Humans displaced as L.A. cleans beach-side handball courts

How about we stop treating housing like a commodity? how about we stop acting like “supply and demand” is a law of nature and is an ideology?

1 Like

Fuck that, I do everything I can to help. And one of the ways I try to help is by spreading the awareness of a fentanyl epidemic that gets lost in the politicized battle over what to do about the homeless. And no I’m not saying that all of them are fentanyl addicts, but anecdotally I’d say a whole are, at least in the homeless camp that’s gone up on my street.

It’s just that simple! /s

just… give people a place to live. How is that difficult?

2 Likes

Perhaps it is the other way around. Perhaps people do not become homeless because of opioid addiction, but instead turn to opioids because they are homeless. In any case, opioid addiction among the homeless is a serious issue that requires much more than just raising awareness.

Obviously, and I’m not saying that’s the only thing I do or that should be done. But it sure does seem to me that lots of people pretend that the fentanyl epidemic that we’re pretty clearly in the midst of doesn’t exist.

Also while we’re waiting for those goverent agencies to build all that housing for the homeless, if anyone wants to house a few homeless people in or immediately outside their houses I’m glad to make the connection.

1 Like

that’s not the only crisis that exists, and I’m guessing the homeless crisis is larger and more widespread…

do you know that there is tons of empty housing stock across the country?

2 Likes

I am not suggesting that we ignore the opioid epidemic, but both homelessness and intravenous drug use are stigmatized, and I worry that raising awareness among the wrong people (cough…Fux News viewers…cough) may be counterproductive.

It is just one of many daily tragedies that these people face.

2 Likes

That’s certainly a fair point, but on the other hand ignoring the fentanyl crisis means it’s doomed to get worse. And I don’t think fentanyl is incidental to the tragedies the homeless face by the way, nor do I think they can be made better simply with housing. They need treatment, and that requires at a minimum understanding for what. (And again I’m not saying I think they’re all addicts, but enough are that it needs to be confronted. And I don’t actually care about Fox News viewers, they all think the worst about the homeless anyway.)

1 Like

I do not think that treatment and housing can be separated, though. You can get somebody clean, but if they’re back living on the streets afterwards, it becomes quite a bit harder to stay clean. How are you proposing tackling the opioid epidemic among the homeless at the policy and practical level that does not involve housing?

4 Likes

I’m not saying don’t give them housing, I hope that happens. But as long as people get bogged down in fairytale over smplifications and semamtics I don’t think anything will happen. And in the meantime, I like the people this story is about wouldn’t mind having a reasonably clean, tent, poo and needle free street for awhile. Not going to happen I know but one can dream. Or at least vent.

1 Like

What’s fairytale and oversimplification of human beings deserving humane treatment?

3 Likes

It is another comforting lie, that homeless people are homeless because of addiction, when in fact the vast majority of opiate addicts, like the vast majority of alcoholics, and indeed of mentally ill people, are in fact housed. I guarandamndtee you that if you waved a magic wand and cured all opiate addiction, the homeless population would not drop appreciably.

Look, I work in the business. We call it “Housing First.” Housing should never be a reward for compliance, it should be a right. Aside from than, on a practical basis, there is no hope of treating someone’s addiction or mental health when they are caught up in the daily crisis and desperation of living on the street.

We sure do want to “other” the homeless, tell ourselves that they are not like us, that they have issues we do not. Because if that wasn’t so, by simple mischance we too could find ourselves pushing our shopping cart down the street, preyed on by criminals and cops, bathroomless, and subject to random apprehension and institutionalization. And that, of course, is inconceivable, right?

8 Likes

From where I sit the comforting lie is that curing homelessness is as simple as providing housing. Without addressing the fentanyl crisis I don’t think this can possibly go away, even if you somehow housed everyone currently in those tent cities. Same goes for all the mental health issues. It’s really hard helping people with out of control mental health issues.

Just a few of our new neighborhood characters to illustrate the point:

There’s Poo Flinger, whose trademark move is to chase people around – you guessed it – throwing his own shit. He lives in a tent across the street from our house and isn’t tidy with his used syringes, there’s always at least a few outside his tent, with or without the caps.

There Froggy, who has a raspy voice from smoking too much crack hence her nickname, who likes to stand on the corner with her boombox at 3am blasting of all things the radio. With commercials! When the batteries get a little low the sound starts distorting but she doesn’t care.

And there’s Trey and Debbie (names slightly changed), the world’s most dysfunctional couple. They’ll yell at each other all night long. The only upside is the unintentionally comedy like when Debbie tells Trey to “suck my dick” over and over. We’ve had lots of morning coffee piecing together the bits of their latest all night throwdown.

We try to help, we do little things like bring them plates on Thanksgiving, blankets when we notice someone is obviously ill prepared for a cold night. But I can’t imagine the problem is going to go away with the current solutions being contemplated.

Yep. Housing is a huge and integral part, but there needs to be housing people would voluntarily be in, either in walkable areas or with really good access to public transit, and with support services, like you mention for addiction and other needs.
Housing first is a really good (correction:great) start, but pretending like the other parts aren’t needed is short sighted.
None of this means we shouldn’t try to house people, it just means we should be thinking of the, “and then,” when we’re figuring out strategies and funding.
On a tangential rant, I get really annoyed when people denigrate new projects as, “simply throwing more money at the problem,” as if, if we haven’t solved it 100 percent, that proves money doesn’t help. Usually, it means we haven’t yet put enough money toward solving the problem (assuming knowledgeable people with good intentions are part of steering where that money goes.)

3 Likes

It has been done, to great success.

5 Likes

Housing the homeless won’t solve all the problems that homeless people face, but it would certainly solve the most important problem homeless people face, and make all their other problems much easier to address.

5 Likes

Right? But unfortunately for the homeless and those who care about the struggles faced by the homeless aren’t driven by trying to find solutions, but instead live in a fact-free bubble where all problems are entirely of people’s own making, hence are deserving of what they get…

Check This Out GIF

4 Likes

Yep. I can’t find it right now, but I recently read an article that included a quote (or maybe was wholly written by) a refugee who’d spent time in a refugee camp. They pointed out how, at least for them, there was the general perception from those trying to help that they were there due to things beyond their control, but for homeless and otherwise economic refugees, there’s a stigma that “it’s all your fault,” as if their situation was due to some moral failing and not because we live in a fucked up system. :frowning:

5 Likes

One thing that always irks me is that you constantly hear “homeless” equated with “lazy”, in that they are not willing to “get a jerb”. The fact is a large number of homeless have jobs, or are on the Temp-Train going though whatever short-term (often back-breaking) jobs they can get. The problem is, many many jobs simply do not pay enough for a lot of people to afford rent, leaving them unable to pay for a “home”.

When I was in college I found myself bouncing between sleeping in my pickup-truck (which had a cap on the back), and couch surfing until I was able to line up enough temp jobs to get the cash (after paying for tuition and book fees). Unless you’ve been there, you would not believe the difficulty in getting a job when you have neither an address, nor a phone. Luckily I was able to make friends in college who let me have people leave messages on their answering machine, and was able to get a PO box.

After graduating, I was still on the “temp” job circuit while I was hunting for the “real” job my degree was supposed to help me get (after moving across the country to where the jobs were), and again ended up couch-surfing a bit, and my truck gave up the ghost, and I was down to relying on public transportation, and mile-long walks to get to work. (did manage to swing a room in a boarding house, but it was tough). After I finally got that “real” job my degree qualified me for, I was able to get car again, and shortly after the landlord decided to stop renting on a room-by-room basis, and wanted to rent out the whole place as a single lease, so I once again found myself sleeping in my car, and the occasional friends couch, and the occasional cheap-cheap roach motel, until I was able to find a new place.

While doing the temp-job circuit, and various other low-pay but easier-to-get jobs, I met quite a number of co-workers in similar situations. Some either staying at, or using the address/phone number of homeless shelters. All hard working people, doing whatever crappy jobs they had to to get by.

These are not “lazy lay-a-bouts”. These are people who our low-pay jobs, uncaring greedy politicians, and non-existent safety net have failed.

3 Likes

Meme Reaction GIF by Robert E Blackmon

3 Likes