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In fighting homeless camp, Irvine's Asians win, but at a cost

latimes.com

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Re: In fighting homeless camp, Irvine's Asians win, but at a cost

#21
post #12
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Political corruption, totalitarianism.

Plenty of people got rich in China. Sounds like excuses from people who just couldn't cut it.

Plenty of people got rich in Russia too. That doesn't mean it was something open to anyone.

Re: In fighting homeless camp, Irvine's Asians win, but at a cost

#23
post #5

Is there any data on what is driving this? How much of this is due to the cost to rent? Is California a homeless destination due to climate and general tolerance to homeless camps...etc?

The US allows local governments to control zoning. Local government will always protect incumbent landowners since incumbent landowners probably have control of local government. As such, ceding control to localities will result in a lot of localities protecting their investments and preventing dense developments.

A possible solution is to enforce national level zoning laws that forbid such practices that prevent dense developments where they otherwise should be.

Re: In fighting homeless camp, Irvine's Asians win, but at a cost

#24
This really is a regional problem. I live around the area, near the beautiful Santa Ana trail which connects two counties to the ocean. A few months ago, I rode down the 40-mile stretch for the first time in a long time, and I was absolutely shocked to see the extent of the tent city near the Anaheim Angels stadium. The people living there were living on hard times, it felt post-apocalyptic in some sense. The tent area spanned for a couple of miles - there was garbage everywhere, people washing the clothes on the trail, people urinating on the side, and some wondering around in a zombie-like state I can only assume was either mental illness or drug abuse.

Finally, officials decided to close the trail to do a clean-up. There was about 400 tons of trash, 14,000 needles and 5,000 lbs of "waste" removed. http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2018/04/07/santa-ana-river-tr...

Honestly, I can't blame Irvine for not wanting this in their backyard. But unfortunately, as the people were getting evicted from these makeshift cities, they are setting up the tents in other neighboring cities. There is a small area near where I live now too.

I don't know what the answer is, or how to deal with it. All I can tell you is that it was not a good feeling, both from a humanitarian and safety point of view, i.e. I felt awful for the people living in this, but also uneasy around it.

Re: In fighting homeless camp, Irvine's Asians win, but at a cost

#25

> a dentist with offices in Irvine and Orange, said he paid about $5,000 to sponsor seven buses… I understand this dentist wanted to protect his neighborhood in his mind, but it's really sad if he's not donating any money to actually help the homeless.

The problem is nobody wants the homeless at their doorsteps, including this community. If you leave them in tents in some place, nothing will change. If you apply pressure to the problem then hopefully it will get solved.

Re: In fighting homeless camp, Irvine's Asians win, but at a cost

#27
I'm Asian/Canadian (arrived in Canada in 1988 at 8) and have worked in the US since 2009. I consider myself a 0.5 generation immigrant.

Talking my parents, other first generation immigrants, and even some second generation etc. They do have a common view. If we came here with very little (my parents arrived with $200 in their pockets), worked hard, and eventually became successful then why can't other people do the same. These people had much easier start then us (they didn't coming here at mid 40s with $200 in total) and had better opportunities. Most of them see people collecting welfare we leeches off them (and the taxes they pay).

Re: In fighting homeless camp, Irvine's Asians win, but at a cost

#29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can’t expect them to have the solutions for a societal problem. The fact that there isn’t affordable housing and job opportunities for these homeless is a failing of the US government, not Irving’s government, and definitely not of that local community. However if all the homeless congregate in that area, it’s an unfair burden to that community from a problem caused by a failing of the government. They have the r…

> ...not Irving’s government... Surely city governments are responsible for acute mental health issues. Not all homeless have need for serious mental health care, but the number is high and those needs should be taken care of before (or at the latest, while) talking about jobs. EDIT: At least, local governments should be educating the public about how much help they need from state and national government.

That would assume that the homeless were caused by / came from Irving. That’s unlikely, as there are no borders in the US and people are free to move about.

See this article on how US cities pay homeless people to leave town, and they end up somewhere else, as someone else’s problem: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2017/dec/...

Problem is nobody wants them, yet no one will enact policies that will solve the problem. So if you sit back and accept the homeless while not really solving the issue, you’re just being a chump.

Re: In fighting homeless camp, Irvine's Asians win, but at a cost

#30
Homelessness isn't a regional problem. It's a national problem. There needs to be an area designated for them at a a national level. Pushing people from place to place regionally is a terrible solution. An area needs to be designated for them nationally like Native American reservations when they were first created. The national solution needs to have programs to assist with addiction, mental health, and job training.

This is a really national issue. There are homeless everywhere. Let's approach it together with a national area all homeless people can go to for help.

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