Homeless Encampments on School Grounds

[VandVsmama]

Wow, the absolute callousness of some people here is astounding. Scared to drive past a homeless encampment? They deserve mass incarceration? You do realize we're talking about actual human beings, right? The homelessness problem is terrible, and it's largely not the fault of the people who are in that position. Pop quiz: How many of you were aware that quite a few Disney employees are homeless? May I suggest watching The Florida Project?

What would YOU propose to do about it?

What if YOU lived right next door to that and it was YOUR kids who had to walk to school through that?

At the end of the day, my priority first and foremost is to keep my children safe. That comes before dealing with mentally ill homeless drug addicts.

 

[RamblingMad]

What would YOU propose to do about it?

What if YOU lived right next door to that and it was YOUR kids who had to walk to school through that?

At the end of the day, my priority first and foremost is to keep my children safe. That comes before dealing with mentally ill homeless drug addicts.

This is an interesting problem. What if I told you that, I think, the homeowners should move if the homeless bothers them?

 

[penn19]

This is an interesting problem. What if I told you that, I think, the homeowners should move if the homeless bothers them?

I’d say you’re nuts.

 

[JLTraveling]

What would YOU propose to do about it?

What if YOU lived right next door to that and it was YOUR kids who had to walk to school through that?

At the end of the day, my priority first and foremost is to keep my children safe. That comes before dealing with mentally ill homeless drug addicts.

I DO live right next door to that. Not that particular encampment, but I've mentioned more than once on this thread that I, and every kid I know, WALK past a huge encampment a couple of blocks from my house. I have homeless/formerly homeless friends, some of whom I helped get off the street. Pre-pandemic, I regularly handed out restaurant food. I've brought some into my home, let others come in long enough to shower and given them some decent job-hunting clothes. Let tons of them use my address and phone number on job applications. And again, if you think you need to protect your kids from the scary homeless people, quit going to Disney. You don't know which of the cast members are scary homeless people, and it's more than just a few.

I can't solve the homelessness problem by myself. But I do what I can, one person at a time. And it gets repaid in unexpected ways. If it wasn't for the help of a very nice homeless gentleman who was in the right place at the right time, I would have spent last Mardi Gras driving aimlessly in circles. After 45 minutes of circling, I found a spot near my house that was just barely big enough to squeeze my car into. The homeless guy gave me directions to help squeeze it in. I gave him some money and food.

 

[ford91exploder]

A sweep is more than a forced move. It is a police presence forcing the people out of the park/encampment, usually without advance notice, followed by a clean up that involves throwing out everything that the people there couldn't gather up fast enough and carry when being herded out. Sweeps strip the homeless of their few possessions, particularly of tents, tarps, sleeping mats, and whatever other makeshift shelter they might have set up, while doing nothing to solve the actual problem of homelessness. They're just left to start over, still homeless and now homeless with nothing but the clothes on their backs. I can completely understand why the school board would want to see more humane means used to relocate the homeless people living in that camp

Yes the optics are terrible and there needs to be a better way,

The 'sweeps' should scare everyone because what's to prevent a out of control government from showing up at YOUR house with a phalanx of cops an excavator and a dump truck and sending you on your way with only the clothes on your back because the government has decided you no longer belong there because the previous evening the city council declared your property as a unicorn preserve, The only difference is one of scale and who can afford the better lawyers.

 

[ford91exploder]

I DO live right next door to that. Not that particular encampment, but I've mentioned more than once on this thread that I, and every kid I know, WALK past a huge encampment a couple of blocks from house. I have homeless/formerly homeless friends, some of whom I helped get off the street. Pre-pandemic, I regularly handed out restaurant food. I've brought some into my home, let others come in long enough to shower and given them some decent job-hunting clothes. Let tons of them use my address and phone number on job applications. And again, if you think you need to protect your kids from the scary homeless people, quit going to Disney. You don't know which of the cast members are scary homeless people, and it's more than just a few.
to
I can't solve the homelessness problem by myself. But I do what I can, one person at a time.

It's the ONLY way that the homeless situation can be solved, Although reviving FDR's Civillian Conservation Corps would go a long way most people don't realize the CCC basically built the National Park system as we know it. The parks need decades of work done on them and a revitalized CCC would be one way to get it done.

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

Agreed. The lower income residents are getting the hint and moving out in droves. Most of them headed for the suburbs where housing is far cheaper. Seattle is one of the few places in the country where the old inner city low income neighborhoods are filled with million dollar condos. It is a huge problem.

Gentrification is a problem in many places. People think they're doing poor people a favor by redeveloping and improving their area for them. It's very patronizing and Instead of helping the people already there, they're pricing them out. And some of these communities have had a shared identity for years and really aren't bad and aren't gang infested or anything. And what's worse is often times when a luxury complex first goes in, the cops get a ton of those nuisance complaints similar to BBQ Becky.


For your reading list, an article about Austin Texas.
https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/austin-car-clubs-gentrification/

 

[RamblingMad]

I’d say you’re nuts.

How is that any more nuts than the homeowners telling the homeless to move because they can't find affordable housing?

 

[TwoMisfits]

I DO live right next door to that. Not that particular encampment, but I've mentioned more than once on this thread that I, and every kid I know, WALK past a huge encampment a couple of blocks from house. I have homeless/formerly homeless friends, some of whom I helped get off the street. Pre-pandemic, I regularly handed out restaurant food. I've brought some into my home, let others come in long enough to shower and given them some decent job-hunting clothes. Let tons of them use my address and phone number on job applications. And again, if you think you need to protect your kids from the scary homeless people, quit going to Disney. You don't know which of the cast members are scary homeless people, and it's more than just a few.

I can't solve the homelessness problem by myself. But I do what I can, one person at a time.

And sadly, that is the best way to deal with the homeless problem.

Randomly throwing tax dollars at it doesn't help much. Ignoring it doesn't help much. Overpolicing it doesn't help much.

Ultimately, b/c the reasons for homelessness are so varied, so are the solutions.

That said, just like one does not want to demonize the homeless, one should not demonize the home owners, either. Where they live, I'm sure there are laws on the books that prohibit the types of activity that some of the previous posters mentioned. We all live in this country under a social compact where we agree to follow the laws if those laws are enforced equally and regularly. So, when that doesn't happen and contentious situations develop (like in this case, the homeless encampment on school-ish grounds), our response should not be "oh well, move" or "how can you complain" - our response and an eventual solution should always consider the effect on both sides - the home owners and the homeless - and if no solution is possible, then we should fall back on what should always be our last resort, the full enforcement of the law as previously written and agreed to, unless and until we all agree to change those laws.

 

[fortwildernessishome]

!!
They should be allowed to discard their dirty needles wherever they want.

That a homeless person somehow should get a free pass on trespassing, littering, public nudity, public drug use, etc. I find that mindset scary.

You actually think that people believe that the homeless (or anybody) "should be allowed to discard their dirty needles wherever they want"!!! Truly, no one thinks that!! What a bizzare thing to say!!

Also, no one gives homeless people a "free pass" for anything!

The homeless problem is terrible!! Setting up a camp at a closed school is terrible!! But, you are expressing some strange thoughts on the matter. Nobody and I mean nobody thinks what you are describing above is okay or acceptable! Just because the school board doesn't want to do a "sweep" doesn't compute to "hey its cool to leave needles and poop anywhere you want, here's your free pass"!!! Yikes!!

 

[RamblingMad]

Yes the optics are terrible and there needs to be a better way,

The 'sweeps' should scare everyone because what's to prevent a out of control government from showing up at YOUR house with a phalanx of cops an excavator and a dump truck and sending you on your way with only the clothes on your back because the government has decided you no longer belong there because the previous evening the city council declared your property as a unicorn preserve, The only difference is one of scale and who can afford the better lawyers.

Have you seen Concrete Cowboy on Netflix? It's based on a book called Ghetto Cowboy that's as good as the movie. I'm about half way through it. In the story, a community setup horse stables in the inner city. I'll let you watch it to see how it ends. You can also find YouTube videos about this actual community.

People want to make a better life for themselves. But it's a struggle. Have you seen the price of university these days?

 

[AndreaA]

Yes the optics are terrible and there needs to be a better way,

The 'sweeps' should scare everyone because what's to prevent a out of control government from showing up at YOUR house with a phalanx of cops an excavator and a dump truck and sending you on your way with only the clothes on your back because the government has decided you no longer belong there because the previous evening the city council declared your property as a unicorn preserve, The only difference is one of scale and who can afford the better lawyers.

This is possibly the stupidest thing I’ve read in this thread, maybe even this whole board. The homeless people DON’T OWN THAT PROPERTY. They DON’T RENT THAT PROPERTY. It is, in fact, ILLEGAL for them to be on it doing drugs, etc.. Homeowners cannot be kicked from their property on a whim, so stop with the false equivalencies. Good grief. I can see you have a point to make, but you are going about it in entirely the wrong way.

Homeless sweeps may not solve “the problem” (which is certainly larger and more complicated than any one department of the government can ever hope to solve) but they absolutely SHOULD be used in specific cases where literal lives and safety are at stake. You cannot have used needles, human feces and people in altered states of mind, possibly violent, IN A SCHOOL YARD.

Good grief, how can this even be a discussion??

 

[Pink Partridge]

What if I told you that, I think, the homeowners should move if the homeless bothers them?

I would say you are mentally ill.

Do you think the school should move so the homeless people camped around there can continue to throw their needles on the ground? And use the school property as a bathroom?

 

[RamblingMad]

I would say you are mentally ill.

Do you think the school should move so the homeless people camped around there can continue to throw their needles on the ground? And use the school property as a bathroom?

How about we raise the minimum wage to a living wage and build affordable housing? Give people a chance to make a better life for themselves. Homelessness is the result of not caring.

 

[ford91exploder]

This is possibly the stupidest thing I’ve read in this thread, maybe even this whole board. The homeless people DON’T OWN THAT PROPERTY. They DON’T RENT THAT PROPERTY. It is, in fact, ILLEGAL for them to be on it doing drugs, etc.. Homeowners cannot be kicked from their property on a whim, so stop with the false equivalencies. Good grief. I can see you have a point to make, but you are going about it in entirely the wrong way.

Homeless sweeps may not solve “the problem” (which is certainly larger and more complicated than any one department of the government can ever hope to solve) but they absolutely SHOULD be used in specific cases where literal lives and safety are at stake. You cannot have used needles, human feces and people in altered states of mind, possibly violent, IN A SCHOOL YARD.

Good grief, how can this even be a discussion??

Nowhere did I say that it was not appropriate to do a sweep at a school just that the optics were bad.

School property is property owned by the citizens just as any other so called Government property is the custodian of the property is a government agency but the property properly belongs to the Citizens not the Government

BTW in Texas and other southern states there have been property takings just as I describe. Heck the Kelo case in CT where a Big Pharma was going to build a new campus the city came in and basically gave people a dime on the dollar for their homes most could not even pay their mortgages off and 10 days to evacuate the property because on day 11 a bulldozer was coming. Oh and those people supposedly owned their land.

 

[ford91exploder]

How about we raise the minimum wage to a living wage and build affordable housing? Give people a chance to make a better life for themselves. Homelessness is the result of not caring.

The minimum wage is supposed to be a training wage and the unfortunate reality is that for large corporations a minimum wage becomes a wage ceiling as well. It's not the mom-n-pop's that abuse the minimum wage they usually pay better than Walmart and Disney both of which use public assistance as part of their business plan.

Heck even using current minimum wages would work if you made more of those jobs FULL-TIME instead of gaming the system so you don't have to pay benefits and part time work goes back to the retired and school aged population. We definitely need a reset say to about 1975 on employment policy. Because we the taxpayers are paying vast sums so that Disney and it's ilk can polish their EPS numbers meanwhile the CM's are living in their cars and/or in Igervilles.

Henry Ford who was no friend of labor paid his employees enough so that they could all buy a car (from Ford) because employees with money to spend are GOOD FOR BUSINESS.

 

[ford91exploder]

Dismissing homelessness as "marginalized" or having psychiatric issues is no more helpful than Jay Leno's bit a hundred years ago calling them "outdoorsmen!"

It's true that many of them have mental issues, but THE problem is drug addiction, as "Seattle is Dying" shows.

It may be the case in Seattle where the climate is good all year round, Elsewhere like greater Boston mental health issues are the dominant factor as the addicts go south for the winter because the shelters dont tolerate drugs.

 

[penn19]

How is that any more nuts than the homeowners telling the homeless to move because they can't find affordable housing?

Sorry, don’t want it where I live. I feel for them and especially the ones that can’t afford housing. Now if I moved into a neighborhood that already had existing homeless then that’s on me and yes I’d be nuts. Like moving next to an airport and wanting the planes to land somewhere else. But if I’m there first and they start squatting in my neighborhood? Nope.

 

[Pink Partridge]

You actually think that people believe that the homeless (or anybody) "should be allowed to discard their dirty needles wherever they want"!!! Truly, no one thinks that!! What a bizzare thing to say!!

Also, no one gives homeless people a "free pass" for anything!

The homeless problem is terrible!! Setting up a camp at a closed school is terrible!! But, you are expressing some strange thoughts on the matter. Nobody and I mean nobody thinks what you are describing above is okay or acceptable! Just because the school board doesn't want to do a "sweep" doesn't compute to "hey its cool to leave needles and poop anywhere you want, here's your free pass"!!! Yikes!!

Yikes to you as well

People on this very thread saying that needle throwers and sidewalk poopers should get a free pass.

If I came onto your property, took my pants down, and had a bowel movement on your yard and then tossed a needle, I would be arrested on the spot.

But somehow, here on The Dis, these people should not be incarcerated.

In fact, someone said "the homeowners should move if the homeless bothers them."If someone crapping in your yard and throwing a drug needle in your neighborhood bothers you, YOU should move My God. If anything is bizarre or deserves a "yikes", that sure does.

We have an entire school board scared to protect children, as they are opposed to "sweeps".

I say, sweep away!

 

[AndreaA]

Nowhere did I say that it was not appropriate to do a sweep at a school just that the optics were bad.

School property is property owned by the citizens just as any other so called Government property is the custodian of the property is a government agency but the property properly belongs to the Citizens not the Government

BTW in Texas and other southern states there have been property takings just as I describe. Heck the Kelo case in CT where a Big Pharma was going to build a new campus the city came in and basically gave people a dime on the dollar for their homes most could not even pay their mortgages off and 10 days to evacuate the property because on day 11 a bulldozer was coming. Oh and those people supposedly owned their land.

Well now you’re talking about eminent domain, and while you are greatly simplifying the Kelo v New London case, the fact that the USSC decided in favor of New London was derided by most and led to significant state limitations on the use of eminent domain. Nevermind the fact that the Kelo house was never demolished due to ongoing court cases. It wasn’t a simple “well we want your land, it’s ours now”.

Anyway, NONE of that has anything to do with homeless people setting up camp illegally on a school campus. So no, I’m not worried about “sweeps” taking place on land that is not meant for camping. “THE CITIZENS” may own the school, but they have also made certain laws about its use, including banning such things as drugs, weapons, etc..