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We've had a program like this in Eugene Oregon for 30 Years. It's the model a lot of other programs follow. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/this-town-of-1700

We've had a program like this in Eugene Oregon for 30 Years. It's the model a lot of other programs follow. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/this-town-of-170000-replaced-some-cops-with-medics-and-mental-health-workers-its-worked-for-over-30-years/ar-BB16lO1G https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/this-town-of-170000-replac... They handle most non-violent 911 calls which cops would end up handling. Things like people walking into a business naked or sleeping in the doorway of a business, these guys get called. It's a big percentage of 911 calls in any city where you have homeless people. Usually they can help people out, but if people do get violent or belligerent, they call for police backup. That's pretty rare. Overdoses, sick homeless people, people shouting random shit at people in front of businesses, pretty much anything non violent, these guys talk them down give them a little help, drive them to a clinic, or whatever they need. It's a lot cheaper and more humane than arresting them.

GhostOT 6y ago
Really big fan of this approach. I'm often afraid to call the cops because I don't want them stepping into places where they aren't going to be helpful. Especially in more tense situations that may involve illegal substances or other grey area activities. We usually don't want anyone getting in trouble, we just want a tough situation sorted out in a healthy way.
- ogre_codes 6y ago
  Eugene gets a fair number of things right for being a fairly backwater city. I do wish they had a better solution for homelessness in general, but we do as well as most cities on that and CAHOOTS treats the homeless far more humanely than most cities. (Plus it saves the city money!)
  - throwaway0a5e 6y ago
    >Eugene gets a fair number of things right for being a fairly backwater city Well of course. They don't have seemingly unlimited money to piss away. They have a defined amount of resources and a problem to solve so they figure it out the best they can. It's never the SFs, NYCs, Austins or Bostons on the world that come up with novel ways to tackle problems. They're rich enough to afford bad government and to try and spend their way out of their problems. It's the Clevelands and the Buffalos and the Newarks of the world that innovate. They don't have a choice because they have to figure out how to do more with less.
EugeneThrowaway 6y ago
While I support the approach I'm not sure Eugene is the best example. There is a huge homeless problem here and police don't respond, including when I wake up in the middle of the night to someone sticking their flashlight in my window (from my locked back yard and they came right up to my back door) nor the homeless man that was sleeping against my bedroom wall and yelling all night about the CIA's listening device in his teeth. I've also had them break into my backyard and turn off my electricity (fun way to wake up freezing). But then again, I'm not sure police should be responding because they think it is appropriate to shoot down Peal (Toshi's towards Safeway) when some dude steals their vehicle and is driving *away* from them (I'd get it if they were driving towards the cops but that's not what happened). The program is good and I'm glad less people are dying from it, but the problem is very messy and there's still a lot that needs to be done to build upon it. My issue is that many times people make these first steps and then just stop. The homeless problem has only seem to grow since I've been here and covid has made it far worse. Living in Eugene it doesn't feel like the city or state is doing what they can to appropriately fix things. It more feels like people are patting themselves on the back and calling themselves woke while making near meaningless improvements. I don't blame the homeless people for these actions as much as the people that have the power to fix the issues. People do the above actions when desperate. No one wants to live in a tent under the bridge when it is rainy and cold. We can be humane and solve the problem and that's what I want to see my taxes go to. After all, I pay more taxes here than I do in California. Throwaway because I want to keep my main account somewhat anonymous.
- ogre_codes 6y ago
  I agree with a lot of what you are saying, but I don't think any of that has much to do with CAHOOTS. If it weren't for them, those same calls would be filled with police... I can't imagine there would be a better result. Ultimately homelessness is the problem, it's not just worse here, it's worse in a lot of places. Opening up better and safer shelters I think is the only long term solution, but I'm not sure Eugene has the resources to do that. Federal and State collect all the income tax, Eugene's budget is small potatoes. > After all, I pay more taxes here than I do in California. Really? I pay about the same income tax, a bit higher property taxes, and zero sales tax. I haven't done the math, but I'm pretty sure the sales tax savings more than makes up for the difference in property tax.
archon810 6y ago
I found lot about CAHOOTS from the Daily Show a few weeks ago. Here's the episode: https://youtu.be/D3Z6uEfpTog https://youtu.be/D3Z6uEfpTog.

GhostOT 6y ago

Really big fan of this approach. I'm often afraid to call the cops because I don't want them stepping into places where they aren't going to be helpful. Especially in more tense situations that may involve illegal substances or other grey area activities. We usually don't want anyone getting in trouble, we just want a tough situation sorted out in a healthy way.

ogre_codes 6y ago
Eugene gets a fair number of things right for being a fairly backwater city. I do wish they had a better solution for homelessness in general, but we do as well as most cities on that and CAHOOTS treats the homeless far more humanely than most cities. (Plus it saves the city money!)
- throwaway0a5e 6y ago
  >Eugene gets a fair number of things right for being a fairly backwater city Well of course. They don't have seemingly unlimited money to piss away. They have a defined amount of resources and a problem to solve so they figure it out the best they can. It's never the SFs, NYCs, Austins or Bostons on the world that come up with novel ways to tackle problems. They're rich enough to afford bad government and to try and spend their way out of their problems. It's the Clevelands and the Buffalos and the Newarks of the world that innovate. They don't have a choice because they have to figure out how to do more with less.

EugeneThrowaway 6y ago

While I support the approach I'm not sure Eugene is the best example. There is a huge homeless problem here and police don't respond, including when I wake up in the middle of the night to someone sticking their flashlight in my window (from my locked back yard and they came right up to my back door) nor the homeless man that was sleeping against my bedroom wall and yelling all night about the CIA's listening device in his teeth. I've also had them break into my backyard and turn off my electricity (fun way to wake up freezing). But then again, I'm not sure police should be responding because they think it is appropriate to shoot down Peal (Toshi's towards Safeway) when some dude steals their vehicle and is driving *away* from them (I'd get it if they were driving towards the cops but that's not what happened). The program is good and I'm glad less people are dying from it, but the problem is very messy and there's still a lot that needs to be done to build upon it. My issue is that many times people make these first steps and then just stop. The homeless problem has only seem to grow since I've been here and covid has made it far worse. Living in Eugene it doesn't feel like the city or state is doing what they can to appropriately fix things. It more feels like people are patting themselves on the back and calling themselves woke while making near meaningless improvements. I don't blame the homeless people for these actions as much as the people that have the power to fix the issues. People do the above actions when desperate. No one wants to live in a tent under the bridge when it is rainy and cold. We can be humane and solve the problem and that's what I want to see my taxes go to. After all, I pay more taxes here than I do in California. Throwaway because I want to keep my main account somewhat anonymous.

ogre_codes 6y ago
I agree with a lot of what you are saying, but I don't think any of that has much to do with CAHOOTS. If it weren't for them, those same calls would be filled with police... I can't imagine there would be a better result. Ultimately homelessness is the problem, it's not just worse here, it's worse in a lot of places. Opening up better and safer shelters I think is the only long term solution, but I'm not sure Eugene has the resources to do that. Federal and State collect all the income tax, Eugene's budget is small potatoes. > After all, I pay more taxes here than I do in California. Really? I pay about the same income tax, a bit higher property taxes, and zero sales tax. I haven't done the math, but I'm pretty sure the sales tax savings more than makes up for the difference in property tax.

archon810 6y ago

I found lot about CAHOOTS from the Daily Show a few weeks ago. Here's the episode: https://youtu.be/D3Z6uEfpTog https://youtu.be/D3Z6uEfpTog.