The homeless are moving in on Venice CA now. The locals aren't happy.

The beach.

This is happening all over Southern California right now and it’s making many areas very scary (these are not homeless jobless mothers with their babies living in these tents and RVs...)

The cities and state seem to have no plan to deal with this ballooning problem.

Their current “plan” seems to just be to let anyone living on the street do whatever they want and to treat them with kid gloves and screw anyone actually walking or living in any of these neighborhoods....

Venice has been a louche place for decades.

[quote]Their current “plan” seems to just be to let anyone living on the street do whatever they want and to treat them with kid gloves and screw anyone actually walking or living in any of these neighborhoods....

Apparently they wanted to build a proper homeless shelter in Venice but the residents objected.

[quote]...This comes after many Venice residents fought against the idea of homeless shelter being built within the city. The Bridge Housing Program was approved earlier this month. One of the planned A Bridge Home shelters is slated for development on an unused, 3-acre Metro lot on Sunset Boulevard and Main Street.

I thought Venice was always a dump.

The solution is pretty obvious for other countries, consist in help this people, as a countrie. Yes, with your taxes.

Welcome to the California nighma.. err.. I mean dream. I support high speed rail but the government should have taken steps to prevent the homelessness first.

Ya gotta love these people who live in these areas.

Always so concerned about the welfare of others. At least, in theory.

Then, when the reality of the situation becomes apparent (in their backyards), it's unsightly and a burden.

"Sure, we care about the homeless. As long as they're living in somebody else's neighborhood.".

This seems a lot worse than the homeless I encounter daily in NYC. (Although there was that cop attacked by five homeless men on a subway platform.)

There’s a homeless shelter in my neighborhood. It’s fine. The people hang out smoking outside but they don’t generally beg or cause trouble, and there’s not human shit on the sidewalk.

Ah yes and the animal rescue groups in the area are happy to "rehome" their pit bulls with the homeless. Increasing rise in pit bull attacks owned by the homeless in the LA area. Whose Brainiac idea was this? I'm sure they keep up with their vaccinations and all.

What R3 and R6 said. It's been homeless dump for the past 30 years.

[quote]The people hang out smoking outside but they don’t generally beg or cause trouble, and there’s not human shit on the sidewalk.

Where do these Venice homeless wash and shit, I wonder?

[quote]What [R3] and [R6] said. It's been homeless dump for the past 30 years.

NOT true. Have you ever been there?

California is a "sanctuary state" so the homeless filth can now excrete on the sidewalks

cali or calcutta? cali has the fifth largest economy in the world , a suitable solution ought to have been devised years ago

R9 That reminds me of when Martin Sheen, noted progressive and humanist actor, declared Malibu Colony where he lives a ""free zone" for the homeless and invited them all to relocate there(in the mid 90s). The uber liberal residents of Malibu lost their fucking minds.

Naturally they increased the security and shored up the barriers pronto.

it is strange that permanent housing for homeless people can potentially damage existing property values while mountains of rubbish and people defecating and sleeping on the street does not

They give all of the homeless in my city one way bus tickets to California.

I'm sorry, I normally don't feel these feelings, but I think I'm just tired and fatigued, I'm picturing the city turning on fire hoses and sweeping all this trash and its owners into the ocean. And doing it every day, until they find another place to squat.

Legal Weed

It wasn't until the legalization of Marijuana in Washington state that the homeless population in this region exploded. (The State of Washington was the first state to legalize the recreational use of the herb, 2012.)

This unprecedented new-found freedom, coupled with the region's climate (more conducive for sleeping outdoors/in an unheated RV during the winter months) and The City of Seattle's generous services for the homeless, brought caravans of the homeless, addicts, criminals (and soon-to-be criminals) to the region in droves.

Yes, the region has always had a homeless population, but nothing like it is today, particularly with the escalation in drug-related crime accompanying it.

Now, it is California's turn, which has even more readily available liberal social services for the offering, and an even better climate for out-door-living and RV camping.

R13 Probably in the ocean at Venice Beach

potheads are annoying but i never met a desperate pothead who wants to exchange a place to live for smoke.

crack? yes

meth? yes

crank?

yes.

heroin?

yes.

weed? no

Wow. It's marijuana's fault. IT'S A GATEWAY TO HOMELESSNESS I TELLS YA!

Really?

Because you couldn't get any when it was illegal? Because poor people never self-medicated until it was legal and what with alcohol being illegal---oh wait....

But hey, once that wall is built America will be great again! All those homeless will be the new migrant farmworkers and they'll all be white and Christian and vote for good Republican values. And they'll become rich and drive around in limousines, but who will pick our grapes? Not Robots from China, that's for sure. Unless our dear leader will make one of those really good deals he's so famous for.

But yeah, it's marijuana's problem that we have so many homeless people. Yeah, that's the ticket.

^^ Excellent. They'll be directed to your yard and drive-way.

I have been in los Angeles since 2004. There were homeless people in venice then, but it has gotten worse and saying it is because of weed is a fucking cop out. It's all over the city now, tent cities under overpasses and rvs parked all over. There is an RV parked on my street that has a crazy woman living it, you can hear her yell obscenities at all hours. I think she lives with a man who might be related to her I don't know, Christmas morning he was yelling at her calling her a fucking whore and a bitch. He might have also been beating her because she was screaming call the police from inside the rv but who knows?

It's been like this for a while.

A good buddy of mine lives on 8th off of Rose and there's an alley in the back that is like a homeless dormitory. I made the mistake of walking out that way one morning and there were dozens of homeless asleep there. They are almost all single men, either mentally ill, drug addicts or both.

What's crazy is that they are all over the place along Rose, which has a Whole Foods at Lincoln (the intersection the article cites) as well as a large number of pricey/trendy restaurants and shops.

Not sure what is to be done, but homeless advocates don't help: they focus on homeless families, who are generally well-served by existing social services and ignore the vast majority of the homeless who are, as noted, mentally ill/addicted men who need some sort of treatment, not just a bed and a hot meal.

Should Venice elect their own Bolsanaro now?

The good old days when the homeless used to be confined to Skid Row.

[quote]I'm sorry, I normally don't feel these feelings, but I think I'm just tired and fatigued

Doesn't tired and fatigued mean exactly the same thing?

If the police do raids and find drugs, can’t we lock them up?

As much as I have loved visiting CA, there isn't a single area I've been in that didn't have high numbers of homeless and mentally ill people.

I mean, 2x to 3x, minimum, from most other cities.

R32 You should see San Diego. It is horrendous.....much worse than LA IMO.

I haven't spent time in LA since 1997, but everyone says large areas of the city are gentrifying, and it's a lot safer than it used to be. Wonder if all this recent homelessness will undo all of that?

She rented an apartment in Venice Beach, California for 17 years. Alicia is now homeless and sleeps on the same street where she once rented because that's where she feels safe

[quote]As much as I have loved visiting CA, there isn't a single area I've been in that didn't have high numbers of homeless and mentally ill people.

Not a single area? In the whole of California?

Does Beverly Hills have them?

Why not put homeless shelters in abandoned strip malls? And in all those Walmarts that closed down so that a Super Walmart could open a mile away.

The closest town to me that has a big shopping strip has an empty Walmart, Sports Authority, Borders, huge supermarket & Modells and is still building new stores.....look at all the Sears’ stores across the country that will be closing. Plenty of places to house homeless people. Turn them into SROs.

R36 I didn't visit BH, Mary.

My point was it wasn't limited to the beaches. Even inland places like Riverside, they were everywhere. Certainly all over Palm Springs.

Imagine if they tried moving in on Beverly Hills. That would be interesting.

Well, ignore the problem long enough, corral the homeless into Skid Row, under freeway passes, so that no one's delicate sensibilities are offended and THIS is the result. Their suffering has been swept under the rug for decades. It boggles my mind that some people can watch stomach-turning violence and graphic nudity on film, but God forbid they lay eyes on a homeless person.

Well what about....

I have a friend who’s been living in CA in an RV Park for at least 20 years. People in RVs in CA used to live in state parks on the ocean for years until the state put limits on the number of days one could spend in a state park.

For r39

We're far enough away from tent city. But it's hard to tell with all the dirty-looking-by-choice young people in all our venues.

I really wish we would cut our military spending, start taxing businesses and the wealthy more and use the money to treat mental illness, build up the middle class and improve our infrastructures.

also, I want to see campaign money funded only by tax payers, government should be directed by the voters, not by the donor class.

tax the one percent of cali, one percent extra to end homelessness

r45 shut the fuck up

Amen R45 and R46

R35 Thank you for posting the video. That Chanel "Invisible People" is heartbreaking but an effective way to raise awareness and give help.

We're going to have to face the fact that there are people who are too mentally ill to be allowed to run around loose. Even with low-cost housing for the homeless, some people will need to be in mental hospitals for all of their lives, whether they like it or not.

the hospitals were closed in the 1980s and the mentally ill were dumped in the street

Vegas got sued and lost $$ after their solution to their city's mentally ill/homeless situation. That is, a one-way bus ticket to SF or to the beaches of So Cal. Of course no one was there to assist when the unknowing bus driver would insist they exit at the end of the route. Many other places (hello NY) had the same policy.

The homelessness in California is worse than say NY is because the laws I NY require them to find shelter because of the harsh winter's. California has no laws.

Palm Springs, LA, Venice have epic homeless populations, but as a new Californian, I am flabbergasted at the ease that they dismiss homelessness, give into NIMBYS, and generally kick the can down the road. It's disgusting.

[QUOTE]Doesn't tired and fatigued mean exactly the same thing?

I'm too tired and fatigued to answer that question

They’re lucky I’m not in charge. I’d have a SWAT team clear that area out, round them up and ship them all to Alaska. Good luck finding your way back from there.

good

venice can burn in hell, they gave me a parking ticket on xmas day 20 yrs ago and im still mad. xmas day!!!!

R42, WOW that sounds cool , does your friend have a nice RV? where is this RV park? i used to own a building on the beach on ocean front walk. i sold it, glad i did, i never liked it there anyway

R47, what didn't you like about my post?

I live in a decidedly un-trendy, middle class area in eastern LA County. We have a HUGE homeless problem for no apparent reason. I was in my local Post Office yesterday and they had posted a sign advising people that they are cutting back on lobby hours (when the unstaffed lobby area was open) due to problems with homeless people.

Sanctuary cities, and all. Californians want this kind of situation and welcome all these people.

I don’t live there... so I don’t really give a fuck, do you?

Wasn't Venice pretty sketchy about twenty years ago. Someone I know was attacked in her bungalow near the beach, literally the week she moved in. The attacker was never found.

Why not build a tiny home village?

R53, there are no laws in NYC that require homeless people to take shelter in the winter. Forcing homeless people into shelters, hospitals or anywhere was declared unconstitutional decades ago. You can thank the ACLU for the the homess problems we have today. The ACLU fought for, and won, the right for homeless people to live on the streets, even in subzero weather, if that is what they so choose.

Yes, Venice has been sketchy for a very long time. I still remember the 1991 unsolved murder of Joe Cole (son of actor Dennis Cole and best friend of punk singer Henry Rollins). It was even featured in an episode of Unsolved Mysteries.

[QUOTE]Sanctuary cities, and all. Californians want this kind of situation and welcome all these people.

What do Sanctuary policies have to do with homelessness?

R56, Los Angeles parking enforcement people would give a parking ticket to their own MOTHER on Christmas day! They are ruthless. You learned the hard way.

Only idiot Trump cultists think sanctuary policies and homelessness have anything to do with one another.

How much do those nice bungalows in Venice cost?

2, 3 million?

It's an impossible problem. So many homeless people are severely mentally ill and/or their brains are so fried from drug abuse that they can never be self-sufficient. The only humane solution would be state-run housing facilities with adequate mental health care but with the numbers of homeless we're talking about it would be far too expensive.

I love how the asshole conservatives like to blame this on marijuana, sanctuary cities, etc.

This is a housing problem. The median rent in Los Angeles has gone up $100 per year for the last eight years. There are many places in this country where you can live pretty well on $800 per month rent and here That $800 will only get you the same shitty apartment. That $800 will only Keep you in the same shitty apartment you lived in eight years ago.

All of the construction Is meant to hit the higher income people. Nobody builds studio apartments. There is no economic incentive to do that. And the mayors answer to homelessness is to give homeless people vouchers that no landlord whatever want to except and that don’t pay enough to actually get an apartment somewhere. And if there were more reasonably priced apartments, you do have people leaving double and triple and quadruple occupancy situations getting those apartments. It would be young people who have a steady work history , not a formerly homeless family

[quote][R56], Los Angeles parking enforcement people would give a parking ticket to their own MOTHER on Christmas day! They are ruthless. You learned the hard way.

& the parking restrictions are so confusing - I always get caught out when I'm there.

Try working THIS out.

"This comes after many Venice residents fought against the idea of homeless shelter being built within the city."

^ yes

That one is a doozy R73!

We once noticed a homeless young man briefly living behind our tennis court pavilion. He mysteriously passed a few days later. Dreadful encounter with our armed response security force. These things happen, I suppose.

I'm surprised gun-carrying deplorables haven't organized a purge night yet.

I don’t think there needs to a purge, but I’m all for aggressive action. These bums are a danger and menace to society. A danger to themselves and others- that should be enough to lock them up, but if they’re caught with drugs, slap them with an intent to sell and lock them up.

Help those who are trying to re-enter society with housing and jobs and then lock up the rest. No mental facilities- prison. If they are doing drugs or are a danger to others, that is where they belong.

Campsites are the answer, for now. Tipis and wigmams, RVs. Someone send someone to those Native 3 day opiate detoxes in Nova Scotia. Shoot up doctor in box like Vancouver. Just do what Canada does.

Mix in and max out that Mi'kmaq magic for everyone. Even Central America can learn to thrive using the Mi'kmaq mentality. The Mi'kmaq way IS the way.

73, like attending a seminar that sign. Mon dieux😂

I don't think locking up for drug offenses is necessarily the right solution.

As many of us have noted, the solution to the homeless problem, especially in California, is not an easy one.

The vast majority are mentally ill and/or drug addicted and giving them an apartment and some food is not going to help.

We've created this fiction that the vast majority of them are just down on their luck and all they need is an affordable apartment and some free coffee and donuts and BOOM! they'll be productive members of society again.

That's just not true.

Now who knows which is the chicken and which is the egg: did they become drug addicts/mentally ill because they were homeless or did they become homeless because they were drug addicts/mentally ill? Probably a little of both.

But we need to think in terms of more permanent solutions that factor into account that a free apartment is not a cure for mental illness or drug addiction.

Strongly agree w/R82, R83

Which then brings us to the other issue is that these people have to want to get help. Laws today prevent forcing help on people who don't want it.

Just hire a handful of those Mi'kmaq people. Let them set up camps where world problems exist. Those people managed to spin gold in a freezer up north in the 1600s . This mindset brings people together to set up camps. Anything that requires a group effort concerning survival. It's been done. Self pride. Hit a bamboo forest out of control encroaching on indigenous land. Cut that shit down and start stringing it into everything and then artisan the left over for sales. I mean, we HAVE everything we need right in front if us. Only outside requirement in internet connection. That's it! Not all homeless people need to be in a mental institution or drug detox. PTSD alone can bring that spiral.

Do we have to come there? Don't make us come there.

[quote]As many of us have noted, the solution to the homeless problem, especially in California, is not an easy one.

You can start by making it clear it's NOT AN OPTION.

The Left needs to get their shit together or eventually people (even in blue CA) will just elect some hardass Republican who promises to make this problem disappear. Drugs and mental illness are definitely part of the issue, but so is general housing policy and the "Affordable Housing" movement.

We need more housing. We need to incentivize building housing for working and middle class people. Starter homes and apartments. Studios. Places people can own. Current "Affordable Housing" policies do nothing to make this reality, because they are not really about creating more housing.

We need to go back to building large scale public housing. For homeless, low and middle incomes. Liberal ideology has declared that housing projects were racist and a failure, which has some truth to it but is nowhere near the full story. Some were and continue to be successful. The real reasons for the failure of public housing projects were lack of money, mismanagement and corruption. But Progressives believe that economic and racial segregation is the sin that is to blame for society's ills...and so they are pursuing kinder, gentler methods. They want complete racial and economic integration. That is their goal, not really providing more housing. Why are they fighting to have homeless housing built in Venice? There are cheaper parts of LA County. Build it there.

Progressives want the poor in rich neighborhoods. They push for "Affordable Housing" in luxury units in good parts of town, which basically helps the few people who win the lottery...but does nothing to make any sort of fundamental improvement. They want investment in poor neighborhoods, but fight "gentrification" tooth and nail and don't see that they're the same fucking thing. Keeping poor people in poor neighborhoods is racist...rich people moving into poor neighborhoods is racist...building public housing in poor neighborhoods is racist...basically, everything is racist. Because, to Progressives, everything IS racist. To them, we live in a white supremacist society that has infected all of our institutions.

The majority of Americans want the homeless off the street. The majority of Americans want to live in a neighborhood with people like them...who are in the same economic class as them. For most Americans who own homes, that home is the most important piece of their wealth. Ignoring those facts are foolish. Treating homeless and housing as some sort of racial reparations is a losing strategy.

Really, r87? How are you going to avoid the inevitable lawsuits when you declare it's NOT AN OPTION.

You're repeating common mistakes R88

The homeless camped out in the street in Venice are almost all single young men are a combination of mentally ill and drug addicts, frequently both.

Period,

While the plans you propose are admirable, they will have zero effect on the homeless in LA or SF for whom, as I pointed out at R83, an affordable apartment is the least of their problems.

The poor working people being priced out of the market by overheated real estate markets don't become long-term homeless, if they even do become homeless. What they do instead is just move somewhere else where they can find an apartment they can afford on a janitor's salary.

That opens up a whole other set of problems for the wealthy areas (where are they getting their fire, police and teachers from?) but they can just build housing for them as part of the employment agreement if it comes to it.

[quote]Really, [R87]? How are you going to avoid the inevitable lawsuits when you declare it's NOT AN OPTION.

Who is going to sue who?

and what are the laws, exactly - do you know?

The ACLU would sue and they have.

For those of you who think it's simply a lack of housing: Last winter in Houston a hard freeze was forecast and was expected to last a few days. That is not the norm in Houston. Our police chief and other city officials as well as social workers were out on the streets begging street people to take shelter. Some street people got on the bus or in the van and stayed at shelters for those few days. But plenty of people Would Not Come In off the street. There is a certain percentage of people who cannot or will not abide by the rules necessary in group housing. Some of them are ex-cons who have had enough of rules to last a lifetime. But most of them are mentally ill and/or drug addicted. They cannot make good choices for themselves.

We need to be able to commit people. And to make that possible, we'd have to get the ACLU on board. I don't see that happening. But who knows, I never expected the Berlin Wall to come down either.

Looking at listings in Venice on Zillow. 2.0-2.5 million for clapboard houses built in 1923.

California is unlivable and unsustainable. Smart people are leaving in droves. Everyone who works for a living in CA has a massive tax burden to support those who don't. When the welfare recipients threaten to outnumber the productive workers, you have a problem.

To the poster that asked about Beverly Hills...yes the homeless have arrived there too. Was accosted by a couple of panhandlers the other day on Rodeo Drive no less. They are in Brentwood too. There have always been pockets of homeless throughout LA but with the new subway system that goes from dwtn to the coast, it is bringing all the homeless from dwtn LA to all parts of LA. Why would a homeless person want to sleep on the streets of dwtn compared to safer Santan Monica, Venice or anywhere on the west side.

And r95 it's only going to get worse.

r90 = Brooklyn Real Estate Broker.

[quote]To the poster that asked about Beverly Hills...yes the homeless have arrived there too. Was accosted by a couple of panhandlers the other day on Rodeo Drive no less.

A few beggars maybe - but they're not pitching tents en masse.

They should just round up the homeless and drop them off in Mexico, problem solved!

Not really R68. The sort of city which has been declared a sanctuary for illegals will very likely be quite soft on the mentally ill street people. It's simply common sense

Predicting footage of the homeless in SF and LA as part of 2020 pro-Repub campaign ads re what can happen in a solid Blue, pro-Sanctuary state. Yes that's what Deplorables fear. That is, resources spent on more new immigrants.

Oh, yes, of course it is the legal weed in WA state and CA (and Portland Or). IT has absolutely nothing to do with Tech companies (And LOTS of out of state money) moving in, the cities gentrify, and housing became outrageously priced so those who do not work for tech companies cannot afford it.

Yes, tell yourself "it is the drugs!', so you can go back to complaining that these people ruin your property values. They probably lived your apt 5 years ago.

Any vagrant who repeatedly shits on the street, does illegal drugs or threatens anyone needs to be arrested.

They are a grave danger to homeless women and children.

R90, your fantasy that these people "just move on" to places where their salaries pay for housing must not realize that:

A) moving costs a fucklot, and many Americans don't even have $500 bucks lying around.

B) rural America aint cheap (rent in the town I live in starts around 1K, but oh, wait, where will one be employed? Walmart or the Prison (both pay 11/an hour).

I think it went down in the 60s because Pacific Ocean Park, a theme park with rides, closed in 1967 because people didn't want to go through Venice to get to its pier.

[quote]California is unlivable and unsustainable. Smart people are leaving in droves. Everyone who works for a living in CA has a massive tax burden to support those who don't.

California appears to be a shitshow. Why are Democrats unable to govern effectively?

[quote]The sort of city which has been declared a sanctuary for illegals will very likely be quite soft on the mentally ill street people. It's simply common sense

Common sense is typically lacking among the Progressive Left.

I can't wait until Christmas Break is over. The trolling is tedious.

You misunderstand my Country Mouse friend at R105

My point is that the working poor don't become homeless when government housing policies don't keep pace with economic reality. They hey double up, they eventually move on, they do whatever it takes to get by and no, it's not an ideal situation and it should be fixed.

But you are gravely mistaken if you think that the working poor are the ones who wind up sleeping on the streets of Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Those are mentally ill and drug addicted young men for whom no amount of public housing would alleviate their situation: they need far more help than just a free apartment.

I'm curious to know how the woman featured in the video upthread became homeless in Venice given that by her own account she worked and paid rent for 17 years. She seems lucid enough.

The rent went up beyond what she could afford.

That’s ridiculous. Nobody should have the rent jacked up to the point where they have to leave. There ought to be a federal law against it.

I know that they’ve taken over Vancouver BC. Such a modern lovely city, but so many homeless. The white Leave It To Beaver types panhandling and wearing dirty clothes.

Portland too r114. Lots of homeless young whites.

In Phoenix too R115. These last few years I've seen a dramatic increase in the homeless. There is a homeless couple I see all the time and they are always blocking the sidewalk. I asked them politely not to block the sidewalk. When my dog almost got hit by a car because of them I had had it and called the police. I saw them once or twice since then.

This is a problem in all the major West Coast cities. The weather is one factor and I think pot legalization hasn't helped.

Here in Portland, there used to be a lot of sketchy, substandard housing (e.g., cheap residential hotels downtown) that were full of drug users, the mentally ill and people generally living on the edge, but those buildings were sold and torn down as developers rushed to build apartment buildings for the millennials moving here from the rest of the country. So those tenants ended up on the street.

California's population is, as usual, increasing, not declining. If they're leaving in droves, they're also coming in droves.

And while mentally ill/drug addicts are an ongoing problem in homeless populations, they're not behind the recent increase in homelessness. I live in Silicon Valley--there's been a massive upsurge in homeless people living in RVs--some of them have chronic health issues, but a lot of them are employed and priced out of the rental market. Some people pile multiple families into two-bedroom apartments, others prefer living in RVs--basically two bad options.

It's really the wealth gap as much as anything--the people with money have tons of money and people who don't have a hard time getting their foot in the door. They still keep coming, though, because there are jobs here. Some of them are locals who have fallen on hard times. Once you get priced out of a home, it's hard to get back in.

As for the anti-Democrats here--oh, yeah, housing's plenty affordable in Kansas--because no one want to live there thanks to the number the GOP has done on the schools, tax base and economy. Or then there's Florida--where the way the GOP deals with the red tide, increasing severity of hurricanes, sunny-day flooding and salination of the water table is to simply pretend it doesn't exist.

In California, for every 100 of our friends who have left, 250 strangers have arrived.

R117, It is the same way in Seattle. The loss of the SROs, boarding houses, and trailer parks close to the urban core has driven the people who were living on the edge out into the open.

I moved from my hometown of LA to Vegas. Even celebrities are relocating. I saw Babyface at my neighborhood Target. LA's too expensive for the rich.

Lots of older people have moved to Nevada--cheaper housing, lower taxes, but enough going on to make things interesting. Vegas is also one of those places where unions are strong enough that you can earn a living wage in a blue-collar job.

It's a good thing, IMO; it's helped turn the state blue. While some people leave California because they want to be in a more conservative area, a lot of Californians take their politics with them and have helped turn nearby states blue--even Colorado, definitely Nevada, Oregon and Arizona. I think the coastal Dems are even going to make Idaho a less deep red one of these days.

[quote] I'm sorry, I normally don't feel these feelings, but I think I'm just tired and fatigued, I'm picturing the city turning on fire hoses and sweeping all this trash and its owners into the ocean. And doing it every day, until they find another place to squat.

I'm all for it. The best solution until someone can come up with a better one. And it works... If you tear down the tents and discard the trash/belongings, they will not return.

R55 just gave me the best belly laugh of the day. I sympathize the homeless plight and associated social ills, but damn was that funny.

You can google homelessness for any city and see the problem. There isn't an easy solution.

I looooove the comments that Dems don’t know how to govern in CA — yet their economy blows the socks off every state. NEWSFLASH mother fuckers — the homeless problem is a direct result of Rethug policies. You can literally draw a line from Point A to Point B. And as usual, the Dems will pick up the mess. Fuck off if you blame Dems, you show your hand when you call them “liberals” you assholes. The biggest thrust of homelessness has come from closing state mental institutions — which is all GOP. This is the grand society they envision, the mentally ill/drug addicted left to rot on the streets like yesterday’s lunch. THIS is their America!!! It sucks. I never signed on to live in a fucking third world country, but that’s all the GOP is capable of delivering.

I often wonder if the homeless have any family. In days gone by, our values would not allow a child, brother, sister, uncle or aunt to live in the streets.

R126 very true CA has good homeless policies so a lot of cities bus off their homeless to CA as an easy solution. Republicans states are awful with money.

Only exception is Texas. And that’s about it lol. One red state out of many

Some of them do, R127. I watched a few videos on the YouTube channel linked above (the one with the homeless woman in Venice) and there are stories about people struggling with addictions who become homeless but there’s not much that parents and other family members can do once children become adults.

R123, I'm in Portland and they do return after their camps are torn down. Tearing tents down barely treats the symptoms let alone addressing the problem.

I don't know how we can address the problem. It seems like offshoring mfg jobs and automation is taken a lot of middle class jobs away. When driverless vehicles are operational we will loose even more jobs.

I guess we need to go back to heavily taxing the wealthy and start an unending WPA system.

[quote]I guess we need to go back to heavily taxing the wealthy and start an unending WPA system.

They have SO MUCH these days. It's time it was spread out a bit.

Venice needs to provide some housing for these people. Housing and cafeteria food could be arraigned and it would not be that expensive...it is what is best for the community.

The problem with that R132, is that it will increase the homelessness problem in Venice. It's the humane thing, but not one that will work well for the city.

San Jose had a big tent city for ages--tried to control it, not be mean about it, but eventually they just eradicated it.

I remember it was a big problem in London in the 90s. It almost seemed to be a lifestyle choice. The gritty 90s. Generally young white men sleeping in doorways. Most have them had dogs on ropes.

But they seemed to disappear overnight. Now I think it's back again, but not as bad.

Back in the 80s, apparently, if people slept on the street, they'd hose them down in the mornings and all their stuff.

RE R2

[quote](these are not homeless jobless mothers with their babies living in these tents and RVs...)

That's because shelter and welfare services including job placement are overwhelmingly geared towards women, especially women with children. A grocery store was hosting a funds drive for a couple of local women's and children's shelters. I sent the charity an email and said I couldn't support a charity that excludes men. I got a reply from their director who said they do shelter men and that there were plenty of services for men. I replied again and said you only shelter men who can prove they are legally married to the mothers of the children. The shelters also admit single women but not single men. And the sight of homeless men everywhere proves that there are no services for them.

Fuck, my city has closed down the homeless veteran's shelter. After the major claimed they would have 100% homeless vets in long-term housing within 2 years, the program was stopped after a year and now the mayor went on to run for state representative.

Such bullshit. For some reason, the problems that men experience that make them homeless are not considered worthy of assistance.

One shelter I used to refer to as a social worker had a men's and women's wing. Men's wing always 100% full with waiting list. Women's wing usually 100% empty, never more than a couple beds filled. Why? Services are overwhelmingly for women. After a couple years of complaining, the shelter turned the women's wing over to the men.

Why are the homeless in California? Because it's a place in the US you can live as a homeless person and not worry about dying of exposure at some season of the year. Why so many homeless? Because the rent is too damn high and government doesn't think real estate greed is a social problem that requires correction. Because there are no worthwhile addiction or mental health services. Why else? Because nobody wants to implement the obvious solution, which is to create sufficient housing for these people. Why? Somehow we are to believe that building housing for the homeless will somehow hurt the real estate market.

[quote] The biggest thrust of homelessness has come from closing state mental institutions

This.

And the fact that no matter how many times we explain it on this thread, too many of you think that the homeless are just down on their luck folks with jobs who just need a cheap and clean apartment and some sandwiches.

It's also a lot harder than just creating "worthwhile addiction or mental health services"

Current law prevents forced hospitalization and many of the mentally ill homeless are so foregone they don't get treatment when it's offered, don't follow up on it once they start it and otherwise are beyond the reach of anyone who wants to help.

So r136, let’s not let this thread get derailed by any other sideshows, shall we?

The GOP CUT taxes — taxes they said were deserved by corporations, deserved by the wealthy. Meanwhile, we don’t have ANY properly funded mental institutions in this country. Hypocrisy? Irony? Stupidity? All of the above? These fuckers talk about “bleeding heart liberals” as if compassion isn’t tied to intelligence. It’s the Great Lie. Bleeding heart liberals understand that a society is only as good as its weakest and poorest, and that “win-win” equals a higher quality of life for ALL citizens. This is pure logic. Lifting up the lowest improves society for all citizens. Quite simple, actually.

R137 you type like a troll. “Oh, mental health is haaaaard. I give up!” Fucking sissy.

Do a little googling chief.

Many well-funded mental health programs bump into the problem that the mentally ill homeless frequently don't want/think they need any help and there's nothing that can be done legally to force them into treatment.

Many of them come from middle class families and the families try to get them help but to no avail.

Like I'm sure you don't think you have anger issues and all and you'd reject someone who suggested it.

[quote] Fucking sissy.

23 Skidoo!!!

Um r140, I’m actually well aware. But your point still fails to address that mental institutions are grossly underfunded — if I’m erring on this point, please site a source? And you’re god damned right I’m angry, as I said, I didn’t co-sign living in a fucking third world country. If you are *not* angry then you’ve been sleeping child.

No, R136...we understand that there are people on the street who should be in institutions. But Ronald Reagan was President 30+ years ago. Have you considered that maybe...just maybe...there are other, more recent forces at work?

No one on this thread is saying we don't need better services and care for the mentally ill but those are not the only people on the street or struggling with homelessness.

We don’t commit people to long-term psychiatric inpatient facilities anymore, do we? The bar for involuntary commitment is quite high, and after someone’s discharged from a hospital you can’t force him to comply with medication. If families and friends are unwilling or unable to look after the patient he or she is at risk of becoming homeless yet again. It seems to be an intractable problem.

R143, annnnnnnnnnd no one on this thread says there aren’t other forces at work. Again, cite a source showing the strong funding for mental institutions. Go!

A quick google search gives us this.....

And this....

And this.....

And this

And this....

And this.....look at the numbers. No shit, many homeless refuse treatment for addictions and mental illnesses. Does that mean we just stop talking about the underfunding? Does that mean we focus on the percentage of the population we cannot help?

Anyone notice how the trolls on this thread ran away? Good riddance. They can’t back up what they’re saying with facts.

Consider since the removal of mental health inpatient hospitals and most outpatient services by Reagan in 1980 or so, that the US population has increased by over 100 million people, or over 45%. So you'd need a proportionate increase of services. But funding has been stagnant or declining ever since.

There are more lost/hopeless people disconnected from society. A good portion are classically “mentally ill”.. But in addition to the elimination of forced hospitalization for the SEVERELY mentally ill. think the numbers of the borderline mentally ill have increased as society has gotten crazier and religion has faded as a psychological and physical support. Just seems there are a lot more middle aged people - mostly men - who re just dropping out of socially or not able to function in society. Combined with a dramatic decline in well paying jobs for these borderline cases, there needs to be a logical, pragmatic, FUNDED approach to helping those in need.

It’s complicated and global- but cutting taxes on the wealthy and corporation is NOT a solution. WPA is a good start.

awesome

anything to drive the shitass yuppies and titty fed clubsters out...

[quote]as developers rushed to build apartment buildings for the millennials moving here from the rest of the country. So those tenants ended up on the street.

Oh, piss off. Gen Zers are the ones graduating from college, joining the workforce and wanting to live in urban/metro areas. Stop trying to blame millennials for every little thing.

As has been said, many of them are too mentally ill and/or drug-fried to ever be self-sufficient and basically need to be taken care of for the rest of their lives. That takes money that politicians and taxpayers are just not going to spend for care facilities, and there aren't enough staff to work there either.

R156, we have reached the point of “shit or get off the pot.” We CAN afford it and people WILL work there with a decent salary.

I forgot to add, especially if we undo that dumbass tax cut!!!!!

tread carefully, homosexuaity was once classifed as a mental illness.

people were unfairly warehoused in mental hospitals for years and then dumped in the street when the hospitals closed.

i dont understand why we vacillate from one extreme to the next in this country.

A good place to start with the homeless problem, whatever the cause, would be for people who profess fervently to follow the teachings of Jesus to actually do so.

Now THAT is a good point r159. And so is r160. Where are all the Christians, hmmmmm??? Why don’t they MAGA by helping the poor and needy on their fucking streets?

Lack of affordable housing is definitely part of it. CA is horrible with homeless right now, because many people can't afford the rents.

The State of California did a survey on the homeless in the state. IIRC over 60% were NOT mentally ill. There was also a huge jump (IIRC 16%) in homelessness in the past year.

Also, Reagan didn't close the mental institutions. Believe it or not that started under Kennedy. Reagan stopped funding the community outreach facilities.

In China they would all be sent to forced labor camps.

"People who don't agree with me must be trolls"

[quote]In China they would all be sent to forced labor camps.

The U.S. needs to step up their game.

Eventually, something akin to the labor camps will happen here r165. Except, instead of being run by the government, the program will be managed by a “charitable tech company” or billionaire. Yes, folks will be taken care of, but as property of said company or individual... evolved slavery.

Thanks, ACLU.

Whenever I hear someone bad-mouthing the ACLU, I automatically know I’m dealing with someone who likely didn’t have a college education, OR perhaps they *did* have a college education.....at Trump University.

One reason for homelessness we haven't discussed is having a criminal record. I would think if you were convicted of a sexual offense, a murder, robbery or other violent felonies it would be difficult to find a job, let alone one that paid a living wage. I think this mostly applies to men.

If I were an employer, I wouldn't hire them.

Well, you make your bed, you have to lie in it, even if it's on the sidewalk.

[quote]Eventually, something akin to the labor camps will happen here [R165]. Except, instead of being run by the government, the program will be managed by a “charitable tech company” or billionaire.

Why would they bother to do that when they're already getting slave labor in China for free?

[quote] Everyone who works for a living in CA has a massive tax burden to support those who don't.

Link to any data to support 1) massive tax burden 2) "supporting those who don't"

The ACLU did make the wrong decision. These people need a tough love approach. Give them decent shelter and for the ones that aren't too far down the rabbit hole, rehabilitate them.

But they need to get off the streets and become productive members of society. For the once that can't be helped or who refuse help. Lock them up in a mental institution. Every person has a responsibility to their surrounding community. Being a shitting/vomiting/harassing/drinking/drugging do nothing isn't one of them.

r168 like working in a Amazon fulfilment center?

On my last visit to San Francisco I was followed down Market Street by two homeless crackheads asking me for money. And I dodged piles of human shit in the street. It was lovely.

Like in the old days - they had workhouses for people like this.

They should be put to work, working on America's infrastructure - the bridges, the railroads, building houses.

They'll be paid. Given shelter. Learn useful skills.

But allowing people to sit around the streets shitting and pissing and sleeping in tents, living on land they do not own is uncivilised....and doing them no fucking good.

Whatever, this is an issue of grave national importance and it needs to be dealt with - not swept under the carpet.

Fuck, put them to work building a high-speed rail system that this country so desperately needs!

Just Google NY Homeless rights, then California. Then you will see why there is an epic homeless problem in California.

R170, the ACLU has done a lot of good in this world, but a few of their fights have had unintended (I hope) consequences like making it difficult to institutionalize mentally ill people and to take homeless people off the street in subzero temperatures.

I agree that these people need to be introduced to the work environment. One of the reason they are letting themselves go is that they feel useless. Introducing them carefully to meaningful work will give them their self worth back.

It goes without saying that this has to be done in a non exploitative way. But yes, ultimately only a tough love approach will work.

Homelessness on this scale is a failure of capitalism.

R182, a lot of the homeless in California *do* work. Particularly the ones living in vans and RVs.

There are schoolteachers living in their cars in the Bay area. It's not all drug addicts or other unemployables.

Venice Beach Homeless Man Lives in an RV with His Daughter. Both Have Jobs but Can't Afford Rent.

We've got tent camps in the Twin Cities, too. And the social workers going in to help the residents have been threatened and driven out by an Indian group that wants to be the only one in charge of helping people in the camps. Pure poewr play on their part. Meanwhile, many of the tent inhabitants are scared shitless of the rest. It's a minority of disabled/unemployed/down on luck people versus the hard core addicts, dealers, and the violently mentally I'll. Problem is, there's no good solution for hardcore addicts and the dangerously mentally ill. Addicts don't want to stop using and don't want to be responsible. The dangerously mentally ill are too dangerous to share spaces with other people. Hell, even the state hospital is racking up assaults on staff and other patients to the point where staff are quitting cuz the patients are too dangerous.

So - what are we gonna do with the people who only care about drinking/drugging themselves to death, and the uncontrollably mentally ill? The current solution is to jail them, but eventually they get released, and the problem continues.

There was a homeless adjunct professor at San Jose State University. Students were converting a short bus for she and her husband last year. It's estimated 13 percent of the students at San Jose State are homeless.

This is not about mentally ill drug addicts at this point. The Bay Area has long had that issue, the new homelessness is something else and it's happening in LA now, too.

R127, I know someone who comes from big money, and this person is homeless. This person has mental illness, and refuses to comply with prescribed medications and regular, on going treatment.

This person has been given homes, expensive vehicles, clothing, etc. This person cannot hold on to any of it, because of their mental illness.

I know another person who was homeless, and now lives in a luxury apartment in NYC, with a 24 hour caretaker. This person has several people come in for different shifts, and has someone else on weekends. This person has schizophrenia, and is under the guardianship of their wealthy parents.

I knew a homeless man in my neighborhood, who had a family that was desperate to help him and take him in, however, he did not want to live in a suitable environment, and preferred living on the streets.

r186 That's because they insist on living somewhere that's out of their price range. I'm sure with two jobs they can find something, and if their income is still too low, they probably qualify for some sort of government assistance.

R190, Renting Venice rathole shitbox studio for a mere 2,500 bucks.

R169, the ACLU helped decriminalized homelessness, such as sitting and sleeping in public places, when one is homeless and has no place else to go. This is an important step in getting politicans and the general public to understand that being without a home is not a criminal act; and, if they want the problem to improve, they are going to have to provide homeless people with ... homes, or something like one. My own state just had a similar ruling a month ago, and they told the police to stop prosecuting homeless people for loitering or trespassing.

A related uncovered topic here is that nearly all homeless shelters require their residents to be away from the premises during the day, meaning that the homeless still have noplace to go during the day. Many shelters have strict schedules, meaning you have to show up at a certain time, and leave at a certain time. A problem with this is that people who are homeless, yet working nontraditional hours, cannot live in most homeless shelters because their hours don't conform to the shelters' required schedules.

A solution will come. And some will like it and some will hate it. People will not continue to elect officials that don't change the current situations. We are seeing more and more gated communities in CA and eventually will see gated towns and beaches. Soon we will see them rounded up and taken away for good. Tolerance only lasts but so long.

This is a fun thread to read as I prepare to move back to CA.

R178 r179 You can’t when Spanish speak migrants occupy most of the construction jobs. And they start gatekeeping once they have a sufficient amount of numbers. The new nepotism, now serving undocumented men for labor

Nepotism = our President and Elizabeth Holmes. Unlike them, Spanish speaking migrants know how to work and are positive contributors to society. The opioid addicts in Kentucky and the meth addicts in Oregon need help from the government. As do the mentally ill. I think this thread has shown that’s an issue that needs to be addressed.

The more universal issue that even Deplorables can get behind is the inability to find affordable housing near where jobs are - in CA, Seattle, etc. It honestly seems to me to be a problem that’s almost purely West Coast based. We have more poverty in Philly, but we have an almost negligible homelessness issue due to abundant affordable housing and a progressive, comprehensive approach to helping the homeless including the mentally ill and addicts (thanks to Democrats) . . I have faith in the progressive logical democracies of those states to figure out something.

1930s >

The homeless addicts need to OD and then we won't have to deal with them and their drama anymore.

Yes, r61- i used to have friends that lived off of Rose, and at that time, it was a lot of latino gangs and drug dealers. My friends used to walk me to my car, and inevitably we would hear gunfire and dash to the car.

The problems are multi faceted, but one of the biggest problems is NIMBY. Government needs to make it clear to people, allow us to build shelters and affordable housing in your area or this is what will happen. Would you rather have a shelter down the street, maybe a few section-8 duplexes in your neighborhood, or do you want your streets filled with homeless people in tents and sleeping bags? Also, we must go back to institutionalizing those who cannot take care of themselves, with greater safeguards to ensure they are treated with respect. Alcohol and tobacco taxes, especially, should go to funding more community mental health and rehab services. And, this is where I lose most liberals, but we need programs so that the homeless can fill the menial jobs that are now taken by illegal immigrants, such as landscaping, housekeeping, construction, and farm labor, with severe penalties for any employer who does not pay the minimum wage, as many do under the table.

R24 Dems need to realize that Australia is the future model of crop pickers & not the Central/South American illegals that come over with no assets to speak of & a complete drain on resources (I've never heard a Dem say that California's water shortages/rationing in the state is due to millions of illegals using a resource they're not entitled to under federal law for decades now).

Unfortunately it is one of then issues that they are the ones stuck in the 1950's not the repubs.

Australia has just 6 years to go for their farming revolution to be fulfilled (about the time of Obama's win over Mitt R. in 2012 - to give an American time perspective).

Denial seems to run big with the Dems on this issue. They even wrongly believe that Hispanics will vote for them out of sympathy for citizenship deals or for loyalty to government programs like Native A. & blacks. The Hispanic voting record for repubs (even when they are demonizing them) suggest otherwise.

Wow, listen to the radical, anti immigrant, racists on this thread. Get back to licking Trumps ass!

serious fucking weirdos posting here.

homelessness is very third world and intolerable in a state with the fifth largest fucking economy in the world.

What I'd like to see is a National Service Program, where every young person is required to fullfill two years of National Service, not military, but like the CCC during the great Depression, building infrastructure, working in the community, etc... with food, housing and a small stipend included, then they would receive four years of college or technical school. Every citizen would be required to do it, regardless of class, gender, race, etc..., unless you are mentally or physically unable. But, National Service would also be open to anyone else who could not find employment elsewhere, so there would always be a true safety net, that would also maintain our crumbling infrastructure. The mixture of people of every background, having to work together for a minimum of two years would solve alot of our problems of division. Remember from history, that one of the reasons for the success of the Civil Rights movement, was the desegregation of the military under Truman, that paved the way for many of the drafted soldiers to interact with black people on equal footing for the first time, so that after their service they weren't as opposed to equal rights as they might have been.

As a moderate independent, I agree with everything you wrote R201.

R203 It's not about racism. It's about "system overload". California can't hold millions of people who can't even afford their own bottled water when the state is struggling to have water resources for the LEGAL citizens, animals & even plant life( people can'e even water their lawns like they use to).

States like Florida & cities like Houston can't even do mandatory evacuations due to the extra people who would jam up the roads during hurricanes. The dems illegal policy is why government isn't working in those areas.

Rumors of about 600,000 illegals in the Houston area alone is the same population as the county that Dayton Ohio resides in. The illegals have caused a "system overload" in the city where the emergency services to the legal citizens are pushed back for people who don't belong there in the first place. Repubs capitalize on this neglect with easy to remember slogans such as "put Americans first" & they won in a landslide across the country with it in '16. They were just a tad away from being able to rewrite the US Constitution. Despite dems bragging rights of the U.S. House takeover, repubs managed to increase their hold on the Senate with 5 more seats. Trump is more powerful in the Senate than ever & the House dems will have to compromise with the Senate repubs & Trump since they can't override many of his threatened vetos.

Wherever you are living R203. I hope you have opened your home/s to the illegals that have been made homeless due to the 2018 Cal. wildfires. Please show us a current photo of your kindness to whatever illegal families you have taken in. If you can't then your hypocrisy on this issue will be what gets Trump a second term.

R199 I can't envisage your scenario. My impression is that the homeless represent unchecked capitalism and that the number of marginalized individuals will only grow larger over time.

R204 Yet, there is NO country that has solved the problem. How can you solve the problem, when there are people who are mentally ill, yet the law says you can't institutionalize them and even if you could the institutions were shut down years ago. How do you solve the problem of addicts that do not want to be free from their addictions? How do you solve the problem of housing those who need and want shelter, when even very liberal communities say not in my backyard? How does a society support the lower classes, when lower class jobs are disappearing thanks to the technology companies that are also the ones driving up the cost of housing, and refusing to pay their share of taxes, and at the same time allowing more immigration of more lower classes into that society.

R196 I am tired of the racism of those like you who say Spanish speaking immigrants know how to work hard. Because, what you are implicitly saying is that Black and White Americans can't or won't work hard, which is a lie. The problem is that native born Americans are not willing to work for substandard wages and, immigrants especially illegal or undocumented immigrants are. Open a coal mine in Kentucky or WV and you'll get thousands of applications, even though it is backbreaking work, that they know will probably kill them from black lung, but they are willing to do it because the pay is good. Near where I live is a poultry processing plant, that is still mainly staffed by native born black and white workers, again it is backbreaking work in horrible conditions but they still get more applications than they have openings, why because they are a rare poultry company that pays well. I'm not anti immigrant, but we have to realize that our economy at this moment cannot support the lower classes that we already have, to import more is just idiotic, and is not humane to the immigrants nor to those already here, and will only exasperate the problems we already have.

Again, homelessness in California is not because of a lack of jobs--it's lack of affordable housing where there are jobs. And, no, a couple of Secion 8 housing complexes won't fix the problem.

R202, You know nothing about California's water issues--zip, nada. 80 percent of California's water goes to agriculture. Illegal immigrants taking showers are not the problem, poor water management policies (with agreements dating back to the pioneer period) are. Oh, and global warming, which intensifies the severity of our droughts.

R208, though, has a point--one of the issues with illegal immigration is that it drives down wages. And, yes, increased automation will erase entire sets of jobs.

We should really be doing what Japan has, which is letting its economy stagnate while letting its population drop to a more sustainable level. We and Europe would, in fact, be doing that if it weren't for mass immigration, which is encouraged by the global economy and run-amuck capitalism. But rampant economic growth is kind of a drug and too many powerful people and corporations are fatally addicted to it.

The "fix" for California's homelessness is, ironically, an economic downturn. Those without jobs will move to where there are jobs (or go home), those with jobs will benefit from dropping real-estate costs and be able to rent. The correction will be painful, but we're looking at economic bubble right now.

is Venice its own city or part of the city of LA?

I like the 'round em up and send em to Alaska' solution proposed upthread.

R210 part of LA.

Move the homeless to empty states like Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho.

Newsom and Harris have a big homeless problem in CA if either wants to run for President.

October 18

^^

[quote]“Is this just a welcome mat for the rest of the country?” asked another resident when Garcetti, Bonin, and chief Michel Moore began taking questions from the audience.

[quote]One resident likened the shelter to a luxury hotel. “You have transients here, and there’s going to be more of them if you put in this Ritz Carlton by the beach,” said Venice resident Travis Binen.

It's so odd that there's a drug (Narcan/Nalaxone) that anyone can be taught how to easily administer and which instantly neutralizes the action of powerful opioids on a person who's OD'd. Some people are brought back from death's door literally dozens of times only to OD again and again. If that weren't the case, if no magical reviving drug existed, would people be more afraid to ever begin using opiates/painkillers in the first place? Would the death toll be so astronomical that the problem of heroin addicts would solve itself, like a virulent plague sweeping through the population and killing the most susceptible but leaving the rest relatively unharmed?

R215's article doesn't give the number of current homeless people living in Venice Beach. I'm sure it's a lot more than 154.

It seems like different solutions are needed for the different types of homeless populations. The residents are furious about the poop and needles: that's coming from the drug addicts. Mentally ill are a separate issue, then there are the people who are trying to live with dignity and can work but can't afford housing. Just adding shelter beds isn't a comprehensive enough solution.

OMG the proposed Venice homeless shelter looks like a concentration camp from the war!

r217 I know this is horrible of me, but sometimes I wish Narcan had never been invented. The problem would solve itself and more people would be terrified to try opiates because of all the deaths.

I know, horrible. But if you live in an area that has these crazy drug-addicted scumbags all over the place, you can't help thinking that way sometimes.

R208 is right on about one of the effects of illegal immigration. They are a cheap and exploitable workforce that is lowering wages and taking jobs from Americans. It's like CA and other coastal liberals can't imagine that there's a world where white and black Americans are maids and clean toilets and work other so-called menial jobs. So they hire their undocumented maids and landscapers and then feel morally superior about it. They think they're doing such a service to humanity. It's their charitable contribution.

Americans are not anti-immigration. They are anti-illegal immigration. You can go to the middle of so-called flyover country and see Asian and Latino immigrants fully embraced by the very people the Left call Deplorables. The same people that vote for Trump and want his wall. You see their churches supporting missions in Africa and South America and working to sponsor new American citizens. And, yet all we hear from the Progressive/Liberal Left is that America is a white supremacist society. That this is the last gasp of the white male patriarchy. That soon whites will be a minority. Both sides are playing the immigration/race cards to try and gain/keep power. And so nothing really changes and people get more pissed off and more willing to vote for someone they think will listen to them and fight the system.

Ultimately, we're lucky that Trump is such a corrupt shithead. A more savvy, less obviously compromised politician would have been able to do everything he's done and much, much more.

R201 blaming NIMBYs is so tired and predictable and exactly what seems to constitute Progressive housing ideology today: "Fuck NIMBYs. Fight gentrification. Stop building parking. Have rent control. Forcibly integrate rich, white neighborhoods." But, the reality is that most Americans want to live by people like themselves. That doesn't always mean race. It sometimes means religion. It more often means economic class. Even people who want to live in "diverse" neighborhoods want to live with a bunch of other people like themselves that cherish and value diversity. We're all looking for a place where we fit in. But nobody wants to live by Section 8 housing. Nobody wants to live by a homeless shelter. Nobody wants their house price to go down. Fighting to put poor and homeless housing in rich and middle class neighborhoods is a losing political policy.

So where are regular citizens of L.A. going to live? A beginning teacher or the grocery store clerk or salon employee? 2 hours outside of their work area? 3 hours outside of their work area? How will this type of system play out long term? As it looks now, if you do not earn upwards of $150 thousand dollars, there is no area around your larger cities, where people who provide these services, can live affordably. So what is the long game outlook?

I wonder if part of the drug problem is people lacking hope? If you grow up in a small town, you will have a heck of a time getting out. The few jobs that are there won't pay living wages. College tuition is untouchable for most. It cost money to pick up and move to a city. It must feel like there is no way out.

[quote]I wonder if part of the drug problem is people lacking hope?

It's a reasonable premise, but one also seen in housewives and office drones of the 50s and early 60s. Those people were constantly self-medicating, but the difference is much effort wasn't needed to keep money flowing...

The desperation is the same, but with rapidly shrinking means of support.

Uproar

A day in the life.

The proposed shelter will only take in 100 people. They estimate there are 1000 homeless in Venice.

[quote] Every citizen would be required to do it, regardless of class, gender, race, etc..., unless you are mentally or physically unable.

I predict a huge epidemic of bone spurs.

[quote]Newsom and Harris have a big homeless problem in CA if either wants to run for President.

I'm not sure how much can of the homeless issue can be pinned on a senator (Harris.)

Someone upthread asked about where all the Christians are. I don't where all the evangelicals are; however, some of the mainline denominations in Houston have been working with the homeless in Houston for many years, e.g., Lord of the Streets (healthcare for the homeless), the Way Station (breakfast, healthcare access, etc.) There is also Main Street Ministries which runs Operation ID and other services for the homeless.

The link below is not working just this second, but I'm confident it's a good link.

Los Angeles is spending $4.5 billion to end homelessness. Here’s what it looks like.

the number of homeless in LA seemed to greatly increase starting last summer.

I don't understand why. The economy has been good up until recently. Odd.

Is rounding them up and gassing them off the table?

[quote]It seems like different solutions are needed for the different types of homeless populations. The residents are furious about the poop and needles: that's coming from the drug addicts. Mentally ill are a separate issue, then there are the people who are trying to live with dignity and can work but can't afford housing. Just adding shelter beds isn't a comprehensive enough solution.

This. You can’t lump all the homeless in one group

My brother was homeless. It was something he chose. He had been in and out of prison and had a drug and alcohol problem. He was given every opportunity in the world that most people would just at. One night he was hit by a vehicle, hit and run. I wonder if that person that killed him thinks about that night.

Agree 100% R234

The latter group, people who can't afford housing, are easy to help.

The former groups, drug addicts and the mentally ill, often don't want help of any kind and that's a lot tougher to solve.

Part of why the ACLU succeeded in giving the homeless civil rights is because of the terrible conditions in mental institutions. It was horrific. But that doesn’t mean we could not have fixed them, it was a mistake to close all those institutions and it is a mistake to not put the very mentally ill in hospitals. Addicts should also be forced into treatment.

My last visit to SF I literally had to step over a man who was shooting up on the sidewalk. Anyone that far gone is a danger to themselves and others and belongs in a facility. But as stated earlier, this is a highly complex problem that requires multi-pronged solutions. I think the trickiest population to help are the single young men who choose that lifestyle. How do you convince them that humping it at Kohl’s in a shitty apartment with five roommates is “better” and that they’ll be “happier”?

Sometimes I think the homeless are one of the few groups calling out how fucked up our culture is. They recognize that joining the rat race is not a recipe for happiness, that the American Dream has become a lie, and they are consciously choosing to not participate. So for some, there is a logic to their thinking, and I’m not sure how you shift their attitude.

Yes, but its the USA's emphasis on individual rights that allows the mentally ill and drug addicts to make decisions for themselves. In Switzerland they're picked up and put into health programs and housing and given long term treatment

I don't know about Venice but in the valley they really do seem to round them up. Little groups of homeless people seem to pop up under the highway underpasses. If you go to the city services website there is a place to report them. As soon as one pops up they get tons of requests to remove them. They have to follow some proceducure that takes a few days. Someone told me people are getting around it by pushing their unattended stuff into the street. If the stuff is in the street as opposed to the sidewalk they have to remove it right away.

It is like war on the homeless. People don't want them around.

[quote] People don't want them around

Do YOU want them around?

I was watching some clip on YT about this and this guy they were following around, who's been living in some park in LA, had all his stuff taken away. He said they lock it up in a container on the site.

True, nobody wants them around and this is normal. Apart from everything stated above they're also demoralizing to a society

California has more than enough money to put into place a program to deal with all aspects of homelessness, but there is no political will. And there is always the ACLU, of course, to throw up road blocks.

California state university system used to be free.

[quote]The proposed shelter will only take in 100 people. They estimate there are 1000 homeless in Venice.

So it will barely make any difference to the problem at all.

I'm so sorry, R235.

Thank you R244.

*jump at

Living paycheck to paycheck is disturbingly common: ‘I see no way out.’ The struggle is everywhere.

What do professors, real estate agents, farmers, business executives, computer programmers and store clerks have in common?

They’re not immune to the harsh reality of living paycheck to paycheck, according to dozens of people who responded to a Washington Post inquiry on Twitter.

They’re millennials, Gen Xers and baby boomers. They work in big cities and rural towns. They’ve tried to save — but rent, child care, student loans and medical bills get in the way.

National data on the paycheck-to-paycheck experience is flimsy, but a recent report from the Federal Reserve spotlights the prevalence of extra-tight budgets: Four in 10 adults say they couldn’t produce $400 in an emergency without sliding into debt or selling something, according to the 2017 figures.

Even brief income lapses can spell disaster for some households.

“My husband is a Park Ranger in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and he had to sign his furlough papers,” one woman tweeted. ”We have a 4 yr. old and a 4-month-old, and we don’t know when his next check will come. Mortgage is due, Christmas 2 days away.”

“Broke my lease to accept new fed job for which I have to attend 7 months of training in another state,” another Twitter user said. (He later deleted the tweet). “Training canceled with shutdown. Homeless. Can’t afford short(?)-term housing/have to work full-time for no pay/returning Christmas presents.”

Homelessness in Venice, CA = the yokels from "flyover states" who so desired to smoke pot legally, they abandoned their homes and families to chase this dream.

Homelessness in Venice, CA = the mentally ill who ought to be rounded up and involuntarily incarcerated for the rest of their lives and /or shipped off to Alaska.

The rent spikes , speculation and PRICE GOUGING have ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH HOMELESSNESS.

Venice is always repulsed me. When I first moved here friends took me too Venice. I wanted to get back on the plane! I've rarely been back since.

R248 You are right on the first two, but the lack of affordable housing in CA does contribute to homelessness, and to act as though it doesn't is ignorant.

If the homeless can't afford California rents they should move to cheaper places.

R251 I see the three ghosts failed you last week, Ebenezer.

R229 it's the perception that will defeat Harris. The Republicans will have a field day with CA homeless visuals.

Whatever r253. It’s way too soon to tell.

Tell that to Venice residents.

Okay Svetlana ^

Fucking idiot r256.

It’s New Year Day....even in Russia, Svetlana ^

Surely the troll farm will give half the day off to recover from your cheap and borscht binge.

r258 you're a big reason why DL can suck.

Because I’m calling you on your Russkie bullshit Svetlana?

Da! Da! Da!

r260 I'm actually at a NYE party in San Diego but thanks.

Here, it's also getting worse. Affordable housing, or the lack thereof, has to be addressed in regards to this crisis. Like others have said, many of the homeless aren't choosing to live on the streets or drug addicts, they just can't afford the outrageous rents.

[quote]I'm actually at a NYE party in San Diego but thanks.

at 5:30?

Yup. r262. It's a house party that started at noon.

Sure Svetlana.

A NYE party that started at noon.

Oh you got me then r264 I'm really in Moscow lol.

It would be the only possible explanation for your idiot predictions about the US presidential race...which is two long years from now.

Idiot according to you r266. The fact that Warren is unelectable on a national level is pretty much a given. Moron. The Dems need to get out of their bubble, which is what sunk Hillary.

Also, a moron who goes shouting "Boris!" "Svetlana!" like a petulant teenager every goddamn time someone has a differing opinion is not one to be taken seriously.

[quote]It would be the only possible explanation for your idiot predictions about the US presidential race...which is two long years from now.

I thought it's next year.

(it's 2019 where I am)

I know that American names are confusing to you, Svetlana.... but which woman is the focus for tonight’s troll quota: Elizabeth WARREN or Kamala HARRIS?

I have read only the first 105 replies, but Vlad III, aka Vlad Dracula, the inspiration for the vampire Dracula, according to legend had the solution for homelessness in his country. He invited all the homeless in his country to a grand feast in a castle a distant location. It was indeed a grand repast but as the homeless settled into their meal, the castle was sealed from the outside and then set afire. No more homeless then or thereafter.

Of course I am not suggesting this contemporary solution.

"Everyone I disagree with is a Russian troll"

It’s still 2018 in America Svetlana

You're a very bad man, r271. I like you.

Sort of like how most of the Crusades were just plots to get rid of a few thousand peasants to curb overpopulation. Too many young men and poor urchin children in England? Send them off to the Holy Land to fight in the name of Christ or whatever.

Is this really new. I thought Venice was always sort of a shit hole. I was there in October and had a good time people watching on the beach/boardwalk. But, I wouldn't describe it as a nice place; it was kinda shitty. At least in the tourist area.

[quote]I thought Venice was always sort of a shit hole. I was there in October and had a good time people watching on the beach/boardwalk. But, I wouldn't describe it as a nice place; it was kinda shitty. At least in the tourist area.

Gurl, there's much that's lovely.

Venice CA - bungalow life.

How much are houses there r278

The Rose Café

Exterior - Rose Café

[quote[How much are houses there [R278]

I think about $1.5M - $2M

What the photos don't show is just around the corner there are homeless people sleeping on the sidewalk. The disparity is shocking.

Thanks r278

Is that really true r286? If so, yikes

[quote]What the photos don't show is just around the corner there are homeless people sleeping on the sidewalk. The disparity is shocking.

I think we're aware of that, R286.

The boardwalk or whatever they call it, is fun and colorful.

Doesn't hurt for people to see the other side of life and why people want to live there.

OMG.

$2,385,000

2 bed - 2 bath

Venice has become quite expensive, like everywhere else in So. California. It used to be relatively cheap for LA.

[quote]I live in a decidedly un-trendy, middle class area in eastern LA County. We have a HUGE homeless problem for no apparent reason.

As r71 and others have mentioned, there IS an obviously apparent reason. It cost $800-$1,000 just to rent a room in the San Fernando Valley cheaper rooms are in unsafe neighborhoods or are rhe size of a closet). Getting an apartment, even a single, is impossible for many people. One of our local homeless guys is on the streets because he can't afford to rent on his fixed income. Mental illness is a concern, but let's not pretend that homelessness isn't also on the rise because of the housing crisis.

[quote]The poor working people being priced out of the market by overheated real estate markets don't become long-term homeless, if they even do become homeless. What they do instead is just move somewhere else where they can find an apartment

Oh, my sides! I've actually been homeless and probably will be again, despite working 2 jobs. I didn't magically find something affordable, I received help and slept on couches until I could begin the struggle anew.

[R230] It’s great that religious organizations are helping out but what I’m wondering is where are INDIVIDUALS who profess to follow the teachings of Christ. He is very clear quite often about how his believers should treat the poor and sick. Too many to spell out here. No mention of forming organizations. No, it is what each person is expected to do. That is why I suggested the homeless problem would be made short shrift of if genuine believers behaved like they actually did.

@R231 They are homeless because they are priced out of housing and or they cannot make a decent living with fair wages.

Yet almost every damn one of the smoke like chimneys at $8.00 a pack.

priorities R295

Does California not having Section 8 housing available for their poor?

I'm sure they do R297, but they probably just don't have enough units for the homeless.

R295 If you are living on the street and come into money, from panhandling or anything else, it is much safer to spend the money as soon as you get it, on smokes, booze, food, etc... than to try and keep it on you. If they tried to save their money they would more than likely be robbed by other homeless or if they are picked up by the cops it is treated as suspicious if they have more than a few dollars on them.

Mammon refuses to provide for parents in old age, by John Chrysostom (347-407 AD)

"Christ says, 'Care for the poor' (Matthew 19:21; Mark 10:21; Luke 14:13); Mammon says, 'Take away even those things the poor possess.' Christ says, 'Empty yourself of what you have' (Matthew 16:24; Mark 8:34; Luke 9:23); Mammon says, 'Take also what they possess.' Do you see the opposition, the strife between them? See how it is that one cannot obey both, but must reject one?... Christ says, 'None of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions' (Luke 14:33); Mammon says, 'Take the bread from the hungry.' Christ says, 'Cover the naked' (Matthew 25:34-40; Isaiah 58:7); the other says, 'Strip the naked.' Christ says, 'You shall not turn away from your own family (Isaiah 58:7), and those of your own house' (1 Timothy 5:8; Galatians 6:10); Mammon says, 'You shall not show mercy to those of your own family. Though you see your mother or your father in want, despise them' (Mark 7:11)." (excerpt from HOMILIES ON PHILIPPIANS 6.25)

Haven't they been there for awhile?

Who's Mammon?

Was he some Libertarian trolling Christ back then?

[quote]Does California not having Section 8 housing available for their poor?

There is a waiting list of several years. The disabled and families have priority and their constant influx bumps others further down the lists.

The homeless should be sterilised.

Is that like sterilized R304?

I'm not a fan of "Eminent Domain", but if homelessness is becoming critical where there are abandoned condemned properties, I'd support the governor invoking it from their owners and converting those into Section 8 homes.

Section 8 is for very low income people, disabled and the elderly. I don't know if there is a program for those with no income.

From other posters it sounded like some of the homeless do work but aren't making enough to even afford an a room at the going rates out there.

R308 In my experience the homeless who do work at legitimate jobs, aren't the ones you see on the street. They are the invisible homeless. Many of them have cars, that they live in, they make enough money for gas and to minimally maintain the car, and insurance, etc... If they are lucky they buy a gym membership, so they can stay clean, and they eat fast food and use Laundromats. They might even have a bank account, but at the end of the month they do not have enough left over to even afford the deposit or rent on the cheapest apartment available.

R305 Yes, like painless castration.

So the coming generation will have less of the problem we have now.

R309, Yes, most of the employed homeless live in vehicles where I am. They were invisible, but now there are so many of them that there are literally hundreds of RVs and vans lined up along parks and highways where I live in Silicon Valley. Up in Berkeley, however, they've banned the overnight RV thing, so there are tent cities with port-a-potties instead. A lot of people who were just getting by month-to-month end up homeless when anything happens to their apartments--increased rents, evicted so the landlord can make more money from an Air BnB, tear downs to make room for different kinds of housing.

You also get younger people choosing to live in vans as a means of controlling expenses while they pay off student debt. There was a Google engineer who famously lived in a panel truck in the Google parking lot in order to do so. After a while, he realized he wasn't the only one living there--there was an intern spending his summer there in an old camper.

But for most people it's less of a choice.

A pack of cigarettes costs $8.00 now? Jesus!

[QUOTE]There was a Google engineer who famously lived in a panel truck in the Google parking lot in order to do so. After a while, he realized he wasn't the only one living there

Goddamned tech companies that insists on setting up their fucking campuses in cities that already suffer huge housing problems.

Maybe a few thousand homeless and literal shit on the streets/sidewalks can help lower both the property values and the smug attitudes.

R314 Why can't California's dog walkers pick up after the homeless? Can't they multi-task on the streets there? Charity begins at home as they say.

R289 where was that photo taken? It’s really pretty.

[quote]“My husband is a Park Ranger in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and he had to sign his furlough papers,” one woman tweeted. ”We have a 4 yr. old and a 4-month-old, and we don’t know when his next check will come. Mortgage is due, Christmas 2 days away.”

If you're living paycheck to paycheck, why are you bringing kids into the picture?

Google is trading at $1000+ per share and the bastards don't even pay their engineers a living wage?

r317 that's a question as old as time.

yes.

only wealthy stable geniuses should reproduce. '

you do realize that if your parents really thought about it and considered all the pros and cons, you would not be here?

google pays great benefits and wages but the cost of living has outpaced their employees earnings.

Of course there's always this ...

and this ...

Venice is not some wonderland. I used to live in Santa Monica, which is the neighborhood directly north on Venice. Like all things LA, the pictures are a long way from the reality.

i haven't been but i thought of venice as beach town with a hippie vibe.

who doesnt want to live on or near a beautiful beach?

[quote]yes. only wealthy stable geniuses should reproduce. '

[quote]you do realize that if your parents really thought about it and considered all the pros and cons, you would not be here?

Don't be dim. There is a happy medium. My parents were neither wealthy nor geniuses. But they budgeted their income, and always had funds at the ready for emergencies.

On second thought, maybe they were geniuses, comparatively.

Is Detroit doing something about their homeless people by purchasing abandoned houses?

R327 Detroit isn't rich enough to buy their homeless anything in high priced Venice Rose.

[quote]he had to sign his furlough papers,” one woman tweeted. ”We have a 4 yr. old and a 4-month-old

The children had already been born by the time he was furloughed, r317. It's not like they could be sent back for a refund.

@militantangleno

Very powerful scene along Colorado Blvd in #Pasadena tonight as thousands voluntarily sleep on the street to call attention to the region's homeless epidemic.

[checks calendar] Oh wait.

[quote]The children had already been born by the time he was furloughed, [R317]. It's not like they could be sent back for a refund.

No... but we're they not living paycheck to paycheck a year ago when they made the decision to bring the second child into the family?

[quote]The children had already been born by the time he was furloughed, [R317]. It's not like they could be sent back for a refund.

Bullshit!

[quote] The only humane solution would be state-run housing facilities with adequate mental health care but with the numbers of homeless we're talking about it would be far too expensive.

And you think increasing the taxes of CA billionaires would have them relocate out of state? I think not. Raise their fucking taxes. These homeless people are mentally ill and self-medicating. They are American citizens. Some are veterans. Many have schizophrenia. Fuck Hollywood liberals in their gated compounds. Tax them and build facilities for sick and vulnerable citizens.

Nothink economists assume that new, better jobs are on the way for displaced Americans, but no economists can identify these jobs. The authors point out that "the track record for the re-employment of displaced US workers is abysmal: "The Department of Labor reports that more than one in three workers who are displaced remains unemployed, and many of those who are lucky enough to find jobs take major pay cuts. Many former manufacturing workers who were displaced a decade ago because of manufacturing that went offshore took training courses and found jobs in the information technology sector. They are now facing the unenviable situation of having their second career disappear overseas."

American economists are so inattentive to outsourcing's perils that they fail to realize that the same incentive that leads to the outsourcing of one tradable good or service holds for all tradable goods and services. In the 21st century the US economy has only been able to create jobs in nontradable domestic services-the hallmark of a third world labor force. Prior to the advent of offshore outsourcing, US employees were shielded against low wage foreign labor. Americans worked with more capital and better technology, and their higher productivity protected their higher wages. Outsourcing forces Americans to "compete head-to-head with foreign workers" by "undermining US workers' primary competitive advantage over foreign workers: their physical presence in the US" and "by providing those overseas workers with the same technologies."

The result is a lose-lose situation for American employees, American businesses, and the American government. Outsourcing has brought about record unemployment in engineering fields and a major drop in university enrollments in technical and scientific disciplines. Even many of the remaining jobs are being filled by lower paid foreigners brought in on H-1b and L-1 visas. American employees are discharged after being forced to train their foreign replacements. – Paul Craig Roberts

(And nothing has changed from 2005…)

I'm still on this Google thing. That company can easily afford to subsidize reasonable housing for their full-time employees. They should have some kind of program setup. Engineers should not be living in vans in the parking lot, that is the most insane thing that I've ever heard.

But globalism is a good thing r334.

The Google engineer who lived in a van could afford an apartment, however, he had huge student loans. By living in a van, he was able to pay them off in a couple of years. Google has all sorts of facilities--gym, bathrooms, cafeterias, laundromat. So, he really used the truck to sleep, store clothes and surf the net.

WW R333

If celebs got on board and pushed this issue the problem could be addressed effectively IMO. Why doesn'Clooney, for instance, who sold his booze biz for 1 B, work to help his fellow Americans rather than schmooze with foreign dignitaries like he's some kind of expert in international relations He's not

Go talk to the Swiss, George, to get a handle on their model to address homelessness. Bring it to Calif and adapt it to local conditions.

Fuck him and all these filthy rich cunts who do nothing to help vulnerable Americans living desperate lives like that woman in the video provided above.

Loon ^

R339, why would we expect a celebrity to fix the homeless problem? That I the job of our elected officials.

Nope, doesn't say anything of the sort, R331. Why are you so determined to villainize that couple? Do you really assume that every family suffering from the effects of a firing or lay-off started out poor?

Why can’t we do anything anymore?

When people were starving we did the New Deal. When Ford wanted to sell cars, we built a national highway system. We put together Departments of Heakth and public health clinics. When people were disrupting their families & society, we built a mental health system. When we entered WWII we changed manufacturing plants into munitions factories.

Now we have an unemployment crisis - no problem. Just make up a fictitious number of unemployed by refusing to count them all. Homelessness? So what? Destroy public schools ? Sure. Public schools were fine with white People when they were segregated. As soon as desegregation came along, so did “Christian” and “charter” schools. The drug problem was a problem of immorality until white people started dying. Crumbling I nfrastructure killing people? Oh well. It’s the will of the lord, I guess. As long as I’m fine, the hell with anyone else.

We just let problems grow and grow and do nothing.

R341 Don't pas the buck!

Celebrities have more power than guvmint proles.

Brad Pitt solved the homeless problem in New Orleans.

Big George can wave his magic millionaire's wand and turn all those filthy drug-addled homeless of Venice into upstanding American citizens we'd be happy to have as our middle-class neighbours.

Welcome back Anonymous In Kansas City r344

Now take your meds

There has to be a New Deal for the technological age. Huge numbers of jobs must be created by building public infrastructure. Taxes have to rise for the rich and for corporations, whether they like it - and they won't - or not. America is a Christian country. It is a vastly wealthy country where the rich want to live. Tax them. The level of injustice is not acceptable.

[quote]Nope, doesn't say anything of the sort, [R331].

It doesn't indicate either way. They are claiming to live paycheck to paycheck right now, where it's problematic that he was furloughed last week.

It's possible the couple went through their entire savings in the last year. It's equally possible they were living paycheck to paycheck a year ago. Thus, my question.

[quote]Why are you so determined to villainize that couple? Do you really assume that every family suffering from the effects of a firing or lay-off started out poor?

Am I really "villainizing" someone by asking why bring a child into this world when you are living paycheck to paycheck? It's an honest question directed at anyone in that situation.

Incidentally, if you read the woman's tweets, her husband does have a 401k. While there are penalties and taxes associated with dipping into those funds, it's not as if they have no recourse.

I went off of the quote you chose to post, which doesn't say anything about them previously living paycheck to paycheck. If there was more that actually proved the point you were trying to make, why didn't you post it, or reference the original post so we could view the entire thing/click any links that may have been provided? Do you think we are going to scroll back through 300+ posts to find where you lifted that snippet from?

He just told you that the article doesn't indicate their financial position prior to current, and the question was directed generally, at anyone who has kids without any savings. I don't think anyone cares how far back you scroll.

Then why did he pick that particular segment to quote, even though it doesn't support his claim, and reference the woman's tweets in r347?

I'm not defending genuinely poor couples making lame decisions to have kids. I'm asking why r331/r347 used the quote about that particular couple, if he was just making a general statement that didn't apply to them. He responded by referring to tweets but without a link back to them.

R335

Google wanted affordable housing built for their employees in Mountain View, but NIMBYs in Mountain View killed the plan.

Ironically, despite the NIMBYs and angry SJWs in San Francisco who oppose almost all new housing developments, SF seems to be one of the very few cities in the Bay Area constructing at least some new housing.

I don't see a solution for this that doesn't involve the state government effectively outlawing neighborhood opposition to housing projects (whether subsidized affordable housing or private housing).

[quote]Fuck him and all these filthy rich cunts who do nothing to help vulnerable Americans living desperate lives like that woman in the video provided above.

Perhaps because it's not currently a FASHIONABLE cause.

People don't really want to confront this because it's too smelly.

Maybe if these homeless made more of a REAL stink - these Hollywood millionaires and billionaires who are living just down the street WOULD take notice. But they're hiding themselves down back alleyways in the beach section.

Maybe they should start to make more noise - like the yellow vests in France who do actually seem to be making a difference.

These people are being too quiet - and that's why no one's listening to them.

What WOULD happen if they moved over to Beverly Hills, I wonder...and SHOUTED AND SHOUTED AND SHOUTED - instead of hiding in alleyways and under bridges on freeways.

Us gays of all people should know that. When we said ENOUGH! NO MORE! and made a NOISE, things changed.

I don't see how they can outlaw it R351.

People with severe, psychotic illness, which is a lot of homeless people, cannot organise themselves politically. They shouldn't have to either - decent people who can organise must come to their aid and be their mouthpieces.

I'm happy and homeless

I'm a homo

[quote]Google wanted affordable housing built for their employees in Mountain View, but NIMBYs in Mountain View killed the plan.

Why wouldn't they want housing for Google employees? They're hardly the unwashed masses, these people are white-collar.

"The homeless are moving in on Venice CA now. The locals aren't happy."

Watch out, El Segundo!

"El Segundo, Where the Sewers Meet the Sea"

Rich foreign scumbags using US real estate to park their filthy dirty money is another reason for the housing crisis. In NYC you walk by the luxury high-rise buildings at night and the places are practically empty. And that drives up real estate prices for other types of housing as well. Motherfuckers.

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

R357 What places like Google need to do is place their large campuses in unincorporated areas, build company towns, and then provide housing to their lower level employees as a benefit of employment. It worked for the textile industry for over a century and it can work now.

El Segundo, CA - Now recognized as 'The Best Kept S.Cal. Secret.'

Not for long.

The Left's problem is that they want to fight unwinnable battles. They don't really want to solve the housing crisis. (The solution to that is simple: More non-luxury housing. All sizes. All price points.) Instead, they are fighting for some mythical quasi-socialist racially diverse carbon neutral utopia.

Here's the reality. Most everyone in this country supports more housing...more affordable housing. Most everyone wants the addicts, the crazies and the homeless off the streets. But what Americans don't want is for those people to be turning up in their neighborhoods, making them less safe and lowering their property values.

The homeless don't need to fucking live in Venice. Ship them off to some high desert shithole. On a fundamental level, most Americans don't believe that poor people should get to live in rich neighborhoods. Raising taxes so that homeless junkies can live by the beach is only going to piss off all the tax-paying suckers stuck in places like Van Nuys who could never afford to live in Venice. Plus all the rich people who now live next to a shanty town. That combo is how you turn CA Republican again.

Sorry for your loss, R235.

Cart the homeless to Beverly Hills and see how quick Garcetti solves the problem.

Why would Garcetti care about them going to Beverly Hills?

Because the wealthy would squeeze Garcetti's balls if the homeless showed up in BH. Money rules.

Beverly Hills is its own city. Garcetti isn't the mayor of BH.

Within LA County.

If your dog shits on your neighbor's lawn, it's your problem to clean up. If Garcetti's homeless shit in Beverly Hills, it's his problem. And BH will make sure he knows it.

r371 The homeless don't "belong" to Garcetti. And Garcetti is not in charge of LA County.

Actually, they do. It's a problem that needs to be solved and its on his plate. I'm from LA.

Will the homelessness push more and more people to move to the hills?

Clooney would rather private jet it around southern and central Africa ensuring shitty used Oxfam clothes are delivered to rural communities. Nice photo ops.

He and other celebs like him don't give a shit about Calif's homeless.

God, you butt corn crazy cunt r375

George Clooney has nothing to do with the homeless in LA

r299 there also are no places where they can go to hold that money. Banks won't open an account for them. Panhandling is literally money to barely get by day to day. Social Programs are much better to get them off the street.

R376. Try to keep up. We're using Clooney as an example. Substitute his name with any other high profile celeb who lives minutes from the human misery of homelessness.

Celebs have power particularly when they act in concert.

r363

[R378]

At least you use the appropriate example.

I knew nothing about homelessness in Venice, CA.

At the next Awards ceremony, I will be sure to remind everybody that we are all Africans.

The homeless are homeless because they want to smoke cigarettes and weed (rather than pay rent)), procreate recklessly ( and choose to live on the street with their kids) and/or are nuts and ought to be involuntarily incarcerated for the rest of their lives.v

High rents, rent speculation, and over inflated real-estate prices, stagnant wages ( along with a series of global economic meltdowns) HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH HOMELESSNESS.

When I was renting and looking at apartments , landlords and realtors would tell me to my face that their asking rent for a shithole in a dead-end neighborhood should be priced as is (high as hell) because people were willing to pay so much more to rent in desirable areas.

Overinflated rents in one part of town cause the rents to rise in not so nice parts of town.

R381 What are you trying to say? On the one hand you claim that high rents have nothing to with homelessness, then you admit that rent in bad neighborhoods are "high as hell" because of inflated rent in more desirable neighborhoods. And, you don't think there is a correlation?

If Hillary Clinton hadn't let the Russians hack the election by not visiting coal miners in Pennsylvania, then there would be no homeless problem in California

r385, im being sarcastic.

Are you for real R384? I can't believe you would actually say that!! Unless of course you were being sarcastic.

Thanks R365. My brother and I weren't close. As a matter of fact he was a real asshole, but he didn't deserved to be killed.

** ! ATTENTION! ATTENTION ! **

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R357

They were worried about traffic.

NIMBYs down the peninsula aren't necessarily scared of the unwashed masses. They're worried about their comfortable, suburban lives being disrupted by new development. And they have good reason to be. If towns down the peninsula saw even half the growth they should have been seeing over the past 30 years, those towns would be small cities in their own right.

What's the most absurd to me is that NIMBYs oppose housing development in downtown San Jose even though downtown San Jose has never been a pleasant residential district. More development would bring what people living in that area have always claimed to want -- more grocery stores, more coffee shops, more restaurants, things that would make downtown San Jose actually livable and not just a glorified office park. I moved away more than 20 years ago, and when I visited for my 20-year high school reunion, almost nothing had changed. Except now the median house price in that city is $1 million.

R353

What they could do is take upzoning decisions (and even decisions on individual projects) out of local city councils' hands. That's ultimately how NIMBYs manage to kill every project.

They go where they can get shelter. But why would anyone who pays a million dollars for a house, want them around lowering the value of their homes?

And here come the BernieBros at R388/R389 bitching about NIMBYs. Pretending to be oh-so-enlightened...but actually advocating for voters to have less representation in government. After all, why should people who live in a city have any actual say in how that city is run?

If I can't afford to live in Pacific Palisades or Palo Alto or San Luis Obispo...why should my taxes pay for poor and homeless people to live there? The Left needs to work on putting poor and homeless people in poor neighborhoods. Lack of shelter (and services) is the problem. But they won't do that, because they believe that putting poor people together is racial segregation. And racial segregation --a tool of white supremacy-- is the real problem. And so they continue to fight for racial and economic integration instead of working to actually solve homelessness and the housing crisis.

Nobody wants to live by poor and homeless people. Any solution that ignores that fact is destined to fail.

[quote]why should my taxes pay for poor and homeless people to live there? The Left needs to work on putting poor and homeless people in poor neighborhoods.

R391 >

All along The West Coast.

Essential California: A year of reporting on the homeless

San Jose is a perfect example. How the center of the biggest booming industry in the world does not have high rises or at least allow greater density is obscene. Agree its ugly already. The state needs to do an eminent domain override of the zoning laws there to force higher density development.

I do think the homeless situation is directly correlated with housing prices. The trickle down effect is real. Cities with abundant cheap housing - like Philly - dont have the severe homeless problems that rich expensive cities have. More housing is a critical first step. There are a lot of other issues to address - but what is clear is the need for much more housing.

Maybe because San Jose is near the Heyward earthquake fault, r395.

Putting poor people all together in poor neighborhoods guarantees a lack of the resources that help people survive poverty and/or escape it, e.g., jobs, grocery stores, good schools, etc.

[quote]Brad Pitt solved the homeless problem in New Orleans.

BULL. SHIT.

Is the Building Dept in New Orleans inept or corrupt or both? Because the claims in that article re Pitt's buildings could not be made against his foundation if building permits were issued properly throughout the construction process

Pitt basked in the glory but it was a failure from the start.

"Nobody wants to live by poor and homeless people. Any solution that ignores that fact is destined to fail. "

If you don't want to live by homeless people, why do you allow homeless people to rot in tent cities all across this country?

Homeless persons shooting up and defecating in your backyard is a temporary problem which somehow doesn't cause your property values to fall (even if your quality of life is diminished, (HEP C, anyone?) compared to the building of affordable housing.

The construction of affordable housing is a detriment to housing values because it is a permanent solution to a social problem, is why NIMBY nixes construction of affordable homes?

Is this rationale the reason people are "ok" with stepping over human beings and human waste and used syringe needles in an upscale beach town where the asking price for a 2 bedroom shack is 2 million dollars?

People move to where they can afford to live and neighborhoods change all the time. Former slums become chic, happening neighborhoods and good nabes fall when certain types of people move away and funding for services are deliberately removed

What doesn't change is that people do need a place to live and a 3500 rent is not affordable to all.

R402 It is completely ridiculous that it works like that. If I was buying say a $2 million dollar home, and I had to choose between buying one in a neighborhood that had a few section 8 or affordable housing and one where I had to step over homeless people on the sidewalk, and deal with the issues that come with that. I would choose the neighborhood with the section 8/affordable housing.

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No, R386, he did not deserve to be killed, nor to be left.

We are all becoming so dehumanized. Homelessness used to be shocking. Now, it is but for the grace of God, it could be all of us. It now is the working poor. The cost of housing has skyrocketed everywhere, along with the price of food and the downsizing of food packages.

The homeless camp out at LA's City Hall

By Suzy Khimm and Laura Strickler

The partial government shutdown has frustrated tourists, delayed trash pickup in national parks and shut off the Smithsonian Zoo’s beloved panda cam.

But as the closure drags on with no end in sight, it’s also jeopardizing the welfare of some of America’s poorest families.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development is one of the seven agencies most directly affected by the standoff between President Donald Trump, who is demanding $5 billion in border wall funding, and congressional Democrats, who want to reopen the government without it. Since Dec. 22, the vast majority of federal housing employees have been forced to stay home without pay — prohibited from doing any work, including responding to emails.

Most of HUD’s routine enforcement activities have been suspended, including mandatory health and safety inspections of housing for low-income families, the elderly and people with disabilities, according to the shutdown contingency plan that HUD posted on its website. Public housing officials say they don’t know how long rental assistance payments will keep coming from the government, and a suspension could put millions of tenants at risk if the shutdown drags on into February. And if there are any problems in providing affordable housing grants to local and state governments, as well as nonprofit groups, there are few people on hand to resolve them, according to one furloughed staffer.

more at link

These dirty humans can be flushed away with water

The Insane Battle To Sabotage a New Apartment Building Explains San Francisco's Housing Crisis

I rather live next to homeless people shelter then the mental ill

If you live near a homeless shelter you will be encountering the mentally ill all the time too. Why not live next to neither?

Homeless near me in HK are constantly trying to sell me drugs. No one has gotten aggressive with me when I turn them down, but they are openly asking me on the street if I want to buy coke and other drugs. Arrest them, lock them up and keep them there. It might be prison, but it’s still shelter and three meals a days.

homeless shelter or no shelter, you are still living next to 'them'.

this guy wound up down in the electrified subway tracks under train after attempting to retrieve a bag of food!

is this a first world country or not?

the entire line (north and southbound) is shut down while the cops and the emts try to fix this causing a major disruption in service that lasts hours.

wouldnt your tax dollars be better spent building affordable housing for a wretch like this rather than scraping him from out under a train?

dude just wanted a meal!!?

now tax payers have to pay for his hospital stay, how much do you think that's gonna cost ? six figures.

six figures would pay his rent for years!

i forgot to mention the meal was catfish and greens, an old school treat id also hop down in the subway tracks to retrieve

It’s insane how much we are willing to spend to house and feed criminals in prison - but choose to ignore the needs of those who have committed no crime but are homeless. America is such a f**d up place. Marx may be right after all - maybe capitalism is simply a stage before socialism that is required for us to learn it’s a shitty societal structure for everyone but a few members of the elite.

its a crime to be a failure

R413 That dude didn't just want a meal. He wanted some shelter to sleep in.

if hes electrocuted or run over by the train, his homelessness is cured.

Problem solved, R418.

Well better there than the real Venice — they’d have a hard time sleeping on the streets there.

Jail = Three Hots and a Cot, but it’s not a real solution people, we all know that.

R410 Thanks for posting that. It's an eyeopener.

UPDATE

Sergio Blandon on Jan 7th, 2018:

I was raised in SF during the hippie generation. 1981 49ers win the Super Bowl for the first time and buddy and I get our first apartment. 2 bedroom for $350 a month. Probably the same one going for $4250 today. I now live and hour away from the city and work in the east bay. My mom lives in the house that we grew up in. She bought that for $55.000 now it is worth a little more than 1 million. Something has to change or your barista at Starbucks wont be able to make your drink and your favorite restaurant wont have a wait staff. I a big circle than needs to turn evenly but right now it has big flat spot.

Easy solution. Ship them off to the suburbs and let them form their tent citys or suburban homeless neighborhood enclave/HOA. The Suburbs are cheap and for the working class/poor. Cities now belong to the elites and lily white suburbanite millennials on trust funds. It's just the cycle.

r423, the nosy neighbors complained of the stench of human waste.

are these the same neighbors who oppose the construction of affordable housing?

R423’s ‘UPDATE’ is from 2016.

[quote]Easy solution. Ship them off to the suburbs and let them form their tent citys or suburban homeless neighborhood enclave/HOA.

They're clearly flocking to the most expensive coastal cities because the population density, wealth, and moderate climates in those areas mean they'll be in a better position to panhandle, find drinking water, dumpster dive, and not die of exposure to extreme temperatures. I wonder how many of them escaped from shithole red states? In Washington DC, the majority of the homeless have always been out of towners because schizophrenics frequently have the delusion that they "need to speak to the President!", find their way to the city, and then don't have the wherewithal to go back home again.

As much as we'd like to shunt the homeless out into suburban or rural areas, they're always going to gravitate to temperate cities. The solution is to tax the ultra rich and use that money to provide more housing and services for the ultra poor.

first world

I don't see any problem.

seems they don't want these shelters in Seattle either

[quote]The Google engineer who lived in a van could afford an apartment, however, he had huge student loans. By living in a van, he was able to pay them off in a couple of years. Google has all sorts of facilities--gym, bathrooms, cafeterias, laundromat. So, he really used the truck to sleep, store clothes and surf the net.

Good for him. No whining. Just good old fashioned resourcefulness. He worked his ass off and found a solution. Now he's debt free. Bravo. This is someone to admire and emulate. But the irony is-- you libtard snowflakes will only see him in his current circumstances, living a comfortable life from the fruits of his own labor and sacrifice, and presume he's a greedy deplorable.

[quote]While some people leave California because they want to be in a more conservative area, a lot of Californians take their politics with them and have helped turn nearby states blue--even Colorado, definitely Nevada, Oregon and Arizona. I think the coastal Dems are even going to make Idaho a less deep red one of these days.

R122. Your own words make the perfect case for why blue states like California are such cluster fucks to begin with. By your own admission Cali residents are fleeing to red states to take advantage of a high quality of life they can't have in the shitty blue state they left behind. What does that tell you exactly? If it sucked where you came from due to disastrous blue state social policies, why the hell would you want to import that disease to your new, infinitely better (red state) home?

R432, No one has called this engineer a Deplorable. Google was actually a hotbed of BernieBros.

And Red States like Kansas are a disaster because of GOP policies--no one's fleeing to those. Basically, California's a victim of its own success--not disastrous policies--the opposite--we're still gaining population. Some people want to live in areas that don't have quite so many people. Many of them are nature-loving types, so they go to other beautiful states. They don't, on the other hand, go to Florida, which is being destroyed by GOP anti-environmental policies.

Mostly, we go up and down the coast--something that's been true since the 19th century.

It's pathetic the way you Deplorables are sooo desperate to find something wrong with a state that is the fifth-largest economy in the world and is holding up the red states--Blue states pay for red states and their idiotic policies over and over again. If you guys weren't such disasters at self-government, we'd have a better-balanced country.

Here are some suggestions for you: invest in public education, protect your environment, quit pretending climate change doesn't exist and behave accordingly, quit pushing guns into public spaces, quit being such fucking racists. All of those things hurt you guys economically because no one from elsewhere wants to go near you. Also, anyone with a lick of ambition or awareness leaves your state.

R434. I live in an affluent area of a beautiful red state with four actual distinct seasons. It's very green here. No homeless, little crime, no wildfires, no drought, no earth quakes, no crushing debt. I have no desire to even visit California (did it, no need to do it again) much less move there.

Here are some suggestions for you: Stop assuming you know us. We invest more in education than you ever will. I pay more in taxes than most people make in a year. The environment in my state is 1000% healthier than yours. I believe in global warming and don't own a gun. I am not a racist but I AM religious (and I know you think, in your hilarious hypocrisy, that it's okay to hate me for it). All of your smug, misguided and bigoted assumptions are going to hurt you the next election.

P.S. I can walk down the sidewalk and not have to worry about stepping in human excrement. *o/*

Note how R435 fails to say which state he's talking about. What a joke!

R436 He sounds like he is in NH or Missouri to me. Whatever.

R435, Unlike you, I get out on occasion. I've been to most of the states in the country, so don't assume I haven't been to yours. And if it's so great, tell us which one it is.

California has seasons, nitwit. The record amount of snowfall in 24 hours was in California. The extensive wildfires we now have are largely a result of global warmings--hint--most of that forest land is owned by the federal government--the lack of maintenance is squarely on Trump's and the GOP's collective shoulders, not California's.

And, of course, California has a surplus, not a debt--something we managed once we shrunk down the Republican party to the point that it could no longer obstruct running the government. The real reason Fox and co harp on California is that we started doing much better when the state GOP went kaput.

I wouldn't be too sure about earthquakes, by the way. The most severe one ever recorded in the continental U.S. was in Missouri.

I'll just say that talking out of your ass about a place you've spent no time is typical Deplorable asininity. Congratulations on showing the narrow-minded ignorance that makes it clear why most Red States are struggling.

I've got this, guys.

In NYC "encampments" are illegal... no tents technically allowed. The police are allowed to remove any sign of an encampment. CA needs that. The problem is bad enough in NYC but it is TERRIBLE in CA.

[quote]And, of course, California has a surplus, not a debt--something we managed once we shrunk down the Republican party to the point that it could no longer obstruct running the government. The real reason Fox and co harp on California is that we started doing much better when the state GOP went kaput.

Can you explain this in more detail? I'm not a CA resident, so I don't know the inner workings of the state in great detail. But my understanding is

(1) CA has a budget surplus of $9B at the moment, but still has huge debt. Which is not necessarily a bad thing, but just an indicator that the surplus is a point in time snapshot and could quickly go red if the state doesn't continue to curb spending.

(2) The budget surplus is basically thanks to Brown and his willingness to cut spending, but he's had to continually fight off fellow democrats (who are looking to use that surplus on different programs) and republicans (who want to use the surplus for tax refunds).

What else am I missing?

R441 Nothing they have a budget surplus but they are still heavily in debt, between the state and localities it stands at more than 1.3 trillion dollars. Even the new Governor in unveiling his higher spending budget is quick to point out that if the economy goes below 3% growth the surplus will become a deficit.

12.28.2018 - local news coverage

TODAY - Hollywood Reporter PLUS aerial views

[quote]With swelling transient encampments abutting seven-figure homes, the beachside enclave has emerged as a flashpoint for the inequality shaping Los Angeles — and a real-world test case for the liberal ideology of the area’s showbiz residents.

[quote]As the problem worsens, homeowners are banding together to try to reclaim patches of sidewalk in an effort to deter future encampments. At the corner of Millwood Avenue and Lincoln, bulky wood planters now hog much of the sidewalk. [bold]Those planters emerged mysteriously[/bold] two months ago outside a Staples office supply store that was once a popular resting spot for a handful of tent dwellers

r443, venice ca or bangladesh?

Bangladesh USA, R446.

performance art or life on the streets in the state with the fifth largest economy in the world?

Here's what no one wants to admit: that it is our culture that causes homelessness.

It's been downhill since the sixties.

Free love, drugs, pornography, prioritizing lust over love, selfishness...these issues have destroyed lives.

R449, moralist at large.

Sex is not the problem, you dumb cum dumpster, MONEY is the problem. Homeless people have NO MONEY.

R450, most of the homeless men on the street receive SSI and spend it on drugs, food, hookers, etc.

Most homeless men have arrest records, and ALL of them carry weapons.

Homeless men are not babies who are too helpless to do some kind of manual labor, although they will tell you they are.

They HAVE given up on manhood, however, and have zero inclination to support a family and be a normal guy.

The question is: WHY?

russian troll alert

Horrible @ R448. Years ago such a shocking scene would cause bystanders to rally to that poor woman's aid, or at least call the police to try and get her some help. Now they film it and laugh.

R451 knows nothing and wants to continue knowing nothing.

Many studies have been done on homelessness. The answers are there, you simply don't like them. You'd rather quote dumb, bigoted lies from Fux. No one but other Fuxers believe you and those dumb assholes believe trump for god's sake.

The majority of homeless people in America are families with children, not single men. DUH.

R454,

You know what I am referring to.

The problem ARE in fact single, homeless men in encampments on the street, not families.

The people in Venice dont want the drug addled SINGLE MEN who break into their cars or shit on their doorstep.

[quote]The people in Venice dont want the drug addled SINGLE MEN who break into their cars or shit on their doorstep.

Looks like they've got them because some spooky law won't let the "city" do anything about it.

R454.....

r449 I think it's stolen labor, frozen wages, paycheck to paycheck, rising costs, ballooning debt, corporate greed. Tons of homeless on the streets, Some are incapable of work, but some are and they really want that but they also need stability. Hell some of the homeless do work! Yet teh elite keep getting richer and companies are doing record breaking profits. The average net worth of an American is -1.

Agree with all the posters saying that

the homeless, particularly in larger cities are a combination of mentally ill, drug addicts and most often both

it's difficult to say whether homelessness made them mentally ill or they become homeless because they were mentally ill

even when there's an affluent and involved family, it's legally impossible to force them to seek treatment and most will not

homeless advocates do more harm than good by focusing on the "deserving poor" (e.g., families down on their luck) and pretending that large armies of seriously mentally ill homeless don't exist.

Agreed. Unfortunately, they are resistant to institutionalisation, and that’s not now considered ‘optimum’ for them. Catch 22.

ast month, the downtown San Diego franchise of the Burgerim restaurant chain closed its doors, contending that chaotic conditions caused by large numbers of homeless people in and around nearby Horton Plaza Park had driven customers away and made it impossible to operate. The shuttering of the Burgerim location was a warning signal to the San Diego business community — and to city hall, too.

Burgerim would not be leaving quietly. The franchisee, backed by parent company Burgerim USA, intended to sue in state court, claiming that neither its landlord nor the city of San Diego had lived up to their responsibilities to keep the city’s historic Gaslamp Quarter clean and suitable for business.

Burgerim’s legal action will be of special interest to members of the multibillion-dollar homelessness industry nationwide. Despite the many billions spent on homelessness, however, the problem is getting worse, especially in California.

Along with homeless encampments come deadly outbreaks of hepatitis A, typhus and other communicable diseases, driven by attending drug addiction. Some parts of the city are littered with syringes. A desperate San Diego now steam-cleans its streets and sidewalks.

R461, all of that is San Diego's problem. Everything here up the road in LA is peachy, so if you'll excuse me, I have an Olympics to keep pimping. Oh, and maybe a US presidency to pursue.

I live in N. Fla and Ive noticed lately that everywhere I go ,no matter how nice an area,Im seeing a lot more homeless people than ever before. Weve always had them,but my god,the numbers seem to have increased rapidly. It breaks my heart. I sincerely hope those fucking douche bros that were laughing at that poor peanut butter lady never have to know what its like to be homeless,mentally ill or hopeless.

r462

mr. mayor, 'nimby' and realtors are making a bad situation , worse!

Gated communities and private clubs prevent the rich from having to deal too much with the unwashed. We pay not to have to look at that crap.

just like calcutta

Because it does seem to be driven by an issue of mentally ill and addicts, wish there was more discussion around that and a separate conversation about income inequality which is affecting a lot more people.

Why are so many US college students homeless?

R462 I listed to rim you on the other thread....yummy mayor of LA

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

R470 - maybe wrong thread???

at R444, wow, the image of Penmar encampment, the alleyway and park piled with trash. And you know those are bordering 1 million dollar + homes, likely.

r471, its an unbearable contrast of filthy fucking rich and dead broke, nothing in between

Things aint gettin better

Full article

check out the comments underneath - they go on and on forever.

total fucking nightmare.

and a fucking health hazard.

disgusting!

is Santa Monica pier still nice? haven't been there for a while. many vacancies? it used to be busy...

> Why not put homeless shelters in abandoned strip malls? (...) Plenty of places to house homeless people. Turn them into SROs.

Building codes won't allow it. By law nearly everywhere in the US, in any newly-constructed (or significantly-remodeled) building, any room used as a bedroom must have a window, a closet, and two means of egress. The "two means of egress" problem can be solved by putting two doors at opposite ends of the room, but the "window" problem is basically insurmountable without changing the building code, which is usually a model building code incorporated by reference into the city's statutes.

It's the same reason why new four-story townhomes are exceptionally rare (unless the fourth story is legally an "attic", which usually means that at least 60-80% lies within the roof's sloping profile), and three-story townhomes usually do awkward, ugly things with the entrances and stairs leading to them. In most jurisdictions in the US, no point in a building can be more than ~500 feet or two stories away from a Required Means of Protected Egress (translation: fully-enclosed, behind doors, fire-rated construction, leading directly to an exterior door). So if you want to have a grand open stairway in a 3 or 4 story townhouse, you'd have to have THREE stairways... the grand open stairway for show, plus two more tunnel-like stairways to satisfy the law. Because stairways cost a lot of money and take up a huge amount of floorspace (especially in a townhouse that's already narrow to begin with), developers bend over backwards to avoid triggering the rule (like building the upper floor as an attic, and/or putting the front and rear entrances on the SECOND floor with outdoor stairways so that the third floor is technically just one floor away from an egress door, and they can get away with a single open interior stairway.

Our government can warehouse brown kids in chain link cages, un-airconditioned tents, and closed Walmarts but we can't put a roof over homeless people's heads by converting unused mall space unless we also give them each a window and a closet?

Johnny Rotten's complaining now. This is getting real.

[quote]“They’re aggressive, and because there’s an awful lot of them together they’re gang-y. And the heroin spikes . . . You can’t take anyone to the beach because there’s jabs just waiting for young kids to put their feet in — [bold]and poo all over the sand.”[/bold]

Horrid.

I'm still sure they wouldn't be able to set a foot in Beverly Hills.

Wow, it's like rich people having to live with the consequences of gross income inequality.

So tragic.

[quote]All of the construction Is meant to hit the higher income people. Nobody builds studio apartments.

Yes they do, the building across the street from me has about 200 units mostly studios. But the catch is the price. The starting prices are about 2,900 a month and that in Long Beach where prices are lower than any other beach city in the county.

Venice was a shit hole 20 years ago and it still is. I worked one block away from Rose Ave where this article is talking about. Back then, most of the homeless stayed on the beach, now it looks like they have moved inland. Over the past couple decades Venice got more gentrified and every home is over a million dollars even if its just a 40 year old shack. So rich people moved in and are bitching about what was always there. Ironic that they vote down a way to shelter the homeless. You make your own bed.

The main reason LA seems like there are a lot more homeless people is mainly due to downtown gentrification. That is where the real Skid Row was. They all got pushed out as dozens of new high-rise condos are being built and the downtown area is being flooded with modern day Yuppies. So now that huge group of people, maybe a couple hundred or so roam the nearby neighborhoods and set up camp until they get pushed out to another one. A lot of these neighborhoods like Korea Town have no interest in helping the homeless. It's every man for himself. Plus their neighborhoods look just as slummy.

[R2] "homeless mothers" the horror.

Texas is also going though a big homeless boom. Estimates are around 25,000 homeless people. And unlike CA, there are not that many people living in Texas to begin with. Repugs love to say people are leaving Calif for Texas but fail to mention the dark side of that reality.

[quote]Wow, it's like rich people having to live with the consequences of gross income inequality.

Yes. We should raise minimum wage to $25/hr to level out the income inequality. All those unemployed homeless people would be earning much more.

[quote]Texas is also going though a big homeless boom.

"Homeless boom": needle-scratch-on-record-worthy juxtaposition.

[quote]So rich people moved in and are bitching about what was always there. Ironic that they vote down a way to shelter the homeless. You make your own bed.

Oh, no - it's MUCH WORSE now.

I don't know how a homeless shelter will fix things, they can only take in a limited amount of people.

What they should build is more public bathrooms, EVERYWHERE and especially where there are homeless. I mean human biggies on the sidewalks of SF and on the beaches of Venice is really so uncivilised, to say the least.

OP photo shows an alley, not Rose avenue near Lincoln.

Who said it was Rose nr. Lincoln?

If you click on this link - you can see from street view how there are little homeless "packages" all along this side street (3rd & Rose) - I guess they leave them there and spend the day God knows where, on the beach?

I think during the Winter you could house the homeless in baseball stadiums and in the Summer they can live in football stadiums.

r491; the junkies hole up in public washrooms to get high, not use the toilet

Lot of hard truth in this thread. Parts of downtown LA now remind me of New York in the 1980s.

i still don't get how low income housing is more problematic for home owners more than a shantytown with open drug use and public defecation right next door! is it the homeowners who oppose construction of low income housing or realtors?

[quote][R491]; the junkies hole up in public washrooms to get high, not use the toilet

They'd rather go on the beach?

These are just bums. Ship them out to the Palm Springs area to live, clean air, plenty of room and fresh air.

[quote]Wow, it's like rich people having to live with the consequences of gross income inequality.

Most of these homeless people are severely mentally ill and/or their brains are fried from drug and alcohol abuse. They are completely unable to hold down any kind of job.

Well then they should be in some sort of care - not sleeping and shitting on the streets. It's uncivilised.

We used to have state-run psychiatric villages but they were sued out of existence.

The motto for the mentally ill is "least restrictive environment". I guess you can't get any least restrictive then shitting in the streets. But it's a safety concern on so many levels. Many won't go to shelters though. They need permanent housing and any community that balks at this is just plain stupid. This is what Government should be for.

The end of rent control in many cities, the refusal to address opioid abuse at the source (doctors and pharmaceutical grifting families who knew the risks), the closing of mental health facilities under the Reagan administration, the lack of affordable housing for the sick and elderly (often mistaken for the mentally ill), the dumping of cheap fentanyl on the population from China (purposeful?) and the turnover of existing housing in urban areas into gentrified enclaves for the rich, and finally, the tendency of calling PEOPLE a thing, a label, and reducing them to 'the homeless' rather than actual human beings worthy of our attention....

NOT ONE POST HERE called them PEOPLE.....shame on the lot of you and congratulations for being part of the problem.

r505 if you've had to deal with the more disturbed and violent ones, you wouldn't call them people either.

[quote]NOT ONE POST HERE called them PEOPLE.....shame on the lot of you and congratulations for being part of the problem.

Being snooty and superior is part of YOUR problem. Shame, because the rest of your post was interesting and helpful.

I do work with people who've been hurt and ignored, R506, and consider them people who have been severely damaged and mostly by other people. People who see them as 'things' and who label them without seeing or hearing what happened; how they got there.

Back when I was a child, my parents would remind me 'there but for the grace of god go I' -

Shove your judgment, R507. It was over 500 posts before someone noticed. I help people find housing and it's increasingly difficult because of the real snots in this world.

Get off your high horses and stop judging. Buy someone some lunch, give them a coffee, stop and listen to the man who just begged you for a buck.

So, in the most powerful nation on earth the homeless population is increasing at an alarming rate and no one seems to know why and what can be done to curve this

WHAT THE FUCKING FUCK???

[quote]Shove your judgment, [R507].

Mary, you were the one who was "judging" with your snooty superior remark aimed at the whole 500+ thread. This is not helpful to the cause.

[quote]So, in the most powerful nation on earth the homeless population is increasing at an alarming rate and no one seems to know why and what can be done to curve this. WHAT THE FUCKING FUCK???

Do the presidential candidates ever address this most important issue?

r505 meet r333

The locals ARE raising money

[quote]Venice neighborhood group raises $200K to[bold] fight homeless shelter. [/bold]The Venice Stakeholders Association is prepared for an expensive legal battle

If you have just assumed a one million dollar mortgage for your home you don't want bums who are living for free off the taxpayer's dime in your neighborhood!

[quote] Laws today prevent forcing help on people who don't want it.

No but in order for them to receive certain services then the recipient can be forced to meet certain requirements. Like public housing rules for tenants. Like vaccination rules for public school attendance. Like fucking no smoking rules in a hospital. You want free food then you can't show up drunk or use your drugs on premises.

You CAN and should make reasonable and relevant rules for the recipients of largesse. You want to be completely free of all rules, then fine, you're on your own.

When I was young I really wanted to live in the city but I couldn't afford it. I was stuck in cheaper digs in the suburbs riding a bus into work. So I tried and got a better job. I saved money for the move and the deposit. I found a small efficiency in a great building in a great neighborhood in the heart of exactly where I wanted to live. I worked hard to get there. I was able to keep working harder and saving to finally own a condo in my building. People like me earned our way into nice neighborhoods and don't want to see the neighborhoods ruined or made unsafe. That's a legitimate concern and argument. I vote and I vote against those who think nothing of destroying neighborhoods for a misguided approach to the homeless.

People never appreciate what they don't work for. That's human nature - and that works the same with handouts to the children of the wealthy as well as for handouts to the homeless. SROs or shelters/dorms in certain areas are appropriate especially near to mass transit and facilities/businesses, etc. needed by the homeless to function. Living on the street should not be an option.

Get out of here with your "hard work" and "saving" R516. Those don't apply in today's USA.

[quote]Living on the street should not be an option.

I agree.

One of those articles above talks about "the homeless community" - BARF!

[quote]We used to have state-run psychiatric villages but they were sued out of existence.

Actually you can thank Ronald Regan and all the Repugs that voted for him. He closed all the mental institutions to give tax breaks to his supporters. 3 decades later, this is what you get.

[quote] I worked hard to get there. I was able to keep working harder and saving to finally own a condo in my building.

Thanks for the humble bragging Gramps. It's not like that anymore. No minimum wage job is ever going to buy you a condo in LA. Most employers don't keep people longer and 2 or 3 years. Wages have been stagnate for more than 20 decades while the prices of everything has gone up. Your recipe for success just dose not work anymore. Look at the Kardashians, no talent and rich beyond your wildest dreams. Working your way up is a fantasy for the naive.

r519 it actually started in the 70s with the ACLU. Reagan did his part, of course, but it actually started with liberals, not conservatives.

In Oahu, homeless just wadeout into the warm water and drop a deuce. It is so gross to see a turd floating on shore in Waianae or Waikiki. They have no sense of hygiene, consideration or shame.

Sorry R519 that Right Wingnut Faux News talking point is not accurate. That's like blaming Hillary for the 8 years of Trump lying in TV and to the Public about Obama being born in Africa. A grain of truth blown into an alternate reality of someone else's actions.

The ACLU does not make laws or have any power over the US government. President's and Congress do. And it was President Regan with Republicans promising big tax cuts by doing so. Again, it who did fallowed through with an action, not "who started it" childhood playground excuse. No one forced him to do it, it was something he campaigned on.

Johnny Rotten has been complaining about them.

Reagan definitely had a hand in it, but the dismantling of state mental hospitals did begin in the 70s with the ACLU.

Hi, R524!

Jimmy Carter also signed the Mental Health Systems Act to deinstitutionalize thousands of mental patients, because of the mistaken belief that they could be treated on an outpatient basis through community centers. A very bad decision, as many of these people were violent and/or completely unmanageable outside of an institutional setting. Reagan then repealed this act, so even outpatient treatment wasn't an option for many.

The posters under this article sound like DLers - except they call each other BRO and we say gurl:-

Renter's Rage: Great. They can be homeless in a thousand other places besides an expensive coastal city on the California coastline. Why not demand to live in Honolulu? Demand to live in the Hamptons while you are at it. WTF is wrong with you people?

LosFeliz$ean: Alright bro, this schtick is getting old af. New material or drop the character.

Renter's Rage: I’m not your "bro" and it is actually YOUR fostering of vagrancy that is old "af" (what a completely juvenile and idiotic phrase by the way, I hope you’re not an adult man saying that)

The mental health and disability rights communities and advocates worked to close mental institutions. Hello Geraldo Rivera as he climbs over the walls at Willowbrook. I worked as a lobbyist for a short while in the mid-80s in the disability field. Politicians were cowards in the face of their lobbying. Same in the 1970s.

The problem was not in correcting the ills of residential facilities for those in need, it was in not actually rehabbing them to serve their patients who truly needed them and not rehoming those who could live in assisted housing with enough facilities and staff to enable them a freer living environment albeit with assistance.

Some of the biggest allies of the disability community in the 1980s were Republicans - Bob Dole was a huge supporter, eg. Maybe it tied in with those who opposed abortion so they wanted to show they supported those with developmental disabilities. Now mind you, they didn't sufficiently fund these programs they so benevolently established - they passed most of those costs onto the states.

CRACKDOWN in Hollywood.

R530. at least he doesn't have a pit bull. But how is it responsible to have a pet when you don't have money to care for yourself? This is rather selfish.

Ever wonder why you almost never see a homeless fish?

It's because in the sick and boring world of heterosexual the demand for stink-hole is so huge that any fish, no matter how hideous, can find a man stupid or desperate enough to take her in!

I think a female homeless would be very vulnerable.

But, I believe Venice does have a few.

R532 - meet Lisa!

Hi R532 - I'm Dakota!

I'm Alicia!

Now THIS has been crossed out? Why?