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Not that I expect you to reply, even in your own Threads, since it is not your "style". But I will remind the faithful that Arizona is a RED State, so shouldn't they have the answer to such a simple issue?
And Phoenix is a red city. Not that it matters. Here in South Florida the problems are similar. There are beggars at traffic lights and people sleeping on the sidewalks, and parks are taken over by the homeless, mentally ill, and the druggies. I guess they prefer warmer climates. They say the scum settles on the bottom, and you can't get further South than South Florida or Arizona.
Last edited by Finn_Jarber; 10-25-2017 at 07:42 PM..
I've lived in a very nice medium sized city in this country. High education levels and high average incomes. Huge social safety net for the homeless - enough so that the homeless deliberately moved to that city because the benefits were so good (I heard them talking one day). Huge pill and alcohol issues. I saw the homeless standing in small groups just inside the door of a public building trading pills. I had to go into that building and went through another door. The homeless had their own campground set up on the edge of the town and are regularly handed camping gear to get by but spent most of their day sitting in the in-town parks and sleeping on the benches. The drunks are referred to as "chronic inebriates". The regular vehicle break-ins are referred to as "pilferings". The feces and occasional sex acts that are witnessed in store doorways are brushed aside. One day I was walking from meeting to meeting in town and the same homeless person asked me three times over the course of a few hours if I had any money to give him. The city turns a blind eye for long periods of time, uses euphemisms to try to minimize the impact, and then throws money at the problem when the pressure mounts to do "something" about them.
Your observation has some merit. I don't think of the homeless as "vermin" but it's hard to feel sorry for them. Plenty of us have faced immense challenges in our lives. Plenty of us. We all have our stories. We've all had our heartaches, tragedies, disappointments. Not all of us have forced our challenges onto the communities around us.
We haven't made our public spaces into violent, dangerous, filthy, sh^tholes. We haven't forced the community to spend tax dollars trying to alleviate the consequences of our decisions. We don't make our communities feel endangered. We don't lower property taxes of hard working home owners.
When life kicks us in the ass we work through it. We fight to regain our lives. We contribute to our homes, our families, our communities, our country. Because that's what responsible adults do. I'm not heartless. I know that there is mental illness, addiction issues, and that not everyone has the strength to be able to pull themselves out of bad situations. I will gladly help anyone who wants to help themselves. Any way I can.
But you can't help anyone who doesn't want to help themselves, and many of these individuals have no desire to live any other way. And I'll be damned if I will feel sorry for anyone who consciously chooses to live this way while imposing their nasty-ass, disgusting decisions on decent, hard working people who are just quietly trying to live their lives.
I agree with you the problem is I think that the people who are homeless who want to get out are not getting the help they need. While shelters are needed and they help the homeless have somewhere to sleep and get something to eat most of them are only that they will not help the homeless get out of being homeless. Another problem for the homeless is even if they find a job it is usually a low wage in an area with expensive housing which puts them on the fringe of being homeless again. I personally like the Housing First method but like you said I do not want to help those who do not want to be helped so maybe we could make it available only to those actually want to get out of being homeless.
Homeless often go to places where the winters aren't very cold. This is why they are going to Texas, Florida, Georgia, and California. They're going to places where it's warm, or at the least, tolerable in the winter.
Glad you mentioned Florida since this is what we do.....
perhaps Phoenix doesn't have enough resources to deal with their homeless problem?
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Trump shouldn't play golf because the homeless are crappin' in a park in Arizona...
