[Kitchen Witch]

News 3 reporters must have read this thread, no just kidding, but how timely so far as what we have been discussing about the homeless issue here in Las Vegas





For many returning veterans, despair can lead to homelessness





For many returning veterans, despair can lead to homelessness - Local News - Las Vegas, NV | NBC News

[BBMW]

^
This is something the VA, not NV should be dealing with.

[ScoopLV]

Let's assume for the sake of argument that America's "support our troops" mentality will continue to apply only to magnetic stickers on SUVs, and the VA will continue to be woefully underfunded.

We WILL have more homeless vets on our streets. We can either pay a lot of money to keep them in Emergency Rooms and prisons, or we could pay considerably less to put them in apartments and give them access to a social worker -- just like Utah is currently doing.

Choose.

[NLVgal]

Originally Posted by ScoopLV

While I agree, I think the average Las Vegan only considers the homeless to be a problem if they hop over the privacy wall. So long as homeowners have a gate they can close, a good alarm system, and a gun or two, the homeless can stay downtown and be someone else's problem.


Nothing is ever going to change -- it would require an informed electorate and a free, robust press to get us out of our quagmire.

Well, those gated communities are only homeless-free when you are behind the gates. We all venture out to go to work, school, shopping, etc. And the problem is getting exponentially worse and is spreading to the far west and north ends of town where you never saw that sort of thing before (panhandling).

A guy was stabbed by a homeless person on Fremont not too long ago. When this problem starts affecting the tourist spending, we'll see some action.

[BBMW]

If they have significant combat related psych issues, they should get veterans disability. I'm not sure what that comes to, but in Vegas, with it's relatively low housing prices, they should be able to get an apartment on that. Also IIRC, there's a big new VA hospital in the valley, where they can get treatment.

Originally Posted by ScoopLV

Let's assume for the sake of argument that America's "support our troops" mentality will continue to apply only to magnetic stickers on SUVs, and the VA will continue to be woefully underfunded.

We WILL have more homeless vets on our streets. We can either pay a lot of money to keep them in Emergency Rooms and prisons, or we could pay considerably less to put them in apartments and give them access to a social worker -- just like Utah is currently doing.

Choose.

[ScoopLV]

Originally Posted by BBMW

If they have significant combat related psych issues, they should get veterans disability. I'm not sure what that comes to, but in Vegas, with it's relatively low housing prices, they should be able to get an apartment on that. Also IIRC, there's a big new VA hospital in the valley, where they can get treatment.

That isn't happening now. Too many are slipping through the cracks and ending up strung out, with severe mental disorders on the streets of Las Vegas. What makes you think things are going to get ANY better by maintaining the status quo?


EDIT -- We really do have only one choice. We have homeless. So short of rounding them all up and placing them in work camps, we have the choice of doing what we currently do -- emergency rooms for their addiction, prisons for their vagrancy, theft and violence stemming from their mental illness. We can keep doing that as long as our society wants. It's not the cheapest solution, but it's the easiest (Easiest except for the nurses and police who have to clean up the mess). Or we can take a program like Utah's and implement it, saving taxpayer money.

"But the VA should do this" is deflecting. The VA isn't currently taking care of the problem. There is no way Las Vegas can make the VA fix it's homeless problem for them. And it's not even 100% the VA's problem. There are plenty of homeless people who AREN'T veterans. The VA should not be expected to pick up the tab for them. Emergency rooms and prisons or apartments and social workers. Unless you have another solution that has any possibility of working, this is our choice. I have absolutely zero confidence that we'll make the more-compassionate, less-expensive choice. Because that isn't how this city works. We would rather spend more and get less because how we do things in Las Vegas.

[NLVgal]

Originally Posted by BBMW

If they have significant combat related psych issues, they should get veterans disability. I'm not sure what that comes to, but in Vegas, with it's relatively low housing prices, they should be able to get an apartment on that. Also IIRC, there's a big new VA hospital in the valley, where they can get treatment.

They spent a small fortune on that new VA hospital and it's generated complaint after complaint. One of our vets, Stanley Gibson, who was shot by Metro, was un-medicated in large part due to the VA's ineptitude.

Wait times are unreal at the emergency room there, and the hospital only addresses those that are well enough to get themselves there in the first place.

[BBMW]

Is it because they have no money and no access to services, or because they blow their money on booze and drugs, and are too dysfunctional to use the services?

Now I know the VA is not a paragon of high quality care. But they are there, and the vets can use them, especially if they're push the point. Is the VA going to go out and drag them in? I don't think so.

Originally Posted by ScoopLV

That isn't happening now. Too many are slipping through the cracks and ending up strung out, with severe mental disorders on the streets of Las Vegas. What makes you think things are going to get ANY better by maintaining the status quo?

[Datafeed]

Originally Posted by BBMW

^
This is something the VA, not NV should be dealing with.

dealing with vets is an issue WE ALL HAVE TO deal with...not just a government bureaucracy. In fact, you and I would both likely agree, the government's ability to solve problems and provide solutions is minimal.

[ScoopLV]

Originally Posted by BBMW

Is it because they have no money and no access to services, or because they blow their money on booze and drugs, and are too dysfunctional to use the services?

Now I know the VA is not a paragon of high quality care. But they are there, and the vets can use them, especially if they're push the point. Is the VA going to go out and drag them in? I don't think so.

You either can't get it or refuse to get it. It doesn't matter WHY they are too dysfunctional. And the VA isn't going to take care of our homeless problem because not all homeless people are veterans.

Unless we make the homeless "go away" in some police state scheme, we're going to pay for them one way or another. We are already paying for them. If we can trust Utah's math, that number is roughly $16,000 per homeless person. Every panhandler at every street corner and all the people congregating downtown cost us $16,000 each annually.

We can continue to spend that money and deal with the ever-increasing drain the homeless place on our hospitals, police and prisons. Or we can use the money more effectively -- safer streets, far fewer vagrants and deranged people wandering our city, less crime, and let's not beat around the bush -- a less miserable population in general.

What's more important -- actually FIXING our homeless problem? Or ideological purity?