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Like you actually know most homeless people right? You don't have a clue what you're talking about. Just useless gossip.
The fact is that a good portion (though, NOT all) of homelessness is in fact drug-related. You need money to feed your addiction and when you run out of money you end up on the streets. It's pretty simple.
There was a documentary I saw a year or two back about heroin and the homeless on the streets of Portland, which is the black tar heroin capital of the U.S. These people will just sit around panhandling for money for the next fix.
Also many of them, as Jimrob1 pointed out, really are "bums" and not "homeless." I saw another documentary a few years back about this man who gave up his job to be a full-time panhandler. He drove a BMW and wore nice suits, but would dirty himself up and put on tattered clothes and stand around asking for money all day. He made more money than he did at his actual job, which is why he quit.
But I think the homeless visibility "problem" on the West Coast isn't confined to the U.S. My parents went to Vancouver, B.C. and said they saw more homeless people on the streets than anywhere they've been. I have to say, even if in numbers there are more homeless and/or panhandlers in places like Phoenix and Los Angeles, they are still more visible in places like Portland. Perhaps, like OREGONRAIN said, due to many reasons including lack of available services.
Some panhandlers really make a good amount of money, epsecially in more wealthy areas. Boulder, Colorado had a handful that were found to be grossing 100k (with such a rich and liberal population). Heck when I was in college there I would see people with signs wearing northface jackets, timberlands, and drinking starbucks. Not very common, but it happens.
Vasability is a great ditractor to people I beleive. Even with higher concentrations some one with a sign is going to make you think differently then some one in your face demanding money. I think Oregon has more services for homeless people for things like healthcare, food, and a relativly lax enforcement on vagrancy. Combine that with a milder temperature (then say Housten, Arizona, or South East) and it seems like the down and out actively come to Portland. I know it's been such a problem recently they are moving Saturday Market from Skidmore because of the hostile homeless population around that area.
The differences are degrees. I know Colorado does have a number of homeless people, but usually they stand on the medians of major streets with signs or occasionally you would walk by Speer and some one would ask if you had any change. So far in Oregon you see those types, plus people I would consider overly aggressive I meet about once a day. The last guy (yesterday) decided to try and give me a lucture how I wasn't being generous, and seemed to wonder off in a daze when I told him I had no cash so if he didn't have a CC reader on his butt he was out of luck.
I just want not be hassled everytime I step out of home or the office, which at the moment I seem to get hassled about every block or two.
Every highway onramp in the Portland area seems to have folks with signs asking for money...of course it's often stuff like "Need gas $$$ to get to LA" or something...but then you see the same guy at the same location, week after week, with that sign.
I've come to conclude that the powers that be here LIKE having the homeless in and around everyone else. It allows people to feel self-righteous because they can have compassion and charity toward the homeless because they are aware of them. But their occasional coins and generic good thoughts don't do anything to help the problem; they are just ennabling these folks to continue their drug habits.
This city has a love affair with the homeless...they even have this shantytown called "Dignity Village." Yes, it really is a shantytown in the order of a third world nation...and the powers that be crow proudly about how wonderful it is to have such a thing in a modern, progressive city.
I've come to conclude that the powers that be here LIKE having the homeless in and around everyone else. It allows people to feel self-righteous because they can have compassion and charity toward the homeless because they are aware of them. But their occasional coins and generic good thoughts don't do anything to help the problem; they are just ennabling these folks to continue their drug habits.
This city has a love affair with the homeless...they even have this shantytown called "Dignity Village." Yes, it really is a shantytown in the order of a third world nation...and the powers that be crow proudly about how wonderful it is to have such a thing in a modern, progressive city.
I think I agree with you there. I don't think it's liberal or good to have though, people should get off thier butts. I wish these polaticians would have some good programs to get people into work, into a place to live, and into a real life instead of places to house them and feed them to tolerate the problem.
Some people are just bums though (like my good for nothing uncle) and no matter what you provide they won't take the effort to make their situation better. Go find some bums in Vegas, before the housing downturn there was no way not to get a job there, they would hire you if you had a pulse and no real record or drug problem (I got to know a homeless program director out there). I haven't been back after so I'm not sure.
"Drug misuse is not a disease, it is a decision, like the decision to step out in front of a moving car. You would call that not a disease but an error of judgment." --Philip K. Dick
If people do drugs and are on the down and out, they diserve to be there until they realize they need to do it themselves. No words can convince a drug user that they need to quit and they did it to themselves (why AA and places won't talk to people till they realize that). Drugs maybe a reason, but it is definatly not an excuse, for anything a user does.
They lost their job, SO and home because they couldn't stop? Too bad. They are homeless and eat out of the garbage because they are smoking up too much? Too damn bad. I'm not their mommy or their ATM. These people are compitent, adult human beings that made a bad decision and should be fully informed of what happens by this day and age.
You'll find homeless people in most cities. I've lived in both Seattle and Denver. Most of the homeless tend to live/hangout downtown. In Denver you will find them near 16th st mall. In Seattle near Belltown.
Oddly enough,I found the homeless in Portland far more aggresive then Chicagos,why? I have no idea. I used to work in "Old Town" in Portland,and it was a hassle all the time.I had one follow me into my office when I opened it begging for "change" (called police),I had one sleeping on the stairs,who awoke when he heard me ,only to vomit(called police-never came),I had one bang on my window slurring something around noon when I was with my kids in front of Mier & Frank(busy crowded area),had one decide to take a nap on our picnic blanket while I swung the kids in Washington Park(and when I asked him SEVERAL time to leave,he left with our chips),had one hassle and swear at me cuz I wouldnt give him a ciggarette,HEY I DONT SMOKE,,I could go on and on,I dont get it---they were after me for some reason
Let's see ... do you think the sleeping man on the stairs who awoke and vomit was doing it as an act of aggression towards you? Unpleasant, sure. But not aggressive.
Banging on the window and slurring something you couldn't understand? Maybe he was saying what cute kids you have. You were behind glass. What's aggressive about that?
Took a nap on your picnic blanket while you were away, and then left when you asked? What's aggressive about that? Stealing your chips was bad, but it's not aggressive.
Swearing at you because you didn't have a cigarette ... that's aggressive.
Following you asking for change ... not really aggressive.
Look, some people think that the homeless, just by being there, or daring to speak to them, are being aggressive. They're not. They're being there. Sure, they can be an irritant. I'd be happy for them all to go elsewhere, find somewhere permanent to live, stop drinking and taking drugs, find mental health, and live happy, productive lives. But I've lived in Portland all my life. I've only ever encountered one or two people who I'd term aggressive ... and they wasn't homeless. They were just jerks.
I have lived in Portland for a long time and have been threatened several times by one or two druggies downtown but the question is were they homeless? Who knows? I doubt very much that they were. And that could have happened anywhere in any city.
The people in my neighborhood and others downtown, the ones with the shopping carts and the bags full of their belongings whom I would guess are homeless do not bother anyone.
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