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> Fighting homelessness is easy: make it strictly illegal Note: I have been homeless. I prefer a little more practical solution, which is unpopular with many p

> Fighting homelessness is easy: make it strictly illegal Note: I have been homeless. I prefer a little more practical solution, which is unpopular with many people...as almost any solution will be. If a person is arrested for breaking a statute (municipalities usually have ordinances against camping in areas), without a residence in the county, move them to a staging area for identification and program entry (assign a sponsor). If they repeat offend without having participated in a program via the sponsor (or have violated out), move them to a minimal camp in an unincorporated part of the state. Filtering those who want to contribute versus those who are opting out, benefits those who try versus those who are not going to recover. I feel for the homeless people with master's degrees from various disciplines (see Youtube), but urban areas breed urban problems like illicit drug distribution, disease, sexual violations, open fires, burglary, etc. We know this historically. Why we continue to allow people to concentrate where they have the most opportunity to predate on the public and each other while simultaneously being enabled in self-destructive behavior is beyond me.

michaelmrose 6y ago
If the person has nowhere to sleep how can you charge them for the human need to sleep.
- Supermancho 5y ago
  If the city cannot support and will not support the homeless that exist in the city, staying in the city is demonstrably degenerate. No amount of hand wringing gets around this. Public concern and municipal willingness to create shelter seems to consistently trail the homeless population severity by orders of magnitude. So what you have a scavengers* that have opportunity to predate on the public and each other along with a trickle of aggregate wealth from access to panhandling and such. Human need to sleep is an incidental trigger for identifying those in need. After it's clear an actor cannot be supported (or doesn't want to be helped), there's no humanitarian way forward that's better than another. Err on the side of society without additional harm to the actor. They are never "charged" nor are they supported beyond what services are available. *My particularly favorite thing was grazing at a grocery store in the morning when they are restocking and packages are open/damaged. Grab a fruit, eat a fruit walking through the store, grab a water and chug it, grab a granola or 2 or 3 or whatever you can get away with because who cares if you jack a couple waters? Dispose of cores/bottles/cans in a backroom box or behind a box or whatever. Move around a lot. Most city police let you go or city you for petty theft, but they tend to talk to each other and remember you.

michaelmrose 6y ago

If the person has nowhere to sleep how can you charge them for the human need to sleep.

Supermancho 5y ago
If the city cannot support and will not support the homeless that exist in the city, staying in the city is demonstrably degenerate. No amount of hand wringing gets around this. Public concern and municipal willingness to create shelter seems to consistently trail the homeless population severity by orders of magnitude. So what you have a scavengers* that have opportunity to predate on the public and each other along with a trickle of aggregate wealth from access to panhandling and such. Human need to sleep is an incidental trigger for identifying those in need. After it's clear an actor cannot be supported (or doesn't want to be helped), there's no humanitarian way forward that's better than another. Err on the side of society without additional harm to the actor. They are never "charged" nor are they supported beyond what services are available. *My particularly favorite thing was grazing at a grocery store in the morning when they are restocking and packages are open/damaged. Grab a fruit, eat a fruit walking through the store, grab a water and chug it, grab a granola or 2 or 3 or whatever you can get away with because who cares if you jack a couple waters? Dispose of cores/bottles/cans in a backroom box or behind a box or whatever. Move around a lot. Most city police let you go or city you for petty theft, but they tend to talk to each other and remember you.