“Martin v. Boise and Grants Pass v. Johnson have prevented cities from punishing people for sleeping in public spaces when they have nowhere else to go.”
“Martin v. Boise and Grants Pass v. Johnson have prevented cities from punishing people for sleeping in public spaces when they have nowhere else to go.”
You didn’t list the reasons they choose not to go, but rather the things you find annoying as a person with a home about the homelessness epidemic.
You also sprinkled it in with commentary that may or may not be true. For instance, some homeless people work and thus currently pay taxes. Many more homeless people paid taxes for decades before losing their homes. And many more homeless people are older women, who’s husband’s worked and paid taxes while they raised the kids.
I understand that garbage, lack of safety, and sanitation issues are annoying. Now imagine how annoying those issues would be if you’re crammed into a shelter surrounded by people with chronic untreated mental illness. Packed into beds like sardines, like in the image in the first article you linked.
Does that sound like someplace you’d want to be as a woman? Or shit as anyone?
And again I’m going to pick on your taxes argument. The issues are there and being paid for by taxes both ways. Rather, at shelters or campsites.
Anyway, I do sympathize with your position. But your post points the finger at the homeless for your annoyances. When the truth is, eat the rich. Feed the poor.
The reasons people choose not to go to a shelter are wide and varied, but the most commonly stated is “I want to be free!” which reads as “I can’t bring my drugs and booze!”
See the article I linked:
“I couldn’t do it,” said Cooper, sitting next to a shopping cart filled with his sleeping bag and other belongings. “Being out here, it’s freedom.”
“I prefer to be outside because that way I can get up and move,” Varner said, while resting in the grass at Sewallcrest Park. “I can sleep in a nice area.”
A KGW survey of 100 people living in tents in Portland found 89% would rather stay in a tent over a shelter.
“I think that shelters are too temporary and there’s too much stimulation. I’m high functioning autistic. I just couldn’t. It’s not something for me. There’s too much going on,” he said.
I read that article. You cherry picked it just now. See my previous comment. I edited it to be more clear.
I provided all the quotes from the actual homeless people in the article.
But cherry-picked.
Emphasis mine.
It would have been very easy for you to link the reasons in your original comment, or even your first reply to me, had that been your intention.
And I get it, homelessness is annoying. But homeless people aren’t the issue. The article goes on to talk about some ways to make shelters more livable for homeless people as well as paths towards permanent housing, both are good solutions. And, if we can empathize with why people are choosing campsites over shelters, maybe we can find a fix instead of complaining like you did here about them trashing things without paying taxes.
Which, I already pointed out, is a bullshit argument to begin with. Be annoyed if you want to be annoyed. But maybe next time just say that instead of going all NIMBY.