What is with all the homeless tents in DC?

[Anonymous]

My guess is in the thick of covid cops were told not to enforce it - simply to avoid having to go up to these people. Yet now covid is getting to be in the rear view and cops still aren't being told to enforce it - prob because there aren't that many complaints from major employers etc. since hardly anyone is back in the office. And without said explicit instruction, cops don't want to deal with these people, so they leave it alone AND they probably do view the problem as too big.

But honestly pre covid there was a tent city under some bridge behind Union and that tent city WAS routinely dismantled and the city used to come in and clean those sidewalks w/ some sanitizing foam type thing. I remember this bc liberals would go on about how it's sooo unfair that they do this just to harass these people who then have to move out of that area (though they come back 1-2 days later; though apparently every time you disrupt a tent city like that, some % of people leave as they realize they'll never be left alone to live in that spot). Uh they're pissing and worse in the street, I'm glad someone is considering public health here.

[Anonymous]

Who do we lobby for institutionalization reforms? I took a walk down Wisconsin Ave and there were 2 different people laying flat on the sidewalk with folks stepping around them. No one calling 311 or wellness checks (I did). IMO DC General should have been remodeled as a state of the art, public long term hospital /mental health facility, not sold off to developers. Said so at the time, say so now. Family shelters do nothing to address generally mentally unwell and/ or heavily addicted men sprawled in the sidewalk

[Anonymous]

So seems like they're just not enforcing any rules right now (whatever minimal rules there were at least prevented tent cities on major university campuses like GW and Union Station). Question is - does enforcement return when the people return? Or do these people now get to live anywhere they want?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So seems like they're just not enforcing any rules right now (whatever minimal rules there were at least prevented tent cities on major university campuses like GW and Union Station). Question is - does enforcement return when the people return? Or do these people now get to live anywhere they want?

Who do we ask? Who knows? Our fair rulers (MAyor/Council) must see this when they walk around town. What action is being taken?

[Anonymous]

The thing is the federal government isn't going to touch mental health, instituionalization, and drug alcohol rehab. If our city has the wherewithal to decriminalize marijuana, they should also have the wherewithal to act locally on this persistent vagrant/homeless (most not from DC) dilemna.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where were all of these people 4-5 years ago? [b]

I'm curious if the tent communities are actually because of covid (changes in homeless shelter availability, lost jobs, inability to pay rent, etc.) or if this is just taking advantage of looser enforcement in the past few years?

[/b]Are the homeless coming here purposefully from other locations because they know they won't be removed?[b] I've heard really sad stories about some great cities out west that were really overrun with this situation, leading to unsanitary conditions and unsafe conditions for everyone - both the people living in the tent communities and those in housing or working around them.

This. Is there suddenly TONS more mental illness now than 5 years ago?? Or are they just taking advantage of the fact that the city is empty (relatively speaking) with all the remote work so they can set up a tent city anywhere and won't be asked to move. Because before these things used to exist "out of sight" (relatively speaking) under overpasses etc. No reason they need to exist smack in front of Union Station so it's the first thing you see when visiting the nations capital. AND more importantly will these people be asked to move on when the city resumes some type of normal operation - which evidently will be never since everyone wants to remote work forever but that's a different issue.

Well, yes, enforcement is way down, but debilitating drug use is up, and the border is open for more supply to flood in.

Like the Mexican border? Hate to break it to you but whenever I see the drugged out guy pissing in the street - he's a black guy or a white guy. Have yet to see a Hispanic guy nor an entire family living in a tent speaking Spanish. I'm not saying some of those people aren't homeless - but they aren't residents of the DC tent cities; they are likely still in Texas etc. AND are more the types who couch surf with long lost relatives until one of them can get an under the table job, they tend not to be completely drugged, wasted, and lying in the street.

Do you understand that the cartels move drugs across the open border? And specifically use the mass human trafficking to keep the Border Patrol busy while they import drugs? No one was saying the tent cities are full of Hispanic migrants. Did you actually read the sentence?

[Anonymous]

Looks like San Fran aka disguising place that women in particular feel unsafe.

[Anonymous]

I was just at my office on First St NE for the first time since Covid. It looked just the same as before. Some of the structures are the same ones.

[Anonymous]

Can’t do anything about it. Equity means turning a blind eye and lowering standards until everything is equally crappy for everyone!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can’t do anything about it. Equity means turning a blind eye and lowering standards until everything is equally crappy for everyone!

Sadly, I think this is true.

[Anonymous]

Portland resident here, a few posters above are correct you do NOT want to be us. The west has an added layer of a Idaho court decision making things harder to get out of this awful situation, and Oregon leadership was so excited about this case they recently codified it into state law. I wish I had been paying attention more in 2015 when this slide began.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can’t do anything about it. Equity means turning a blind eye and lowering standards until everything is equally crappy for everyone!

Sadly, I think this is true.

Can you please explain your thought process how these two things are even remotely connected? Like I know it’s a fun buzzword Fox News likes to use when talking about schools. But homelessness? How is drug addiction and mental illness a result of equity? And you don’t think these are issues in rural areas?

[Anonymous]

Portland here again: I will tell you why they are connected. Because the activists are the same antifa/anarchitst group who see the homeless as the "most vulnerable" among us. They also don't see drug issues including IV drug use as something that is necessarily a problem. Its the same mindset that leads to disbanding a gun violence task force (rascist) and traffic control (racist also). Its all about power disparities and putting the marginalized above all else. Like I said above, I wasn't clued into this 5 yrs ago when it things started to slide, but I am now and its distressing. This city is "liberal" but the extremists on the left are a small (and LOUD) active group.

[Anonymous]

D.C. just needs more of this -

https://madridnofrills.com/anti-homeless-architecture/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Portland here again: I will tell you why they are connected. Because the activists are the same antifa/anarchitst group who see the homeless as the "most vulnerable" among us. They also don't see drug issues including IV drug use as something that is necessarily a problem. Its the same mindset that leads to disbanding a gun violence task force (rascist) and traffic control (racist also). Its all about power disparities and putting the marginalized above all else. Like I said above, I wasn't clued into this 5 yrs ago when it things started to slide, but I am now and its distressing. This city is "liberal" but the extremists on the left are a small (and LOUD) active group.

What is your solution?