Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is exactly the problem. The people that run homeless shelters should help you not cops.

Yes,yes, YES!!!
If the non emergency line could instead send a social worker to bring him somewhere safe, he wouldn't relocate to another vestibule, or street resulting in him getting injured or sick.

You weren't wrong OP. I get your choice. But the system needs a better solution.

All of these people have been approached by a social worker at some time or have been referred to somewhere safe to sleep, even by the police. They are sleeping on the street because they don't prefer shelters for a variety of reasons.

The solution would be institutions for in-patient mental health/substance abuse treatment, but it would take a lot more than just a visit from a social worker to get them there.

- MSW

sad that an MSW apparently has no knowledge of the Housing First model?

The housing first model has limitations...as evidenced by this scenario.

DC embraced housing first, yet we still have people on the street. LA, Seattle, SF, NYC all embraced housing first before dc...it’s not a silver bullet.

People have rights; nobody can be forced inside.

The best approach is holistic prevention. Hindsight being 20/20, housing first should not have focused exclusively on backend housing without investing in upstream prevention. It’s really hard to persuade some people to come inside and take advantage of help after years on the street.

Given the resistance to help, specialty courts run hand in hand with community based providers are effective. Of course, you need to invest in housing, treatment and services. But the court plays a pivotal role in engagement, compliance and success.

Anonymous wrote:Just sleeping? I’d let him sleep there tonight, then put a bunch of stuff in the vestibule so he can’t stay tomorrow night. Hand him $20 and say “sorry man, you can’t sleep here.”

I was thinking I would put together a bag of food to hand him while the police were there...

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I ended up calling the non emergency line and stressed that he was not harming anyone. The police came out, woke him up, nicely explained that he couldn’t sleep in front of someone’s door, and then left after he walked away.

So where do you stand on defunding the police OP?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is exactly the problem. The people that run homeless shelters should help you not cops.

Yes,yes, YES!!!
If the non emergency line could instead send a social worker to bring him somewhere safe, he wouldn't relocate to another vestibule, or street resulting in him getting injured or sick.

You weren't wrong OP. I get your choice. But the system needs a better solution.

All of these people have been approached by a social worker at some time or have been referred to somewhere safe to sleep, even by the police. They are sleeping on the street because they don't prefer shelters for a variety of reasons.

The solution would be institutions for in-patient mental health/substance abuse treatment, but it would take a lot more than just a visit from a social worker to get them there.

- MSW

sad that an MSW apparently has no knowledge of the Housing First model?

Just sleeping? I’d let him sleep there tonight, then put a bunch of stuff in the vestibule so he can’t stay tomorrow night. Hand him $20 and say “sorry man, you can’t sleep here.”

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I ended up calling the non emergency line and stressed that he was not harming anyone. The police came out, woke him up, nicely explained that he couldn’t sleep in front of someone’s door, and then left after he walked away.

Why didn’t you let the poor guy sleep. He wasn’t harming anyone. If he keeps coming back, yeah I can understand but one cold night?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is exactly the problem. The people that run homeless shelters should help you not cops.

Yes,yes, YES!!!
If the non emergency line could instead send a social worker to bring him somewhere safe, he wouldn't relocate to another vestibule, or street resulting in him getting injured or sick.

You weren't wrong OP. I get your choice. But the system needs a better solution.

All of these people have been approached by a social worker at some time or have been referred to somewhere safe to sleep, even by the police. They are sleeping on the street because they don't prefer shelters for a variety of reasons.

The solution would be institutions for in-patient mental health/substance abuse treatment, but it would take a lot more than just a visit from a social worker to get them there.

- MSW

There is a podcast called fixable and they explain places that don’t have homeless and how they deal with it. Yes the SW find their family or a program or drive them home because often it’s a vet with disability income and a place to stay.

Cops can track every homeless person and solve their problem but if we cared it is fixable.

Sad. I understand your discomfort with this OP. You did the right thing.

PP is right that this is a good example of why only having armed and dangerous police officers able to cope with non-violent situations is a sad circumstance.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is exactly the problem. The people that run homeless shelters should help you not cops.

Yes,yes, YES!!!
If the non emergency line could instead send a social worker to bring him somewhere safe, he wouldn't relocate to another vestibule, or street resulting in him getting injured or sick.

You weren't wrong OP. I get your choice. But the system needs a better solution.

All of these people have been approached by a social worker at some time or have been referred to somewhere safe to sleep, even by the police. They are sleeping on the street because they don't prefer shelters for a variety of reasons.

The solution would be institutions for in-patient mental health/substance abuse treatment, but it would take a lot more than just a visit from a social worker to get them there.

- MSW

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is exactly the problem. The people that run homeless shelters should help you not cops.

OP again - we tried calling the homeless shelter first and they told us to call the cops.

Yes. Because the system is messed up and needs to be fixed.

Ask him what he'd like to eat for breakfast and how he takes his coffee?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is exactly the problem. The people that run homeless shelters should help you not cops.

OP again - we tried calling the homeless shelter first and they told us to call the cops.

Homeless shelters don’t coordinate homeless outreach. There’s an 800 number in DC, but it’s typically only activated when the temperature drops.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is exactly the problem. The people that run homeless shelters should help you not cops.

Yes,yes, YES!!!
If the non emergency line could instead send a social worker to bring him somewhere safe, he wouldn't relocate to another vestibule, or street resulting in him getting injured or sick.

You weren't wrong OP. I get your choice. But the system needs a better solution.

Many communities have a homeless outreach team—including DC.

But they aren’t magicians. They can’t always coax them to go to a shelter...especially during a pandemic. And they certainly cannot force them. It’s complicated.

Anonymous wrote:This is exactly the problem. The people that run homeless shelters should help you not cops.

OP again - we tried calling the homeless shelter first and they told us to call the cops.

Anonymous wrote:This is exactly the problem. The people that run homeless shelters should help you not cops.

Yes,yes, YES!!!
If the non emergency line could instead send a social worker to bring him somewhere safe, he wouldn't relocate to another vestibule, or street resulting in him getting injured or sick.

You weren't wrong OP. I get your choice. But the system needs a better solution.