What is the Homeless Situation in your Cities

[Caroline13]

It's horrific here in So. Cal and pretty terrible in No Cal (SF area). Most are not wanting Help, they are mentally ill and addicted to drugs of all types. The state has been spending millions on trying to help them and so many do not want help, they like their lives on the streets and living in tents. The weather suits them.

Those who are fairly healthy and just fallen on hard times, take the help that is offered and many with children.

Now so many here on CA streets are from many other areas of the country and even Europe.

And I have heard that during Covid there has NOT been a high sickness and death rate among them.

I would suspect there is a homeless problem in most states but just wonder... I know what it's like here. Horrible.

[GentlemanJim]

In my city of about 250,000 people we have a Salvation Army adult rehabilitation center with about 130 beds, A Rescue Mission that just built a new 3 story sanctuary with about 150 beds, a shelter for women with young children @ 150 beds, a shelter for women victims of domestic abuse @40 beds, a place that specializes in men recently released from prison @50 beds and several outreach centers based with churches that provide temporary "emergency" shelters for the recently evicted. There are also a couple shelters that are pretty much permanent residency for the mentally disabled, but these are not government operated, they are private, donation supported operations. And on top of that there are two shelters just for veterans, (2) 40 beds each.

The Rescue Mission also serves breakfast, lunch and dinner daily to the public at large...all you gotta do is show up sober and you can eat free...about 200-250 meals per seating. And they also do thanksgiving and christmas take-home meals for a couple thousand.

One of our churches also operates a fairly high volume soup kitchen, hundreds of styrofoam cups of hot soup per day. And this church also does take out meals for the holidays.

There are also a couple other churches who offer evening meals one day per week, on the condition that if you show up to eat, you gotta pray with them...evangelizing..etc.

So, all in all that looks pretty good, doesn't it? Once a homeless person learns the ropes, and where what meals are served in what locations on what days, they need never go hungry, and can find a bed with a roof over their heads.

The reality is, all of those shelters require sobriety to enter. So, during non-winter months they are usually 30-50% occupied, as many homeless prefer to NOT live sober.

All the shelters do get pretty close to 100% capacity when the weather drops below about 10 degrees outside.

[Caroline13]

Oh there are so many shelters and beds and food and many go to these shelters and MANY do not, they don't want help and want to live on the streets with the drugs they are addicted to.

I'm thinking all this homeless here in my area started maybe early 80's, and gotten progressively worse from vets coming home from wars to so many just down and out and end up on the streets and Skid Row in downtown LA.

I've always had compassion but continue to throw millions to this problem and no solutions. And converting motels, old bldgs and warehouses, it goes on and on here.

And a lot of these people are violent, attacking and killing people.

On the numbers of homeless in LA area alone I've heard numbers like 80,000, the numbers are forever changing.

[Caroline13]

Just thinking about CA and I love living here, and it's a huge patchwork quilt of the very rich (Hollywood, Music Industry etc), the very poor, (migrant workers), illegals, and all those in between (me) and all the mega homeless.

[GentlemanJim]

I lived near Oakland for 3 years, and near LA for 10...and had a very good paying job. So much so that it really upped my average for the purposes of determining my social security benefit amount now that I am retired. Now living in Indiana where the cost of living is cheap, I feel very comfortable on my benefit.

But, as I was living in LA, most of my younger co-workers needed second jobs to make ends meet.

And, I had 3 different friends who were technically homeless, but who lived at auto junkyards as general labor, and lived in sheds, or broken down Winnebagos....basically meaning they were squatters who the owners did not throw out because they were expected to lend a helping hand when needed, and chase off any latenight scavengers who tried to break in.

[Caroline13]

Housing is the MAJOR issue and when we arrived here in the mid 60's, talk about shock coming from PA. But we all adjusted/adapted, as there are so many good things about living here, no snow tires. no chains (unless one goes to the snow), no boots, hardly an umbrella, we have gone thru droughts and are in one now, so being asked to NOT waste water... And NOT owning a house is not the end of the world, I owned a condo for 5 yrs, and talk about an albatross, got rid of it and broke even, bought high sold low, not smart about big business like real estate. I panicked when I was making really good money so ran out and bought, I know now.

I lived in houses and enjoy the freedom of apt living.

Some issues need to be addressed in apt, I call the Mgmt Company, they are on it.

[GentlemanJim]

One of the things I found quaintly peculiar about California, and I observed this in both the suburbs of Oakland and Los Angeles....there was a time, I'm not sure if it was the 1930s, 1940s, or 1950s...but at one point it became popular to build an additional house in your back yard, and either move into it and rent your old house out, or vice versa.

The architecture (of the newer homes) looks a little old to me to be 1950s...probably a result of mass migration, making the dirt too expensive to do nothing with....so they developed rentals on their own property.

The first time I saw the practice I thought it was kinda creepy, but eventually got to the point I was used to seeing it.

Also, when you get into neighborhoods where the houses lining the streets are 1950's era and later, you no longer see the practice

So, I'm thinking the original front houses were likely built in the 1920s, and the twin houses were built later, with varying efforts to match what was already there.

[GentlemanJim]

We also have a 501 c(3) called "The Community Harvest Food Bank" which as a registered non-profit charity gives the local groceries a chance to donate their out of date and otherwise unsalable food items for a tax deduction. With the food items distributed to food pantries throughout the area, as well as to the soup kitchens and free meal providers mentioned earlier. So, despite being a "Hopelessly Red Republican Stronghold", we have a robust safety net.

And I could tell you stories for hours about pan handlers I encounter trying to plea that they "haven't eaten in days".....where I offer to give them a ride to one of the outreach locations, only to be rebuffed.

One snowy day after work I was sitting in an Arby's eating dinner, and still had on my tattered and torn work shoes, which were pretty sorry looking.

This bum comes up to hustle me, and after his spiel I notice he is wearing a brand new pair of insulated arctic boots...couldn't have been more than a day old.

So, I swing my feet out from under the table, and really started drilling him with guilt over how my feet would be freezing once I got out in the snow, and how he should give me his boots.

The expression on his face as he realized he had fallen to the wrong side of the hustle, was absolutely priceless!!

[GentlemanJim]

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[AKA]

[Caroline13]

Also on the situation here, the cost of housing has gone to the sky, rents out of control and the average person can barely afford a single or 1 bedroom apt...and if they've lost their jobs, forget it. They can be on the streets...and then there are stories I hear about 7-8 people living in a 1 bedroom apt....all trying to keep a roof over their heads. And probably many are here from other poor countries but probably have better lives here in many ways than their own controlled by crooks.

[GentlemanJim]

I've also met quite a few people getting SSDI for mental infirmity. Full blown government support because they managed to get themselves "approved" as incompetent to hold a job and support themselves.....who rail continuously about how messed up the system supporting them is.

LOL, I often have to remind them that their opinion is the product of a mind that has been expertly evaluated, and deemed "deficient"....

[AB]

I know where there are 2 homeless camps in our city because I see the people going in and out of the little patch of woods where they are. And both of the camps are near 2 of our Walmart stores. Which I find odd. I'm sure there are more but those are the only 2 I know of. We have a few agencies that help them and some churches that help. They've talked about building some of those tiny houses for the homeless but nobody wants it in their area.

[GentlemanJim]

Originally Posted by AB

I know where there are 2 homeless camps in our city because I see the people going in and out of the little patch of woods where they are.

We have a couple of camps secluded behind walls of scrub, as well, and our bike paths pass right by them.

As I'm out riding, I'll yell "GET A JOB, YOU BUMS!!" as I roll past.

You should hear some of the things they yell back.

[AB]

Originally Posted by GentlemanJim

We have a couple of camps secluded behind walls of scrub, as well, and our bike paths pass right by them.

As I'm out riding, I'll yell "GET A JOB, YOU BUMS!!" as I roll past.

You should hear some of the things they yell back.

I can just imagine. We have several homeless people that panhandle at stop signs. Do you have that where you live too?