I've never figure out how these people are expected to pull themselves out of their situation. Drug use is merely a symptom, the cause is living conditions and an existence that makes being sober untenable.
"Get a job"? Find a job that will hire anyone on the spot, AND that can pay for an actual place to live.
My brother said the same thing. "He can go get a job at McDonalds."
Ok, do you think McDs wants to hire someone who hasn't bathed recently? How will he eat after work if he hasn't been panhandling during the day? What happens between now and his first paycheck? What if he doesn't have a bank account when that arrives?
It's as if getting a job doesn't immediately cure your problems. My brother sorta seemed to be persuaded in that he didn't push the idea any further.
Sorry that was for the other guy
A significant number of homeless in CA and WA have at least 1 job as far as I know.
Fast food workers make up 6% of the CA homeless population, for example.
they are expected to not exist because they are an eyesore and reminder of human fragility.
nobody cares about them 'pulling themselves out of their situation'
"Get a job"? Find a job that will hire anyone on the spot, AND that can pay for an actual place to live.
It can be done. The job IS going to suck, and you will hate your fucking life for doing it, but it can be done.
https://www.indeed.com/q-general-labor-l-seattle,-wa-jobs.html
Better if you at least have a drivers license.
https://www.indeed.com/q-lot-attendant-l-seattle,-wa-jobs.html
https://www.indeed.com/q-parking-attendant-l-seattle,-wa-jobs.html
I helped a friend throw sod in a back yard one time. Hardest fucking job I've ever done in my life, I'll never do it again. But it paid. :)
https://livingwage.mit.edu/metros/42660
The problem with homelessness is that each person's situation is a bit different, now to you it might sound like a massive lump of excuses when heard all together, but to an individual the one or multiple things that prevents them from having personal stability is a massive barrier.
anecdote
I once helped a homeless stranger get a bus back to Alberta because he hitchhiked to Vancouver over 3 months but couldn't find the opportunity he wanted to (plus the rents here are upwards of 1500USD equivalent for a small studio), so he wanted to go back. He used to work in construction but he got fired and his wife left him. He wasn't drunk or high, he was just bumming cigs from people and begging for money. Spending a day with him, I found that little things made him nervous and stressed him out, he couldn't really advocate for himself well, had nothing but a broken android tablet with his expired health card and birth certificate, and he couldn't read 24 hour time. The intercity bus operator wouldn't let him on the bus bc he looked too dirty, even though he was a paying customer. I get him cleaned up at the community shower, a new pair of pants, and I book a flight for him (which ended up being around the same as the bus) gave him 50USD equivalent spending money and the addresses of libraries, charities, employment centres in Lethbridge (this is where he came from). At the airport, they were bugging him that he had only 1 valid ID and 1 expired photo ID, I had to escalate for him 3 times for them to allow him through and get accomodations to guide him through the airport. Something that's normally so easy to get through if you have a ticket and a phone and whatever is a nightmare for someone so disadvantaged.
Trying to apply for work, not get scammed and advocate for yourself throughout a process is honestly a challenge that is tougher than the actual labour. I'd been taking those things for granted myself. Fines and fees for being poor just worsens the problem.
We're truly a failing society.
I had an interesting thought while riding a train in Tokyo a few weeks ago: the sign of a highly functioning society isn't that poor people can afford cars, its that wealthy people take public transportation.
But hey, American shareholders sure are making a killing!
It shows that you have public services that work so well that they are worth using to someone for whom money is no object.
I’ve seen this personally. Locally, the bus system runs so slowly that only the most desperate people take it. I don’t feel safe riding that bus. It took multiple hours to get to work.
Meanwhile, I used to live in a college town where the bus hits the stops every five minutes. Everyone uses the bus because it’s so convenient, and there’s no reason to feel uncomfortable riding one because the people who ride the bus are just regular people.
Why do they ride it? Because the city has functioning public transportation. Build services that are worth using.
Apparently Japan also has a homeless problem, I don’t recall how bad. But they have a culture that shames them so bad that they go to extreme lengths to mask their homelessness.
Yeah it's not a perfect society by any means, I'm sorry if that was implied. Lots of shame. But they do a lot of things a lot better than the US
Implemented by folks who surely call themselves good Christians. Boy, Jesus sure would be proud.
If only they cracked down on real estate / investment industry the same way. What a fucked up world.
Jesus would despise most modern Christians. I don't even think he'd be happy seeing all of the churches built "in his name". He'd probably tell them to sell the buildings and land and give it all away to the poor.
And then they'd kill him
https://biblehub.com/niv/matthew/19.htm
16Just then a man came up to Jesus and asked, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?”
17“Why do you ask me about what is good?” Jesus replied. “There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, keep the commandments.”
18“Which ones?” he inquired.
Jesus replied, “ ‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, 19honor your father and mother,’ c and ‘love your neighbor as yourself.’ d ”
20“All these I have kept,” the young man said. “What do I still lack?”
21Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
22When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.
The bible is pretty clear. But most people don't follow it, or follow some heretical nonsense version of it.
It’s funny because I thought that’s the group of people that says you can’t just ban something because people will just do it anyway. But they banned homelessness and pretend the problem is solved.
The irony that they talk so much about their rights while they are obsessed with taking mine away.
John 11:35
I've been saying this forever, homeless folks need to learn how to levitate so they're just in the air. Or will the government ban that, too?
The government will get the FAA involved at that point.
No levitation in public spaces!
Between migrant workers needing to go anywhere else (namely Florida to Martha's Vinyard), college protersters needing to be sent to Gaza, and now homeless (its not unhoused, thats newspeak. Its Sexual Assault not SA, its Murder/Suicide not Unaliving, its homeless, not unhoused) needing to be sent anywhere else, all I can fixate on is how obsessed The Party is with making people move (you can say "Its Republicans doing that!" but its not. Its the entirety of the Federal government advancing these narratives).
The modern strategy of the rich and the taint-lickers (government officials) is forced nomad lifestyle.
This is NOTHING new.
Strikes a nerve for me because I'm a quarter Gypsy (hailing from Bohemia, the region now called the Czech Republic). Gypsy is an EXTREMELY offensive term. In the Holocaust, "Jews" took the brunt, "Gypsies" took most of the rest, "Gays" and "Colored" took the rest.
Gypsies are kind of like Jews.
"Jews" in the largest sense, are those who were expelled from their homes and settled in a new home, all the adversity endured, as is depicted by Moses moving the Jews from Egypt to Bethlehem.
"Gypsies" are those who were expelled from their homes, and were met with gun-barrels wherever they went, so they were kept moving. Forced nomads.
Which makes me look at the news today. "Anti-Zionist" as in "against Israel displacing Palestinians with plans of luxury condos" is now called "Antisemitic". But if we go to the historical root of the words, Israel is acting like Egypt, and Palestinians are being made Jews, if you remove the religion "Judaism" from the mix.
And here in America, as the people identify as Anti-Zionist, but Palestinians are being displaced from their homes by Israel, arguably making them "Palestinian Jews" or "Palestinian Gypsies" depending on how the world treats their refugees, one of the big things the Supreme Court decided was that Homeless are Gypsies.
Send em packing. Shoot one of em dead, and that's cool as long as they keep moving. Over time, we will have shot all of em dead.
Where did we end up so wrong?
Oh ya, Citizens United.
Boy, I bet many people are going to comment on this that either A) don't live in an affected city, or B) didn't bother reading the article and seeing the nuance in the situation.
Having read the article, the post captures the essence quite well. Cities are criminalising homelessness, often illegally.
Okay big boy, please share the nuance of how homeless people chose that condition in life, and how a ban does ANYTHING other than try to export "undesirables" ala the GOP sending migrants to Martha's Vineyard?
NIMBY people usually stay quiet, and are commonly the largest group of people with the power to change laws like these.
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