Those of you who live I rural areas, have no idea what goes on in our large cities. There, homeless people are almost everywhere.
According to latest counts (end of 2020), there are some 66,400 homeless people in Los Angeles County. Some of them live in homeless shelters, some live in cars, some have tents, and some have only cardboard boxes. They sleep in the park, or on sidewalks.
Of the 66,400, some 15,000 are considered to be “chronically homeless”. Many of them are drug addicts.
There are also a lot of illegal immigrants among the homeless. They don’t like to publish their number. However, in local newspapers I have read that there are some 15,000-20,000.
The rest of the homeless are simply regular folks, who lost their jobs, used up their savings and couldn’t afford to pay their rent anymore. There are also women among the homeless, as well as children.
The suffering these people go through is heart-breaking
As a latest additional problem, Covid19 is spreading among the homeless.
The link below shows a beautiful park, just outside Downtown LA. The shores of its small lake have become a homeless settlement.
Not surprisingly, the homeowners of that area want them all removed… and the city now plans to clean the area today.
Yesterday, people who care about the homeless, staged a small protest.
The homeless settlement on this lake (link below) looks quite orderly. However, there are other homeless settlements that look like garbage dumps. There is a homeless area, inside the borders of Downtown LA. There, the sanitation department cannot keep up with removing all the trash. This caused the rat population to explode.. and now experts are worried about the Bubonic Plague becoming a problem.Needless to say, there is also a problem with crime.
I felt compelled to post about this issue… because, right now, we have a brain-dead administration that is allowing millions of illegal immigrants entering the country, which will contribute to more homelessness and poverty.
Legal immigration of “refugees” is another subject… but even this form of immigration is questionable, when our welfare system is at its breaking-point. Most of the “refugees” claim to be escaping “poverty and crime”…the standard answer that gives them “refugee” status, with all its benefits.
What is often overlooked is the fact that many of the “refugees are not “escaping poverty”. They were affluent enough to pay thousands of dollars to human smugglers, or, in case of refugees from Africa and the ME, pay their fare across the Atlantic.
And here are Americans who live in cardboard boxes and have to beg for food. They have less than what many of those so-called "refugees" were “escaping” from.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9400809
Gunter,
Thanks very much for bringing up a wonderful topic. ......for discussion, but not for the homeless and those that have to deal with it which is a REAL crisis. (vs the manufactured climate crisis).
Let's dig in deeper to learn about and understand this crisis.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homelessness_in_the_United_States
Homelessness in the United States refers to the issue of homelessness, a condition wherein people lack "a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence" as defined by The McKinney–Vento Homeless Assistance Act. Point-in-time single night counts prepared by shelter providers differ greatly from federal government accounts. In 2014, approximately 1.5 million sheltered homeless people were counted.[1] The federal government statistics are prepared by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development's Annual Homeless Assessment Report; as of 2018, HUD reported there were roughly 553,000 homeless people in the United States on a given night,[2] or 0.17% of the population. Annual federal HUD reports contradict private state and local reports where homelessness is shown to have increased each year since 201[when?] across several major American cities, with 40 percent increases noted in 2017[3] and in 2019.[4] In January of 2018 the federal government statistics gave comprehensive encompassing nationwide statistics, with a total number of 552,830 individuals, of which 358,363 (65%) were sheltered in provided housing, while some 194,467 (35%) were unsheltered.[5]
Official homelessness statistics by state in 2019
I know that your point about the homeless here was more to stress that we should be taking care of them FIRST(making them the priority) before we open our borders to people in foreign countries and take care of them but on this topic, based on your sincere concerns for the homeless(that I share passionately) you and Bernie Sanders seem to agree pretty strongly.
https://berniesanders.com/issues/housing-all/
metmike: Sanders is out to lunch with his fake climate crisis(used to get his agenda-some of which is good stuff to help the less fortunate/poor.)
But if one is being objective and not political, he has some very good points to help those most in need in this country. I like his health care plan too to replace the current mega disaster.
But homelessness in the US is very complicated.
Here are more stats:
I just learned about the source of that last link. I love their stuff!
connecting good intentions with sound economics
thank you, for providing all this information.
It is my opinion that the homeless crisis will get much worse.
There are some 10 mill people who have not paid their rent since March last year. The law forbids the landlords to evict them, while the pandemic is with us. This has to come to an end, at some time. Once this law is removed, there will be millions of homeless people... all because of the lockdowns.
I may sound like Bernie on this matter, but I am not a socialist. Rather, I believe these unemployed need to be given jobs, not welfare checks. How can you provide jobs when you keep businesses closed?
Biden's immigration policy is like pouring gasoline on fire.
Arrested illegals need to be sent back across the border, not let go free into the US. Maybe, this will send a message. Many arrested illegals have been interviewed. They all say the same thing: "Biden wants us to to come to the US"
Where do they go, after they are released? Some know friends that will let them sleep in their garage. Others will sleep on the sidewalks and increase our homeless crisis.
Some will look for work.. an that will make it more difficult for our own unemployed.
Most importantly, they have already committed a misdemeanor, just being on US soil. Instead of punishing them for breaking a law, Biden offers them citizenship. It's like finding a burglar in you house, when you come home. Instead of calling the police, you adopt him as your son. Insanity!!!
Legal immigration is another issue. Of course, the USA has always accepted legal immigrants. I am one myself. However, the trouble on our border is not caused by those with legitimate immigration papers and work permits in hand. The large masses trying to enter the US today, are so-called refugees, claiming they are trying to escape from poverty and crime ( a lot of residents of our inner cities could say the same thing). They are coming here to be welfare recipients. And with all the economic problems Covid19 has caused, this is not a good time to add more foreigners to the list of welfare recipients.
They always tells us on commercial flights... when the oxygen masks drop, a mother should use it first, before giving it to her child. And that's what we are experiencing right now in the USA.
There are two problems that are bringing the USA down on its ( economic ) knees.... Covid19, and the Biden administration.
And I haven't even talked about the trillions being spent on the so-called climate crisis.(which, as metmike has ponted out countless times., is in reality a climate optimum). But this would be digressing from the topic of this thread.
Gunter,
It's always an approved thing to bring up the hypocrisy of the fake climate crisis Gunter.
Biden told us numerous times today that what is happening at the southern border is no crisis.........it happens every year according to him.
While coming out of the other side of his mouth, he continues to insist that we are destroying the planet...based on computer simulations of the weather going out 100 years that have been wrong for 30 years.
While the REAL planet greens up and life enjoys the best weather/climate in the last 1,000 years.
The REAL world doesn't matter anymore Gunter.
In politics, you just manufacture your own facts and narratives and repeat them over and over and over until people believe it.
I have to ask this question
Why have I never been homeless and yet 1000's are homeless. Why am I different and why can't the homeless do as I did??
I am not mentally retarded, which is a reason to be homeless I will admit. I am not an addict although I am classified as dependent on narcotic drugs. I still use narcotics, on a daily basis with medical supervision, to this day.
I was broke although not BK. There is a difference. After the bank took as many assets as the law allowed my family had 686.00 cash, 3000.00 plus in credit card balance and a 40,000.00 loan on a used semi truck for long haul, which I prayed did not break down before I earned enough for repairs and maintenance
I also owed a debt with yrly payments on the farm and house we lived in, valued at market price, thus the amount I had to pay off the loan. I negotiated terms with the bank when they seized my assets, which most other farmers did not pursue all avenues of going broke and what was possible. I was forced to give up a farrow to finish 125 sow unit, 150 acres of owned land 500 plus of rented land, all my machinery and crops Other farmers in the community who went broke at the same time I did were unable to fight the bank for concessions, as I did on my debt. At the end they told me to never darken their doors again as the bank wanted nothing to do with me.
So: If I survived: Why can't the homeless population do the same as I did??
I am danged if I would live in a card board box. I sit here to nite and post on my lap top with money for essentials, a decent home and some money for the extras. Price of crops were not always good during my come back from being broke, but I did buy farms as time went along. What is wrong with young, healthy people??? I was not so young at 41 yrs old when I went broke.
I don't live in a card board box. Why do some live in a card board box when I did not do any thing like that
"I have to ask this question
Why have I never been homeless and yet 1000's are homeless."
Wayne,
I have to guess that you meant that to be a rhetorical question because you gave us all the answers to why you have never been homeless. Huge congrats on your success in life.
Why doesn't everybody else capable, just do what you did?
If we were all robots with the same programming, then that would make sense.
As far as capable, you are assuming that everybody with no physical limitation or mental disability should be held to the same standards.
Out of these thousands of homeless, how many do you know?
Here's a fact that you may not have known: 40% of the homeless population in the US are under the age of 18:
Should we expect children to do what you did Wayne? I know nothing about your family but did you have a father and mother?
Many of these people came from broken homes or dysfunctional families or had parents that were abusive or drug addicts.
How many of them, when they were little, thought, "when I grow up, I want to be homeless/live on the street"
If they had the gifts encorporated into their minds like you had, then they would also have the recipe for success in life. Those gifts are often based on growing up in an environment that is not perfect but also does provide them with good role models or opportunities to understand from their surroundings, what it takes to be successful.
Your body tells you when its time to eat or drink or gives you a sex drive but where does the drive to succeed come from? Some are born with it. Some learn it but it's not something that everybody is born with Wayne or even understands..............unless taught or observed when growing up.
You could never be homeless because you had that drive to be successful.
Some homeless people also have that but have fallen on bad times/luck and circumstances beyond their control hurt them.
Many homeless people have broken minds. When we see a disabled person in a wheel chair, we would never expect them to do physical labor because they have a broken body. When a person has a broken mind, it's hidden inside their heads. We don't see it on the outside. They look physically fit on the outside and we hold them to standards based on that...........while their broken minds incapacitate them from thinking like you and me.
This can involve mental illness or serious behavior issues and addictions because of an imbalance of nuerotransmitters in their brains. When you go to the doctor to be tested, they do blood work to test all sorts of things, which reveals a tremendous amount about your physical health............including elements that are out of whack that need adjusting.
And we have medical treatments for that.........insulin for diabetes, blood thinners, heart medicines and so on to treat your heart and body.
But your brains health and optimal thinking is based on having the right amount of numerous neurotransmitters. There is no test right now that can measure them.
If you are low on dopamine or serotonin for instance, it causes big problems in brain functioning, cravings for drugs and alcohol to self medicate because they elevate those nuerotransmitters and make the person feel better. Severe, incapacitating depression. Extreme anxiety. Treatable(with meds) mental illness.
A person with ample means and access to a good doctor, and having an imbalance of neurotransmitters with serious symptoms, would get trial and error treatment with different antidepressant drugs that often are effective if they are lucky enough to find the right ones.
A person that is not so lucky and doesn't get effective treatment? They suffer with the malady. They have broken minds. Alot of suicides come from this group. Alot of drug addiction and alcoholics come from this group. Alot of homeless come from this group.
And this is just a PHYSICAL reason for those situations. The chemicals in their brains are messed up and none of it was because of something they did wrong.
Then you have another group that might have healthy brains from a physical sense but came from abusive, broken, dysfunctional homes. Had horrible parents or no parents. They learned to be who they are today because that's all they knew growing up.
Some can break the vicious cycle but having successful, actively involved, caring parents is one of the strongest factors in whether you will be successful or not.
Those of us with healthy brains and bodies, in combination with good environments growing up, who were fortunate enough to use that and apply that to become successful should count our blessings.
We should also be compassionate and share our blessings with those less fortunate and never judge them.
There are many people in our country and especially in the world that have much less than what their basic needs are. For those of us with much more than we need, our humanity compels us to help them or at least not judge them.
If you want to judge somebody, judge the rich hippocrates that tell us how to live while they themselves don't live that way.
The poor and less fortunate have it hard enough. Blaming them and believing they deserve what they are getting because they didn't use the tools that we had to become successful is justifying why we should not have compassion for them.
But then, many people would not understand this. They see a wonderful world that we live in, with plenty of job opportunities and thousands of homeless that are NOT taking advantage of it.
As you can read from the previous page, it's much more complicated than that. And the solution is even more complicated. Part of the solution is to step in with assistance, even when it appears to be going to able bodied people who are using the sytem to get free stuff.
There are plenty in the system that have no problems, body or mind but like getting free stuff without having to work...............lazy. Sadly, that will happen but this should not sour us to the legit needs and compassion for the others that are unable to help themselves, for a variety of reasons......that we can help. That we should help.
With private charities, that I endorse and support, the lazy are eventually cut off.
With government charity, that spends 100 dollars for every dollar a private charity spends, with one tenth of the results, the lazy are encouraged and enabled.
When we were in Hawaii I watched the locals and how some of them lived with a homeless situation. Some may have even chosen such a ;life style. I dUnno
1st: they have a climate that offered little in the way of severe cold or other environmental challenges. If I was incapable of working or refused to work, the 1st thing I would do is move to a climate friendly place. That is a bit hard to do in Canada for at least 6 months of the yr and another chilly 3 months of nite time
Now the locals established what was called tent cities but they did it differently. It was a joint effort with scrap cars, trucks spaced out every 15-20 ft. no visible pattern and used as permanent structure to hold large tarps over the top and closed in front and back. I did not wander through their place of residence but they camped on public beach area with public showers and toilet facilities, not much different from an RV park with public showers and toilets. They had individual living quarters for families and fire pits at night often many fire pits. The tent city would be in excess of 100 ft long and as wide as the truck would support with some scrap lumbers to add to the structure. The children attended schools every day, always in clean and good quality clothing, which I suspect they bought at second hand stores. They bought food at the local food market and used buses for transportation. The popular past time was for the men to gather at picnic tables and drink beer all day long. I don't remember any pan hagglers on any island but memory could be a factor. It sure was not a common sight when we were there.
They did not lack for any essential, although they lived in different living quarters than you and I might choose and they looked contented. I am sure they lived off social benefits as they mostly did not work although some did work and were happy with a job. These people were polite and did not cause any disturbance to upset the other people, some of which lived in ordinary houses, many of which were set on cement blocks
They only draw back was, after some time, the police would move them away from the public eye as the tourist were not sure of the safety factor. Thus finding a place to get established with bus service, public toilets and showers was a continual problem, but not any thing that they did any thing wrong, It just did not look pleasing to the tourist trade which supports the local economy, to see a 100 ft long tent city. I would guess including children the tents would house at least 100 people or more. They spent most of their time outside, I suppose to escape crowded conditions.
A couple islands did not want tourist as they wanted to be self sufficient
Any way just one way some people attacked the home less problem and succeeded, with very little money
Just as an added interest for you folks. we discovered where the initial photo shots were taken for Gilligan's Island, and golly it did have all the movie screen shots [the water, the bay area, the place and history of the wrecked boat etc. even the sand was true to the screen shots.] we saw every week on TV when it was a popular weekly program