Are NorCal small towns becoming a popular refuge for our homeless and 'underclass' (and how to respond)? (Redding: 2013, homes)

[mateo45]

As evident in some other threads, many small towns in Northern California seem to be experiencing a rising influx of poor and homeless folks, mentally ill, chronically unemployed, 'street people', substance abusers, etc….. all of which place increasing demands on already limited rural social services and law enforcement, as well on local businesses struggling to stay afloat by attracting tourism and more 'mainstream' customers.

Is NorCal receiving more than its "fair share" compared to other areas, and if so, how should these small communities respond and cope with these issues?

Redding Homeless Blog

Anti-panhandling Movement Grows in Northern California

[oldtrader]

What do you expect, when California is experiencing:

Nearly 1 out 4 people living in the state are living in poverty. They cannot even afford to find shelter, and food in many cases.

The number of people in the workforce keeps declining as jobs dry up. The unemployment figures keep going down, with a lot of that due to the shrinking workforce as people leave the official unemployment and unemployment figures.

At the same time the population keeps growing due to immigrants from mostly Latin America countries and the orient. A lot of that is illegal immigration, which is welcomed by the governor and California governments that have turned the state into a sanctuary state, replacing the long time residents as the migration leaving California following the jobs that are leaving the state, and keeps exceeding the migration to California from other states.. This means a lot of poor people moving into the state which is one reason for the high poverty rate.

As those small Northern California towns are cheaper to live in than the big cities, the poor and homeless will be moving to where they may be able to continue to exist.

Until California becomes business friendly and starts attracting good jobs, the homeless problem will continue to grow and effect those small towns. It will get worse as companies such as Toyota and many others are fleeing the state, and California companies such as Apple and their new Texas computer factory, and Tesla Battery factory going to Nevada because it would take at least an extra 18 months to even get a permit to start the factor over going to Nevada which they did according to the head of Tesla. Thousands of good middle class jobs are not in California due to the difficulty to sent up a business or expanding an existing one, that takes on an average of 2 1/2 years to even get permits and that will cost them about a million dollars a year for every year it takes. California is losing thousands of badly needed jobs, which is a big cause of the homeless problem.

[NewbiePoster]

I wouldn't say they're a 'popular refuge'. It's just that there's more of them than ever before. There was a huge economic crisis in 2008, remembmer? Entire families lost their homes. And NorCal has its share of druggies, too.

One way to eliminate the sanctuary issue is to stop screwing around with politics in Central America, and support democratic processes there. People wouldn't have to seek sanctuary in the US if the US hadn't trashed those countries in the first place.

[Curmudgeon]

Originally Posted by NewbiePoster

I wouldn't say they're a 'popular refuge'. It's just that there's more of them than ever before. There was a huge economic crisis in 2008, remembmer? Entire families lost their homes. And NorCal has its share of druggies, too.

One way to eliminate the sanctuary issue is to stop screwing around with politics in Central America, and support democratic processes there. People wouldn't have to seek sanctuary in the US if the US hadn't trashed those countries in the first place.

Right! Us ugly Norte Americanos planted the deep, generations-long seeds of corruption in those there poor, ill-begotten south-of-the-border countries. Why if not for us their governments and cultures would be pure as the driven snow. [/sarcasm]

[04kL4nD]

Maybe if we didn't keep importing meth and cocaine to support our insatiable thirst to snort things up our nostrils, it would stop narco-terrorist organizations from running the show in said Latin American countries.

[NewbiePoster]

Originally Posted by Curmudgeon

Right! Us ugly Norte Americanos planted the deep, generations-long seeds of corruption in those there poor, ill-begotten south-of-the-border countries. Why if not for us their governments and cultures would be pure as the driven snow. [/sarcasm]

So true! Honduras was doing just fine until the US interfered with their elections a few years ago. Well, and then there was the Contra war that trashed part of it, too. Guatemala was very up-and-coming, until the Dulles Brothers (part owners of United Fruit Co.) convinced Pres. Eisenhower to launch a coup, because the popular president was carrying out agrarian reform that threatened some of the corporation's fallow lands. The coup introduced mass corruption and violence that eventually drove masses of Mayan Indians to El Norte. El Salvador shared a similar fate. And when the wars in those latter two countries finally died down, the kids who had grown up in the US took the gang-banging ways they'd learned Stateside home with them. The US has a history of interfering in Central America, then blaming the victim for the resulting insurgencies, violence and the corruption of US-installed and US-backed leaders. Not to mention the detested School of the Americas, that trains armies and leaders in violence and terror tactics.

I was going to mention this, below, but decided to avoid yet another polemic:

Originally Posted by O4kL4nD;

Maybe if we didn't keep importing meth and cocaine to support our insatiable thirst to snort things up our nostrils, it would stop narco-terrorist organizations from running the show in said Latin American countries

[majoun]

Originally Posted by mateo45

As evident in some other threads, many small towns in Northern California seem to be experiencing a rising influx of poor and homeless folks, mentally ill, chronically unemployed, 'street people', substance abusers, etc….. all of which place increasing demands on already limited rural social services and law enforcement, as well on local businesses struggling to stay afloat by attracting tourism and more 'mainstream' customers.

Is NorCal receiving more than its "fair share" compared to other areas, and if so, how should these small communities respond and cope with these issues?

Redding Homeless Blog

Anti-panhandling Movement Grows in Northern California

Small towns in California for many years bused their homeless into California's big cities. Now, with California's big cities pricing out the poor, said small towns are shocked that they have poverty and homelessness that they can't eradicate? IMO it's karma. I don't feel sorry for them.

[NoMoreSnowForMe]

The homeless problem is everywhere. My best friend in British Columbia says it's bad there, too, all over the place - cities and small towns.

They go where the services are. If you don't want homeless in your town, don't have resources for them.

And it's true that people who want to help the homeless should give to the missions and other services, don't hand cash to the panhandlers. And I suggest you support the missions - in a different town.

[AndrewCS]

Chico has struggled with vagrancy issues in recent years, but I think some new city ordinances are helping mitigate the problem. That being said, it's possible Chico still has a reputation in the homeless community as an easy place to set up shop in. It's biggest impact has probably been in the downtown area where business have actually moved because vagrants have harassed the owners and their customers.

One such shop was horribly vilified when the owner had to hose off the sidewalk area in the morning before opening up, a common practice with all downtown business since vagrants often defecate on their doorsteps the night before. She informed the homeless individual near her shop that she would be hosing off the sidewalk and he may want to move so he wouldn't get wet, he responded rudely and remained where he was. So she proceeded to hose off the sidewalk, he got a little wet, and he made a fuss claiming she intentionally sprayed him to hose him down and get him away from the store.

The News & Review spun the story in the vagrants favor, and that, combined with the fact that the vagrants deter many downtown patrons ultimately led to the shop owner closing down her store (which was a much loved spot in a beautiful building that people loved to visit) and moving to the north side of town.

It's stories like that which are/were commonplace, and at least half of the media sources blame the business owners and the general public when many of these vagrants make it quite clear to passersby that they don't want to contribute anything to society, they just want a hand out.

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not against the homeless. I'm against vagrancy. I believe there's a difference. I think the homeless are genuinely down-on-their-luck and have been the victim of bad circumstances. Generally speaking, they want to reintegrate into society, find a steady job and a home to live in. Vagrants are more rebellious, they hassle people, insist on living off of others generosity and will get aggressive and even violent if things don't go their way. One older gentlemen was spit on in the face while he walked through the downtown plaza because he didn't have money to give the people who were asking him. I mean, seriously?

[Packard fan]

I'm near you guys in Bullhead City and we're having many of the SAME problems with tweakers and "regular" homeless people. The worst part is many of the "clean" homeless WANT to work but employers don't want them because they're too old, weak health and so on but are too young to collect SS.