Anonymous
Post 04/10/2023 18:47     Subject: Why don’t advocates for the homeless build spacious housing for them 1-2 hours away from DC?
OP who do you suggest would pay for and get the permits for your idea?
Anonymous
Post 04/10/2023 18:43     Subject: Why don’t advocates for the homeless build spacious housing for them 1-2 hours away from DC?
Anonymous wrote:From someone who volunteers with DC's downtown homeless-- probably over 65% of the people we serve are struggling with some form of mental illness. Homelessness at its core is the result of Reagan's deinstitutionalization policies of the early 1980s. Cities have been paying the price ever since.


Has to be well over 65% mental illness and / or addiction.
Anonymous
Post 04/10/2023 18:43     Subject: Why don’t advocates for the homeless build spacious housing for them 1-2 hours away from DC?
Anonymous wrote:That would require MD or VA to pay for DC’s homeless so that won’t happen as the states have plenty of their own too. Also how are you going to force them to go there? Many are from the city and it’s home to them. Where will they get their hooch and drugs? I don’t think it’s as simple as shoving them away. There is a huge system that needs fixing so we don’t have so many homeless people.


Why would you think that hooch and drugs are only available in cities?
Anonymous
Post 04/10/2023 18:40     Subject: Why don’t advocates for the homeless build spacious housing for them 1-2 hours away from DC?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Like reservations?


+1. Ouch.


No like West Virginia
Anonymous
Post 04/10/2023 18:38     Subject: Why don’t advocates for the homeless build spacious housing for them 1-2 hours away from DC?
Anonymous wrote:That would require MD or VA to pay for DC’s homeless so that won’t happen as the states have plenty of their own too. Also how are you going to force them to go there? Many are from the city and it’s home to them. Where will they get their hooch and drugs? I don’t think it’s as simple as shoving them away. There is a huge system that needs fixing so we don’t have so many homeless people.


Hagerstown
Anonymous
Post 04/10/2023 18:37     Subject: Why don’t advocates for the homeless build spacious housing for them 1-2 hours away from DC?
Anonymous wrote:Do people on this thread remember the old housing projects? No one liked those and research showed concentrated poverty was bad so they were all knocked down in the 90s under the HOPE vi program.
The other problem is that most of the people camping are not capable of being rehabilitated or trained. Many of them don’t just need housing and jobs—-their needs are often far more significant.

Housing projects still exist. Maybe not here but they do exist elsewhere.
Anonymous
Post 04/10/2023 18:35     Subject: Why don’t advocates for the homeless build spacious housing for them 1-2 hours away from DC?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:That would require MD or VA to pay for DC’s homeless so that won’t happen as the states have plenty of their own too. Also how are you going to force them to go there? Many are from the city and it’s home to them. Where will they get their hooch and drugs? I don’t think it’s as simple as shoving them away. There is a huge system that needs fixing so we don’t have so many homeless people.


It could be done on a surplus federal military installation. Give the homeless a choice. Be arrested for camping on federal parkland in DC OR move to a federal installation where there will be provided with construction job skills and counseling. It should be piloted.


Ok. So more like an internment or work camp.


No. A jail diversion program where they could learn a life skill and/or get treatment.

Or, we could continue to fill the apartment buildings along Connecticut Avenue with them at $3000/month indefinitely.


Seems to be going well.

https://www.popville.com/2023/04/278585/
Anonymous
Post 04/10/2023 18:29     Subject: Why don’t advocates for the homeless build spacious housing for them 1-2 hours away from DC?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:From someone who volunteers with DC's downtown homeless-- probably over 65% of the people we serve are struggling with some form of mental illness. Homelessness at its core is the result of Reagan's deinstitutionalization policies of the early 1980s. Cities have been paying the price ever since.


So a policy from 40+ years ago is to blame for the current homeless situation? What about for a 30 year old homeless person who wasn't even born then?


You’re not very bright. A 30 y/o homeless person today can’t be institutionalized as a result of Reagan.
Anonymous
Post 04/10/2023 18:27     Subject: Why don’t advocates for the homeless build spacious housing for them 1-2 hours away from DC?
Anonymous wrote:From someone who volunteers with DC's downtown homeless-- probably over 65% of the people we serve are struggling with some form of mental illness. Homelessness at its core is the result of Reagan's deinstitutionalization policies of the early 1980s. Cities have been paying the price ever since.


So a policy from 40+ years ago is to blame for the current homeless situation? What about for a 30 year old homeless person who wasn't even born then?
Anonymous
Post 04/10/2023 18:25     Subject: Why don’t advocates for the homeless build spacious housing for them 1-2 hours away from DC?
Do people on this thread remember the old housing projects? No one liked those and research showed concentrated poverty was bad so they were all knocked down in the 90s under the HOPE vi program.
The other problem is that most of the people camping are not capable of being rehabilitated or trained. Many of them don’t just need housing and jobs—-their needs are often far more significant.
Anonymous
Post 04/10/2023 18:25     Subject: Why don’t advocates for the homeless build spacious housing for them 1-2 hours away from DC?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Honestly, I would like to see this tried. There are so many dying towns in Maryland, Virginia, Ohio. What if federal government comes to agreement with the states to turn them into homeless towns?


Yeah I’m sure residents of those places would love that. Like prisons, except the inmates are allowed to escape.


It could be a win-win. Local tradesmen could become instructors. Medical personnel would move into the area with federal loan forgiveness. It needs to be tried at least on a pilot basis. Nothing else has worked.


We've tried nothing, and we're all out of ideas (except locking 'em up)!
Anonymous
Post 04/10/2023 18:20     Subject: Why don’t advocates for the homeless build spacious housing for them 1-2 hours away from DC?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Honestly, I would like to see this tried. There are so many dying towns in Maryland, Virginia, Ohio. What if federal government comes to agreement with the states to turn them into homeless towns?


Yeah I’m sure residents of those places would love that. Like prisons, except the inmates are allowed to escape.


It could be a win-win. Local tradesmen could become instructors. Medical personnel would move into the area with federal loan forgiveness. It needs to be tried at least on a pilot basis. Nothing else has worked.
Anonymous
Post 04/10/2023 18:16     Subject: Why don’t advocates for the homeless build spacious housing for them 1-2 hours away from DC?
Anonymous wrote:Honestly, I would like to see this tried. There are so many dying towns in Maryland, Virginia, Ohio. What if federal government comes to agreement with the states to turn them into homeless towns?


Yeah I’m sure residents of those places would love that. Like prisons, except the inmates are allowed to escape.
Anonymous
Post 04/10/2023 18:15     Subject: Why don’t advocates for the homeless build spacious housing for them 1-2 hours away from DC?
Honestly, I would like to see this tried. There are so many dying towns in Maryland, Virginia, Ohio. What if federal government comes to agreement with the states to turn them into homeless towns?
Anonymous
Post 04/10/2023 17:52     Subject: Why don’t advocates for the homeless build spacious housing for them 1-2 hours away from DC?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:There is plenty of cheap land to be had near the MD/PA border, in southern MD and near Prince William County. Build clean, safe, spacious housing for the homeless there & have them live there only. Bus them to & from DC.


Annnnnd what if they don't want to go?


Their options should be: go, be put in prison or find market-rate housing yourself.


Why exactly would prison be an option for people who haven't been convicted of crimes?


Pitching a tent on the sidewalk, smoking, littering, causing fires due to portable heaters all should be crimes


But they aren't, and at any rate, most homeless people do not cause fires due to portable heaters. And most people who smoke are not homeless. On the other hand, about 12 percent of American adults smoke cigarettes, so I guess once you lock up all those people, there will be significantly more housing available without needing to bus people to the exurbs as you're proposing?