Crazys out in Sarasota. (homes, school, closing)

[gypsychic]

I have noticed a huge decline in street people and panhandlers since season was over along with the new laws about panhandling.

[LIFL]

Originally Posted by gypsychic

I have noticed a huge decline in street people and panhandlers since season was over along with the new laws about panhandling.

Yeah, and the laws banning homelessness. Those are so cruel.

[gettinoutofjersey]

Originally Posted by isles20

Yeah, and the laws banning homelessness. Those are so cruel.

yah, its all horrible the way they are treated until they are living on YOUR front porch and peeing in your bushes. i am sure your wife if you have one will love getting harrased on the way to her car. i think every bleeding heart liberal oughta adopt a dozen and have them move into their house.

[Frida7]

Originally Posted by gettinoutofjersey

yah, its all horrible the way they are treated until they are living on YOUR front porch and peeing in your bushes. i am sure your wife if you have one will love getting harrased on the way to her car. i think every bleeding heart liberal oughta adopt a dozen and have them move into their house.

They can be treated like human beings without allowing them to urinate on one's bushes, or moving them into your house. This is the problem with rethugs, they cannot comprehend the concept although it is not in any way complicated.

[Cardiff by the Sea]

Originally Posted by Frida7

They can be treated like human beings without allowing them to urinate on one's bushes, or moving them into your house. This is the problem with rethugs, they cannot comprehend the concept although it is not in any way complicated.

I prefer to focus on solutions rather than name calling. (Although thank you for teaching me a word I did not know). Could you please be more descriptive about how you would like to see the homeless treated more humanely. What would that look like? What do people need to do?

I am an out of towner so I don't know the local history of the homeless problem. These are not trick questions. What should be done?

[Frida7]

Sorry Cardiff, but I calls 'em like I sees 'em. There are republicans, and then, there are rethugs.

I don't have an answer to the homeless problem. I never claimed to, but if you really want to know what I mean by treating then humanely, we could begin by providing adequate mental health care. The prevailing attitude here seems to be that these are not human beings, but moving garbage that needs to be dumped somewhere else. If that changed, perhaps we could come up with a better solution together than removing park benches, police beatings, or Jersey's brainchild, moving them into libral homes.
What would you suggest, Cardiff?

[Cardiff by the Sea]

Originally Posted by Frida7

What would you suggest, Cardiff?

I worked full time for 18 months with the mentally ill homeless in San Diego in 1988. What I learned was that there are different types of homeless. The homeless who want to get off the street were willing to avail themselves of the services of shelters. The shelters provided beds, food, and vocational assistance. These were largely people who ended up down and out through unfortunate circumstances.

There is a portion of the homeless who suffer with mental illnesses that can only be treated with medication and this population is not treatment compliant. There is nothing that can be done for this group. We would give them two weeks of intensive therapy, get them back on their meds, and as soon as they walked out the door, they relapsed.

Then there is a big segment that are drug addicts. In 88, the drug that was doing most people in was meth. Some crack, but mostly meth and alcohol. And a lot of this population are sociopathic scammers. This group wants to stay on the street and refuse to go to shelters because they don't want to be forced into sobriety.

The scammers are the people who really give homelessness a bad name. If people consider homeless to be garbage, it is because of this group. I now live the next suburb over from Santa Monica. I won't go there unless I have to because the streets ALL smell like urine. It is a very upscale city with beautiful beaches and multi million dollar homes and the place smells like pee. The homeless flock there because Santa Monica feeds them at the beach every day at 4.

After 18 months on the front line, I never donated to another homeless person again because I believe the money goes straight to drugs. I donate to organizations that provide services to the homeless.

I think the solutions vary by population. Shelters do a good job of helping the truly down and out. Other than going back to involuntary hospitalization, there is no solution for those who are schizophrenic. And I think the scammers and drug addicts should not be allowed to panhandle cause it only feeds their addiction and destroys the livability of otherwise good towns. I guess I am in the tough love camp--help those willing to help themselves and show no mercy to the sociopaths.

[Frida7]

What would you do with those who refuse to take meds, and those who refuse any help? I have only given money to an individual once, it was a woman with a child. I've given food, but selectively, if I feel the person is a scammer, I won't.

[Cardiff by the Sea]

Originally Posted by Frida7

What would you do with those who refuse to take meds, and those who refuse any help? I have only given money to an individual once, it was a woman with a child. I've given food, but selectively, if I feel the person is a scammer, I won't.

I would like to see the return of long term mental hospitals, but there is not money for it.

The ones who refuse help might be more accepting of help if it was harder to get by pan handing.

I have only had two chances to observe the homelessy in Sarasota. There was a group smoking pot and drinking in the doorway across from Mattison's Grill. Some of the more energetic were dancing on the street and sort of trying to engage people into dancing. I was very surprised at how social they were. In CA, the homeless tend to be loners. There is a women's camp of homeless who band together for protection but you don't usually see mixed gender homeless groups. I don't know what to make of this social homeless group.

The other thing I saw was a team working together at the farmers market. It was an older woman in a wheelchair and a younger man pushing her past the fruit stands. When the vendors were't looking, the woman would snatch fruit as they went by. The way she was able to move her legs and feet made me suspect the wheelchair was a prop rather than a necessity. These people were in the scammer category.

I understand there is a new homeless consultant there and I will be very curious to see what is recommended.

[Cardiff by the Sea]

If you want to understand the role of meth in the deterioration of people and how it contributes to homelessness, google "faces of meth". These are multiple pictures of the same people taken just a few years apart. The changes are horrifying. To solve homelessness as a problem means solving drug addiction.