Reply to Is there a solution for ending crime, homelessness & mental health crisis in DC?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I’ve lived in cities for about 30 years.  The proportionate of visible street homeless (differentiating them from other homeless, who usually are less visible and crash with friends, live in cars, etc.) that are very mentally ill seems to have increased dramatically.  Is it fentanyl and other synthetic drugs?  The other day a man was screaming obscenities st me and an elderly woman because he was trying t give us some rocks and dried up tissues—I couldn’t even understand what he was saying about them but he clearly thought they were something else.   Last month, I was walking and turned me head to look at a store window and a man started screaming at me about looking away from him and something about my ass.  Last year, a woman out of nowhere ran up and tried to punch me—-but was so out of it that her swing missed me by about a foot and she fell over.  
This seems to me way worse than the crack epidemic of the 90s.  These people have brains that are just fried.  I don’t know that there’s a solution for that.  I now avoid the homeless encampment near my office, whereas before I just walked through it with no real worries.[/quote]

Sorry this happened to you.

There are some solutions to the homelessness issue - we can end chronic homelessness, but it will take time and money.  First, we need to streamline our homeless counts and obtain data - not just names and location, but how long someone has been homeless, what caused them to fall into homelessness, etc.  We need to track these folks and provide real support alongside our rapid rehousing program.  We need to build longer term transitional housing that last more than 30 to 90 days.  We need to build more housing for those who need more closely managed care.

For reducing crime, I like Robert White's, Zachary Parker's, and Beau Finley's ideas.

For fentanyl use, other than creating safe havens for use to get people not doing it in public, I have no idea.

You know what, I would rather spend that time and money on educating children, providing health care to the indigent elderly, providing better housing to poor people who will actually work, creating after school programs for children, adding more resources to libraries and rec centers.

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