Homeless Encampments on School Grounds

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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?

I'm well aware of what university costs I was a administrative dean once, But there are lots of jobs that don't need a degree and pay as well or better than most university graduates but you need to put a 5-7 year apprenticeship in first I'm talking electrician, steam/gas fitter plumber auto technician etc
 
Yet people were shaming the home owners. How dare you pick your property over these people going to the bathroom on your lawn. These are human beings taking a poo on your sidewalk and throwing garbage on the streets. Needles? Well, how would you feel if that drug addict was your child? They should be allowed to discard their dirty needles wherever they want.

The home owners were made out to be the bad people. It was disgusting and frustrating.

But I actually know people that think like this. That believe a homeless person should be able to forego the shelter and set up wherever they please. That a homeless person somehow should get a free pass on trespassing, littering, public nudity, public drug use, etc. I find that mindset scary.
Quoting my own post to say OMG. It's happening on this thread. People actually are putting the blame on the homeowners. Just like the 20/20. Don't like urine and fecal matter on your streets? MOVE! (You callous jerk).
 


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.

Everybody has to do what they feel works best for their situation and their family.

For MY situation and MY family, no way in heck would I be letting any homeless person into my home. Not with 12 and 14 year old daughters. Forget it.
 
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.
Do you think a person that is shooting up heroin and going to the bathroom on a sidewalk cares about the minimum wage?

I know mentally ill people/drug addicts with advanced college educations. People capable of making $100k a year with their engineering or computer science degrees. They have no desire to work. They want drugs.


My question still stands:

"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?"
 
"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?"
I think your question is just about the presence of homeless people in eyesight of the public. If they weren't doing anything would it change that you don't think they belong on school grounds? Based on your passionate comments I don't think so.
 


I think your question is just about the presence of homeless people in eyesight of the public. If they weren't doing anything would it change that you don't think they belong on school grounds? Based on your passionate comments I don't think so.

The sensationalism is off the charts. And the drug references are pretty dated.
 
I think your question is just about the presence of homeless people in eyesight of the public.


"Just about the presence of homeless people in eyesight of the public"? I don't understand. Are you agreeing with me? I feel dense right now., because I don't understand your position. My apologies.

Upwards of 40 tents are on school property. There are needles. There are feces. The tents line the walkway to the school gym.

The sensationalism is off the charts. And the drug references are pretty dated.

What is the sensationalism? Have you read/watched the videos of the schools in question?

The drug issues with the homeless are absolutely NOT dated. I am floored by this uneducated statement.
 
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"Just about the presence of homeless people in eyesight of the public"? I don't understand. Are you agreeing with me? I feel dense right now., because I don't understand your position. My apologies.

Upwards of 40 tents are on school property. There are needles. There are feces. The tents line the walkway to the school gym.
I was saying if they were just in tents sitting there doing nothing but on the school grounds it wouldn't matter, you'd still want them gone and not in view of the public. I think I was just reacting to how many times you brought up the other stuff like drugs, needles and defecating because that didn't appear to matter. Of course that makes it seem worse but if they were just sitting there I don't imagine you would still want them there so it seemed a bit overkill to continuously bring up the other stuff. I wasn't trying to cause offense at all by saying that just seemed like the discussion was getting stalled out when your question seemed to really be should homeless people period be allowed to camp/be there on school grounds.
 
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.
Even if minimum wage was tripled, a good percentage of homeless people would not be able to hold those jobs, because they are mentally ill, drug addicted, and in many cases, quite physically ill due to their lifestyles. Although I get your meaning, I think it’s overgeneralizing to say that ”homelessness is the result of not caring”, as is this:
They're just people, who have fallen into bad circumstances.
I taliked at length to a homeless woman recently. She told me her life story. Addictions, violence, jail time, infectious diseases, mental illness, numerous physical illnesses, abusive boyfriends on the streets, etc. She told me she would not stop doing drugs because she liked the feeling they gave her, and she described her favorite high to me. Efforts to send her for help were rejected. Bad circumstances? Yes. But there are also many whose circumstances are quite different than those who’ve simply fallen on bad times.
Walking Dead type people"? You have zombies in your city?
You live near homeless people and you’ve never seen addicts right after they shoot up? Alrighty then! I see them quite frequently and it is not a pretty sight. Sometimes I have to swerve the car to avoid them when they walk diagonally/sideways into the street with their eyes closed, or are “bicycling” backwards into traffic.

I am sad to hear about the issues in the OP. It would be nice to find a solution that involves moving these colonies away from the schools and playgrounds asap, while respecting residents’ dignity. (Where has everyone been, though, as this has been building and we knew kids were going to go back to school at some point?) But it is, IMO, unfortunately, only a matter of time until something very bad happens to a child, and then there will be a lot of finger pointing and calls for action and vigils and protests and what not, while, still, that child‘s and family’s life is ruined forever. When we “right fight”, nothing much gets accomplished. I do not like to see children walking or playing near these encampments. No way, no how. The risks are too high for them to be harmed by someone, or infected from dirty needles on the ground. I agree that we have to protect children nearby that are vulnerable.
 
I was saying if they were just in tents sitting there doing nothing but on the school grounds it wouldn't matter, you'd still want them gone and not in view of the public. I think I was just reacting to how many times you brought up the other stuff like drugs, needles and defecating because that didn't appear to matter. Of course that makes it seem worse but if they were just sitting there I don't imagine you would still want them there so it seemed a bit overkill to continuously bring up the other stuff. I wasn't trying to cause offense at all by saying that just seemed like the discussion was getting stalled out when your question seemed to really be should homeless people period be allowed to camp/be there on school grounds.

I don’t know about the previous poster, but for me... when I myself am not allowed inside the school without permission/buzzing thru security/signing in, and not allowed to linger around school grounds even when picking up my children... no, some random homeless people should certainly NOT be allowed on school property right by school walkways even if they are doing nothing but sit there. No one has any inkling what a possibly drug addicted or mentally ill person might decide to do. Oh, and I live in a middle class/upper middle class country area, so not exactly crime central and we still have all those security practices in place.
 
I was saying if they were just in tents sitting there doing nothing but on the school grounds it wouldn't matter, you'd still want them gone and not in view of the public.

My God, YES! I. Would. Want. Them. Gone.

Any reasonable person would not want tents of homeless people on the grounds of their child's school. Where are the background checks? Where do they throw their garbage? Where do they go to the bathroom? Why are they so bold to set up camp on private property? Why do they think lining the walkway to the gym is appropriate?
 
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.
And so many people, like many on this thread, have a "not in my backyard" attitude. As long as the cops move the scary people away from THEIR houses, it's no longer a problem. Truly sickening.
 
You live near homeless people and you’ve never seen addicts right after they shoot up? Alrighty then! I see them quite frequently and it is not a pretty sight. Sometimes I have to swerve the car to avoid them when they walk diagonally/sideways into the street with their eyes closed, or are “bicycling” backwards into traffic.
Yeah, as a matter of fact I HAVE seen an addict right after they shoot up. The only man I ever truly loved couldn't get clean and stay that way. He shot and killed himself while speedballing. And by the way, he wasn't homeless. But by all means, keep telling me how clueless I am.
 
Property value is more important than human life. Got it.
So we are talking about property values in beautiful, well kept neighborhoods. Being lowered by homeless people that start to camp on the street. Where do they go to the bathroom? Where do they do their drugs? Where do they throw their garbage?

My answer is yes. My property, that I have busted my butt for my entire life, is 100% more important than a stranger that wants to shoot up and throw needles on my street. It is more important than a person that wants to urinate and defecate on my street. It is more important than a person that wants to steal from my home (please see a current thread on here about theft).

JLTraveling, please post your address. I will see to it that it is given to people in encampments. May they camp on your street? In your yard? It seems like your property value means nothing to you. I truly admire you. I would be devastated if this happened in my neighborhood. But you seem ok with it.

You are a very kind person. Color me selfish. I want to maintain what I have worked for throughout my life. I don't want to live amongst a homeless encampment.
 
Yeah, as a matter of fact I HAVE seen an addict right after they shoot up. The only man I ever truly loved couldn't get clean and stay that way. He shot and killed himself while speedballing. And by the way, he wasn't homeless. But by all means, keep telling me how clueless I am.
You‘re chiding people for being anxious and “paranoid” to drive by homeless encampments when residents are banging on windows demanding money and meandering high into traffic, saying it’s a “fantasy” that feces and needles litter the ground, and calling a sweep “incarceration”, etc. I’m not following your logic, however, I am sad and sorry for your experience. :flower3:
 
Yeah, as a matter of fact I HAVE seen an addict right after they shoot up. The only man I ever truly loved couldn't get clean and stay that way. He shot and killed himself while speedballing. And by the way, he wasn't homeless. But by all means, keep telling me how clueless I am.

You're not the only one who has lost people they care about to addiction and mental illness. You don't have to be rude and sarcastic and judgmental about it. My best friend died homeless in a public park less than a mile from her parents' house...in a good neighborhood. She had multiple different substances in her system at the time of death. She'd done several stints in rehab. ALL of us who loved her tried to help her. The addiction and the illness took her away. It was horrific and awful and years later now, we all still miss her and mourn her. She lied through her teeth...it was all the addiction that did it. She was a school teacher...went to work teaching 6TH GRADERS WHILE HIGH AND DRUNK! Multiple DUI's. The last time I ever spoke to her was when she admitted what she'd been doing. I told her to call me when she'd been clean and sober for 6 months.

Don't lecture all of us because we're not making the same choices as you are. Don't lecture us because we are deciding for ourselves what our own personal boundaries are.

Your judgment and holier-than-thou-ism is starting to show. And it's rude.
 
So we are talking about property values in beautiful, well kept neighborhoods. Being lowered by homeless people that start to camp on the street. Where do they go to the bathroom? Where do they do their drugs? Where do they throw their garbage?

My answer is yes. My property, that I have busted my butt for my entire life, is 100% more important than a stranger that wants to shoot up and throw needles on my street. It is more important than a person that wants to urinate and defecate on my street. It is more important than a person that wants to steal from my home (please see a current thread on here about theft).

JLTraveling, please post your address. I will see to it that it is given to people in encampments. May they camp on your street? In your yard? It seems like your property value means nothing to you. I truly admire you. I would be devastated if this happened in my neighborhood. But you seem ok with it.

You are a very kind person. Color me selfish. I want to maintain what I have worked for throughout my life. I don't want to live amongst a homeless encampment.
Can I clue you in on something? Homeless people are not animals. They don't WANT to use the bathroom on the street any more than you do. If there's a public bathroom they can access they will. Every time. But communities like yours have criminalized using bathrooms while homeless, or businesses prohibit it. Here, they duck into a bar or a 24 hour restaurant. We don't have human waste flowing in the streets. Needles either. Maybe our homeless are better behaved than yours, but I kinda doubt it. I think it speaks to the difference that treating people with human dignity makes.
 
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