I can honestly say this isn't true. I know a woman who has slept at a bus stop with all her bags for 30 years. She has family and friends who have offered to let her stay with them, but she said the march on washington and black lives matter entitles her to a free home and an income above $70,000, which according to her, is a minimum fair and equitable salary. Keep in mind she has zero skills, doesn't bathe, wash her hands or flush the toilet. She couldn't tell me how she would pay the annual taxes and upkeep. She said in all these decades, she has never been able to find a vacancy in any of the shelters. She said the apartment vouchers are no good because she wouldn't own it and the apartments aren't quality. She won't apply for social security or SNAP because she says it isn't enough and she doesn't qualify. Besides, she doesn't believe she should have to go through the trouble of applying, recertification, etc. None of this would be in her best interest or provide generational wealth. She insists this past week she has spoken to "professionals" and an "impressive" DC government representative that funding is coming in from taxpayers and corporations to give her home ownership and the downtown business are going to find a solution so that every black person has a free home in DC. She is going to hold her ground on the sidewalk, play victim, and charm her way into a free home while laughing all the way to the bank. |
We need to involuntarily hospitalize people and/or provide a bus ticket "home" |
+1. Tell those vagrants to move along. Enough with public defecation, hostile panhandling and open air drug markets! |
I just wanted to respond to both of these thoughtful posts. You both sound like wonderful, caring people who have been through a lot. I’m sorry that social workers/hospital personnel made you feel guilty/responsible for your mentally ill loved ones. I am a mental health care professional and I (and most of my colleagues) know how devastating these illnesses are to families and have nothing but respect and empathy for family members like you. |
Nice to know that classism and racism is still alive and well among the so-called “Elites.” It’s so easy to blame the people in need instead of looking in the mirror and asking how am I, as a privileged person, contributing to/supporting causes and that perpetuate and/or worsen cycles of poverty. |
Society isn’t to blame for others anti-social behaviors. |
Is this what you say to yourself each night as you tuck yourself into a comfy bed with a roof over your head? |
Your house. |
I would get your point if this was Texas or some other red state, but this is DC. Our city has some of the most generous homeless benefits anywhere in the country. The problem is not a "lack of compassion," it's that many homeless people refuse to accept services because they'd rather engage in anti-social behavior like drugs and alcohol. |
Not the Op but really? That's not the point. And why do you apparently think it's ok for non-homeless people or privileged kids to be assaulted for doing the same thing so called homeless people are allowed to do? Cannot take the ignorant insufferable condescending wokeness. The homeless situation is out of control in DC, unsafe, unsanitary and very bad for DC tourism and businesses. Don't worry, the District will just keep on tciketing and taking us to death until we all can't take it any more and move out. |
+1 People who have low-wage jobs and don’t make enough to live in an expensive city, but who are clean from drugs and alcohol and not seriously mentally ill, are not sleeping in tents on the street. This isn’t the Great Depression or a developing country without a social safety net. There are many such people but they live with friends/family, couch surf, have roommates, move into the exurbs … or worse comes to worse, sleep in their car, or can use the shelter system because, as pointed out many times in this thread already, they can adhere to the rules set in place by the shelters. But even if a homeless person was put into housing, how long would they manage to be there before the root cause of the homelessness reared its ugly head? Without treatment for the underlying condition (the addiction, mental illness, etc.) they have a very high chance of ending up back on the streets. |
I also appreciate these thoughtful posts. I also see the other posts from the less thoughtful, judgemental, and self-absorbed people who lack any sens of compassion. I have a sibling who has a chronic health condition, significant learning difference, and is on the spectrum. He’s in his 50’s and lives with my elderly parents. While he works, he doesn’t earn enough to pay for his own housing and cover all of his other bbasic living expenses. Luckily he lives in a blue state that long ago ensured access to health care. My brother would probably be homeless if he couldn’t live with my parents. His siblings will make sure he’s okay after my parents pass and we are lucky that he trusts us and doesn’t suffer from a mental illness like schziophrenia. What I have learned from growing up with a sibling with both mental and physical health challenges is that a lot more people than I thought lack empathy and have a pretty callous attitude to people with mental health challenges. Everyone of us is someone’s baby. Many of us have children of our own on this website. I always try to remember that when I see people living in a tent, ranting in a Starbucks that we’re all being spied on, or setting up home in a bus stop. I have never met a child who says I hope I’m Schizophrenic when I grow up. I really dream of being an alcoholic or addict. When I grow up I hope to live in a tent by the National Cathedral. Try to see the humanity in everyone you see. Even the people you fear will bring down your property values. If we can focus more on one another’s humanity—like it sounds like people in the smaller communities did in the case of the prior posters’ mother and brother—we just might be able to make more progress in getting people out of their tents. |
PP. if your brother lives in a blue state, it is highly likely that if your parents could not house him, he could be moved to a home for adults on the spectrum.
We strategically moved my sister to Arlington so that she could receive the many benefits available to people with mental disabilities. She can function but the county pays for a caregiver to help her with daily activities such as grocery shopping, cleaning and organizing, getting to medical appointments, and other activities. |
The homeless encampment underneath the multimillion dollar WO&D pedestrian bridge in Arlington has been removed! |
What happens when your brother decides to sleep in a tent under an overpass? How are you going to stop him? |