The Los Angeles Homeless Containment Thread (precinct, purchase, move)

[Chickenfriedsteak]

Originally Posted by Genghis

From the article:

"An activist group has revealed their plans to build a $3billion state-of-the art city to house homeless citizens in California"

"The group set up a GoFundMe to raise 50,000 on Wednesday and so far has received $820."

That basically summarizes it. No way anyone is going to pay 3 billion dollars for this fantasy city for the homeless when they could be using it for college education, health care, etc. Just another failed attempt to help the homeless. Assuming it's not a scam.

A homeless city makes all the sense in the world except that the homeless wouldn't want to live in it. They should be forced to though, and if they choose not to, they should be immediately arrested if they camp on the streets. Of course, this assumes that the homeless city of, well, housed "homeless" people (an oxymoron) is built and ready to go!

I am in LA for work and I am sick and tired of how abusive they are. There was a homeless guy outside of Trader Joe's that was plain crazy yelling racial obscenities but people pretend not to hear it.

[Genghis]

Originally Posted by Chickenfriedsteak

A homeless city makes all the sense in the world except that the homeless wouldn't want to live in it. They should be forced to though, and if they choose not to, they should be immediately arrested if they camp on the streets. Of course, this assumes that the homeless city of, well, housed "homeless" people (an oxymoron) is built and ready to go!

I am in LA for work and I am sick and tired of how abusive they are. There was a homeless guy outside of Trader Joe's that was plain crazy yelling racial obscenities but people pretend not to hear it.

Well, there's the multi-billion dollar price tag that such a city would cost. Also, the Supreme Court just let stand a ruling that said arresting homeless people for camping on the streets is cruel and unusual punishment. So when California decides to not allow the homeless to be arrested there's nothing that can be done about it.

The homeless are definitely annoying but warehousing them doesn't tend to work. In Chicago where I live they used to have these public housing projects, Cabrini Green being the most notorious of them, and they just became crime-infested hellholes. They have now generally been torn down. If you stuffed a lot of homeless people in a city, in order for it to work it would effectively have to be a prison, which would cost vast sums of money and would be illegal in California and most other places with major homeless problems.

Or you can just leave California and then this whole mess becomes someone else's problem

[2sleepy]

Originally Posted by Chickenfriedsteak

A homeless city makes all the sense in the world except that the homeless wouldn't want to live in it. They should be forced to though, and if they choose not to, they should be immediately arrested if they camp on the streets. Of course, this assumes that the homeless city of, well, housed "homeless" people (an oxymoron) is built and ready to go!

I am in LA for work and I am sick and tired of how abusive they are. There was a homeless guy outside of Trader Joe's that was plain crazy yelling racial obscenities but people pretend not to hear it.

The idea that the homeless 'should' be forced into some kind of 'homeless city' is a slippery slope. Once we allow something like that to happen, what comes next? Will we force residents who live on property that the Government wants to seize under public domain to relocate to such a place? What about the homeless who have jobs but are unsheltered, will they have to quit their job and go live in the homeless city? Fortunately at this point it's unconstitutuonal but I woudn't be surprised if this adminstration didn't try to do it anyway

[Statz2k10]

Sounds like most agree here.

Seems like on paper this seems great & in a perfect world it make sense. Of course in a perfect world we wouldn't have homeless.

But while something like this would help some people that truly wanted off the streets & a chance to regroup and start over. I feel like unless you had drug sniffing dogs going around door to door daily all this type of place would end up is another skid row. The only difference is indoor plumbing & I'm sure you'd still have people defecating in the hallways & stairways.

Something like this could always turn into a disaster. Think about having thousands of people in buildings like this that are not mentally stable. Imagine one of them starting a fire & it goes out of control.

[Chickenfriedsteak]

Originally Posted by 2sleepy

The idea that the homeless 'should' be forced into some kind of 'homeless city' is a slippery slope. Once we allow something like that to happen, what comes next? Will we force residents who live on property that the Government wants to seize under public domain to relocate to such a place? What about the homeless who have jobs but are unsheltered, will they have to quit their job and go live in the homeless city? Fortunately at this point it's unconstitutuonal but I woudn't be surprised if this adminstration didn't try to do it anyway

Oh well, as the make up of the courts changes, and it has and will continue to change, we can only hope sanity will return to the courts especially here in the 9th circus.

[Tulemutt]

Originally Posted by Statz2k10

Sounds like most agree here.

Seems like on paper this seems great & in a perfect world it make sense. Of course in a perfect world we wouldn't have homeless.

But while something like this would help some people that truly wanted off the streets & a chance to regroup and start over. I feel like unless you had drug sniffing dogs going around door to door daily all this type of place would end up is another skid row. The only difference is indoor plumbing & I'm sure you'd still have people defecating in the hallways & stairways.

Something like this could always turn into a disaster. Think about having thousands of people in buildings like this that are not mentally stable. Imagine one of them starting a fire & it goes out of control.

While I don’t support this building concept, I’m wondering why you are “sure” people would continue to defecate in the hallways and stairways when they would have bathrooms.

[V8 Vega]

A homeless guy pooped (can you imagine) in a grocery store where a bathroom was available

[Statz2k10]

Originally Posted by Tulemutt

While I don’t support this building concept, I’m wondering why you are “sure” people would continue to defecate in the hallways and stairways when they would have bathrooms.

Maybe I should've gone into more detail. If individuals are going to be high/drunk etc. I'm sure you will still have people using the bathrooms in the hall/stairways because they are going to be so out of it wasted. It will happen.

Now if they are sober and have a place? I doubt it. But I've seen drunken idiots **** in stairways of apartment complexes because they are to lazy to go to there apartment.

And you mention "continue" I'm not saying any one individual would continue to use the bathroom out in the open. But there would be incidents of this happening when you have thousands of people around that again are probably on drugs or drunk. I'm not saying it's going to be something that happens all the time but I think it will happen.

[Tulemutt]

Originally Posted by V8 Vega

A homeless guy pooped (can you imagine) in a grocery store where a bathroom was available

You know why this made the news and mentions around the web?

Because it is completely unusual and bizarre.

Yet, for you, somehow, it exemplifies homeless behavior.

Speaking of bizarre.

[Tulemutt]

Originally Posted by Statz2k10

Maybe I should've gone into more detail. If individuals are going to be high/drunk etc. I'm sure you will still have people using the bathrooms in the hall/stairways because they are going to be so out of it wasted. It will happen.

Now if they are sober and have a place? I doubt it. But I've seen drunken idiots **** in stairways of apartment complexes because they are to lazy to go to there apartment.

And you mention "continue" I'm not saying any one individual would continue to use the bathroom out in the open. But there would be incidents of this happening when you have thousands of people around that again are probably on drugs or drunk. I'm not saying it's going to be something that happens all the time but I think it will happen.

Not sure if you are aware of how many homeless do not act as you fear. On average, 75% of the people who are homeless at any given time will be rehoused in less than a year. Average time homeless: 2 months.

Yes, there certainly are a lot of drunks and drug addicts in the mix who are chronically homeless. And yet, even the chronics mostly become quite manageable when given a room with a lock and a toilet. Look up “Housing First” if you are curious for example. Typically, Housing First projects serve those at greatest risk and the outcomes run in the 90% success range for them staying in stable housing long term where they can be (voluntarily) monitored for health and abuse issues and served with medication protocols and counseling.

Further of interest is: research following Housing First programs finds savings of between 30% and 60% over the costs of leaving this population unserved on the street.

Not suggesting that a mass “homeless city” size housing project can run as well. Just offering you information about how even the people you stereotype don’t always behave as you suggest ... and some can improve quite a bit more than it seems you think.