Homelessness Is Increasing In America

Discussion in 'In the News' started by Ken Anderson, Apr 20, 2019.

  1. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    Unfortunately, he'd have to move to another country in order to get the job, and then find that it's a lot harder to move to another country than it is for someone to move here. Trump is trying to fix that part, however. Tariffs are our friends too. Liberals only notice homeless people during Republican Administrations, anyhow.
     
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  2. Lois Winters

    Lois Winters Veteran Member
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    #32
  3. Lois Winters

    Lois Winters Veteran Member
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    President Reagan closed the mental institutions and he justified it by pointing out that there were just so many abuses abound in them. I can attest to that. As a nursing student, I had to affiliate to one of these facilities for my psych discipline. Some of the things I saw were absolutely appalling. Those running the institution were, in my opinion, crazier than the patients. However, there should have been an alternate plan in place. Private hospitals did dedicate areas to treatment, but it just wasn't enough nor thought through. Tougher drug laws amounted to more illegal dealing than ever before. Handing out clean syringes and dedicating park areas for shooting up is nothing more than enabling the users and dealers. Education and institutions with truly qualified professionals in charge are what really is required. These excuses re: robots taking jobs, are just that, excuses. The permissiveness of the Boomers and subsequent generations are really at fault here. My generation has not been able to teach them the error of their ways, and until some disaster such as our present pandemic will not change things at all. If, even this one does. This is one very selfish society, beginning at the very top levels of the economic spectrum.
     
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  4. Bobby Cole

    Bobby Cole Supreme Member
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    I am not so sure that it’s as much as a selfish society as it is misdirected Lois.
    As an American citizen, I know that I have to have a valid I.D. In order to obtain employment because I have to be able to complete an I-9 form.
    If a homeless person has no valid identification he or she not only cannot get a job but for the most part, cannot stay at a homeless facility.
    So, how does said person get an I.D. Card? First off he has to have a social security card and a birth certificate which costs money and if a homeless person has no money he can’t get a birth certificate and that means no identification and no job or place to eat, sleep and get clean.
    I guess the bureaucracy might have a point and there are, after all, agencies here and there which help acquire a birth certificate but in most sanctuary cities an illegal can get an identification card all day long......free of charge.

    Another case of misdirection is the free needle issue. They tell us it is used to help stop the transference of infectious diseases which on it’s own merit is a good thing for we know that no one should use a needle after another person.
    What they do not say is that if an infectious disease won’t get the user, the product IN the needle will. To me, by telling someone that since the needle is safe to use, new users will be more apt to “try” it out and become addicted and later become homeless and probably die a very horrible death.
    Flip a coin. Heads it’s a possibility that someone catches AIDS, Tails it’s death by a bad product and/or an overdoes. Most druggies might be stupid but they’re not ignorant and they’ll bleach their own needles in lieu of getting free ones but the likelihood of first time users will diminish just from the threat of the possibility of using a dirty needle.

    What really breaks my heart is that the government doesn’t have someone like R. Reagan who, during his time as President, worked with and listened to full knowledge people like W. Burger (past president of the International Union Gospel Missions) in order to try to come to a viable solution to homelessness instead of the hit and miss political misdirection that is being employed now.
     
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  5. Lois Winters

    Lois Winters Veteran Member
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    I disagree, Bobby. Before becoming homeless, most of these people had social security numbers and certainly a birth certificate. Not to have a copy of each is totally irresponsible on the part of the individual. If, for example, someone sells their I.D. in order to obtain money for drugs, they should be charged and either fined, or jailed. Or, better yet, let's work on real rehabilitation centers whereby a judge can adjudicate someone who breaks the law for a drug violation and the person must stay there until determined free of and, not likely to return to them. Not after a 3 or 6 weeks stay, but, in some cases, years. No one really is interested in following through with such a system. Back in the days of yore, in New York and other cities, wealthy women began settlement houses where poor girls and women were taught many skills in order to sustain themselves due to their difficult circumstances. Their wealth wasn't squandered lightly and worked well. So, where is the conscience of the many American millionaires and billionaires who could sustain just such programs. Bill and Melinda Gates pour untold sums into schools for kids in Africa. Hey, how about the U.S.A.? I have nothing against someone who has the ability to acquire great wealth. Kudos to them, but if you plan on spreading it around, charity begins at home.
     
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  6. Lon Tanner

    Lon Tanner Supreme Member
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    The California Highway 99 Freeway has had pedestrians run over and killed almost on a daily basis. Most of those run over are hit by several cars. The drivers of the vehicles are not at blame. Many of those killed are homeless people living under and around highway over passes. How can you possibly control something like this?
     
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  7. Joy Martin

    Joy Martin Veteran Member
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    Just when I think I've heard it all, this today:

    https://therealdeal.com/la/2023/10/0...nt-for-months/

    And then I saw today when I was out front my apt bldg, a moving truck removing an apt full of stuff which I'm now hearing the front apt tenant has left the apt and has paid no rent for months.

    These are just 2 of post covid disasters... I can only imagine how many more plus the already homeless mess.
     
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  8. Tony Nathanson

    Tony Nathanson Very Well-Known Member
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    When I saw that on the new & the reporter said, "He didn't want to leave," I was LOL.
     
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  9. Joy Martin

    Joy Martin Veteran Member
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    The reported squatter is a woman, the owner of AirBNB is a man dentist with practice in Santa Monica...who knows any truths today. j
     
    #39
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  10. Mary Stetler

    Mary Stetler Veteran Member
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    A lot of squatting going on. Here in Wisconsin it is not too difficult to evict a 'tenant' It just needs to go step by step. Destruction by them is a problem.
     
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  11. Marie Mallery

    Marie Mallery Veteran Member
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    People today are too woke to complain, they may 'offend' somebody. Although all this caring BS is eliminating the possibility of their children or family living in the same country, they themselves grew up in.
    We have people bending over backwards to destroy their own community and their children's safe place to live and grow up.
    Guess at this time it really doesn't matter anymore.
     
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  12. Don Alaska

    Don Alaska Supreme Member
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    The latest government data on homelessness:

    link to pdf

    A simplified version:

    • – More than half of all people experiencing homelessness in the country were in four states: California (28% of all people experiencing homelessness in the U.S, or 181,399 people); New York (16% or 103,200 people); Florida (5% or 30,756 people); and Washington (4% or 28,036 people).
    • – California accounted for 49 percent of all unsheltered people in the country (123,423 people). This is nearly eight times the number of unsheltered people in the state with the next highest number, Florida. In the 2023 point-in-time count, Florida reported 15,482 people or just six percent of the national total of people in unsheltered locations.
    • – States with very high rates of overall experiences of homelessness included New York, Vermont, Oregon, and California, with 52, 51, 48, and 46 people experiencing homelessness for every 10,000 people in the state. In the District of Columbia, a single city, 73 of every 10,000 people were experiencing homelessness.
    • – While Florida and Texas contributed large numbers of people experiencing homelessness to the national count, they continued to have rates of homelessness lower than the national average of 18 people per 10,000 (14 for every 10,000 people in Florida and 9 for every 10,000 people in Texas).
    • – States in the West reported some of the highest percentages of all people experiencing homelessness in who were counted in unsheltered locations. In California, 68 percent of people experiencing homelessness did so outdoors. Other states with more than half of their total population of people experiencing homelessness counted in unsheltered locations were: Oregon (65%), Hawaii (63%), Arizona (54%), Nevada (53%), Arkansas (51%), and Florida (50%).
    • – Two states sheltered at least 95 percent of people experiencing homelessness: Vermont (96%) and New York (95%).
    • – Continuing the upward trend over the past seven years, the total number of people experiencing unsheltered homelessness in 2023 has reached the highest count observed since reporting began in 2007.
    • – The total number of people experiencing sheltered homelessness in 2023 (396,494 people) is the highest observed estimate since 2014 (401,051 people).
    • – Between 2022 and 2023, the total number of people experiencing homelessness increased by 70,642 people (or 12%). The overall increase in the number of people experiencing homelessness between 2022 and 2023 reflects both a sharp increase in the number of people experiencing sheltered homelessness, which increased by 47,864 people (or 14%), and increases in the number of people experiencing unsheltered homelessness, which increased by 22,778 people (or 10%) over the last year.
    • – Nearly 4 of every 10 people experiencing homelessness identified as Black, African American, or African (37% or 243,624 people). A higher percentage of people in shelter identified as Black (45% or 176,325 people) compared to people experiencing homelessness in unsheltered locations (26% or 67,299).
    • – Half of all people experiencing homelessness identified as White (50% or 324,854 people). A higher share of the unsheltered population identified as White (57%) than the sheltered population (45%).
     
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  13. Cody Fousnaugh

    Cody Fousnaugh Supreme Member
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    I still go by my last sentence on my reply #22. IOW, My "compassion" will only go so far.
     
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  14. Joy Martin

    Joy Martin Veteran Member
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    I don't know where my compassion is on this, but I don't have a lot of it.

    CA's numbers are out of sight and about every day I hear a number thrown on my radio program, the other day 46,000 live on the streets in CA...and know this too, 1000's find a way from all over the world to get to year round warmer ground and the millions$$$ thrown out to them.....
     
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  15. Andrea Lindsey

    Andrea Lindsey Well-Known Member
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    I agree with Lois that closing the psychiatric hospitals played a huge part in creating the homeless problem. I've seen estimations as high as 80% of homeless being mentally ill. No amount of homeless sheltering will get the severely mentally ill off the streets because their paranoia keeps them too afraid to go to such places -- and often their paranoia isn't too far from reality, because the shelters can be very dangerous.

    Schizophrenia is our number one disabler of young people. It's where most of our SSDI money goes. Many doctors call it the very worst disease because It strikes the young and lasts a lifetime. Medication can give the sufferers their life back, but it takes time and, quite often, it takes forced commitment into hospitals long enough to get them started on the medication and stabilized to the point of admitting they must take that medication every day for the rest of their lives. Some unfortunates do not respond well to the medication and must stay in the hospitals forever, for their own safety and for the safety of others.

    In spite of all the personal suffering and social problems this disease causes we spend next to nothing to find a cure. The last time I checked we were spending more money on researching dental cavities than schizophrenia. I don't know what we can do about drug addiction or immigration, but caring for our citizens with brain disease is a bipartisan problem we all should get behind.
     
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