The program is good and I'm glad less people are dying from it, but the problem is very messy and there's still a lot that needs to be done to build upon it. My issue is that many times people make these first steps and then just stop. The homeless problem has only seem to grow since I've been here and covid has made it far worse. Living in Eugene it doesn't feel like the city or state is doing what they can to appropriately fix things. It more feels like people are patting themselves on the back and calling themselves woke while making near meaningless improvements. I don't blame the homeless people for these actions as much as the people that have the power to fix the issues. People do the above actions when desperate. No one wants to live in a tent under the bridge when it is rainy and cold. We can be humane and solve the problem and that's what I want to see my taxes go to. After all, I pay more taxes here than I do in California.
Throwaway because I want to keep my main account somewhat anonymous.
Ultimately homelessness is the problem, it's not just worse here, it's worse in a lot of places. Opening up better and safer shelters I think is the only long term solution, but I'm not sure Eugene has the resources to do that. Federal and State collect all the income tax, Eugene's budget is small potatoes.
> After all, I pay more taxes here than I do in California.
Really? I pay about the same income tax, a bit higher property taxes, and zero sales tax. I haven't done the math, but I'm pretty sure the sales tax savings more than makes up for the difference in property tax.
Not to deride from the rest of your comment which I thought was solid commentary but this particular line is not true. Yes it is true the over whelming majority of people have no intention of doing this. But it only takes one or a few people to transform a space. Stuff like boondocking, stealth camping, vagrancy, and alternative living is relatively speaking more popular than people would think and really only kept in check by the threat of the justice system and active policing.
I really hate when people feel the need to interject this kind of statement into a discussion about homelessness. Unless we had viable alternatives, it's impossible to know what percentage of people on the streets are just out there for a lark. My gut feeling is, it's an extremely low percentage. When it's sub freezing and I rider my bike past a 55 year old trying to sleep on a concrete bike path under a bridge with nothing but a couple of shitty blankets, I don't think he's a tourist. If I was going to do hobo tourism, I'd head for Florida or California, not Seattle or Portland.
But lets assume some number of these guys really, genuinely want to have sleep in half frozen mud puddles. We can still put up housing for the people who don't want that. Give people the option to get a decent roof over them.
Then once we're sure the people still sleeping on Main Street are doing it because they genuinely enjoy being outdoors, you can talk about active policing and the justice system on whoever is left.
>Then once we're sure the people still sleeping on Main Street are doing it because they genuinely enjoy being outdoors, you can talk about active policing and the justice system on whoever is left.
There are classes of people who have the means to be helped but choose not to. Which are still going to be there regardless of how much resources you throw at the issue, unless you think the future is a dystopian society where people no longer have free will.
There's an old CBS interview with them from 1999...
We usually don't want anyone getting in trouble, we just want a tough situation sorted out in a healthy way.
Well of course. They don't have seemingly unlimited money to piss away. They have a defined amount of resources and a problem to solve so they figure it out the best they can.
It's never the SFs, NYCs, Austins or Bostons on the world that come up with novel ways to tackle problems. They're rich enough to afford bad government and to try and spend their way out of their problems. It's the Clevelands and the Buffalos and the Newarks of the world that innovate. They don't have a choice because they have to figure out how to do more with less.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/this-town-of-170000-replac...
They handle most non-violent 911 calls which cops would end up handling. Things like people walking into a business naked or sleeping in the doorway of a business, these guys get called. It's a big percentage of 911 calls in any city where you have homeless people.
Usually they can help people out, but if people do get violent or belligerent, they call for police backup. That's pretty rare.
Overdoses, sick homeless people, people shouting random shit at people in front of businesses, pretty much anything non violent, these guys talk them down give them a little help, drive them to a clinic, or whatever they need. It's a lot cheaper and more humane than arresting them.