This is an issue (hotel, house, buying)

[lpranger467]

FOX 29 Investigates: Homeless at SEPTA's Suburban Station - Story | WTXF

[kyb01]

Originally Posted by lpranger467

FOX 29 Investigates: Homeless at SEPTA's Suburban Station - Story | WTXF

There's another story about it in today's philly.com issue.

I walk through there most days and, yes, it's worse. There have always been homeless in the station waiting area and concourse though. But not as bad as now. And, yes, closing Love Park for construction is probably part of why they're in the station. Once contruction is finished it will probably be " policed" like Dilworth Park and they won't be able to "hang out".

It's a rough situation, locally, but the homeless problem is much worse out west. I used to love San Francisco. Not so much nowadays. Why? Bums on the street.

[thedirtypirate]

Imo it's a mentally ill problem more so than a homeless problem. Homelessness is a symptom of being incapable. These people are often not with it all.

The reason they chose Suburban Station is Project Home's Hub of Hope storefront is right there. They hang around there. Some cities have made homelessness illegal in an attempt to physically relocate people legally. Homelessness is not illegal. SEPTA can't just move people unless they are caught in the act of committing a crime.

[AJNEOA]

The weekend is the worst. You can't even find a bench to sit down on in the concourse because there are homeless sleeping on every bench. Something should be done, but obviously it should be done legally.

Even though something is open to the public, there must be constraints. For example, if I tried sleeping on the ground in the middle of Dilworth Park, someone would say something to me...right?

[timeEd32]

From the proposed budget: https://twitter.com/PhillyMayor/stat...rc=twsrc%5Etfw

$1m for 83 housing units.

[lpranger467]

I agree, my wife is there daily and had noticed an uptick long before this article but like you said if most of these folks are mentally impaired I'm not sure what options are available. It sounds like (according to the article) it got worse because SEPTA P.D. was told their hands were tied.

Originally Posted by thedirtypirate

Imo it's a mentally ill problem more so than a homeless problem. Homelessness is a symptom of being incapable. These people are often not with it all.

The reason they chose Suburban Station is Project Home's Hub of Hope storefront is right there. They hang around there. Some cities have made homelessness illegal in an attempt to physically relocate people legally. Homelessness is not illegal. SEPTA can't just move people unless they are caught in the act of committing a crime.

[MarketStEl]

Originally Posted by timeEd32

From the proposed budget: https://twitter.com/PhillyMayor/stat...rc=twsrc%5Etfw

$1m for 83 housing units.

$12k per unit?

Is the city using shipping containers or something?

Or is it buying one of these 3D house printers?

I'm glad they're trying to make the dollars go farther, but I must admit to being surprised at these figures. No conventionally built housing would cost that little.

[profnot]

My guess is they are probably renovating a structure, such as an old hotel.

Add in a few grants and some tax breaks and 83 small studio acts for $1m could be done. I've been researching doing just this.

[MarketStEl]

Originally Posted by AJNEOA

The weekend is the worst. You can't even find a bench to sit down on in the concourse because there are homeless sleeping on every bench. Something should be done, but obviously it should be done legally.

Even though something is open to the public, there must be constraints. For example, if I tried sleeping on the ground in the middle of Dilworth Park, someone would say something to me...right?

"The law, in its infinite majesty, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, beg for alms and steal bread." -Voltaire

[AJNEOA]

Originally Posted by MarketStEl

"The law, in its infinite majesty, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, beg for alms and steal bread." -Voltaire

I'm a big fan of Voltaire. And I agree with his sentiment. Challenge is that the poor/mentally ill exist, and they're sleeping under ground and begging for money in Suburban Station. The intention in my post was to indicate that I'm not advocating for something inappropriate to be done.