Homeless tents creeping into the nice/residential part of DC

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Am I the only one who remembers when the Mall was full of homeless sleeping?

Am I the only one who rrmrnbers when the mall was full of temporary offices for government agencies and bums lived in them at night.

[Anonymous]

Lots and lots of tents around Foggy Bottom area —-after Covid. There is a little city real close to the Kennedy Center, too.

[Anonymous]

Ugh. We had one pop up in a neighborhood park in the town of Vienna. I called the police and they told me they can't do anything about it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ugh. We had one pop up in a neighborhood park in the town of Vienna. I called the police and they told me they can't do anything about it.

that’s a shame

[Anonymous]

Finland’s “housing first” approach to homelessness seems supportive. They are providing housing and services for all who are homeless. It is cheaper than criminalizing homelessness or providing “safe sleeping sites” aka parking lots like we have done. It is a policy choice. Too logical and compassionate to be taken seriously in the US, I fear.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are tent cities because poor people can’t afford DC rents and the housing voucher waitlist has been closed since 2013. Lack of investment in services, shelters, and public housing is what causes tent homelessness. Have compassion.

This is not why. It's a drug and mental health crisis in 90% of cases. Do you talk to anybody on the street? They've all been offered housing, but they cannot be separated from their people, they do not have freedom to use, they are not ready to be clean or get help or live under the rules so that is why they are still on the street.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are tent cities because poor people can’t afford DC rents and the housing voucher waitlist has been closed since 2013. Lack of investment in services, shelters, and public housing is what causes tent homelessness. Have compassion.

This is not why. It's a drug and mental health crisis in 90% of cases. Do you talk to anybody on the street? They've all been offered housing, but they cannot be separated from their people, they do not have freedom to use, they are not ready to be clean or get help or live under the rules so that is why they are still on the street.

+1.

California is a prime example of this. Housing offered, offer not taken.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Finland’s “housing first” approach to homelessness seems supportive. They are providing housing and services for all who are homeless. It is cheaper than criminalizing homelessness or providing “safe sleeping sites” aka parking lots like we have done. It is a policy choice. Too logical and compassionate to be taken seriously in the US, I fear.

In the US, the problem is 90+% caused by drug addiction and untreated mental illness. In Finland’s program, the homeless people have to be free of drugs before they qualify. The US has lots of programs too, but drug addicts don’t want to be separated from their ability to use. Think about how much they’ve given up already just to keep drugs in their lives - family, friends, jobs, health, shelter. They are completely consumed by their addictions and nothing can change that until THEY want to.

The other point I’d make is that Finland is pretty homogenous, demographically speaking - they’re ALL white. The US is way more diverse and there are more politics involved in putting any one single program in place. We’re also a lot more prone to violent crime than a homogenous country like Finland or Japan.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Finland’s “housing first” approach to homelessness seems supportive. They are providing housing and services for all who are homeless. It is cheaper than criminalizing homelessness or providing “safe sleeping sites” aka parking lots like we have done. It is a policy choice. Too logical and compassionate to be taken seriously in the US, I fear.

Finland does not compare to the US. Despite the Sami, they are homogeneous.

[Anonymous]

I lived in DC for 20 years, in a bunch of different neighborhoods close to downtown (dupont, logan, CH, petworth etc). I left in 2017, and visit a couple times a year (usually for work, so mostly spend time just downtown). I visited this summer for pleasure, and holy crap, what a difference from a few years ago. DC always had it's problems, and I woke up more times than i care to remember with trash or junk on my front stoop. But the tent cities are a new level of terrible. My friends were surprisingly chill about it, and I don't know why.

DC has been poor and underserved for pretty much all of modern history, so i'm not sure why "high rents" would cause this issue to first crop up in 2020. There's obviously something cultural that's changed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I lived in DC for 20 years, in a bunch of different neighborhoods close to downtown (dupont, logan, CH, petworth etc). I left in 2017, and visit a couple times a year (usually for work, so mostly spend time just downtown). I visited this summer for pleasure, and holy crap, what a difference from a few years ago. DC always had it's problems, and I woke up more times than i care to remember with trash or junk on my front stoop. But the tent cities are a new level of terrible. My friends were surprisingly chill about it, and I don't know why.

DC has been poor and underserved for pretty much all of modern history, so i'm not sure why "high rents" would cause this issue to first crop up in 2020. There's obviously something cultural that's changed.

+100 and if you look closely, all the tents look relatively high quality. Clearly someone if giving away nice tents to homeless people. Anyone know who?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are tent cities because poor people can’t afford DC rents and the housing voucher waitlist has been closed since 2013. Lack of investment in services, shelters, and public housing is what causes tent homelessness. Have compassion.

This is completely wrong. DC is super generous when it comes to housing and support for the homeless. The reason many prefer to stay in tents is because housing programs come with rules like no drugs and no crazy unruly behavior.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Finland’s “housing first” approach to homelessness seems supportive. They are providing housing and services for all who are homeless. It is cheaper than criminalizing homelessness or providing “safe sleeping sites” aka parking lots like we have done. It is a policy choice. Too logical and compassionate to be taken seriously in the US, I fear.

Finland does not compare to the US. Despite the Sami, they are homogeneous.

+1 Finland just doesn’t have the violent crime rates that comes with a diverse population like the US has.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I lived in DC for 20 years, in a bunch of different neighborhoods close to downtown (dupont, logan, CH, petworth etc). I left in 2017, and visit a couple times a year (usually for work, so mostly spend time just downtown). I visited this summer for pleasure, and holy crap, what a difference from a few years ago. DC always had it's problems, and I woke up more times than i care to remember with trash or junk on my front stoop. But the tent cities are a new level of terrible. My friends were surprisingly chill about it, and I don't know why.

DC has been poor and underserved for pretty much all of modern history, so i'm not sure why "high rents" would cause this issue to first crop up in 2020. There's obviously something cultural that's changed.

Gentrification. In the 1960s there was a lot of very very old and run down row houses literally everywhere that provided cheap housing.

[Anonymous]

Most homeless people families and have income. (Pensions, social security, disability etc)

The homeless prefer to live in parks due to mental health/drug issues.