How far to push

[brreitsma]

There are a number of homeless in the wealthier suburban community I'm in and the city has plenty of unused space for an at cost municipal camp grounds and R.V. park. This would make life much easier. They really do almost nothing about this in hopes of pushing people out of the area. They prefer the local living cost self regulating the area to the upper crust. As I said a municipal camp ground charging enough to cover cost would be a solution that would cost the city no money so there's no reason not to do it.

To get the city to act would it be right to remind them that as long as occupancy limits aren't exceeded a city cannot regulate who can and can't reside in a house and either they can establish an at cost area or you with the help of others will get houses and rent space to people coming out of supermax and use the excess revenue to finance the camp ground project. Basically people getting out for the most violent offenses would be provided space with any extra money covering the other project. If the city thought a person could be even half serious about this I would think it would compel them to act on their own.

[simi-steading]

Most cities don't want to help the homeless. They want them to go away....

I admire your willingness to want to help, but you're in for a real serous battle. In the eyes of the government, homeless are a drain on society, but if they stood up and took notice, it's the illegals that are the real problem....

We really need to help the homeless, but sadly our government doesn't get we're mostly all one paycheck or two from being one of them...

[Ozarks Tom]

I'm afraid you'll have to wait till 2016. The homeless are only important when a Republican is in the White House.

[wwubben]

Originally Posted by Ozarks Tom

I'm afraid you'll have to wait till 2016. The homeless are only important when a Republican is in the White House.

Ya-------right.
Our area does quite a bit of help with the shelters and the kitchen.These are not supported by the local governments though.
We used to have county homes here but they have all gone by the wayside.So many homeless have mental trouble that cities would have a liability problem with them.I think the government needs to do more to help the mentally ill.I can see why homeless would hang around an upscale community.They have a chance for more crumbs.

[Forerunner]

Originally Posted by simi-steading

We really need to help the homeless, but sadly our government doesn't get we're mostly all one paycheck or two from being one of them...

Beg to differ.

Your government has been working very hard to ensure the current status for decades. They know it, and they like it.

"To preserve [the] independence [of the people,] we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our election between economy and liberty, or profusion and servitude. If we run into such debts as that we must be taxed in our meat and in our drink, in our necessaries and our comforts, in our labors and our amusements, for our callings and our creeds, as the people of England are, our people, like them, must come to labor sixteen hours in the twenty-four, give the earnings of fifteen of these to the government for their debts and daily expenses, and the sixteenth being insufficient to afford us bread, we must live, as they now do, on oatmeal and potatoes, have no time to think, no means of calling the mismanagers to account, but be glad to obtain subsistence by hiring ourselves to rivet their chains on the necks of our fellow-sufferers." --Thomas Jefferson to Samuel Kercheval, 1816.


It is intentional.

It is malignant.

It is party neutral.

It is in your face.

Conduct yourselves accordingly.

[bowdonkey]

Great posr fr.

[HDRider]

We are doing everything we can for the homeless. We are creating more homeless every day.

Your idea is a good one, and you should push till you drop.

[haypoint]

Homelessness is as much a mental illness problem as it is a housing problem. Setting up a lot with septic, water and electrical for travel trailers wouldn't provide shelter for homeless.
Housing isn't the problem. It is the inability to get or hold a job that creates homelessness.

[HDRider]

Originally Posted by haypoint

Homelessness is as much a mental illness problem as it is a housing problem. Setting up a lot with septic, water and electrical for travel trailers wouldn't provide shelter for homeless.
Housing isn't the problem. It is the inability to get or hold a job that creates homelessness.

Agreed.

It is a shameful situation and becoming more so. Our wars, our poor education (aka indoctrination) system, drug abuse, abject poverty, poor health care and jailing of the harmless is stamping out more mentally ill every day, and our facilities are overwhelmed.

Some people stand and peer over the edge. A small nudge sends them into free fall.

[MO_cows]

The typical homeless colony isn't a happy place where they all get along and sing songs around the campfire at night. There is violence, mental illness and substance abuse. In Kansas City, there are some well established homeless camps along the river which borders an industrial area. They are a real nuisance, constantly stealing and vandalising. Cut out copper wiring that will get them a few bucks and it costs the business thousands to make the repairs, that sort of thing. If you want to help them, establish a shelter and a program to help them merge back into society. If you just "enable" them by giving them a place to squat, their root problems go unchecked and their "campground" will be a very dangerous place.

[jwal10]

The liability is endless. You have so any people that do not want to help themselves and if you try, they become beligerant. It is not "governments" place to do it anyway. In my small town we help and support others (agencies, churches) to step up, the town cannot afford the liability....James

[TheMartianChick]

I have a friend that has worked in the field of mental health, veterans affairs and homelessness for many years. She has essentially come up with a method that works and she employs it without any outside funding. In a nearby small city, she has helped to house every single chronically homeless person that she has come across and she has done it over the past 3 years or so. Being homeless for an extended period of time can actually lead to certain mental illnesses.

The key is advocacy.

Have you ever seen an application for social services? They are incredibly difficult to figure out for the well educated. For a homeless person with mental issues, they are nearly impossible. When handed a pile of forms, they become frustrated and they never get beyond the application process. An advocate can assist with the paperwork and help them to navigate the process of getting some of the things that they will need for an apartment. There is a myth that the homeless don't really want help. It is true that some may say that, but in actuality, they don't really want to live on the streets.

Life has taught them that every helping hand has strings attached and they don't want to become entangled in those strings. Homeless people need homes, not shelters to corral them. There are reasons why they don't want to stay in homeless shelters. Here is just one story of why many homeless people opt not to stay there:

http://www.alternet.org/i-went-under...ere?page=0%2C0

Edited to add: The link is not to my friend's blog but this is a story that she posted on her Facebook page a few days ago.