Reply to New Ward 3 Homeless Families Shelter Site

Forum Index » Metropolitan DC Local Politics

Reply to "New Ward 3 Homeless Families Shelter Site"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]There are panhandlers and homeless people near every metro station in DC. Literally. A family shelter is not going to change the panhandling situation. We live in a city, everyone. If you're bothered by urban living, it's perfectly acceptable to move to the suburbs. [/quote]

Cities have changed a lot. We don't all expect the crime rates of NYC in the 70s for example. You may have one vision of city living that includes panhandlers. It's OK for people to want to redefine city living away from that. Panhandling and chronic homeless are not just a given. [b]These people need medical attention by and large, not a dime or a stale sandwich[/b]. [/quote]

NP. You’re almost sounding paternalistic to me. These are grown humans with their own agency. You can’t just forcibly cart them away for treatment. If you ask them, many will tell you that they don’t want to leave. [/quote]
Yes, that's exactly what they said in the 70s when they opened the hospitals and set everyone "free". It feels good to not be paternalistic, but there are many desperately ill people on the street who may need caring for whether they tell you they want it or not. I have twice in DC called the non emergency lines for homeless lying in the street or the bush looking like they were dead that people passed by. In the summer they wear so many layers of clothing because their bodies have literally stopped regulating heat. I'll take a little paternalism if I end up like that, thank you. Do you think these are happy British travelers? [/quote]

OMG again you are referring to the long term homeless, most of whom are mentally ill and many of whom have substance abuse issues.

Again to reiterate that is just a small portion of the homeless population in DC (and other cities as well) - most homeless folks work and their children go to school and the point of the transitional family shelter going into CP is to keep those folks from losing their jobs and their stability and becoming part of the population who are so terrified about crossing paths with.

There is going to be no siege on the haughty residents of Cleveland Park and McLean Gardens by drunk homeless men as a result of this shelter going in as this shelter isn't going to be serving that population.  Part of me sort of wishes the shelter were serving that population so some of this hysteria would actually be justified but that is just not the case.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics