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Woman sues L.A. after being struck by car on a street where tents block sidewalk

latimes.com

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Re: Woman sues L.A. after being struck by car on a street where tents block sidewalk

#201

Post by slg »

Overton-Window wrote: post #178
fabian2k wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you sure those stats are right? It does not seem plausible to me that Germany has 4-5 times as many homeless as the US. I looked a bit, and the numbers really don't match my expectations, I'm pretty sure they're not counting the same things. I found one paper that compares the US and Germany and they got a lifetime prevalence of homelesness of 6.2% in the US and 2.4% in Germany ( https://sci-hub.se/https://doi.or…

They are misleading as they include hundreds of thousands of unsheltered refugees. Anyone who has ever walked around SF or LA and Berlin knows this implicitly. The US cooks the books. https://www.feantsaresearch.org/download/germany241169298614...

>Anyone who has ever walked around SF or LA and Berlin knows this implicitly.

The easy explanation for that is the social programs that care for the homeless are stronger in Germany. You don't see Berlin's homeless as a problem because they don't have to result to literally sleeping on the street. The people living in shelters are no less homeless, they just aren't as visible.

Re: Woman sues L.A. after being struck by car on a street where tents block sidewalk

#202

Post by emodendroket »

paulddraper wrote: post #188
emodendroket wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's only like a third of homeless people with mental illness, so while it's a major contributor it cannot totally explain the problem.

45% have mental illness. 25% have "serious" mental illness. https://www.bbrfoundation.org/blog/homelessness-and-mental-i... 38% are alcoholic. 26% abuse drugs. https://www.banyantreatmentcenter.com/2020/07/01/a-look-at-h... I suspect they tend to be the more visible ones, as opposed to the ones in shelters or assistance programs.

I imagine there are multiple methodologies to measure this because it's hard to even get a handle on how many people are homeless. The point still stands: "they're all just so mentally ill they like to live on the streets" won't wash as an explanation.

Re: Woman sues L.A. after being struck by car on a street where tents block sidewalk

#203

Post by scotty79 »

temp8964 wrote: post #83
pineconewarrior wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the US, that job may not offer the person any net quality-of-life improvements. Flipping that burger for 30 hours a week does not give them enough money to find housing. Now they're still broke but they're also tired, smelly, and angry.

What kind of life you can get by just flipping burger for 30 hours a week in Europe? Honest question.

In Poland you could rent a studio apartment for 1/3 of McDonalds fulltime initial salary. The other 1/3 should be sufficient for food if you cook yourself.

Re: Woman sues L.A. after being struck by car on a street where tents block sidewalk

#204

Post by austincheney »

None of this makes sense to me. In Fort Worth it is a misdemeanor to panhandle or sleep in a public space without a permit. As a result I almost never see homeless people, even downtown. Homeless encampments certainly don’t exist or if they do they are places far away from residences or roads. I know there are numbers indicating there are homeless about though, so they just aren’t visible in areas where people would walk, drive, or sightsee. This is the 12th largest city in the US.

On the other hand look to our neighbor to the south, Austin which is almost numerically identical. They appear to have homeless people everywhere that non homeless walk and do business. The difference is striking. I don’t understand why any city would allow homeless to congregate like this outside managed care.

Re: Woman sues L.A. after being struck by car on a street where tents block sidewalk

#205

Post by AngryData »

rhacker wrote: post #14
whymauri wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Why is she distributing supplies to a group of people she wants the city to throw out? Article is paywalled, but presumably she doesn't want them thrown out. There are, in fact, other solutions to homeless encampments...

I seriously don't know what the solution is. Enlighten us?

Providing a better and safer living environment?

Re: Woman sues L.A. after being struck by car on a street where tents block sidewalk

#206

Post by chrisseaton »

Overton-Window wrote: post #155
simonsarris wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

First please note that America has fewer homeless people than many European nations or Canada. Per 10K: Germany......79 UK...........46 Sweden.......36 Canada.......36 Netherlands..23 France.......21 USA..........17 (via Wikipedia, stats for differing years unfortunately but gives a sense of magnitude) It's mostly that the US homeless population concentrates in very few areas. > How do you reconcile that with the fac…

Those stats are misleading, e.g. Germany's figures include unsheltered refugees. Excluding refugees the number of homeless people in Germany sits at 335,000 to 420,000. https://homelessworldcup.org/homelessness-statistics/

> unsheltered refugees

So... homeless people?

Re: Woman sues L.A. after being struck by car on a street where tents block sidewalk

#208

Post by wahern »

Swizec wrote: post #134
simonsarris wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

First please note that America has fewer homeless people than many European nations or Canada. Per 10K: Germany......79 UK...........46 Sweden.......36 Canada.......36 Netherlands..23 France.......21 USA..........17 (via Wikipedia, stats for differing years unfortunately but gives a sense of magnitude) It's mostly that the US homeless population concentrates in very few areas. > How do you reconcile that with the fac…

How are "homeless" defined in different countries? There was an eye-opening 99pi series of podcasts around homelessness in USA where I learned that the definition is ridiculously strict. Something like "If you slept anywhere other than the street last night , you do not qualify as homeless". I can't remember if tents count, but sleeping on a friend's couch, squatting a derelict building, or staying in your car disqua…

See column 5 in table Table HC 3.1.1a, page 5, of the OECD report linked elsethread (https://www.oecd.org/els/family/HC3-1-Homeless-population.pd...).

Re: Woman sues L.A. after being struck by car on a street where tents block sidewalk

#209

Post by danans »

goshx wrote: post #67
sudosysgen wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's the incentive to get a job if you're still going to be homeless? If you stay homeless you're eventually going to get fired too.

I don't know, maybe being able to buy food is an incentive?

Most homeless folks can find a way to get food, even if it's not great food, via a network of public and private support organizations. So having enough food not to starve isn't necessarily an incentive to work, and that's a good thing because if they were literally starving we'd have even bigger problems.

Re: Woman sues L.A. after being struck by car on a street where tents block sidewalk

#210

Post by emodendroket »

Causality1 wrote: post #3

Todd said she had gone to the overpass to distribute sandwiches, potato chips and water to people living at the freeway encampment. Todd’s lawsuit accuses the city of allowing the encampment at the 101 overpass on Gower to remain for a “substantial amount of time,” Why is she distributing supplies to a group of people she wants the city to throw out?

I would imagine she wants the city to provide them shelter rather than just "throw them out" (to where? Eventually the game of musical chairs has to stop somewhere).
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