Someone has started sleeping on the sidewalk next to our house

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People saying to help are nuts. Homeless people don’t operate in normal, rational ways. Do not talk to this person directly. That’s what homeless shelters are for. Don’t touch his/her stuff.

Dehumanizing is your first step. Why don't you talk about where your thought process leads to?

Have you interacted with many people on the street, PP? I have. I am not going to knock on the tent door of the people outside Safeway on 17th. I have seen one man who lives there high out of his mind on many occasions. I have seen him doing deals with people in the alley and stumbling along yelling on the street. I am a middle aged mother and I am not the person who can just go hug him and ask him if I can buy him some food and water at Safeway. Do you really think that will help? Do you think putting my safety at risk is what should happen and I'm dehumanizing him by not putting myself in danger? I have been spit on, screamed at, and threatened by homeless people. I have empathy for the pain they must be in but F U if you think I'm wrong for not "helping" these people that don't want help.

What about other homeless people? Not everyone is high/mentally unstable/aggressive.

By far the great majority are one of these three things, yes. Take your pick.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People saying to help are nuts. Homeless people don’t operate in normal, rational ways. Do not talk to this person directly. That’s what homeless shelters are for. Don’t touch his/her stuff.

Dehumanizing is your first step. Why don't you talk about where your thought process leads to?

Have you interacted with many people on the street, PP? I have. I am not going to knock on the tent door of the people outside Safeway on 17th. I have seen one man who lives there high out of his mind on many occasions. I have seen him doing deals with people in the alley and stumbling along yelling on the street. I am a middle aged mother and I am not the person who can just go hug him and ask him if I can buy him some food and water at Safeway. Do you really think that will help? Do you think putting my safety at risk is what should happen and I'm dehumanizing him by not putting myself in danger? I have been spit on, screamed at, and threatened by homeless people. I have empathy for the pain they must be in but F U if you think I'm wrong for not "helping" these people that don't want help.

What about other homeless people? Not everyone is high/mentally unstable/aggressive.

By far the great majority are one of these three things, yes. Take your pick.

What's your source on that?

I volunteer with homeless / housing unstable people and that's not my experience. At least not any less mentally stable than most of the professionals I work with.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m a woman and any idiot who is going to tell me I should lean into a situation like this with love is an ignorant man who has never been harassed, threatened, or assaulted. OP, keep your family safe and call the cops. You need to let law enforcement know you will not let this stand. I’ve seen encampments over the past few years somehow become permanent and it’s awful and unsafe for residents and their families and for the unhoused people. Do not sit idly by.

Unfortunately this. If you have kids you don’t have options. Only this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Where would you like this person to go? I’m so sorry your kids don’t want to play outside now that a person who doesn’t have a home is trying to sleep on property that you don’t own.

You say this but I bet this has never happened to you.

[Anonymous]

Homeless out on the street (chronic)? Or homeless who are couch surfing (periodic)? Because by far most of the intractably homeless are addicts and/or have severe mental health issues. Their behavior is so bad that relatives and friends can no longer house them. And many don't want housing. What they are doing now works for them. It just doesn't work for the people around them, like business owners or residents.

And they are the ones that are difficult to deal with. Police know how to connect people to services and they do. But you can't force someone to live somewhere. The only way to remedy the immediate quality of life situation that's bothering others (someone defecating on the sidewalk in front of a business, someone doing the same in garden apartment hallways, etc.) is to arrest them for trespassing. Most police and prosecutors around here have decided to not deal with trespassing, for a variety of reasons, so the person either isn't moved away, or if police do arrest him, he's right back there in a matter of hours. If society wants to decriminalize or at least minimize arresting people for low-level offenses like this, the quality of life for everyone else will decline. I'm not saying we should be arresting willy nilly. I'm just saying it's a conundrum. And one with no great answer. The same 50 chronic homeless people in Silver Spring cause most of the quality of life issues for others. And there's very little anyone can do about it.

[Anonymous]

Walked home from dinner..there's human poop in the bus shelter in front of Wilson HS..second pile we've seen this week right in front of Wilson..though I'm guessing there's a lot more in the bushes adjacent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Homeless out on the street (chronic)? Or homeless who are couch surfing (periodic)? Because by far most of the intractably homeless are addicts and/or have severe mental health issues. Their behavior is so bad that relatives and friends can no longer house them. And many don't want housing. What they are doing now works for them. It just doesn't work for the people around them, like business owners or residents.

And they are the ones that are difficult to deal with. Police know how to connect people to services and they do. But you can't force someone to live somewhere. The only way to remedy the immediate quality of life situation that's bothering others (someone defecating on the sidewalk in front of a business, someone doing the same in garden apartment hallways, etc.) is to arrest them for trespassing. Most police and prosecutors around here have decided to not deal with trespassing, for a variety of reasons, so the person either isn't moved away, or if police do arrest him, he's right back there in a matter of hours. If society wants to decriminalize or at least minimize arresting people for low-level offenses like this, the quality of life for everyone else will decline. I'm not saying we should be arresting willy nilly. I'm just saying it's a conundrum. And one with no great answer. The same 50 chronic homeless people in Silver Spring cause most of the quality of life issues for others. And there's very little anyone can do about it.

That’s pretty racist to put the blame for all the quality of life issues in Silver Spring on a handful of homeless Black people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:why is that tent city on asphalt better than an SRO?

You could do some research. SROs were financially unsustainable and unsafe.

Problems Plague City-Backed Hotel : Housing: Drugs, crime are rampant at Downtown hotel renovated under ambitious program, police say.
NOV. 25, 1995 12 AM PT
TIMES STAFF WRITER
After living on the grimy streets of Downtown Los Angeles, Herman Lewis thought that moving into the Hayward Manor hotel at 6th and Spring streets would bring more safety and comfort.

Within days, he realized he was wrong. “You might as well be on the street,” said Lewis, who lived at the Hayward from August, 1994, through May, 1995. “Drugs are everywhere. You don’t even have to go outside of the place. You can get anything you want inside.”

Drug dealing and drug use are only some of the problems facing the Hayward Manor, according to police and the current manager, a court-appointed receivership representative. There’s also prostitution, murder, sexual assault, robbery and other crimes.

These kinds of problems are not unusual for some of the low-cost hotels on the fringe of Skid Row. But unlike the others, the Hayward is part of a $110-million citywide project hailed as the most ambitious affordable housing effort in Los Angeles history by outgoing Mayor Tom Bradley in 1993. At a cost of $25 million, the Hayward was the most expensive of the 15 affordable housing projects unveiled that day.

Now, two years later, the 525-unit single resident occupancy hotel is in danger of defaulting on a $13.4-million city-authorized revenue bond, according to the credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s. And taxpayers may never be repaid for a $10-million city loan made in 1992 for acquisition and rehabilitation of the beleaguered hotel, city officials acknowledge.
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-11-25-me-6994-story.html

tents on asphalt are better?

[Anonymous]

I used to work as a homelessness advocate. The majority of homeless are generally nice, and mostly stable (some have health issues or things like anxiety or low IQ that make it harder for them to maintain a steady job). But, of the ones that you see living on the street, the majority have significant mental health or addiction issues. Yes, connect them with services—-but it’s really hard to provide effective services for that population because they often don’t want the help they need. They’ll go to get food but not much more. Some of them are paranoid and others just know that their drug use wouldn’t be tolerated in a shelter.
It’s really hard to run an effective long term shelter (not an over night crash shelter). They have to have a lot of rules to avoid violence or problems like the Relisha Rudd tragedy. But then people resent the rules, feel nicromanaged, and won’t stay.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:why is that tent city on asphalt better than an SRO?

You could do some research. SROs were financially unsustainable and unsafe.

Problems Plague City-Backed Hotel : Housing: Drugs, crime are rampant at Downtown hotel renovated under ambitious program, police say.
NOV. 25, 1995 12 AM PT
TIMES STAFF WRITER
After living on the grimy streets of Downtown Los Angeles, Herman Lewis thought that moving into the Hayward Manor hotel at 6th and Spring streets would bring more safety and comfort.

Within days, he realized he was wrong. “You might as well be on the street,” said Lewis, who lived at the Hayward from August, 1994, through May, 1995. “Drugs are everywhere. You don’t even have to go outside of the place. You can get anything you want inside.”

Drug dealing and drug use are only some of the problems facing the Hayward Manor, according to police and the current manager, a court-appointed receivership representative. There’s also prostitution, murder, sexual assault, robbery and other crimes.

These kinds of problems are not unusual for some of the low-cost hotels on the fringe of Skid Row. But unlike the others, the Hayward is part of a $110-million citywide project hailed as the most ambitious affordable housing effort in Los Angeles history by outgoing Mayor Tom Bradley in 1993. At a cost of $25 million, the Hayward was the most expensive of the 15 affordable housing projects unveiled that day.

Now, two years later, the 525-unit single resident occupancy hotel is in danger of defaulting on a $13.4-million city-authorized revenue bond, according to the credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s. And taxpayers may never be repaid for a $10-million city loan made in 1992 for acquisition and rehabilitation of the beleaguered hotel, city officials acknowledge.
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-11-25-me-6994-story.html

tents on asphalt are better?

I see you want to establish a strawman for some bs argument. Look buddy, your problem is that you presume that you are the first person that thought of something. The outcome was that the city lit money on fire while the homeless felt more safe on the street.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Keep in mind, many of these people are still homeless by choice. We need to face the fact that shelters and social programs won't have the same affect on them as they do with the temporary homeless or families.

"Choice" is a loaded word. For many people, homelessness is the result of many circumstances, and choices, that led them to a situation to which they have adapted, and without significant support have a very hard time adapting or re-adapting to maintaining stability in a permanent place to live.

I know someone who has been homeless by choice since he lost the house but had to pay the mortgage in a divorce 20 years ago. He figured out ways to make money while travelling (some of it remote IT work, some of it driving cars and pets cross country for people) and this has been his life for 20 years. That's a totally different scenario than what you are probably thinking of as homelessness "by choice".

that literally sounds like a choice. assuming no mental illnesses or drug addiction, he could have let the house go into foreclosure and rented a place and got a decent paying IT job. something else was going on.

I know it's not relevant to the topic here, but no. He would never have defaulted on the mortgage for his ex and his kid. The traveling started with some kind of corporate decision pertaining to the baggage handlers which gave him 3 years of free air travel. He couldn't afford that AND a place of his own. He hit, I don't recall, 100+ countries before he mostly ended the international travel. I knew him before all this started but he has a blog about his decision to live rent-free while traveling, and a large number of loyal followers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where would you like this person to go? I’m so sorry your kids don’t want to play outside now that a person who doesn’t have a home is trying to sleep on property that you don’t own.

You say this but I bet this has never happened to you.

Or, the PP understands what it actually means to live in an urban environment and -- as a consequence -- doesn't come off sounding like a scared suburban housewife.

[Anonymous]

Why not just ask him to move along politely? And if that doesn’t work, use a directed jet lawn sprinkler to deliver the message.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Walked home from dinner..there's human poop in the bus shelter in front of Wilson HS..second pile we've seen this week right in front of Wilson..though I'm guessing there's a lot more in the bushes adjacent.

This is becoming an acute public health issue - and DC is still in the midst of a pandemic. It’s doubtful that the people leaving their waste in bus shelters, near a school, a public swimming pool and grocery/food establishments, are even vaccinated. What are Bowser and Cheh doing about this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Keep in mind, many of these people are still homeless by choice. We need to face the fact that shelters and social programs won't have the same affect on them as they do with the temporary homeless or families.

"Choice" is a loaded word. For many people, homelessness is the result of many circumstances, and choices, that led them to a situation to which they have adapted, and without significant support have a very hard time adapting or re-adapting to maintaining stability in a permanent place to live.

I know someone who has been homeless by choice since he lost the house but had to pay the mortgage in a divorce 20 years ago. He figured out ways to make money while travelling (some of it remote IT work, some of it driving cars and pets cross country for people) and this has been his life for 20 years. That's a totally different scenario than what you are probably thinking of as homelessness "by choice".

that literally sounds like a choice. assuming no mental illnesses or drug addiction, he could have let the house go into foreclosure and rented a place and got a decent paying IT job. something else was going on.

I know it's not relevant to the topic here, but no. He would never have defaulted on the mortgage for his ex and his kid. The traveling started with some kind of corporate decision pertaining to the baggage handlers which gave him 3 years of free air travel. He couldn't afford that AND a place of his own. He hit, I don't recall, 100+ countries before he mostly ended the international travel. I knew him before all this started but he has a blog about his decision to live rent-free while traveling, and a large number of loyal followers.

dude has a blog about living “rent free”? this is obviously a lifestyle choice. I have a friend who lived like that on and off for years. When she decided she was done she got a good job and bought a house.