homeless encampments.
 

empathy, i get it.

i have not been able to ride my bike to work. okay, unwilling actually. i dont feel safe.

there is a trail that almost connects my home to the office. i can get to work 80% away from traffic. it is pretty awesome.

the city closed some parking lot that was the encampment. now, they have flowed onto the trail. there are rows of tents and cardboard shack flanking the trail for a hundred yards. you literally have to run the gauntlet.

Oakland is worse. they set up and maintain banks of portable bathrooms and wash stations at the larger camps. in my city i see a trailer with mobile showers and clothing washing stations pull up.

i dont think there is a solution. drugs, poverty..those arent going away.

i tried to get to work on my bike using the streets. all good except on long stretch of narrow road..it is way scary for me. no bike lane, big winery trucks.

My solution is to help out. I volunteer when I can with a shelter career services program. I also work with homeless veterans though another organization to get their vans and cars running.

That's really nice, Scott. I could never do that, myself.

I was speaking to someone a few days ago that said the Cartel is big in nor Cal these days, due to the huge spike in meth demand for the homeless.

They set aside (hundreds of) millions to set up shelters... and somehow the money miraculously disappears every time :rolleyes:

My empathy stops when they go from homeless to criminals. My wife used to be the accountant at the Methodist church downtown, homeless people used to come into the church, ask for money and be offered other areas of help, yell at the receptionist, and then run off into the church to find stuff to steal. They had to lock down the offices to search the church. In addition, car break-ins were common in the parking lot.

WOW
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYh6RgTFnA0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KF7hWzqdPDk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bhy3zI3wvAo

I work In SFO near several tidal encampments and walk to lunch ("tidal" because honestly they flow like a tide, move, come back, move again)... I've smelled the piss on the sidewalk, avoided stepping human feces (even started a "dog or human" game with colleagues), accidentally watched one insert a tampon while sat on a fire hydrant before my brain mercifully sent a signal to look elsewhere, nearly been hit by a car because the sidewalks were totally blocked and had to walk on the road to avoid them. Got attitude from them for not buying them food, had crazy ones run at me screaming bloody murder (and only back off at the last second when it looked like I wasn't gonna run, I guess), I've had some shout death threats at us, and irony of irony has some throw "to-go" food we bought for them at us because they didn't want our charity. Walked thru mounds of trash and stolen bikes...welcome to SFO.

I've talked to the local cops that are houses in my building, they will tell you that for the most part they don't want help - those who are just victims of circumstances and lose a home can find shelter and help super easily.... these people are for the most part drug addicts, alcoholics, and mental cases that belong in non-existent psychiatric hospitals. I can tell you first hand from personal observation they are super calm on the first and 15th of the month when their gov't checks get cashed for drugs. The rest of the time, beware... My empathy took a ste back to my safety, and mostly stopped when one used my car bumper as an elbow rest while taking a dump in front of my car, or when they came at me, I forget...

hmmm..maybe i'll go for it with my goPro.

i dont think ours is that bad (as the videos above)

i asked..i would go to jail if i carried an ASP.

Almost makes you want to live in a "Flyover State" rather than a sanctuary city, doesn't it....non of those problems here.

Not really interested in "that" debate, but I don't see the connection. Sanctuary city would apply to illegal immigration as I understand it, those folks are pure citizens. White and black, almost zero asians/indians/latinos...

But to answer your point, not "almost", I would never live there... I work in the city but I hate the city... It's a cesspool of homeless drug addicts, potholes, and double parking Ubers. I'd never go there if it wasn't for work. The stories my colleagues have about public transportation are equally priceless..

A fair chunk of this is from shutting down psychiatric hospitals, mentally ill crime, murder, etc., rates all jumped.
Unfortunately unless there's is a major shift in policies this won't change.

that isnt even apples and oranges..that like apples and pencil sharpeners.

That's the one thing pretty much everyone agrees about... They don't want help, but they need it and there are no mental hospitals for them to go to...
Now I'm curious about where they congregate and why there... Not sure.. I see SFO/OAK and surroundings mostly because of public trasnportation (bus and BART) seem to create pockets near those hubs... But weather wise if I was them I'd be in FL instead - SFO is effing cold and rainy at times - and I never saw that level of homelessness when I lived in FL where the weather is more clement... Oh and let's not blame weed, I step over passed out homeless people everyday and it's not weed, it's crack and other harder stuff...

When I was a kid, we had "bums" coming by the house once in a while asking if we could give them a sandwich. My mother said to never give them anything, because word would get around and others would come. We never saw large encampments.

A part of the problem is (as I understand it) money for treatment of mental conditions has been siphoned off. My belief is a large part of the population isn't interested in working and creating a responsible life for themselves. If they receive benefits, strictly enforced requirements need to be implemented. I'm basing this on my several years of dealing with the welfare population. As one early twenties young lady working in the program put it, "When I was at the university, they told me 95% of these people wanted to work. Now that I'm here, I find out it's 95% that don't want to work." But that's not a popular attitude as far as some people, like in the media, want broadcast. In an interview I saw recently on a local news channel, the head of a local help organization began telling the interviewer how they wouldn't show up for work, interviews, required work assignments, etc., etc. The interviewer cut off the interviewee very abruptly.

In my mind, it's a population made up of those who can't or have limited function well enough to be out in society and the world of work and those who still have initiative and want and deserve another chance. Those who want to should be helped to better themselves. Those who can't need to be pressured into mental help and facilities. Just letting them live according the their own devices and/or throwing money at them won't solve the problems.

This.

Homelessness is primarily a mental health issue.

And the biggest problem is that it is a very complex issue the solution for which greatly affects individual freedoms. We'd have a helluva lot less homeless on the street if Nurse Ratched kept them locked in the Cookoo's Nest. We could simply lobotomize the problem away. But I don't think any reasonable human would want to go back to those dark ages.

So until a better solution is found, buy Coleman stock, because they'll be selling a lot of tents.

They are there because they are left alone by the authorities. They are free to do what they want, and drugs are easy to get. And weed is a part of it as is number one favorite, alcohol. Booze is cheap.

Not picking on you there but just informing, I walk by (and sometimes over) them everyday and never smell weed. It's always harder drugs in a crack pipe or injected... Weed is for the hipsters (and apparently drivers) here - that's another issue ;-)

Ugh.. I need to work elsewhere...

You and I have had our differences, but from the bottom of my heart - as a former homeless person myself decades ago - thank you.


I recently took in a displaced Pelican and did the best I could to make sure he could get back on his feet. My GF tolerated it for a few weeks...

The "homeless by choice" people are a real thing. Our town became a destination for many of this crowd when it eased laws on panhandling and camping a few years ago. Legal weed came on about the same time too.

Not trying to sound un-empathetic...I have helped out at community service events for the homeless, etc. But the phenomenon of being homeless as a "lifestyle of choice" is tough to understand.