7mo ago

The park in my parent's neighborhood got rid of all the benches

172 comments

Ok but why do people here WANT park benches to become homeless encampments? I don't get that, that's not what they're for
- Maybe the solution has nothing to do with park benches. Maybe if people had homes, they wouldn't have to sleep in the park.
  
  So why all this bitching about benches then???
- Sounds like we need more benches then
  
  You can let a homeless person sleep on your couch if you actually care. Wanna do it and prove you're not full of it?
  
  I've done you one better;
  my community and I have gotten together and funded local orgs that house and give homeless people basic amenities. Even safe places and tools to use drugs without harming others or spreading disease. We even gave them exemption from police searches while using these services so the government thugs can't harass or batter them just for being homeless or addicted to drugs.
  I have also personally let a homeless person use my shower and sleep on my couch, but I have no way of proving that to you.
  They're humans, they have basic human needs.
- There's a big difference between wanting benches more than not wanting homeless encampments and actively wanting benches to become homeless encampments.
  Having public facilities that are actually useful is worth the "risk" of someone sleeping there because they have no where else to sleep. Fix homelessness by addressing the causes. Comfortable benches don't cause homelessness.
  
  I come from a country where all the public parks have been turned into permanent shanty towns. I have no idea why anyone would want that
- There are more empty homes than homeless people. There is no housing shortage, it's a myth. Put benches, public transport, walkable infrastructure, bike infrastructure, etc everywhere. And then when those dastardly evil homeless people show up and dare to use your person-centric infrastructure to exist, that's when you ambush them with a house. What better way to punish them than to strip them of their homeless identity? We'll brutally steal their homelessness from them, feed them, clothe them, and then they won't feel any need to sleep on our nice benches ever again.
  Does this framing help you understand or does it have to actually involve violence against the downtrodden for you to be on board?
  
  You're free to open your yard to homeless who want a safe place to sleep, heck you can open your couch for say least one right? Go find a homeless person and give them a place to sleep in your home... But I know you won't

172 comments