Homeless People in Seattle - Are You Kidding Me? (insurance, condo)

[Seacove]

Originally Posted by Mini-apple-less

I don't buy the "magnet" theory at all. For one it's an incredibly arrogant and ignorant thing to believe. I don't think homeless people travel thousands of miles just because they heard they can get a cot in Seattle and can sleep as much as they please in the 45 degree wetness whilst milking the incredibly generous and big-hearted tax payers of Seattle out of their hard-earned money. Lmao!

Remember the guy from Mexico that shot the lady in San Francisco on Pier 14 last weekend? The guy has been coming to the US for over two decades and first he was coming to Washington State but they kept putting him in jail. After multiple arrests, he is deported. What does he do? Return to Washington State. He travels thousands of miles not once, but multiple times. He's arrested again and deported multiple times after that and returns, usually within weeks, but finally makes it through and goes to San Francisco instead. I wouldn't have believed this either but there it is. Read the entire list below. I really don't see what was attractive to him since he literally spent far more time in jail than anywhere else but he just kept returning.

Gun Used in Pier 14 Shooting Belonged to Federal Agent: Sources | NBC Bay Area

I'm as liberal as it gets but he states very clearly that he chose San Francisco because it was a sanctuary city. And before that, his first choice was Washington (except they kept arresting him and finally removing him).

San Francisco Shooting Suspect Says He Kept Coming Back to the City to Avoid Deportation - ABC News

[FlorianD]

Originally Posted by Gardyloo

Of course homelessness is a global phenomenon, in "first" world countries and everywhere else. The drivers of homelessness - lack of education, domestic violence, substance abuse, unemployment, housing discrimination, mental illness, and plain old bad luck - are universal. For example see this article from the EU - Homelessness - Employment, Social Affairs & Inclusion - European Commission

Can you help? Hell, yes. Look over this website - Seattle/King County Coalition on Homelessness - which offers "one-stop" donations, or links to many organizations who work nonstop to address homelessness and its causes.

Be warned - despite what you may see on the internet, this is a horrendously complex problem, not one that can be dealt with using simplistic responses. People who claim to have "easy" answers are either misinformed or intellectually lazy.

For me it's hard to understand why we have homeless people, anyway those people who really live on the streets. Here in Düsseldorf in Germany, there is a black woman, who lives now for about 2 years under this bridge, near the advertising column.

https://www.google.de/maps/@51.16969...8i6656!6m1!1e1

She has build a kind of camp of about 300 sq ft with alot of sacks and bags. Most of the time she just sits there, sometimes she is underway through the city. She don't beg, sometimes she talks to passersby.

I don't understand why she don't want to live in a small apartment or in an assisted living accomodation. Several thousand people pass this place everyday. And no one understand why she lives there. It seems clear that she is mentally ill, but why isn't it possible to force her to live in an accomodation? During the winter she leaves her small camp and live probably in an accomodation. But why not for the whole year?

Of course I don't blame her for living there, but I don't understand it.

[Gardyloo]

Originally Posted by FlorianD

...but why isn't it possible to force her to live in an accomodation?

Because countries like the US and Germany have limits on forcible detention of people who don't pose an immediate threat to others. Personally I prefer living in a country where civil rights are honored in that manner. We don't have debtors prisons any more, either.

[Arne Bjornson]

Originally Posted by angelenogirl

I'm a Los Angeles native, and I've never experienced a homeless population or crisis situation like there exists in the city of Seattle, even in NY or SF. I've never been afraid of homeless before coming here. The crimes against property and person in Seattle are far worse than anything I've witnessed elsewhere, probably exacerbated by non-interventionist city politics and police who do goose egg. Statistics I've seen bear this out. It's really bizarre, because as the OP said, this place looks like paradise.

Los Angeles has the largest homeless population in the USA.
All of the large west coast port cities have large homeless populations, from san diego up to vancouver.

[southwestW]

Seattle is a paradise for homeless. Number tripled since 2005. Use to be just around old transit tunnel before it was closed for renovations. Since that reopened about 7 years ago, numbers are going up. I read in Seattle Times some able bodied guys made out here all the way from far south. They admit it's their profession. Like this is a lifestyle. Most that are on drugs cannot go to shelters. Some very lucrative beggar spots are probably controlled by various gangs. I cannot imagine how it is for women that are homeless. City is doing a lot for them so many decided to come here from Oregon and California. Many have cell phones so it is easy to find out that Seattle is a hot spot.

[CrazyDonkey]

Originally Posted by mkarch

Why is believing the truth both ignorant and arrogant? You can end up drawing some seriously flawed conclusions about the problem if you choose to ignore major aspects of where it's coming from.

The reason people want to ignore the migration aspect is because with an unlimited supply coming in from other areas, any individual city is completely incapable of solving the problem no matter how much money they throw at it.

Back in the middle ages, towns and cities used to round up all of their nut-cases and ship them off to the next town or city (that's where the term "Ship of Fool's" comes from). Today, San Francisco just gives them one-way bus tickets (and has for YEARS).

It pays for towns and cities to not provide services, or provide inadequate services, to the homeless, if they'll mosey down the road to a town or city that does.

[FlorianD]

Originally Posted by Gardyloo

Because countries like the US and Germany have limits on forcible detention of people who don't pose an immediate threat to others. Personally I prefer living in a country where civil rights are honored in that manner. We don't have debtors prisons any more, either.

"force" was probably the wrong term. Better I had wrote "convince".

[CrazyDonkey]

To me it basically comes down to the collapsing value of labor. The minimum wage has long since fallen to a level where many individuals and any families can't get by without heavy government subsidies, for medical care, food, and energy.

The limited availability of housing subsidies, however, virtually guarantees that many will end up on the street. Some get lucky and win the lottery for subsidized housing, but most face waiting lists that are several years long.

Yes, an individual might find a studio for $300 in Aberdeen, but since there are little or no jobs there, you can add "general assistance/unemployable (GAU)" ($340/month, I believe) to the subsidies (and TANF for families). Outside of a place like Aberdeen, GAU won't come close to paying for even the cheapest housing. That also explains how people (and families) can get "stuck" in Aberdeen.

[505HPC6Z06]

Originally Posted by FlorianD

For me it's hard to understand why we have homeless people, anyway those people who really live on the streets. Here in Düsseldorf in Germany, there is a black woman, who lives now for about 2 years under this bridge, near the advertising column.

https://www.google.de/maps/@51.16969...8i6656!6m1!1e1

She has build a kind of camp of about 300 sq ft with alot of sacks and bags. Most of the time she just sits there, sometimes she is underway through the city. She don't beg, sometimes she talks to passersby.

I don't understand why she don't want to live in a small apartment or in an assisted living accomodation. Several thousand people pass this place everyday. And no one understand why she lives there. It seems clear that she is mentally ill, but why isn't it possible to force her to live in an accomodation? During the winter she leaves her small camp and live probably in an accomodation. But why not for the whole year?

Of course I don't blame her for living there, but I don't understand it.

We have homelessness for a number of reasons. One big hitter here in CA is because of mexicans taking the low paying labor jobs.
Homeless people in general I think were born from parents that didn't give a f about them, they were abandoned, they didn't have anyone to teach them how to be independent and be responsible.

A lot of them just don't know to get a job and keep it (interpersonal relationship issues) and certainly won't listen to a stranger telling them what to do. The gov removed support for job training here in Ventura.

So it is these folks that really need low paying jobs that are taken by mexicans. Thats how I see it here in CA.

In WA, I don't know what the deal is. They are violent and I've been in fist fights on the streets at night. Had a death thread with a weapon. I can tell you first hand the people in CA are laid back and do not behave this way. To say CA folks go to WA and act like jerks is a hard swallow. Unless, it is the lack of sun that does it. I think no sun really puts a downer on everyone, not just homeless people.

[Mini-apple-less]

Originally Posted by southwestW

Seattle is a paradise for homeless.

Statements like this are why I think Seattle has a liberal and tolerant skin, but a dark authoritarian heart.