Reply to The Right to Camp in Bus Shelters

Forum Index » Metropolitan DC Local Politics

Reply to "The Right to Camp in Bus Shelters"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous] :-o [quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Police dispatcher here: 
Couple different perspectives. We get calls about this all the time, probably daily/several times a week. Legally we can’t cite someone for trespassing or laying in a bus shelter because there is no “ victim” per se and they’re not breaking the law either. Also, the bus shelter falls under metro bus or ride on, not the local police. 
Also, everyone films the  police now, so if they go out and ask someone to move along, next thing the police are being accused of “ harassing the homeless” and it’s all over everywhere how awful the police are for harassing people. 
We do go out and check on the person, they say they’re ok, they refuse services and we carry on our way. 
[/quote]

Interesting. This "no victim" interpretation implies that I can build a house on public land and live there. [/quote]

Interesting that you equate sitting on a public bus bench with building a house on public land. Are you really this stupid or is it a temporary lapse?[/quote]

DP. Are you that stupid to not understand that these homeless people are "building their home" in the bus shelter, taking it over. [/quote]

You say that I like I don’t take the bus almost daily. You’re full of shit.

I just passed a shelter on the way to the metro. It’s on Mass Ave in case you are wondering. Men line up at 4:30 to be able to get in for the night. Many of them don’t get in because when the shelter fills up that’s it. Can’t get in. I hope they are able to go to a public space tonight and not freeze to death. [/quote]

DC spent $500 million on homeless outreach. That's meant to cover services for approximately 5,000 homeless. That's $100,000/person. Where is all the money going? [/quote]

I'm not going to say that DC is doing a good job or spending money well. But yes, $100K/year is probably a conservative estimate of what it takes to try to take one chronically homeless person living on the streets and successfully transition them into some sort of stable living arrangement. That number would include detox, rehab, and/or intensive mental health treatment; basic health and hygiene needs; location of and outreach to any next of kin for legal assistance; search for and placement in housing; and daily welfare/med checks + follow-up support. Clearly we as a society are not willing to pay for this, which leaves us the alternatives of people living on the street, or people rounded up and jailed. Internationally, the housing-first model works best, but domestically, I have never seen a program with sufficient resources to make it successful and not end up putting program participants at further risk.

To the people comparing DC parks and streets to any other country - it's our health care system, stupid. In pretty much any other Westernized nation, there is national health care access and a high standard of care that would prevent the severely mentally ill from ending up on the streets. The homeless you *don't* see (which is where I think the term 'unhoused' is more accurate) because they're in shelters or subsidized housing or couch-surfing would be better served by stronger social safety nets, which again exist pretty much everywhere except the US.

It's so reductionist to say, "oh, you just want to throw more money at the problem?!" because obviously in our current American society, almost no amount of money in an individual city will move the needle. But yes, overall, our pathetic spending on domestic, social welfare programs (compared to defense, international interference, and billionaire tax relief) is why we can't effectively address this issue.[/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