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It was a solution to what? You encountering people that offend you by their very existence? It's not a solution to anything, just a way of making a problem more

It was a solution to what? You encountering people that offend you by their very existence? It's not a solution to anything, just a way of making a problem more invisible. One could argue the reverse actually, that the more visible and pervasive and nuisance-causing homeless people are, the more likely it is that actual solutions will be offered (housing first policies, wrap-around social services, etc) (Indeed, this has been explored as a hypothesis: http://www.bridgewaypartners.com/Portals/0/Documents/leveraging_grantmaking_part_1.pdf http://www.bridgewaypartners.com/Portals/0/Documents/leverag... )

jlgreco 13y ago
> "It was a solution to what?" I'm going with what @scarmig says: "confined space with a homeless person who is likely unhygienic, drugged up, or (non-exclusive) mentally unstable." https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5907142 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5907142 Countless times I have seen homeless people harass commuters (particularly women), straight up threaten people, "soil" the bus seats, leave unsanitary waste and debris on buses, and occupy more space than a single person requires. Resolving situations typically involves the bus driver pulling over and waiting for a police officer to arrive, though typically situations go unresolved. This is not merely a matter of aesthetics; pervasive abuse of transit systems by homeless people interferes with a transit departments ability to do their job (which is providing safe, clean, and effective transportation to people with places to go). By all means, dedicate all the effort that you want to solving homelessness. Just don't use transit as your tool, it is preoccupied trying to be transit.
- mullingitover 13y ago
  Getting threatened with physical violence by a mentally ill homeless person on the LA Metro (and having the subway operator literally tell me to shut up and get off the intercom when I reported it) is the reason I don't take the subway anymore.
marssaxman 13y ago
It was a solution to the problem that people couldn't get where they needed to go because downtown buses was always full of homeless people, who needed somewhere warm to get out of the weather, but didn't actually need to go anywhere. Metro's job is to operate a transportation system, not to operate a homeless shelter, and the fact that homeless people were riding back and forth across the downtown ride free zone made it much more difficult for Metro to do its actual job. It may reassure you to know that a local social services group now operates a free "Downtown Circulator" bus which runs in a loop around the area of the old ride free zone. Any homeless or impoverished people who actually need to travel around the downtown area for free can still do so.

jlgreco 13y ago

> "It was a solution to what?" I'm going with what @scarmig says: "confined space with a homeless person who is likely unhygienic, drugged up, or (non-exclusive) mentally unstable." https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5907142 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5907142 Countless times I have seen homeless people harass commuters (particularly women), straight up threaten people, "soil" the bus seats, leave unsanitary waste and debris on buses, and occupy more space than a single person requires. Resolving situations typically involves the bus driver pulling over and waiting for a police officer to arrive, though typically situations go unresolved. This is not merely a matter of aesthetics; pervasive abuse of transit systems by homeless people interferes with a transit departments ability to do their job (which is providing safe, clean, and effective transportation to people with places to go). By all means, dedicate all the effort that you want to solving homelessness. Just don't use transit as your tool, it is preoccupied trying to be transit.

mullingitover 13y ago
Getting threatened with physical violence by a mentally ill homeless person on the LA Metro (and having the subway operator literally tell me to shut up and get off the intercom when I reported it) is the reason I don't take the subway anymore.

marssaxman 13y ago

It was a solution to the problem that people couldn't get where they needed to go because downtown buses was always full of homeless people, who needed somewhere warm to get out of the weather, but didn't actually need to go anywhere. Metro's job is to operate a transportation system, not to operate a homeless shelter, and the fact that homeless people were riding back and forth across the downtown ride free zone made it much more difficult for Metro to do its actual job. It may reassure you to know that a local social services group now operates a free "Downtown Circulator" bus which runs in a loop around the area of the old ride free zone. Any homeless or impoverished people who actually need to travel around the downtown area for free can still do so.