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.

So you want homelessness to be a crime? Awesome.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So how would they find job/rehabilitation while they’re out there in the middle of nowhere?

Employees would live on-site & security would be strong. On-site medical & addiction services. Busing back and forth to DC for additional resources.

In your model they would live there indefinitely. Like a prison sentence.

Don’t care as long as they’re not on the streets scaring prospective net-taxpayers away.

The inalienable rights of life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness, but only for people who (believe they) pay more in taxes than they receive in services.

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.

Most are homeless due to mental illness and/or drug addiction. These are not the people I want fixing anything in/around my home.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So how would they find job/rehabilitation while they’re out there in the middle of nowhere?

Employees would live on-site & security would be strong. On-site medical & addiction services. Busing back and forth to DC for additional resources.

In your model they would live there indefinitely. Like a prison sentence.

Don’t care as long as they’re not on the streets scaring prospective net-taxpayers away.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. It would be much more efficient to provide services to the homeless if they’re housed in one place.

They’re all in one place now.

No they’re scattered around the city.

What's the deal with the person living in a tent right by Cathedral Commons. Like on the tiny grassy strip on the sidewalk of Wisconsin? Visually, it's the oddest thing.

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Not the massive ones that existed in the 60s to the 90s—those have almost all been knocked down. The area by Nats park was just block after block of projects. Even the infamous Cabrini greens in Chicago was mostly knocked down:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabrini–Green_Homes
I’m sure that at least some of the people living on the streets currently would have been willing/able to be housed in those projects—they are not as successful in things like section 8 housing or mixed-income developments.

Anonymous wrote:OP here. It would be much more efficient to provide services to the homeless if they’re housed in one place.

They’re all in one place now.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So how would they find job/rehabilitation while they’re out there in the middle of nowhere?

Employees would live on-site & security would be strong. On-site medical & addiction services. Busing back and forth to DC for additional resources.

In your model they would live there indefinitely. Like a prison sentence.

Even better let's just bus them all to San Francisco.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So how would they find job/rehabilitation while they’re out there in the middle of nowhere?

Honest question, how many are finding jobs in city? What are the percentages?

ASPAN in Arlington helps people in need get training, jobs, a first apartment, etc. Its a fantastic organization. Shipping homeless people to a desolate area seems to be just moving the issue from one area to another, not really solving the underlying issue.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because people think they're entitled to live where ever they want. I agree, build huge homeless shelters in Kansas, etc where land is extremely cheap. If people truly cared about housing needs, they would. But they don't, because they have rights to have easy access to drugs etc. in urban centers where land is much more expensive to house them.

I don’t even know where to start with this one

Right! That stupid is strong with that post.

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Yep. We have a family member that rotates through all of us, shelters, and living outdoors. They are significantly mentally unwell but keep it together just enough when placed on 24hr holds for us to get no help at all for him. He refuses medication and wreaks havoc on our lives. I wish we could get him into hospital. Even the few times he’s been arrested haven’t been enough to get assistance. He’ll never be ok/functional.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So how would they find job/rehabilitation while they’re out there in the middle of nowhere?

Honest question, how many are finding jobs in city? What are the percentages?

I bet those jobs are at chain stores i.e. jobs that exist everywhere.

Anonymous wrote:So how would they find job/rehabilitation while they’re out there in the middle of nowhere?

Honest question, how many are finding jobs in city? What are the percentages?