Has there been an increase in squeegee guys lately? (Austin: homeless, suburbs)

[ScoPro]

After my elderly mother was mugged & injured by one of your unfortunates, my simpathy for that demographic seems to have been in short supply.

Lot of high horses around here.

[TexasHorseLady]

Originally Posted by RoamingTX

It’s a good thing I’m way younger and in way better health than the simpletons in this thread. The saving grace for these issues will be the fact that they’ll die off and people capable of independent and complex thought will be able to devise plans statewide for dealing with this issue. It really can’t be handled on the local level, or you create magnets that result in NIMBY scumbags dumping their problems on others.

I’d be willing to bet thousands of dollars that none of the people bemoaning the homeless problem in this thread can provide any documented instance that they’ve tried to do anything at all about the problem. If all you do is complain about something, that just makes you a *****.

The best program I ever participated in for helping the homeless was in Austin years ago. An old apartment building was fixed up. Homeless people and families (depending on size of apartments) could live in them for six months. During that six months, the cost of the apartment was to participate in programs for training in marketable skills, interview techniques, clothing suitable for interviews and work was donated, the children went to school and had a place to do homework other than a car or the streets, medical issues that might have contributed to the homeless situation were dealt with. At the end of the six months they were helped to find a place to live and move on with their lives and another homeless person/family would move into the apartment. They were active participants in this, not recipients of welfare. My participation involved both donation of work clothing and training them in word processing.



I don't know what became of that program as we moved. However, just yesterday I was reading about a similar program in this area and will be looking into it and possibly getting involved in it (I am lousy at staying on the Just Say No to Volunteering wagon). I like it because it is helping them to help themselves and that does more to address the real problem than anything else I've seen.

[RoamingTX]

Originally Posted by TexasHorseLady

The best program I ever participated in for helping the homeless was in Austin years ago. An old apartment building was fixed up. Homeless people and families (depending on size of apartments) could live in them for six months. During that six months, the cost of the apartment was to participate in programs for training in marketable skills, interview techniques, clothing suitable for interviews and work was donated, the children went to school and had a place to do homework other than a car or the streets, medical issues that might have contributed to the homeless situation were dealt with. At the end of the six months they were helped to find a place to live and move on with their lives and another homeless person/family would move into the apartment. They were active participants in this, not recipients of welfare. My participation involved both donation of work clothing and training them in word processing.



I don't know what became of that program as we moved. However, just yesterday I was reading about a similar program in this area and will be looking into it and possibly getting involved in it (I am lousy at staying on the Just Say No to Volunteering wagon). I like it because it is helping them to help themselves and that does more to address the real problem than anything else I've seen.

There are a few of these programs. I’ve done a bunch of work with these groups in addiction counseling and interview skills.

Sadly, the wait lists are years long. There’s just never enough capacity because of cities shuttling their problems into Austin. I’d say a solid 50% of the men and women that I’ve talked to ended up in Austin after being “relocated”.

It’s going to take a statewide approach on mental health, addiction services, enforcement of Panhandling laws and support services. With an organized approach, those that really do just need a hand up will be easily separated from those looking for a hand out.

[RoamingTX]

Originally Posted by ScoPro

After my elderly mother was mugged & injured by one of your unfortunates, my simpathy for that demographic seems to have been in short supply.

Lot of high horses around here.

Perhaps if you hadn’t sent them near her house and removed access to services to actually fix the problem, it wouldn’t have happened.

[TexasHorseLady]

Originally Posted by scissor_chavez

The solution to homelessness is cheap housign. Jarrell (and all of Bell County) has a lot of that.

THL, woudl you agree that we shoudl send them north, were it would be less expensive to provide housing and services?

I would agree that I am hearing the tippy tap of little goat hooves in at least some of your posts.



The program I recently heard about that I mentioned was in Georgetown, by the way, not Austin. This is not an Austin problem, this is a state-wide (well, actually, nation-wide) problem and needs to be addressed that way, by addressing the sources of the problem, not the symptom. Wherever that might be.

[ScoPro]

Originally Posted by RoamingTX

Perhaps if you hadn’t sent them near her house and removed access to services to actually fix the problem, it wouldn’t have happened.

Walking on a public street while shopping nowhere near her house.
But you have no knowledge of my personal contributions towards the homeless & needy. Nor do I feel the need to toot my horn about it.

[DashRiprock]

My original post was about squeegee guys, not necessarily the homeless. I'm not convinced that they are one and the same.

A good portion of these people who hang out on the corners panhandling or squeegee-ing don't appear to be homeless to me. There's a few I recognize that I've seen at various spots for many years now.

[ScoPro]

Dude.

[creepy]

Originally Posted by scissor_chavez

Better to ship them to Austin from places like Georgetown. Just ask Haruka Weiser's parents.

https://www.kxan.com/news/crime/ut-m...cer/1049681838

That's a silly answer and low. Poor girl was murdered and your using that to make a senseless point. Her killer had mental issues, so you know he was homeless too? Shipping folks around is a good thing?

Why even post that?