Encampment has started in our downtown SS neighborhood

[Anonymous]

Silver spring going to silver spring. The largest homeless shelter in MoCo is just down the street from there. None of this should be a surprise

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There have been tent encampments for a while now in the city of Alexandria and they are totally ok with it here so good luck op this seems to be the new normal here now. They even have a bathroom tent here!

Where in Alexandria are there encampments?

north beauregard & Duke, 395 king st underpass, columbia pike and 7.

Don't forget the guy who lives in the buses adjacent to Fairlington but across from the Bradlee McDonalds on King. He's been there over a year, they do nothing about him. He's always drunk.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There have been tent encampments for a while now in the city of Alexandria and they are totally ok with it here so good luck op this seems to be the new normal here now. They even have a bathroom tent here!

Where in Alexandria are there encampments?

north beauregard & Duke, 395 king st underpass, columbia pike and 7.

Don't forget the guy who lives in the buses adjacent to Fairlington but across from the Bradlee McDonalds on King. He's been there over a year, they do nothing about him. He's always drunk.

bushes

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like the problem isn’t homeless people living in a tent. It’s people drinking in public (illegal?), making lots of noise (noise violation?), pooping in public, littering diarrhea shorts (illegal?), and having pants down in public (illegal). The issue isn’t where the people are living but how they are behaving. And yet people get riled up about the idea that police should be contacted.

This. OP sounds like a very empathetic person who wants to help others. I bet if this was a few unhoused people living in tents but taking care of the area, no drinking on the sidewalk, making noise at all hours, and definitely no sneaking into private buildings and potentially engaging in disturbing behavior where they may be discovered by children, this would be a very different conversation.

I live in an apartment and everyone here owns or legally rents their unit. But if my neighbors started drinking on the sidewalk, making loud noise at all hours, throwing garbage in the street, were defecating or urinating in the hallways or other common areas, or were taking off their clothes in public areas, especially around my kids, I'd have the cops on speed dial.

There is nothing wrong with falling on hard times. There but for the grace of god. But falling on hard times is not an excuse to start behaving like an animal or ruining the neighborhood for everyone else. These folks need housing assistance, I hope they get it. But they don't get to make your life hell until they do.

[Anonymous]

I would reach out to adult protective services or county DHHS.
-Someone who used to work in county homeless services

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wait you mean you don’t like living next to the homeless? They should be living elsewhere right? Like next to some poor people and not nice rich people like you …

I’m not rich. I live in one of the old, lower income apartment buildings. We’re a four person family in a two bedroom unit. I don’t want to get hepatitis from diarrhea stained clothing flung under my car or have my daughter sexually assaulted while doing laundry.

Ignore the jerks OP. No sane person at any income would want to live next to diarrhea pants and pantsless laundry room creepers.

+1

There are gaslighting trolls here who are trying to convince the rest of us that it’s acceptable to live this way. It’s not, and you should ignore them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There have been tent encampments for a while now in the city of Alexandria and they are totally ok with it here so good luck op this seems to be the new normal here now. They even have a bathroom tent here!

Where in Alexandria are there encampments?

north beauregard & Duke, 395 king st underpass, columbia pike and 7.

Don't forget the guy who lives in the buses adjacent to Fairlington but across from the Bradlee McDonalds on King. He's been there over a year, they do nothing about him. He's always drunk.

north beauregard & Duke - Fairfax County

395 king st underpass - there is no underpass below 395 for King St, but I haven’t seen the encampments on the overpass. I’ll have to look next time I’m there. Or are you saying they are next to the Highway?

columbia pike and 7 - Fairfax County

Fairlington across from Bradlee - that’s Arlington County.

Either way, most (if not all of these) are not City of Alexandria.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like the problem isn’t homeless people living in a tent. It’s people drinking in public (illegal?), making lots of noise (noise violation?), pooping in public, littering diarrhea shorts (illegal?), and having pants down in public (illegal). The issue isn’t where the people are living but how they are behaving. And yet people get riled up about the idea that police should be contacted.

This. OP sounds like a very empathetic person who wants to help others. I bet if this was a few unhoused people living in tents but taking care of the area, no drinking on the sidewalk, making noise at all hours, and definitely no sneaking into private buildings and potentially engaging in disturbing behavior where they may be discovered by children, this would be a very different conversation.

I live in an apartment and everyone here owns or legally rents their unit. But if my neighbors started drinking on the sidewalk, making loud noise at all hours, throwing garbage in the street, were defecating or urinating in the hallways or other common areas, or were taking off their clothes in public areas, especially around my kids, I'd have the cops on speed dial.

There is nothing wrong with falling on hard times. There but for the grace of god. But falling on hard times is not an excuse to start behaving like an animal or ruining the neighborhood for everyone else. These folks need housing assistance, I hope they get it. But they don't get to make your life hell until they do.

Literally has never happened.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wait you mean you don’t like living next to the homeless? They should be living elsewhere right? Like next to some poor people and not nice rich people like you …

We give income tax, property tax, school district tax, charity AND volunteer to do our part for community. Taking in strangers with problems like drugs, hygiene, mental issues, infections, violence, sexual, moral, crime etc to expose our children to all that is not our civic responsibility.

Yes, they can be just unfortunate hitting a bad patch but honestly are you going to investigate each to be sure or just take a gamble?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There have been tent encampments for a while now in the city of Alexandria and they are totally ok with it here so good luck op this seems to be the new normal here now. They even have a bathroom tent here!

Where in Alexandria are there encampments?

north beauregard & Duke, 395 king st underpass, columbia pike and 7.

Don't forget the guy who lives in the buses adjacent to Fairlington but across from the Bradlee McDonalds on King. He's been there over a year, they do nothing about him. He's always drunk.

north beauregard & Duke - Fairfax County

395 king st underpass - there is no underpass below 395 for King St, but I haven’t seen the encampments on the overpass. I’ll have to look next time I’m there. Or are you saying they are next to the Highway?

columbia pike and 7 - Fairfax County

Fairlington across from Bradlee - that’s Arlington County.

Either way, most (if not all of these) are not City of Alexandria.

The guy across from Bradlee yes is in Arlington but when he stands in the street (King) drunk, or pandhandles at McDonalds drive through or gets beer at the pharmacy or Safeway or runs around yelling at kids at the bus stop, those are all in Alexandria. Arlington refuses to do anything about him, even if he collects propane tanks, traffic cones, takes a dump, sleeps in front of Fairlington but Alexandria has repeatedly tried to get him to go to a shelter, etc and he refuses so he basically is drunk in public and harassing people when he’s awake in Alexandria but sleeps in Arlington.

[Anonymous]

Wait you mean you don’t like living next to the homeless? They should be living elsewhere right? Like next to some poor people and not nice rich people like you …

Stop pretending you'd like it if crazy people and addicts were camped outside your house.

Yes, they should live elsewhere. Specifically,

1. For the insane - involuntary commitment to mental hospitals
2. For the addicts - involuntary commitment to drug treatment / rehab centers
3. For the criminals - involuntary commitment to prison

[Anonymous]

Come on, the area has clearly just been upzoned, what’s so bad about that?

Have you tried building a bike lane for them?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would reach out to adult protective services or county DHHS.
-Someone who used to work in county homeless services

+1 This is what I was going to say

That being said, unfortunately, you may want to consider moving. DTSS has been having issues for a while now. With the affordable housing crisis things are just going to get worse. Putting people in jail won't solve it, there will always be more people getting evicted including an increasing number of elderly people.

[Anonymous]

I know the encampment you are talking about and I've seen kids' clothing and shoes, which led me to wonder if there's a child living there.

Speaking of kids, you are describing a major walking route for a lot of neighborhood children, which is another reason to call the police.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would reach out to adult protective services or county DHHS.
-Someone who used to work in county homeless services

+1 This is what I was going to say

That being said, unfortunately, you may want to consider moving. DTSS has been having issues for a while now. With the affordable housing crisis things are just going to get worse. Putting people in jail won't solve it, there will always be more people getting evicted including an increasing number of elderly people.

Every area has homeless people, so DTSS is not unique in that respect. The only "issue" that seems to be present here is that OP and her neighbors don't know how to call the police. This is a old rental building, which probably contributes to the fact that no one is motivated enough to call the police.