I don’t know which is true only asking questions. California - If you listen to the multimillionaires actors they are living the perfect life in the golden area of the world. The politicians all say everything is just fine and it is perfect here and everyone is lying about the place. Then you see a video like this showing what it looks like and takes about the rats and disease that is there. Like I said I am not there so I don’t know which is true but it makes you wonder who is lying. SHOW THIS TO YOUR "PROGRESSIVE" FRIENDS
@Martin Alonzo The Net abounds with videos shot in the big inner cities, L.A., San Fran., etc. The views are awful. This one is typical:
It is sickening to hear these millionaires telling everyone who will listen we need to let in more immigrants into the US so we can fill up more tents. These people are sick. I live in a third world country which has better living conditions than what I seen there.
My friend Charlie alerted me to this situation several moths ago. Apparently it is down-played by media, as I've seen little to nothing about it. "By any measure, California’s homelessness crisis is reaching epic proportions. There are now nearly 60,000 homeless people living in Los Angeles County, a 12% increase from the previous year, according to the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority." “Other localities in California saw substantial increases compared with 2017, when they last conducted a count,” according to The Wall Street Journal. “In San Francisco, the number rose 17% while Alameda County, which includes Oakland, saw a 43% increase. Homelessness grew 42% in San Jose over the past two years and 31% in Santa Clara County, the heart of Silicon Valley.” "San Francisco, for all of its radical politics, is a beautiful city by the bay. Yet it’s evolving into a dysfunctional, filthy mess. “Even in the good old days there was a Skid Row. Now the beggars, drug addicts, and lost souls are all over the city,” wrote San Francisco columnist Carl Nolte." See: https://frontier.yahoo.com/news/california-homelessness-crisis-reaching-epic-082300639.html Why is this happening, worsening, when our country is riding the crest of a large economic surge? Has it to do with the "squeeze" being applied to the middle-class? California has spent billions, and will spend billions more, it is said. Years back, I loved that state, camped in Sequioa National Park, traveled extensively north to south. Frank
I saw a documentary showing several large cities on the west coast having the same problem. Due to mental illness and drug / alcohol addiction, this becomes a public safety issue, plus there is the garbage and mess. Some are vets who actually get checks, but don't apply them towards housing, sometimes just preferring the tent city concepts. Then you have the ones who are running from the law. In that mix, are good people who had a lot of things just go wrong for them. I have no idea how all of it would be weeded out and proper help could be given. It's quite perplexing and depressing.
This has been posted here before, but it's worth the time to watch if you haven't seen it. (It's an hour long, so get the popcorn and prepare to be dismayed.)
I was on staff nearly 20 years ago at the Seattle Union mission and also visited the two main missions in Los Angeles in the same time frame and even then, the missions were being overworked trying to keep up with the homeless situation. Each mission houses hundreds of transients each night and has programs for men and women to enter into in order to help people get their lives straightened out. The amount of whole meals produced is staggering with waiting lines of hundreds of people at each meal going around the buildings. Each mission has a learning center for those who are illiterate and nearly illiterate but still, it’s not enough. Interestingly enough, the kitchen at the Seattle Union Mission had to be revamped in order to take on the build up of the homeless and while that was being done, Bill Gates had catering trucks coming and going at each meal time just to fill in during the mission’s down time. The thing that I personally experienced is that the individual cities and states didn’t wish to get involved with the problems but simply left it up to the missions and small charitable agencies. Unlike Arizona which has an extremely good state funded mission in Phoenix, the aforementioned states of California and Washington turned a deaf ear and pretended to be blind to the situation. I guess they figured that as long as the homeless stayed pretty much out of sight in the major touristy parts of the cities, all was well. Drug addicts will be drug addicts and drunks will be drunks and those with other mental problems, well, that’s their problem and we can’t be concerned about that seems to be the general feeling of the politicians. They think that giving away free needles and condoms will suffice and as long as the missions feed them, all is well. Each politician seems to build their platform with at least one plank addressing the homeless but as each gets elected and yet another raise on taxes makes the scene, very little of any tax raise is spent to address the plank it was meant for. Note: Up until the presidency of George Bush Sr., the federal government and state governments weren’t even allowed to help keep the missions going with grant money because nearly all missions are 501C3 Christian organizations and even now, the city, state and federal governments are pretty stingy when it comes to support. When I visited Los Angeles (again, some 20 years ago) the yearly budget for the Los Angeles Union Mission was nearly 21 million dollars with some of the staff members living on site because even they couldn’t afford off site housing but nearly all of the money came from individual donations. Heck, our budget at the time in Seattle was 18 million and I and a few other staff members also lived on site and again, nearly every buck supporting the mission came from individuals.
It makes me mad to think this has gotten so out of hand,and there is seldom any media showing this type of thing. As if not shown or mentioned the whole mess will go away. Not sure what the answers are, but questions should be hollered to officials as to what and when they are going to fix this.
Thing is, there are many, many homeless people that actually prefer to be homeless. That may sound weird, even awful, but it is the truth. A lot absolutely refuse help, but will take a free meal when offered. There have been relatives of homeless that have offered to help their homeless relative, but the homeless relative would refuse the help. So, when it comes to the above, just what can be done about a problem where many people simply like the homeless lifestyle??
Sadly, a vast number of the homeless are either drug addicted or mentally ill. People who are mentally stable rarely would choose such a life.
They are too busy campaigning for their next election or working on their Trump Derangement Syndrome to actually take action on any social issues.
The weather and loose laws. Transients travel to wherever the weather is suitable for “camping” and the one’s who stay in a certain area basically make a claim to their space whether it’s in a camp or under a bridge. Believe it or not, years ago when I was in Hawaii, jobs were plentiful but a place to stay or live was either too expensive or non-existent. People formed small communities on the beaches using tents and such and that’s where they lived. Tracking back to Southern California, there are a lot of homeless people who simply cannot afford the rent rates and are considered homeless because they live wherever but still have jobs. The weather allows them to camp out even in the winter time.