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I would suggest using San Francisco as it is probaly the city with most notorious homeless problem in the U.S.
True, but LA's problem is as bad or worse. Downtown LA's skid row is probably the homeless capital of the US, although it's not a place that most tourists (or even native Angelenos) would ever see.
As for how well LA handles homelessness, it depends on who you ask. LA has intentionally concentrated nearly all homeless services in one area which lead to Skid Row becoming what it has. Skid Row is close to the LA County Jail and many people with no place to go (and especially those with drug issues) walk straight from jail to Skid Row. It's an other worldy experience to visit there, especially at night. Hundreds of people living in tents and cardboard boxes. People openly shooting up with heroin even in the daytime. But because of numerous lawsuits by homeless advocacy groups the LAPD has their hands somewhat tied in dealing with the crime in the area. They've become more aggressive, but anytime they take steps to address the magnitude of the problem they are sued by the ACLU. I could go on, but I think that if there is anything to learn from LA's best intentions is to not concentrate services all in one area.
I've lived in an urban neighbourhoods 6 years, and what I've noticed is that I still see some of the same homeless (regularly) that I saw when I first moved here.
I've lived in an urban neighbourhoods 6 years, and what I've noticed is that I still see some of the same homeless (regularly) that I saw when I first moved here.
Yea, that indicates long term derelict / career panhandlers who are comfortable telling their story for years in areas where many can't avoid them while visiting a different city or just making their way home after work. In most cases it doesn't help or improve the lot of these individuals to fund their habits, even if the habit is just not working because they've found loitering and begging easier. Having said that I'll have to say that it bothers me to turn these folks down on the off chance that one or two might actually be temporarily down on their luck and a hand up might get them back on track. I wish I could identify those few and really do something to help.
Atlanta has a huge vagrant population that at it's peak was estimated to be close to 20,000+ (though I'm not exactly sure how you can get exact numbers on it).
It's also important to differentiate between someone who is truly "homeless" and someone who is a "panhandler" - there is a huge difference. Atlanta has an enormous number of panhandlers downtown, not homeless who are truly seeking a hand up to get back on their feet. Previous Mayors have avoided the problem until it got to the point where a couple of conventions moved out of the city, citing this as one of the reasons why. The current Mayor supposedly is more aggressive with it, though in all honesty, I haven't seen an enormous difference.
Atlanta has a huge vagrant population that at it's peak was estimated to be close to 20,000+ (though I'm not exactly sure how you can get exact numbers on it).
It's also important to differentiate between someone who is truly "homeless" and someone who is a "panhandler" - there is a huge difference. Atlanta has an enormous number of panhandlers downtown, not homeless who are truly seeking a hand up to get back on their feet. Previous Mayors have avoided the problem until it got to the point where a couple of conventions moved out of the city, citing this as one of the reasons why. The current Mayor supposedly is more aggressive with it, though in all honesty, I haven't seen an enormous difference.
Those people are homeless, they have no where to live. They sleep on the street, or in a shelter. Regardless of whether they actually have mental issues or if they just have a drug problem, they don't have a home to go to at the end of the day. If they were really just out hustling loose change why would they be downtown? There are a lot of other places where they could make more money. Where do you see the majority of homeless people downtown? South of Peachtree Center. How many tourists and convention people go south of Peachtree Center? Not a whole lot. Those people are down there because thats where they live. The shelter puts them out at 6 am every morning, and they have to leave so they just hang out in the area. And downtown has 6 shelters only like a mile from each other.
Its not like tourists and convention people are just walking all over downtown. When a convention is in town, the convention folk stay in small pockets near where the hotels, and restaurants are. And it's not like downtown is popping like that so we're just talking about a few spots here and there like International Blvd, Marietta St, Courtland St and a few others. Sure there are a few homeless people here and there in those areas, but its not alot.
I'm homeless, but I never beg. I pick up deposit bottles and cans. Sometimes people give me things - people have been very generous with me over the holidays. It helped a lot, bless their hearts.
Need another city that has a comparable large homeless population that is handling it well. ANY ideas, thoughts?
Just so you know, there are no cities in the US with large homeless populations that are handling it well. Certainly not LA, SF, or NYC. NYC is basically bruteforcing and just throwing gobs of cash into the problem, housing over 6,000 homeless that can't fit into shelters in hotels and such. LA and SF are a zoo, aided by mild weather, have tent mini-cities of homeless on certain streets and underpasses.
Portland has a sizable homeless population from what I remember visiting growing up. I think per capita it has to be one of the highest.
Dallas has had issues with homelessness recently but I don't know if really is that large given the metro population, it is all concentrated in the CBD. Dallas had a sizable homeless camp on the edge of downtown 300-500 people I think. It was bulldozed after a crime wave downtown and two murders in the camp itself.
Seattle right now is in a state of emergency since Nov 2015 due to its homeless problem. There is an estimated 3,000 people sleeping on the streets in Seattle and that's not counting people in shelters. Seattle probably has one of the highest per capita homeless population.
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