the political dishonesty in ad making writes itself. I don’t want to point fingers but we do know who’s running this ad. “How Mayor X want to use yours and other John Q Taxpayers money to handout money to a bunch of freeloaders so they can have ‘access to mental health’ and ‘shelter’”
Look at the data and then just ask yourself why are the homeless so much higher in places like california, new york, seattle, washington DC ? Why are there homeless camps strewn along the sides of freeways in only one city in Texas and that is Austin?
When you message that you are so good and so enlightened and you care so much, but it turns out that you don’t care at all and that your enlightendness is nothing more than a bunch marketing BS…these problems become acute. The people who are the problem, hear your message (lies) of hope and caring and they show up. Because you don’t care, you don’t do anything for them. Because of the marketing BS, you now won’t do anything to fix the problem and appear non caring. So the problem just grows like the human fecal matter on the streets of San Francisco, Seattle and Austin.
You have the same damn problem at the border. Messages of hope and caring were delivered, but it turned out that no one cared and the only hope was that the BS messaging would sound good.
If you or a loved one have ever had a drug or alchohol problem and have experienced AA or NA up close, you will know what the solution is. I have got the greatest respect for long time AA or NA members who have sponsored people. Some of those people care and love other human beings at a level that would make Mother Theresa look like a cold hearted witch. If you call them at 2 in the morning they will get out of bed and drive to you to help you through whatever you are going through. It is commitment on levels that you can’t really describe, you have to experience. But the one thing they are not is nice and sweet. They will love you and they are all in as long as you are all in. But they don’t want to hear your sob story and they will not put out some nice message. If you want to hear the truth, go to a AA meeting or NA meeting (some are open meetings so you don’t have to be an alcoholic or addict to hear the message). Listen to what happens when someone trys to be falsly nice or has a reason for their disease. Those men and women are direct at levels that you can’t believe. If you want to get well they are there for you. If want to roll in your msiery and not do anything about it, they will let you die. It is your choice.
The last thing an addict or an alcoholic needs to hear is false niceties or messages that are not backed up by action. Trust me AA and NA is all about in to action.
So this crap of niceness that gets fed in some of these areas is the last thing the addict and the alcoholic needs to hear. If the addict and the alcoholic wants sobriety and they are willing to do anthing to get it, there is a solution. But it starts with them and niceness isn’t part of it.
A large number of the homeless are addicts and alcoholics. There is a solution.
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