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I've only ever reported homeless when they crossed the line.
I used to live near a creek in a city so homeless often line the banks and set up shelters in the trees against the back walls of the propertys along the creek. We had a gate so we had access to the creek if we wanted it (previous owner installed it). We had working relationships with the few guys that had built up against our wall. We left a hose running over the wall so they could have access to clean water. We asked them to be careful about leaving it running and we had a meter on the hose we could keep track of them using water. For years they were great. They would say hello if they saw in our backyard and they often thanked us for the water. If we ever had a party or anything we would make them plates or food.
Anyways for years all was well. Guys came and went. Some got jobs. Some just moved camps. But then someone started taking advantage of our kindness and they were using a lot of water (we suspect selling it to other homeless). Then they started hopping our back fence at night and trying to break into our shed. So finally we had to call the cops and get them moved.
My building is near a shelter and we get a lot of break ins, drugs found in stairwells, refuse and worse. People like OP are fine with homeless people causing damaged to others, he’s also free to allow homeless people to live in his home or yard, but he won’t
Per usual it's the "bed eggs" that fuck it up for the rest of us. One bad egg spoils the whole bunch n all that.
You've nailed the problem.
There are 100s of acres around here to camp in. I walk around looking like a well-geared homeless person. Had a hunter start to fuck with me the other day, "You lost?" "Nope. I own a home up there, never been on this side of the trails. You lost?"
People fuck with the homeless just for being homeless, and that's fucking revolting. OTOH, I've been around them working downtown. I've known guys to bail on a perfectly good home because they couldn't handle being around other people, too mentally ill, but very nice men.
Had the homeless threaten to kick my ass 3 times in a single year for saying, "Sorry, don't carry cash." (And I don't.) Hell no I'm not taking my wife downtown without a concealed firearm. Do I want those people in my hood? Not in numbers, and only the few who "check out OK". Made me sick to type that last phrase.
"Give them money and a place to stay!" I'm all about it, experiments show that works. But what about the recalcitrant homeless? The ones for whom a "leg up" won't get it? The violent, mentally ill and addicted? Want those people near your home? Get some upvotes for calling me a NIMBY motherfucker. I stand by it.
Goddamned frustrating. I appreciate you having a sane take on the matter, not fucking with people "just because".
I’ve brought up the issue in my city are the same mentally ill violent homeless that residents are used to seeing, not the people in tents trying to survive. We have to accept that even with all the assistance in the world, some people don’t want it, and they need to be forced into it.
When I bring up these people, the young Lemmy users usually ignore it altogether or flat out insist that there’s no such thing as a person who wants to be homeless or refuses help.
“Give them money and a place to stay!” I’m all about it, experiments show that works. But what about the recalcitrant homeless? The ones for whom a “leg up” won’t get it? The violent, mentally ill and addicted? Want those people near your home? Get some upvotes for calling me a NIMBY motherfucker. I stand by it.
Many who are poor don't want to interact with "the system" because they have been subject to violence and hypocrisy by those in the government.
If you have been beaten by police and a social worker, paid by the same government who paid the police who beat you, comes and says they want to help you for your own good, you are likely to know it means medication and pressure to not drink or use drugs (also backed up by police power once you are in the system that way). People, including poor people, are often very rational when it comes to happiness. A 50 year old man with no work history for 15 years, depression, and no money is not likely to start a normal family, get a normal job, and have normal happiness and may be much more likely to obtain the maximum happiness or reduction in suffering by being intoxicated. Additionally, psychiatric drugs often make the homeless more palatable to others, while increasing bizarre side effects like sexual side effects and twitching, without that much of an increase in happiness, and simultaneously make it harder to really feel good by getting high. Homeless people, despite being crazy and addicted, are not always irrational and most of them know that once a homeless person is classified by a psychiatrist and taking medications, the medicated person will continue to be pressured to do that and will lose autonomy and possibly even be forced to take medication in a coercive way.
There are intellectuals smarter than I who have done papers on how addiction is often a rational choice to maximize happiness.
The highly intelligent Finnish people realized that people weren't accepting help from the government because it came with all sorts of rules and duties and requirements and that a lot of expenses were going into programs that involved giving people services that weren't actually helpful when provided in a semi-coercive context to people who often have had bad experience with the government and society. So instead they made free housing, no strings attached, and then suddenly, the people in the housing wanted to get help and improve their lives. It's incredibly empowering to improve your life when an agent of the government is not putting pressure on a person to do it (with partial coercion) and people have their immediate needs met. People with immediate needs met can advance up Maslow's hierarchy of needs pyramid and exist in a manner that isn't just day to day survival.
If you know guys who bailed on perfectly good homes because they couldn't handle being around other people, they weren't perfect for them.
Imagine being paranoid around others but your only housing option is a homeless shelter sleeping on the for with a hundred strangers, having to leave during the day and find somewhere to chill where you're safe and warm and can take a piss. They might get into a group home, maybe an apartment in the city. Cops will destroy their shit, cut up their tents, and make them move if they camp out too long near us wage slaves. No one's giving guys like that private places to live. If they lived far from town they'd need a ride or a car to get or do anything anyway. No one's is gonna help with that.
I don't know why you're getting harassed by homeless people so often you carry a concealed gun with your wife around. I'm paranoid as fuck and that sounds really paranoid, bro.
You're gonna have violent mentally ill people as neighbors in your suburban and rural places, too. Better hope they don't have money or you're fucked. The police won't make them disappear like the harmless dude living out of his car.
You don't get how fucked you are if you have no money and no friends or family who can/will help you. Throw in a serious mental illnesses or substance use disorder (both?) and the level of fucked fucking skyrockets.
I have a cousin who has a good family, support, a room available, and all the help he needs. But he prefers to be homeless. He’s a adult with mental illness and you can’t force him into getting help, though honestly i think that’s what he needs
If a person has been threatened on the street, and had the means, it's not absurd to consider they'd arm themselves. Some will go with mace, some will go with a gun. But if you've been victimized or even just threatened, some folks respond by saying "that will never happen to em again" (regardless of how successful their being armed would mean in that future moment, or how realistic that that future moment would ever really happen.)
If you cant walk with your wife downtown in a us city without a firearm youre a coward that thinks the worst of people.