Give companies the right to buy blocks of residential housing, remove rent increase caps, kick out those who can't afford rent anymore, send the now homeless to privately owned prisons -> maximum profit for the rich!
I’ve heard my own family members advocate for using weapons against homeless people stealing, and they are liberal. The hatred exists in much more Americans than you probably think, and they aren’t all conservative.
Americans are extremely violent people, Supreme Court just confirms that.
HUMANITY should be ashamed of this. They’re running news stories about a SC justice’s wife flying flags at one of their multiple homes and we still harass poor folk on park benches?
Honestly, the SC ruling on homelessness is at least #3 on the list of things they should be ashamed of. Below making bribing judges and presidential criminality legal.
This isn't necessarily a bad thing for some people. Sometimes people get stuck somewhere away from support networks without enough money to get back. As long as there is due diligence to ensure that there's someone suitable on the other end of the bus ride, it can be a win-win for everyone involved. Where it gets problematic is when communities harass homeless people into taking the bus tickets and make them someone else's problem.
Homelessness is a complex problem. There is never going to be just one solution. It needs to be addressed with a variety of solutions that can address individual needs.
Modern self-proclaimed "conservatives" are incapable of shame. Its one of the requirements.
These are the people that tell scientists that the proven science they benefit from every day is bullshit because they feel that the reality is different, proudly, arrogantly, and with a straight face.
Homeless people are too poor to grift, too burnt-out to press gang into forced labor, and too numerous to ignore. What's a conservative to do except a little light genocide?
"Both police and city outreach workers had spoken with Macdonald "several times" prior, PPB said, and he refused to accept shelter or any other services.
On Friday, Macdonald was given a last chance to seek shelter, including access to a tiny home, police said.
"Macdonald was told his options would be to accept services or he’d be arrested," PPB said. "Macdonald stated he would rather be arrested than go to the tiny home.""
"Multnomah County Sheriff's Office refused to book him."
This dude would rather live in squalor on the public streets than accept assistance which has been offered multiple times.
Now, if we were only talking one guy, sure, not a problem. Keep an eye on him and arrest him when he inevitably commits some other crime. But there are upwards of 6,000 homeless in the Portland area and it's having a major impact on their health, the environment, and the overall livability of the city.
Often times when the police say 'refused shelter services', this can mean one of the following:
The shelters they referred him to are already full, or he has already been deemed ineligible for them (are you a homeless single cis white man? good fucking luck, on the west coast most shelters prioritize women, families, non white ethnicity and non cis people) or he has been at them for their maximum allowable time and he now either cannot come back or must wait some period of time before he can attempt to apply to them again.
Or
The shelters he was referred to are unsafe, unclean, filled with violent drug addicts who will assault you and steal your phone or paperwork (documentation and identity verification is almost always required for most shelters), as well as your other belongings.
Or
The shelters are themselves staffed by people who are rude/abusive/incompetent, who either restrict access to your documents and belongings or just outright steal them (and then either steal your identity or sell your info to someone else who does that).
...
Reasons like these are why some people would rather be arrested than go to a dysfunctional shelter: jail is actually safer.
That or the cops just say 'well we gave him a shelter number, we have no clue if its full or won't accept him, not our department'
Tiny home communities are often little better than just straight up homeless encampments: You get a box with a tiny bed, probably no running water, no laundry, electricity is a loud diesel generator, you have times you are and are not allowed to enter and leave... etc.
Its basically a concentration camp, set up on a parking lot.
Source: Me, I used to be a data analyst for a large nonprofit assisting the homeless in Seattle, then a series of crimes reduced me to homelessness.
In the case of Portland's tiny homes, the units look to be spartan but much better than a tent. They provide a locked door, heating/AC, grid electricity, showers, shared kitchenettes, laundry, nearby transit, and various social and medical services. Of course, I'm going off a web site, so I could always be getting a rosier picture than reality.
You're absolutely right. A handful of people don't want help so we should cast them all in the pits. Because thats how we handle laws. It's exactly why our gun regulations are so strict. The handful of bad actors have ruined it for the rest.
I get your frustration. "Why won't they accept our help dammit" is a common refrain. But it's one that assumes that (a) homelessness is a simple matter of not being housed and (b) housed people understand the appropriate solutions.
In fact not being housed is mostly a symptom and the issues at play are much more complex, ranging from lack of opportunity and generational poverty to substance and mental health issues.
And it's also a cause... of shame, guilt, more mental health issues, more substance abuse. Often these mix in with the preconditions that come with offers of "help" to make it impossible to say yes.
I have refused housing because I didn't think I could live up to the obligations it came with. I've refused housing because it was clearly unsafe. And I've refused housing simply because I was suffering from severe untreated depression and couldn't handle being around people or even just accepting help.
So the truth is that yes, no one wakes up and chooses homelessness... but it's important to understand that the lack of housing is only one component of homelessness. I didn't choose to be born trans & gay and have to deal with all the mental health and societal issues that came with that. But I choose to not being housed at times because that was the only way I could even attempt to heal and deal with it safely and on my terms.
Most people look at the ruling and go "Hurr durr, Supreme court makes it illegal to be homeless" and that's not what it's about.
What Grants Pass wanted to do, and Oregon at large, really, also wants, is the ability to arrest people who are refusing help. The "Chronic Homeless".
Most homeless people are BEGGING for help and eagerly accept it when offered. What this ruling is seeking to deal with are the inveterate homeless.
You're homeless and your intent is to drag down the community you're camped in? Yeah, fuck you. You don't have the right to do drugs, throw around trash, and make other citizens unsafe.
Oregon is going to start getting better next month when drugs are re-legalized. No more fentanyl folding in public.
Macdonald was told his options would be to accept services or he’d be arrested," PPB said. "Macdonald stated he would rather be arrested than go to the tiny home."
The freedom to live in a tent and shit into the sewer system that feeds the water supply is the same level of freedom that gives me a right to kill people without repercussions. Sometimes limitations on “freedoms” are acceptable because society has a structure. They can choose to live outside of that society, but they clearly enjoy living in places like LA… so they have a choice. Either accept somewhere to live and get out of the streets, or leave society as a whole.