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> and (I'm not sure why) 24/7 security staff You can lock your stuff in a house or car and walk away. You can't lock your stuff in a tent and walk away. This i
by derefr 5y ago
> and (I'm not sure why) 24/7 security staff
You can lock your stuff in a house or car and walk away. You can't lock your stuff in a tent and walk away. This is the real reason for homeless people "keeping their life in a shopping trolley": they need to move their possessions around with them because there's nowhere secure to keep them.
Security staff, preventing randoms from stealing these people's possessions out of their tents (or especially, discouraging them from stealing from each-other) makes a tent into something much closer to a home.
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An alternate approach I've seen applied to my local area (downtown east-side Vancouver) is to offer something half-way between "safety deposit boxes" and "storage units" as a free/cheap service — where each homeless person gets their own assigned 53-litre storage tote, with mediated check-out to ensure nobody has access to your tote but you.
This doesn't solve exactly the same set of problems — you can't usefully store your food and cooking implements in a place that's only open 9-5 — but it at least allows you to trust that your sentimental objects, small collectibles, etc. are being kept safe.
- ashtonkem 5y agoAnd, sadly, to prevent random people from attacking the homeless people.
- ralusek 5y agoAnd to prevent homeless people from attacking each other.
- riffraff 5y agoParent comment was down voted but AFAIK it's correct, many homeless people avoid shelters because they consider them unsafe due to other homeless people, some of which are dangerous to others.
- nextaccountic 5y agoAnd that's why programs that segregate homeless people (put them on shelters, or put them on government-designated parking lots) won't ever ever succeed. You need to properly integrate the homeless into society, which in our society generally means having an apartment for each family unit.
- nly 5y agoWouldn't lockers be a relatively affordable option?
- baby 5y agoIf your possessions fit in a locker. But I think security here is to prevent or react to violence, not necessarily theft. I’ve heard stories of homeless people avoiding shelters because you can get raped, for example.
- exolymph 5y ago> But I think security here is to prevent or react to violence, not necessarily theft. Perhaps I'm quibbling, but I suspect that violence and theft aren't necessarily separate categories of incident.
- baby 5y agoI was just thinking that it’d be really hard to avoid theft in a camp settlement.
- oldsecondhand 5y agoThe reasons I've heard for avoiding homeless shelters were theft, robbery and lice.
- jlokier 5y agoI knew someone homeless who told me his tent had been attacked twice - slashed, and set on fire one of those times - while he was sleeping in it. That sounds like enough of a reason for 24/7 security to me.