Anonymous
10/01/2023 15:06
Subject: Encampment has started in our downtown SS neighborhood
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:This case is a perfect example of how well-meaning people think they are being "compassionate" and "helpful" but end up enabling and encouraging situations that are bad for all involved.
It would arguably have been better for police to be called at the first emergence of the illegal [?] encampment and for the initial couple to have been referred to social services.
You’re right. I thought we were helping. I didn’t consider it could turn out this way.
It always does.
Teach a man to fish, he’ll never go hungry.
Keep giving a man your fish, he’ll never learn anything.
Anonymous
10/01/2023 15:05
Subject: Encampment has started in our downtown SS neighborhood
Anonymous wrote:I’m sure OP fashioned herself a liberal until those diarrhea soaked shorts ended up under her Subaru. Hilarious!
Feel better about yourself?
Anonymous
10/01/2023 15:04
Subject: Encampment has started in our downtown SS neighborhood
Anonymous wrote:I feel awful complaining, but now this is a health and safety issue for my family.
In July, an elderly couple was evicted from 555 Thayer Ave apartment building. Actually two different apartments were evicted at that time, but only this couple and pretty much all of their belongings stayed. They acquired a tent and set up an encampment in the small wooded area between the apartment building and the condominium. Because they are elderly and the weather was so severe, my family and other neighbors have been looking out for them and suggested shelters, but they do not want to leave their belonging. We just give them food and water, sometimes toiletries. I think that was a mistake.
In mid August, an unhoused older man and older woman began joining them for hours each day, sometimes overnight. Now all four are drinking beer on either side of the sidewalk and they are very loud, sometimes cursing or arguing late into the night. Dog walkers are crossing the street. Parents with young children can’t walk on that side anymore. Pretty much everyone has reduced the handouts we were in the habit of giving the couple after the male “guest” demanded some as well. The hope was the coming cold weather would stop this.
School started last week and both of my teens walk past this encampment in the early hours of the morning. On Friday, they saw that “guests” were passed out next to the tent and the man’s khaki shorts were stained with diarrhea. I found these same shorts thrown under one of our vehicles when I left home yesterday. Besides the grossness, I have a compromised immune system.
Yesterday, another tenant in the building who is on disability for mental illness, panhandles in the Safeway, and often gets into arguments with neighbors hung out at the encampment to drink beer and smoke. Then, he let the male “guest” into the building. My daughter encountered the guest in the laundry room pulling up his pants. She ran to tell DH. By the time DH got down there, the guy was gone.
Our building has a new manager who is from VA. She isn’t taking any action on this issue.
What can we do? Should we call the non-emergency number?
Is this a joke? Are you all renters and don’t care?
They need to bag up their stuff and move to a shelter or program.
Do they speak and read English?
Anonymous
10/01/2023 15:03
Subject: Encampment has started in our downtown SS neighborhood
Anonymous wrote:Well you vote for it so...[/quote
Not helpful
Anonymous
10/01/2023 15:01
Subject: Encampment has started in our downtown SS neighborhood
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I'm not sure what you're concerned about. You should be taking these people into your home. And I think you know that. That is the only equitable solution here. They don't have a home.
Agreed. If you’re concerned about their hygiene, have you opened your shower to them?
Np are you kidding me? No way would I let mentally ill come shower in my home.
Op thank you for updating. I live near there and am concerned. We valled the non emergency police. Moco has agencies that cam help. It is not our job
Anonymous
10/01/2023 14:31
Subject: Re:Encampment has started in our downtown SS neighborhood
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 …
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
All of these things are very expensive, wish people saw the price we are paying with the status quo. What was the plan when Lorton was closed? When St. E's was almost completely closed and campus redeveloped?
And the concept of "involuntary" is legally very difficult. One of the consequences of decriminalizing misdemeanors is that it has removed the carrot/stick that courts used to use to offer shorter rehab/MH treatment or a longer jail sentence. That helped stabilize many and saved lives.
(shrug) You want a solution, we will need to change the law and raise taxes. But such changes would have quite a bit of bipartisan support.
Anonymous
10/01/2023 13:42
Subject: Encampment has started in our downtown SS neighborhood
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:How were their belongings able to stay in the apartment when the couple was evicted?
Have you never seen an eviction?
I haven’t. I assumed the landlord disposed of the belongings so they could rent the apartment to someone else. It seems odd that their belongings are allowed to stay in the apartment.
Their belongings were placed on the sidewalk and in the wooded area. It looks like a hoarding situation got them evicted. They do not want to leave their things although everything has been rained on several times since July.
Your best bet at the beginning probably was to pay for a storage unit for their junk (far from where you live). Probably too late for that now.
Anonymous
10/01/2023 13:26
Subject: Encampment has started in our downtown SS neighborhood
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:So what happened with this?
Not OP but I walked by today and the tent is still there.
MoCo government is generally good, but for tricky situations, it can take complaints from multiple neighbors and each of those neighbors needs to be persistent. OP said one neighbor did a single email. So it sounds like OP and her neighbors are just too indifferent to get meaningful action on this. In other parts of SS, this would have sparked much more concerted action by neighbors.
Anonymous
10/01/2023 08:02
Subject: Encampment has started in our downtown SS neighborhood
Ugh, sorry op. I would move. Ive seen similar things olay out in my dc downtown neighborhood. An encampment sprung up next to a school, and at first my lovely neighbors were practically welcoming them with casseroles. Then it was discovered one of the tent residents had an unlicensed gun. Eventually the school community came to their senses and demanded dcps do something. They expanded the fenced in area around tge school to encompass the area where the tents were.
Anonymous
09/30/2023 21:09
Subject: Encampment has started in our downtown SS neighborhood
Anonymous wrote:So what happened with this?
Not OP but I walked by today and the tent is still there.
Anonymous
09/30/2023 16:46
Subject: Encampment has started in our downtown SS neighborhood
So what happened with this?
Anonymous
09/19/2023 19:38
Subject: Re:Encampment has started in our downtown SS neighborhood
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 …
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
All of these things are very expensive, wish people saw the price we are paying with the status quo. What was the plan when Lorton was closed? When St. E's was almost completely closed and campus redeveloped?
And the concept of "involuntary" is legally very difficult. One of the consequences of decriminalizing misdemeanors is that it has removed the carrot/stick that courts used to use to offer shorter rehab/MH treatment or a longer jail sentence. That helped stabilize many and saved lives.
Anonymous
09/17/2023 22:57
Subject: Encampment has started in our downtown SS neighborhood
Why was this couple evicted? Was it for not paying rent, or rule violation?
Anonymous
09/17/2023 01:51
Subject: Encampment has started in our downtown SS neighborhood
It might be worth calling Bethesda Cares (301 907 9244) as well as the county's crisis center (240-777-4000). You're right, these people need help, more than you can give informally. Another possibility is getting in touch with churches or synagogues for suggestions -- I've known that to work once or twice.
Anonymous
09/11/2023 22:19
Subject: Encampment has started in our downtown SS neighborhood
Anonymous wrote: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.
You are richer then the homeless people.
And therefore should deal with their degeneracy on daily basis?
Well, it doesn’t seem like you have enough money to buy yourself an exit from it. But in that you are really no different than most of us.