how is homeless/transient situation? (Vancouver: sex offenders, crimes, house)

[lovethegreen]

Hi, I live in west of Portland in the suburbs and am considering moving to Vancouver, partly because of taxes. Today I just got hit up for money while shopping in a Fred Meyer in a good neighborhood and I've just had it. There's a lot of things I really like about the area I live, but the pervasive presence of transients whether in the suburbs, in the city, on the freeway on-ramp, or inside stores bothers me - and honestly makes me feel unsafe sometimes. Don't get me wrong, I do have compassion for these folks and give them money sometimes but there should be some areas where you don't have to deal with it. Is Vancouver or parts of Vancouver any better in this regard?

thanks
ltg

[cdelena]

There will be the occasional beggar at the freeway exits with a sign but overall I find very little of the problem and certainly nothing like the many in Portland.

[lovethegreen]

Thank you cdelena for responding. I realize my question is a bit "politically incorrect" but after yesterday I just realized I can't kid myself anymore that I'm going to get used to it. I wonder why there is a difference between Portland and Vancouver on this since the climate should be identical - is it city policies or public acceptance?

[walkerdawg]

both weatherwise and politically and factors that may be contributing are:


1.Vancouver, Washington is home to over 40 transient sex offenders according to the police registry.

2. They and other homeless are able to camp along the I-5 corrider without disruption from either the city or the State Patrol as both entities refuse to do anything about their camping in public owned spaces and using these areas as homes and toilets.

3. The weather is mild here so they find it suitable year round-word has gotten out as we have seen the population grow in downtown. They sleep throughout the downtown area. I could not use the ATM at the bank one morning due to them sleeping thereabouts

4. SHARE, an organization who has around 72 paid employes who are highly dependent on people remaining in poverty so as to validate the need for SHARE paid employees who might otherwise not have employment, does not deny housing transient registered sex offenders. They are dependant on homeless people for their jobs and I suspect would do little to actually solve the problem and much to encourage homeless people to come into the area. Much like many of Portland's grant/donation funded projects that provide paid positions to those who would not find private sector employment due to degrees that do not apply themselves to the private sector.
5. I would not use or let my male child use the men's room at the Downtown Public Library as the homeless men use it all day long.

[StealthRabbit]

The core downtown, near the bridge is plenty bad for homeless and pan handling. Can be pretty violent too. There are some good options / programs for homeless. I think Open House Ministries largely caters to families or single parents with kids. I hadn't thought about 'SHARE" propagating the problem, but I guess it could happen (As in the case of WA and OR recently adopting CARB standards and planning a whole (HUGE) infrastructure of gov workers to support it)

[tetonmoon61]

The fear instilled by the media and the unfortunate acts of a few who our legal system which failed miserably has now over compensated by grouping all groups of so called sex offender into one, has created a vast homeless population, has banished basically good people, many young adults and children from ever being able to survive, thus forcing them to do things they would never have considered just for survival. A majority of your so called sex offenders have been registered from any thing like public urination( so don't pull over and pee in a bush seriously!) to consensual teen sex depending on state as to what the age of consent is Or is 18 so if your 19 yr old son has been dating and active with his 17 yr old high school sweetie he is forever a registered sex offender completely stripped of his constitutional rights to live, many states 42 at date have life time registrations, they do differentiate a kid who had consensual sex with a 15 or 17 yr old from the 65 perv who had sex with a 15-17 I just got of the phone with a church service and the womens 12 yr old son was convicted for having sex with his 13 yr old girlfriend, young yes, but reality so wake up and realize we all have rights of passage and sexual experimentation, anyway this was 8 years ago, he cannot move forward with his life, luckily his parents where not too close to school or park and not forced to sell home and take him in and will probably have to care for him for the rest of his life, these are the facts, the bannishment of so called sex offenders is doing nothing but creating false fear, forcing otherwise good and strong people into desperate situations and giving them no options but to commit crimes of desperation , like stealing food to eat, or panhandling, the suicide rate of so called sex offenders are off the chart, and the population of homelessness directly coorolates to these unconstitutional and paranoid laws, a murderer, gang banger, robber has more rights than my now 19 yr old brilliant loving creative son who is homeless, jobless, and futureless, If you want to talk then get the facts go to Humanrightswatch.com pull up the publications list type "No easy Answers" then hit link for full report in summary, if this does not make you sick and angry then just wait for your son or daughter, husband or brother, or even you elderly father to become an offender at the rate we are going this is a quote from a local PO in Vancouver every family will have one registered offender in their family with in five years. Remember, your ignorance and judgement is not just effecting the many and many of young and confused basically good kids but thousands of family members, the wifes and children of these people and more. So you want to clean up the streets then get informed get involved and force our courts to overturn statutory laws, and restrictions for low level offenders, the kid who got drunk and had sex with someone a couple years younger they knew from highschool and had a crush on or the the boy whos girlfriend got jealous and cryed rape to get even with him or your husband who pulled over to pee, or you or your sister or daughter who went to a bar got a little drunk and flashed her *******, I mean this is the facts not an exageration. READ THE ARTICLE BECOME AN ADVOCATE challage our government to stop breaking the constitution and practicing bannishment and ethical cleansing.