21–30 of 170 posts
> Without wishing to return to the Elizabethan Poor Laws, we ought to consider what was lost when the courts discouraged Americans from thinking of “homelessness” in light of the old laws against vagrancy. Ah, so we're back to imprisoning the homeless (at huge expense) rather than providing, say, public toilets or shelter facilities. Not only is the WSJ not learning from history, they don't want to learn from history…
Build. More. Homeless. Shelters. California is so damned NIMBY'd up that they refuse to build shelters and act surprised when homeless people sleep outside. Then they throw their hands up in the air like "uh, it must be the weather" It's stupid. In New York we have more homeless per capita and in absolute numbers but we have nothing like the street issues that west coast cities have. It's because we actually house th…
> Without wishing to return to the Elizabethan Poor Laws, we ought to consider what was lost when the courts discouraged Americans from thinking of “homelessness” in light of the old laws against vagrancy. Ah, so we're back to imprisoning the homeless (at huge expense) rather than providing, say, public toilets or shelter facilities. Not only is the WSJ not learning from history, they don't want to learn from history…
There are public toilets in some of these cities. San Francisco has had self-cleaning public toilets for a long time, but probably has the worst feces problem of any first world country. On Google maps, it appears there are at least 20 public bathrooms in SF within a few miles radius. That's way more than I see when searching for the same thing in Santa Monica, another homeless mecca that doesn't have anywhere near t…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Maybe in a Utopia the homeless would use shelters but many refuse to for very reasons.
How many exactly? Do you have concrete data? My understanding is that the vast majority of the homeless in NYC do sleep in shelters because... well, NYC has plenty of shelters.
So there might be a small number of homeless folks who can't / won't live in shelters, but that's what it is: a small minority.
[0] https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Bay-Area-homeless-uns...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
We need better mental health care, and cheaper housing.
Dr. Drew was on Scott Adam's podcast recently talking about this. Apparently even free housing is insufficient because most of the people relevant to this discussion will not accept even free housing. Nor will they accept mental healthcare even when provided for free. The only way to get them into the mental healthcare situations is to compel them by force, and that is not something people are interested in. Correcti…
A given citizen disregarding the norms of society does not give society permission to use force against that citizen, or to subject them to forced medical treatments.
Again, if the person poses an active threat that is a different scenario. But there’s a good reason most Americans don’t want to start rounding up the seemingly mentally ill.
Build. More. Homeless. Shelters. California is so damned NIMBY'd up that they refuse to build shelters and act surprised when homeless people sleep outside. Then they throw their hands up in the air like "uh, it must be the weather" It's stupid. In New York we have more homeless per capita and in absolute numbers but we have nothing like the street issues that west coast cities have. It's because we actually house th…
Maybe not as bad west coast cities, but since January 1, 2014 things have gotten significantly, noticeably worse. In subway stations and cars, in the streets, in the parks, in Penn Station -- all over. And as you point out we have enough shelter beds for everyone.
NYC 2019 is not what good looks like.
It is a ban of plastic bags from supermarkets. People have some decency, but with ban there is no way to dispose excrements.