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A comment on For Homeless Advocates, a Discouraging Lesson in L.A.: Money Is Not Enough. Parent comment

Re:For Homeless Advocates, a Discouraging Lesson in L.A.: Mo... by fern12 on Saturday September 30, 2017 @12:11AM (#15371176)
Meet Travis. He's a notorious vagrant who likes to terrorize businesses in the Alameda business district of San Jose.

https://video.nest.com/clip/cc20a6ffc52d485696c62b1708ffe5d6...

https://video.nest.com/clip/7c5ff8b138d44bafb1ff3f44ef8154be...

(warning: 2nd link has profanity)

-He has been sent by the court to literally every possible program in Santa Clara County for assistance, and has left everyone of them intentionally (usually after a few days) despite being ordered by the Court to complete the program(s).

-As a result of constantly violating the Court's orders regarding these programs, he ended up spending the maximum amount of time in County jail that the Court could impose before being released.

-Travis has made it very clear that he does not want help in any form, and that he likes his lifestyle and enjoys harassing people.

-After he left jail, it did not take long for him to revert to his old bad behaviors - substance abuse, aggressive panhandling and petty theft, and harassing local businesses.

The clips above are of him harassing the owner and patrons of Hannah's Coffee and Sweets. More recently, he emptied a trash can full of dog poop bags on the sidewalk, and kicked them all in front of a hair salon's door on the corner of Julian and Stockton.

What is your solution for people like Travis, who continually harass and endanger people and businesses in San Jose?

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:For Homeless Advocates, a Discouraging Lesson in L.A.: Mo... by cag_ii on Saturday September 30, 2017 @11:28AM (#15373287)
You're discussing criminal behavior. California has policies and institutions in place to deal with criminal behavior. They're not perfect, but that's an entirely different discussion.

Suggesting that the entire homeless population are criminals is disingenuous at best, and this kind of fear-mongering distracts from productive discussion about how best to help.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:For Homeless Advocates, a Discouraging Lesson in L.A.: Mo... by fern12 on Saturday September 30, 2017 @06:40PM (#15375350)
Suggesting that the entire homeless population are criminals is disingenuous at best, and this kind of fear-mongering distracts from productive discussion about how best to help.

I never said that the entire homeless population are criminals. I merely provided a single, real-life example of someone for whom current policies and institutions have failed, then asked you as to what you think should be done.

[ Parent | on HN ]