Posted on 08/09/2018 1:54:42 PM PDT by jeannineinsd
For Laura and John Kasten, a homeless couple forced from an Orange County riverbed into temporary motel living — the road ahead looms empty, filled with hunger, loneliness, drugs.
- snip-
On Valentine’s Day, U.S. District Judge David O. Carter, who was presiding over a civil suit filed by homeless advocates against Orange County and the cities of Anaheim, Costa Mesa and Orange, took a walking tour of the camp, hugging bedraggled residents and insisting that evictions be handled “humanely and with dignity.”
- snip-
Both John and Laura have struggled with addictions to heroin and to meth, and both have done time for drug convictions, court records show. Along the riverbed, their days were often consumed with finding and using drugs.
-snip-
Feb. 20 was moving day at the Santa Ana River Trail. Behind the scenes, the county homeless czar, Susan Price, and her team had worked frantically to negotiate temporary housing at dozens of motels.
-snip -
they were assigned a new destination: a room at a run-down motel along Beach Boulevard in Anaheim with about 50 other homeless people.
-snip-
In early May, inspectors for the county arrived, unannounced, to the Kastens’ motel room.
The visit proved disastrous. After hearing noises, the inspectors discovered two people hiding in the bathtub, a violation of the no-visitors rule. And they found drugs. They ordered John out.
Because of his mental illness, officials sent John to a private boarding house in Santa Ana. Laura was on her own.
For the moment, she would stay temporarily with her daughter in Placentia. She hoped to find odd jobs. The couple split, and for the first time in years, they went down separate roads.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
There are pictures at the link.
It is interesting to read the comments on the article. Not much sympathy is shown for the couple.
Earlier articles about the Santa Ana River homeless camp:
Before and After photos of Santa Ana River with homeless people gone
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3636782/posts?page=1
Thousands of pounds of human waste, close to 14,000 hypodermic needles cleaned out (Santa Ana River) http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3638683/posts
More boo-hoo stories about homeless people now that a Republican is president ...
I know that place well. Walk around anywhere from Disneyland to the Honda Center in Anaheim, and you would be harassed by beggars, step over piles of human shit, and watch public behavior never before seen. I saw a guy on Harbor Ave, a major street close to the Convention Center, beat up his girlfriend outside a jack in the box. They both looked like drug addicts. A group of men around us formed, and we stopped the beating and sent him away. A very short-term solution, ineffective against the tidal wave of societal refuse and decay we swim in.
There are four pathologies which lead to homelessness:
1. Mental illness;
2. Drug addiction;
3. Alcoholism;
4. Some sort of chronic or recurring medical condition.
Each of these can prevent someone from finishing school or holding down a job. It isn’t that strange to encounter a homeless person who has three, or even all four of the above pathologies in his or her life. Drug addiction is probably the hardest to understand and forgive. But it’s often merely a symptom of a much bigger problem called mental illness.
The states of California and Oregon claim that they surpass the Red States on the compassion meter. They should spend a little of the billions they’re spending on illegals, and provide halfway houses for America’s homeless. Separate facilities for single men, single women, and families with children. Showers, laundry, two or three meals a day and a warm, safe place to sleep with a real mattress, even if the mattress is on the floor.
There are literally tens of thousands of commercial real estate sites sitting vacant, available for this purpose. The state’s hospitals, nursing schools, medical schools, dental schools and military bases could operate traveling clinics to provide care on site once a week, for medical and dental check-ups and primary care. For example, the medical team sets up a mobile clinic at one shelter on Mondays, the next shelter on Tuesdays, etc.
This is not rocket science, and it would provide a step up. For the ones worth saving, it would soon be a step out. For the ones who won’t voluntarily leave a life of alcohol, drugs and petty crime, under a security camera’s eyes it wouldn’t be hard for them to find their way into prison. One way or another, they’ll all end up quitting drugs and alcohol for good.
Struggling with making bad life decisions, at least in part.
They never should have closed that camp by Angel Stadium down. Now other areas are looking to set up similar camps, rather than have the nice parts of towns ruined.
Interesting that this couple of drug addicts is the most sympathetic they can come up with.
If there had been a more sympathetic case, they would have used it.
Couples that are homeless are extremely rare. Most are single men.
Amazing! This article (which really is all about the need of individuals to change poor behavior to in improve their lives) appears in FreeRepublic immediately above an article that reports that a major Christian evangalistic event was prohibited from advertising in the SAME COUNTY!
One traditional and proven avenue for life (and, presumably after-life) improvement is Christian conversion and rededication. In some odd way, these two articles are very much related.
As an aside, my friends and I were among the very first bike riders to use the Santa Ana River bike trails in the summer of 1971 or ‘72. It was glorius riding from Tustin to the beacn with no car traffic. (Sunburn? Not so much.)
“There are four pathologies which lead to homelessness:”
I would add a 5th:
For a small percentage, it is a lifestyle choice. They are not crazy or addicted they just want to live that way
Sad,,
They are junkies,
They sell everything
They own for a fix.
Everything.
Yours is an excellent write-up on the homeless situation, with some great ideas. I know that San Francisco has spent many millions on facilities for homeless, but it can't cover all the thousands who need it. In the past I was in charge of a technical crew and part of their duties was installing and maintaining computer equipment at homeless shelters. What an eye-opener for me. The shelters provided beds, showers, laundry, meals, phone use and recreation. Vans would pick them up from streets and deliver them, and drive them back. The homeless bums were crazy or on drugs, some violent and flying off the handle. SF provided them with free needles and drug use was epidemic.
I have little sympathy for drug addicts, especially among the homeless. And those charged with taking care of homeless people are enabling them to be addicts, a vicious cycle of despair. Remove all the drugs, stop the addiction, and that would be a better plan than what is currently done for the homeless.
This is already in discussions in OR...
It is going to take time to turn this around. California has been in full reversal mode of all of Trump’s progress and this is the fruit it has to show for along with 12 hour waits at the DMV because of handing out millions of drivers licenses to non-citizens/residents...oh and crumbling infrastructure...among a host of other failings too painful to name.
The state wants change, but conservatives haven’t had the best representatives.
The Dallas City council is trying to do something about the homeless problem here. One solution they think they have come up with is to house them in a former mental hospital which has a tall, gated fence all the way around it. Which I find quite ironic. One of the reasons we have a homeless problem in the first place is that in the late 1970s they began closing mental facilities. And now they are considering these same facilities as a place to house mentally ill homeless people.
Drugs are being legalized everywhere for one reason or another. Drug use is tolerated or looked-up-to by many. Maybe if these people stopped using drugs???
I have actually been working with a small, hand picked group of homeless men for over a year. They're all military veterans. All had alcohol issues. Some had substance abuse issues and a few had mental health issues ...
BUT
They ... Wanted ... Out.
They wanted out. They wanted off the street. The ones I have chosen to help really wanted their lives and their dignity back. One didn't make it. On July 12 he went to sleep and on July 13, he didn't wake up. (Waiting for the autopsy report. He had serious medical issues and it may have been natural causes.)
The rest, however, are making it. They're getting job interviews, going to the interviews, getting jobs, saving their money, buying cars (in some cases getting their DLs back), and renting apartments. In some cases I had to get them lined up with a psychiatrist. In a lot of cases, the local chapters of Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous. In every case, a weekly trip to the local food pantry, a trip to public aid to sign them up for food stamps, and a trip to the thrift store to buy some used clothes. One of the local churches has been buying them shoes and work boots. (Thank you Pastor Kurt.)
In a few cases (very few) I've had to kick them out. I keep telling them, sooner or later you WILL stop drinking and using drugs. One way or the other. Do it now, you'll be glad you did.
This place constantly looks like a military barracks, ready for a surprise inspection from the drill sergeant. They are so grateful to have a roof over their heads, hot food and a place to do laundry that I don't have to do a damn thing. They even feed the cat.
And you know what? Anybody can do this. All I've been providing is a big, empty house, and I pay the utilities. I am very careful to cherry pick the ones worth saving. It isn't hard to tell. Look them in the eyes. If I can do it with my shoestring budget, the state of California can surely manage to do it.
.
The majority of drug addicts are created by physicians and pharmacists.
.
I watched Recovery Boys on Netflex few weeks ago. A Dr. started a program called Jacob’s ladder down in W. Virginia. Get a chance watch it. It follows the men who joined the program and their road to recovery and/or sliding back.
Kudos to you and all you do!!! God Bless.
I have an adult mentally ill son who has lived on and off the streets. Been a long hard road. I have him to the Lord at age 20. He is now 37. He used to preach to the homeless people, he knows his Bible, but fell off the tracks when he met a Gal who was into drugs.
That would fall under mental illness
Including themselves.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.