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Half? Some of you people have no idea. That is why there cannot be any rational discussion about the problem. It is very unpleasant to live or work near a homeless encampment. None of you do. My wife works right across the street from a persistent one on SE 12th near SE Stark. I drop her off at work every morning on a tandem bicycle. It doesn't get much more up close and personal than that. Daily. I doubt that many of you exhibiting such intense loathing and outrage about the homeless issue have such intense physical and personal contact with the homeless as I do on a near daily basis and I somehow am able to have a lot more objectivity. I wonder why that is.
Half of all homelessness is caused by medical bankruptcy. That is not up for debate. Of the remaining half, half of those homeless are from intractable mental and substance abuse issues. Of the remaining 25%, half of their homelessness is caused by car repossessions, car mechanical catastrophes and other financial depredations arising from car ownership under shaky economic circumstances. What's left might fairly be characterized as a catch all of slackers, losers and n'er do wells that, in America at least, won't get much in the way of sympathy from most.
That's your homeless problem in summary. But it's easier to paint with a broad brush, and 'generously' characterize half of the homeless as hapless, and half as undeserving scoundrels, slackers, and people who just need a swift kick. But it isn't so, and never was so, and we will never solve the problem, because we want to blame the victims. It's easier than blaming the real culprits who we fear will punish us all if we call them out on their criminal business and economic policies. And it's about to get a lot worse.
Lol. 13.2 of Portland homeless are named Larry. 6.9 are homeless because they couldn't get cable. A quarter of the homeless came from a home that had no siblings
There are definitely strong links to health and homelessness, but to say that medical bankruptcy is responsible for 50-percent of it happened because of medical bankruptcy doesn't seem to be backed up anywhere by credible stats.
agreed. and it is going to get worse, ignoring it, trying to starve "them" out, aint gonna work (and I don't know how a civilized society could stand to watch anyway.
I do think this is more than a regional problem, its part of the nationwide trends of the outmigration from rural areas.
Someone earlier alluded to, as you say, starving them out as a reasonable solution. Not only is that vile, it will never work. Humans as animals are served best by their ability to survive in just about any circumstance. We throw more food away in this country than people eat in other countries. If someone is truly starving on the street, a hot meal is not hard to find, and shelter can be improvised, as we can see.
I once had homeless camping right behind my house. I lived in a place that was right next to the Banfield's sound barrier and homeless had a small settlement in the bushes next to the barrier. It was ODOT property, so I couldn't do much about it. I called the cops once when I heard bloodcurdling screaming coming from their settlement. Cops came and hauled one guy away. Nothing else happened. Their area was an outdoor toilet. They had piles of trash. They used to cut through my yard constantly, and were really menacing and not friendly at all. Finally, after 10 months, ODOT cleared them out. It was quite the ordeal for us. Even after that experience, I still didn't hate them because they are HOMELESS. As in, they have no home. They sleep outside. Their lives are hell. I really don't get hating people who have it so rough. I really don't get hating anybody that hasn't directly harmed me.
I totally agree that this is a national problem that needs national solutions. There's really no point in blaming local politicians. Every city in America is grappling with this issue. Portland definitely has a bad problem, but it's no worse than the other West Coast cities. We've got get away from playing homeless whack-a-mole and come up with a national, comprehensive plan to deal with this issue.
Someone earlier alluded to, as you say, starving them out as a reasonable solution. Not only is that vile, it will never work. Humans as animals are served best by their ability to survive in just about any circumstance. We throw more food away in this country than people eat in other countries. If someone is truly starving on the street, a hot meal is not hard to find, and shelter can be improvised, as we can see.
I once had homeless camping right behind my house. I lived in a place that was right next to the Banfield's sound barrier and homeless had a small settlement in the bushes next to the barrier. It was ODOT property, so I couldn't do much about it. I called the cops once when I heard bloodcurdling screaming coming from their settlement. Cops came and hauled one guy away. Nothing else happened. Their area was an outdoor toilet. They had piles of trash. They used to cut through my yard constantly, and were really menacing and not friendly at all. Finally, after 10 months, ODOT cleared them out. It was quite the ordeal for us. Even after that experience, I still didn't hate them because they are HOMELESS. As in, they have no home. They sleep outside. Their lives are hell. I really don't get hating people who have it so rough. I really don't get hating anybody that hasn't directly harmed me.
I totally agree that this is a national problem that needs national solutions. There's really no point in blaming local politicians. Every city in America is grappling with this issue. Portland definitely has a bad problem, but it's no worse than the other West Coast cities. We've got get away from playing homeless whack-a-mole and come up with a national, comprehensive plan to deal with this issue.
Yes. We need to figure out some kind of safe place for people to live because let's be honest... not everyone is employable and if they don't have family to help, they are SOL. We also need to really deal with our addiction/ drug problem. How many homeless are unemployed because they can't get clean?
Someone earlier alluded to, as you say, starving them out as a reasonable solution. Not only is that vile, it will never work. Humans as animals are served best by their ability to survive in just about any circumstance. We throw more food away in this country than people eat in other countries. If someone is truly starving on the street, a hot meal is not hard to find, and shelter can be improvised, as we can see.
If it were only as easy as a hot meal and a place to sleep.
Whether people want to admit it or not, Portland's homeless problem is a direct result of lax policies from our past Mayors, who decided to take the easy way out and placate rather than actually deal with the problem.
Word got out that Portland is an easy touch, and Bing Bango Bongo Baby....RIP CITY......We have a HUGE homeless problem.
Quote:
Originally Posted by EasyBeezy
I once had homeless camping right behind my house. I lived in a place that was right next to the Banfield's sound barrier and homeless had a small settlement in the bushes next to the barrier. It was ODOT property, so I couldn't do much about it. I called the cops once when I heard bloodcurdling screaming coming from their settlement. Cops came and hauled one guy away. Nothing else happened. Their area was an outdoor toilet. They had piles of trash. They used to cut through my yard constantly, and were really menacing and not friendly at all. Finally, after 10 months, ODOT cleared them out. It was quite the ordeal for us. Even after that experience, I still didn't hate them because they are HOMELESS. As in, they have no home. They sleep outside. Their lives are hell. I really don't get hating people who have it so rough. I really don't get hating anybody that hasn't directly harmed me.
Sounds exactly like a yuppie saying "I have a couple of black and latino friends. I even know one guy from India! I'm so diverse!"
I personally have had to put up with almost the exact same situation (more than once), and believe me after a while it's not that easy to be "tolerant".
There are a lot of just plain scummy twisted people out there.
I DON'T WANT TO HAVE TO PUT UP WITH THAT CRAP.
PERIOD.
It harms you and your family and your neighbors indirectly, every day.
In your psyche and in your pocketbook.
What did your parents teach you?
Be good, work hard go to school, try to be a success, and raise a good family.
They didn't teach you to be good, work hard go to school, try to be a success, and raise a good family and support and fund a homeless camp while they rob you and steal you blind, did they.
I don't think that even the big "Christian" churches do that.
At least I haven't seen a major efforts from them here in Portland!
Quote:
Originally Posted by EasyBeezy
I totally agree that this is a national problem that needs national solutions. There's really no point in blaming local politicians. Every city in America is grappling with this issue. Portland definitely has a bad problem, but it's no worse than the other West Coast cities. We've got get away from playing homeless whack-a-mole and come up with a national, comprehensive plan to deal with this issue.
So, unless we don't solve the problem "nationally" we can't do anything about it locally?
Sounds like a lot of blowhard feel good excuses to me.
It should be the other way around.
Portland should grow a spine.
Also it seems to me that the people that are the most "apologetic" and "concerned" and "caring" and "understanding" about homeless people are the ones in neighborhoods and locales where they don't have to put up with their vile BS on a daily basis.
How many homeless people does someone in the affluent portions of Portland or the coast have to put up with?
How does their local police force put up with them?
What what they do if a bunch of criminal homeless tweakers and heroin addicts showed up in an old broken down RV and parked in front of their house and started a mini crime wave in their nice little neighborhood?
Would they bake them cookies, invite them into their house for showers, feed them dinner, let them date their teenage daughters, get them library cards and try to show them the way to the good life?
Yeah right...................Give me a break.
They would want them out of there as soon as possible, most likely saying "Not In My Neighborhood"!
Send them to Portland!
Thanks a lot!
Last edited by pdxMIKEpdx; 04-21-2017 at 06:23 PM..
There are definitely strong links to health and homelessness, but to say that medical bankruptcy is responsible for 50-percent of it happened because of medical bankruptcy doesn't seem to be backed up anywhere by credible stats.
Good article & good points. Again, though obviously there are homeless out there who are decent people who have fallen on hard times, a lot of others are junkies/alcoholics/scammers/entitled lazy people, etc. I see people like this every day, i.e. these are the people that will cuss you out & threaten you if you refuse to give them money; these are the people that are out there drunk & stoned at all times of day & weaving around in public; these are the pieces of excrement that have money but are just scamming naive people by playing on their sympathy, like these scum-bags:
Also it seems to me that the people that are the most "apologetic" and "concerned" and "caring" and "understanding" about homeless people are the ones in neighborhoods and locales where they don't have to put up with their vile BS on a daily basis.
How many homeless people does someone in the affluent portions of Portland or the coast have to put up with? How does their local police force put up with them?
What what they do if a bunch of criminal homeless tweakers and heroin addicts showed up in an old broken down RV and parked in front of their house and started a mini crime wave in their nice little neighborhood?
Would they bake them cookies, invite them into their house for showers, feed them dinner, let them date their teenage daughters, get them library cards and try to show them the way to the good life?
Yeah right...................Give me a break.
Well put, well said! There are a lot of so-called bleeding-heart liberals out there who like to say that they feel sorry for the way the homeless are treated, etc. However, they're the first ones that would protest if any of these people ended up in their neighborhood - either temporarily or permanently.
Last edited by The Big Lebowski Dude; 04-21-2017 at 07:40 PM..
If it were only as easy as a hot meal and a place to sleep.
Whether people want to admit it or not, Portland's homeless problem is a direct result of lax policies from our past Mayors, who decided to take the easy way out and placate rather than actually deal with the problem.
Word got out that Portland is an easy touch, and Bing Bango Bongo Baby....RIP CITY......We have a HUGE homeless problem.
Sounds exactly like a yuppie saying "I have a couple of black and latino friends. I even know one guy from India! I'm so diverse!"
I personally have had to put up with almost the exact same situation (more than once), and believe me after a while it's not that easy to be "tolerant".
There are a lot of just plain scummy twisted people out there.
I DON'T WANT TO HAVE TO PUT UP WITH THAT CRAP.
PERIOD.
It harms you and your family and your neighbors indirectly, every day.
In your psyche and in your pocketbook.
What did your parents teach you?
Be good, work hard go to school, try to be a success, and raise a good family.
They didn't teach you to be good, work hard go to school, try to be a success, and raise a good family and support and fund a homeless camp while they rob you and steal you blind, did they.
I don't think that even the big "Christian" churches do that.
At least I haven't seen a major efforts from them here in Portland!
So, unless we don't solve the problem "nationally" we can't do anything about it locally?
Sounds like a lot of blowhard feel good excuses to me.
It should be the other way around.
Portland should grow a spine.
Also it seems to me that the people that are the most "apologetic" and "concerned" and "caring" and "understanding" about homeless people are the ones in neighborhoods and locales where they don't have to put up with their vile BS on a daily basis.
How many homeless people does someone in the affluent portions of Portland or the coast have to put up with?
How does their local police force put up with them?
What what they do if a bunch of criminal homeless tweakers and heroin addicts showed up in an old broken down RV and parked in front of their house and started a mini crime wave in their nice little neighborhood?
Would they bake them cookies, invite them into their house for showers, feed them dinner, let them date their teenage daughters, get them library cards and try to show them the way to the good life?
Yeah right...................Give me a break.
They would want them out of there as soon as possible, most likely saying "Not In My Neighborhood"!
Send them to Portland!
Thanks a lot!
We have big dogs - nobody lingers.
We are clear that our home our yard is off limits, and so far so good.
(I dont think any of the posters are advocating having homeless strangers move in with you- my little brother lived in my living room for a year once....)....
Back in the day, my BF used to clear out the homeless from out of our car in the AM, before we would ride off to work lol...
Personally have had more experience with homeless folks(how many of you guys know , I mean actually have friends, who have experienced homelessness? And NO not everyone is a lazy, tweaker person...
That said this is a problem, and spine or not regional homelessness needs to have national solutions not just NIMBY, or it really is "whack a mole/homeless" person like eezybeezy says.
I thought it was interesting, listening to OPB today, their announcement that there are more homeless CHILDREN then adults in Clackamas county (our border)- how to blame those kids, huh?!
We have big dogs - nobody lingers.
We are clear that our home our yard is off limits, and so far so good.
(I dont think any of the posters are advocating having homeless strangers move in with you- my little brother lived in my living room for a year once....)....
Back in the day, my BF used to clear out the homeless from out of our car in the AM, before we would ride off to work lol...
Personally have had more experience with homeless folks(how many of you guys know , I mean actually have friends, who have experienced homelessness? And NO not everyone is a lazy, tweaker person...
That said this is a problem, and spine or not regional homelessness needs to have national solutions not just NIMBY, or it really is "whack a mole/homeless" person like eezybeezy says.
I thought it was interesting, listening to OPB today, their announcement that there are more homeless CHILDREN then adults in Clackamas county (our border)- how to blame those kids, huh?!
Not everyone can or wants to have big dogs. Not everyone has a BF to clear the way before they step outside to start their day. My 89-year old father may not be as able to set strong boundaries for the homeless as you and your BF are. Pretty sure there's at least one poster in this thread who's actually been homeless. No one here is blaming the homeless children for anything. You're not the only person here who may have known a homeless person or two in your time or to have worked in an agency that helped them. So your little brother slept on your couch? Hold my beer. I bought mine a house with cash.
I think a lot of long-term Portland residents have homeless fatigue. The situation just keeps getting worse and worse, nothing seems to be helping, and their city is literally being crapped on all over.
Last edited by Metlakatla; 04-22-2017 at 12:05 AM..
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