Reply to The Right to Camp in Bus Shelters

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]NP and a few thoughts on this:

The homeless situation burdens people differently. If you are a young male, it probably matters less to you and you have the privilege of being all magnanimous. But for smaller women or children, it truly inhibits their sense of safety moving about the city.

I think people who argue that all the homeless are just harmless people loitering around are all full of baloney. Many of these people are mentally ill and/or high on drugs that are increasingly tainted with dangerous substances. It is objectively more dangerous for someone to have to walk by a lot of homeless people today. [/quote]

This.  They are not a group of harmless nice people simply loitering.  Some indeed are, but most of them have severe mental health issues plus/minus substance abuse.  It is impossible to predict their actions. Several have prior criminal records. The poor women stabbed to death on public transport in Chicago and Charlotte could not have done anything to defend themselves.  I’ve helped and worked closely with many different kinds of people in this category.  Unless their situation is clearly sudden/temporary/abuse related, there are always mental health aspects. You are well advised to keep your wits about you, and have excellent situational awareness, never turn your back.  This is hard for women especially with young children.  So imo instead of paying for various houses, or “meeting them where they are” with “encampments all over, we need more psychiatric beds, more therapists, and more involuntary, or at least longer term, commitment. Case by case basis of course.  [/quote]

+1 You are most definitely correct. [/quote]

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