Austin Mayor Visits LA and Seattle About Homeless Problem (Los Angeles: closing, income)

[johnnyz]

Austin TX Mayor Steve Adler visits Los Angeles and Seattle to learn what they wished they'd done to help prevent the homeless issue we have today....

The homeless problem has gotten out of control here in Austin and we seem to be headed in the same direction as those cities...

https://www.kxan.com/news/austin-may...JkEq2WeHZ-Grn4

Curious to know what you think could have been done differently years ago to at least prevent the issue from becoming as bad as it has??

[Mr. Boring]

What should have been done? Not close the mental hospitals and GET TOUGH.
Offer the vagrants three choices: Stop being homeless OR accept room and board in return for sobriety and WORK (via job shops) OR get arrested and be put to work. The couple of percent who truly are too ill to work, we will take care of (after we've concluded they have no assets or income). The job shops partition out work the illegals are doing now: picking crops, processing chicken, sorting recyclables, cleaning buses, repairing hiking trails, picking up trash, etc. Get tough or accept vagrancy. The the employers pay back the government to offset the cost of the room and board or incarceration.
Another thing that should we shouldn't have done: passed the Hart Celler Act which effectively divided the nation and caused people to stop caring about each other. Even though deinstitutionalizing started in the 1950s, mental hospitals started closing down later on possibly driven by the change in demographic makeup from homogeneous to multicultural. Homogeneous countries like Finland, Poland, Korea, Japan, Israel, Hungary are more willing to pay the extra social services taxes and take care of their "brothers".

[Tulemutt]

Originally Posted by Mr. Boring

What should have been done? Not close the mental hospitals and GET TOUGH.
Offer the vagrants three choices: Stop being homeless OR accept room and board in return for sobriety and WORK (via job shops) OR get arrested and be put to work. The couple of percent who truly are too ill to work, we will take care of (after we've concluded they have no assets or income). The job shops partition out work the illegals are doing now: picking crops, processing chicken, sorting recyclables, cleaning buses, repairing hiking trails, picking up trash, etc. Get tough or accept vagrancy. The the employers pay back the government to offset the cost of the room and board or incarceration.
Another thing that should we shouldn't have done: passed the Hart Celler Act which effectively divided the nation and caused people to stop caring about each other. Even though deinstitutionalizing started in the 1950s, mental hospitals started closing down later on possibly driven by the change in demographic makeup from homogeneous to multicultural. Homogeneous countries like Finland, Poland, Korea, Japan, Israel, Hungary are more willing to pay the extra social services taxes and take care of their "brothers".

Ah. Another dictate by someone with absolutely zero knowledge of the issue.

[Genghis]

It must be pretty humiliating for the city leaders of Los Angeles and Seattle that people visit their cities to see what *not* to do about the homeless problem. Seriously though, wouldn't it make more sense for them to visit the cities which aren't having these issues to see what they're doing right? They wouldn't have to travel that far since many Texas cities don't have nearly the level of homeless issues that Austin is having.

So what's different about Austin compared to other Texas cities? It might be slightly more expensive but the main differences are cultural. It's a very liberal city by Texas standards and the local people and government are more favorable to them. In that video we see that they recently relaxed the rules concerning homeless encampments. So it makes sense that Austin is a regional draw for the type of people who end out homeless, or even the homeless themselves. But of course their advocates will be armed with an endless list of questionable studies "proving" that this is not the case.

[Finper]

Originally Posted by Genghis

It must be pretty humiliating for the city leaders of Los Angeles and Seattle that people visit their cities to see what *not* to do about the homeless problem. Seriously though, wouldn't it make more sense for them to visit the cities which aren't having these issues to see what they're doing right? They wouldn't have to travel that far since many Texas cities don't have nearly the level of homeless issues that Austin is having.

So what's different about Austin compared to other Texas cities? It might be slightly more expensive but the main differences are cultural. It's a very liberal city by Texas standards and the local people and government are more favorable to them. In that video we see that they recently relaxed the rules concerning homeless encampments. So it makes sense that Austin is a regional draw for the type of people who end out homeless, or even the homeless themselves. But of course their advocates will be armed with an endless list of questionable studies "proving" that this is not the case.

Interesting.... sociologists should really study Austin to see how liberlism causes increased homeless from the ground up. Ca is in the thick of it but Austin is just starting.

[V8 Vega]

Put them in jail every time they break the law, Laws you and I have to abide by, they'll get the idea pretty fast.

[Tulemutt]

Originally Posted by Finper

Interesting.... sociologists should really study Austin to see how liberlism causes increased homeless from the ground up. Ca is in the thick of it but Austin is just starting.

Liberalism doesn’t cause homelessness. Homelessness is largely a collateral effect of economic booms which rapidly elevate housing costs while reducing low cost alternative inventories such as SRO’s. There are numerous other factors as well, but that’s the nut.

It’s not ideological. It’s economics.

[Tulemutt]

Originally Posted by Genghis

It must be pretty humiliating for the city leaders of Los Angeles and Seattle that people visit their cities to see what *not* to do about the homeless problem. Seriously though, wouldn't it make more sense for them to visit the cities which aren't having these issues to see what they're doing right? They wouldn't have to travel that far since many Texas cities don't have nearly the level of homeless issues that Austin is having.

So what's different about Austin compared to other Texas cities? It might be slightly more expensive but the main differences are cultural. It's a very liberal city by Texas standards and the local people and government are more favorable to them. In that video we see that they recently relaxed the rules concerning homeless encampments. So it makes sense that Austin is a regional draw for the type of people who end out homeless, or even the homeless themselves. But of course their advocates will be armed with an endless list of questionable studies "proving" that this is not the case.

Predictably, you enter the homelessness conversation not knowing much at all about the realities of the topic. “Relaxed rules” aren’t genesis ... they are reaction ... because increasing pressures bring legal issues to the fore, as well as public concern.

[allenk893]

Liberals are clueless. It's astonishing. Just enforce the law and arrest people who have no business taking residence on streets they've contributed nothing to. It's really that simple.

[Genghis]

Originally Posted by Tulemutt

Predictably, you enter the homelessness conversation not knowing much at all about the realities of the topic. “Relaxed rules” aren’t genesis ... they are reaction ... because increasing pressures bring legal issues to the fore, as well as public concern.

Predictably, you announce your contempt for anyone who disagrees with you. Relaxed rules are both the genesis and the reaction. Now that the rules have been relaxed, Austin will be an even more desirable destination for the homeless and potentially homeless, and the problem will increase. Just like in Seattle and in Los Angeles.