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Homeless, living in a tent and employed: The changing face of homelessness

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Re: Homeless, living in a tent and employed: The changing face of homelessness

#181

Post by trashcan »

c22 wrote: post #160
trashcan wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you watch the video? Removing access to drugs and providing them with I assume subsidized medication that is used to treat addiction.

I was in jail once. Apart from weed it seemed like illegal drugs were readily available and much cheaper than they were on the street. I've also been in a mental hospital where unprescribed drugs were impossible to get, they put me on some crazy stuff though. I met addicts in both of these places and honestly neither of them seemed to offer much help for that condition.

I'm not saying that just throwing a person into jail will help. But a jail with a working treatment program could.* Maybe everyone in the video they talked to in the CT treatment program was being disingenious or dishonest, but it sounded like it was effective.

* Which also implies a lack of readily available drugs - and guards who aren't accepting bribes to let them in.

Re: Homeless, living in a tent and employed: The changing face of homelessness

#182

Post by [deleted] »

patcon wrote: post #169
PopeDotNinja wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I was homeless in San Francisco and applying for services, they made sure to mention I could get a one way bus ticket to pretty much anywhere I wanted to go.

Not sure if you're saying this is good or bad, but fwiw: Personal social support networks are important :) This is a great offering. If someone can get to family or a place where they have a supportive network of folks, that is a billion times better than the system on its own trying to take care of them with only institutional compassion I say this as a socialist, not a libertarian or whatever :)

[deleted]

Re: Homeless, living in a tent and employed: The changing face of homelessness

#183

Post by jmspring »

newnewpdro wrote: post #9
mnm1 wrote: post #8

What is the problem with people living in tents? Why are they forced to dismantle and kicked out by cops? It makes no sense. How can Americans be so cruel to the most vulnerable, most helpless people in our society that they won't even let them live in tents and insist on disrupting their lives constantly? What kind of sick society does this? Is it just so rich assholes don't have to look at them and be reminded that…

It's not just rich assholes, a surprising majority of the population want all evidence of poverty out of sight in their lives. Santa Cruz made it illegal just to sleep visibly in public in an attempt to criminalize homelessness so they could hide the problem.

Sorry, but things aren't that simple in Santa Cruz. The reality is more complicated.

Currently, there is an SF/Seattle style camp that has sprung up on the entrance into town. The current city council is made up of a majority that sides more with homeless uses than the concerns of others including families. The first 5 (bi weekly) city council meetings of the year have been stuck on what to do with this camp that has sprung up (there were others before it).

The reason this topic has dominated is due to the current council make up. The head of county health is on public record stating that the county hands out between 3 and 600 needles each day for a camp of between 100 and 150 people. This does not account for a "volunteer" group that hands out other needles things like Narcan.

City staff has been working towards "other locations" for "transitional camps". During a recent presentation one of the pro-camp council people is on record asking "as we move people out of the camp to more permanent housing, what happens to those that move in filling those vacancies. In essence, implying he has an expectation to handle every Tom, Dick, and Harry that comes through there.

People who have "met with the campers" (including camp members themselves) indicate people don't want services or housing. Specifically the demand is for "a space for a low barrier camp that is private and allows for self-organization within the camp". In otherwords, those that have spoken and (campers and representatives) are demanding something outside what the city and county are wanting to provide.

In reality, the working homeless, those trying to make it (including homeless students) aren't in these camps. They are parking in quiet neighborhoods, camping in areas away from people, etc. I've talked with many at a coffee shop (no longer open) over the last half dozen years.

Many are right to point towards the main issue being drugs and mental illness. (The Seattle Dying Video is spot on). The problem here in Santa Cruz is that most of the "homeless advocates" and the 30+ non-profits (why so many for a city of 60k) addressing "homelessness" are perpetuating the current lifestyle of enablement. There are those that do get help and move up and out.

A recent, newly minted "advocate", is living in an RV and was living near her parent's house in Saratoga. She was requested to moved along and magically landed in Santa Cruz. She is one of those engaging with the camp, but has also made demands on the city that they provide her a space to park safely in her RV. She literally has been in Santa Cruz for less than 6 months. Oh, and has a couple of small children.

Why? The city of Santa Cruz is really good at providing a bunch of freebies to those that want them. It also has a city staff that is pretty incompetent and tends to lose when they get sued. Further, yes they are the county seat, but they have dug themselves a hole over the course of decades and the county is right in not helping the city dig themselves out.

There was even an article recently in SFGate where Berkeley is moving RV dwellers along (Sorry side tangent).

Re: Homeless, living in a tent and employed: The changing face of homelessness

#184

Post by bobthepanda »

Retric wrote: post #27
ng12 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, of course. We sold out the last vestiges of small-town America but are not socially prepared for a world where the entire economy is focused around a select few cities.

In 1930 5.9% of all Americans where living in NYC. The importance of cities has seen minimal changes, the issue is we stopped building enough housing and transportation infrastructure. Many US issues come from where we place the borders of our local governments. Local was more meaningful before the car, but with increased mobility that’s no longer the case.

Suburban political boundaries were drawn this way intentionally. The “solution” for integrated school districts was to pack up and leave for places that minorities couldn’t afford to move to, so you could keep your kids going to all-white schools.

Even today undoing those boundaries is fraught by the specter of history. https://www.ajc.com/news/local-govt--politics/fears-about-ma...

Re: Homeless, living in a tent and employed: The changing face of homelessness

#185

Post by driverdan »

f34 wrote: post #176
throwaway713 wrote: post #116

A little bit unrelated, but does anyone else get severe anxiety reading articles like this? I’m currently employed in a well-paying tech job, but it always seems like I’m just one giant disaster away from this kind of thing. Granted, I have a family “safety net” to fall back on in a worst case scenario, which I realize a lot of people don’t have, but it’s always in the back of my mind that the economy could crash, th…

I was wiped out back in 2017. I was a web developer living in Dallas and making 90K a year. My manager and I didn't get along and I eventually ended up on a PIP. After 30 days I realized I wasn't going to meet the PIP goals and resigned before being fired. I wasn't worried, I had about 50K in cash and 20K in credit, and I surly could find a job before it ran out. I was wrong. I got very few interviews and when I did,…

How are you applying for jobs? Are you spraying and praying or are you going to meetups and such to network and get recommendations? Cold resumes won't get nearly as far as a recommendation. Have you applied to remote jobs? Contract jobs? Looked for freelance work?

Re: Homeless, living in a tent and employed: The changing face of homelessness

#186

Post by EvanAnderson »

dgzl wrote: post #147
sodiumjoe wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Portlander here, I used to work right by the food carts downtown on 10th and Alder. The hospital bracelet guy is one of regulars, he's been running that schtick for literally years. There's a cast off characters like him who are fixtures there. I'm not against compassion for the homeless, but after running into a few of these repeatedly, I tend to refrain from supporting them directly and give to local charities inst…

I wouldn't be surprised if this was a scam, but I'm not convinced. Between my own experiences interacting with the homeless and scammers, seeing his fresh physical wounds (including staples in his head), and the weird amount of knowledge he had about physics and obscure computer operating systems, I just don't see it. If anything, he deserves my help just for being so thorough.

Your post reminds me of a strange conversation I found myself in about 10 years ago.

I was approached by a guy at a festival who'd seen me taking "street photographs" with my SLR. He talked to me for a bit about photography and seemed more knowledgeable than average about the technical aspects.

After awhile we started talking about his personal circumstances-- being out of work, not having any cash, and finally pulling up his shirt and showing me a fresh-looking wound on his side and saying that he'd been attacked earlier in the day. I didn't end up giving him any money (I pretty much never carry cash), but if I'd had any I probably would have. Looking back, in light of your post, I wonder if there was a "help me I'm injured" grift that I just missed.

Re: Homeless, living in a tent and employed: The changing face of homelessness

#187

Post by timwaagh »

angarg12 wrote: post #39
i_am_proteus wrote: post #28

These are my personal observations: When I first moved to the SF Bay area, I was surprised by the amount of visible homelessness and by the number of service economy workers who drove nearly two hours to and from work. I also had my first experiences with the "campuses" of major technology companies, where money was made hand-over-fist. I think the recent widening income gap is a natural consequence of the technology…

> So the rise in visible homelessness is perhaps the expected result. But this happens in the US disproportionally more than, say, many countries in Europe.

doubt it. there are just a few areas in the us that are really bad, but the rest of it is fine. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_homeless_...

Re: Homeless, living in a tent and employed: The changing face of homelessness

#188

Post by remarkEon »

NotAnEconomist wrote: post #173
cronix wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't detect any rabid right-wing bias in this documentary, despite whoever owns it. It seemed pretty neutral, if not from a humanitarian perspective. I don't think I've ever seen a rabid right-wing org point out that drug addiction is actually the biggest component of this homeless problem, and showing a solution working elsewhere that was primarily based on getting people off of drugs. > we had an attempt to tax…

> we had an attempt to tax big companies to get some money to deal with this get shouted down by all the folks in Amazon's pockets. > assuming the majority of people actually wanted it because they believed it would solve the problem. The poster is omitting that most people in Seattle were opposed to the tax, because it would have significantly harmed labor unions and regional businesses, like grocery stores. The Sea…

I live in Seattle, and work for Big Tech. Your description is basically spot on. It's frustrating to me because the Seattle City Council seems so disconnected from the strife that a lot of these people face - as correctly depicted in the KOMO documentary. If the SCC wanted to extract some value from Amazon then fine, just do it explicitly. This was a half-handed way to go about it, and so disconnected from how local economies work.

I will live here for a few more years for sure. But if the SCC keeps on this same path, and Seattle turns into SF I'm leaving. It's sad, because I've been living here off and on since 2011 and I genuinely love the PNW, since it's got everything I want - access to nature and the water, smart people that I'd consider starting a company with, and a beautiful aesthetic. I'm not the only one that feels this way. Coworkers, especially those who just had kids or are about to, plan on leaving for the suburbs or ditching the city altogether.

Edit: was googling city council videos and, well, here's an example of what I mean:

https://youtu.be/gMrBFNoHBkg

Re: Homeless, living in a tent and employed: The changing face of homelessness

#189

Post by jdietrich »

ip26 wrote: post #133
closeparen wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The rich got by for thousands of years without cooking, doing laundry, or running affordable housing programs. The service sector lived on its customers’ estates, often as part of their households. I expect this is where we’re headed. Several people I know who work on poverty wages in the arts industry here pay their room and board in elder- or child-care for a homeowner. We often hear that terms like “feudalism” and…

Considering what childcare costs, room & board sounds like a heck of a deal. As a parent, it actually doesn't sound like a bad arrangement.

It's a common arrangement for upper-middle-class families in much of Europe.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Au_pair

Re: Homeless, living in a tent and employed: The changing face of homelessness

#190

Post by B-Con »

scruple wrote: post #144
B-Con wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not severe, but every so often I am reminded of the big picture of life. So many industries, economies, societies, nations, etc, have been upended throughout, leaving large numbers of well-meaning relatively prepared people in ruin. I'm happy that the money is flowing into tech. But on the same token, maaaaybe it's a bubble? My brain won't dismiss that thought. I think the fundamental lesson is that we can't take any…

> Netflix has a new season of $popularShow. That and a refreshing beverage sound like a good way to spend the evening. And that's a good way to spend a Saturday evening. It's also also not an excuse to not prepare for the future.

Right, it's more commentary on how much of our society is built around ignoring life's pressures.
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