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?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If a child is threatened, police is appropriate.

Where was a child threatened in this thread? Catching a guy pulling up his pants in the laundry room? Unsavory, but not a threat. People can take their building concerns to Housing and Community Affairs to get the landlord to comply with security measures. https://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/resident/housing.html

Copy your councilmembers and Executive:
Councilmember Kate Stewart District 4: Councilmember.Stewart@montgomerycountymd.gov
Council President Evan Glass: Councilmember.Glass@montgomerycountymd.gov
Councilmember Gabe Albornoz (HHS Committee): Councilmember.Albornoz@montgomerycountymd.gov
County Executive Marc Elrich: marc.elrich@montgomerycountymd.gov

Anonymous wrote:If a child is threatened, police is appropriate.

Anonymous wrote:Do not call police. Political leadership in this county have made it very clear, for years now, they do not want police criminalizing homelessness. Call DHHS for homelessness services.

https://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/Homelessness/contact-us.html#:~:text=If%20you%20are%20a%20community,contact%20Outreach%40montgomerycountymd.gov.

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.

I'm sorry you're going through this. We live near dtss.

I'm even sorrier the usual meanspirited trolls here are mocking you and blaming you. You have right to be frustrated. I don't have any easy answers for you, only the experience of having a mentally ill elderly relative who went off their meds and ended up in a situation like this. There was nothing we could do, and nothing the city they lived in did do, until one day they ended up hospitalized for a psych evaluation and then mysteriously took a Greyhound bus to another state.

Thankfully, the small town where they ended up offered better social services and they're much better now. But it's agonizing that we don't have better supports in place for this.

Anonymous wrote:
You call police, of course. So that these people can get access to more services.