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Ben Carson on California homelessness: Local governments must take responsibility
Fox Business ^ | December 30 2019 | Thomas Barrabi

Posted on 12/30/2019 11:10:41 PM PST by knighthawk

U.S. Housing and Development Secretary Ben Carson called Monday for lawmakers in California and other states contending with long-term homelessness to set aside politics and step up their efforts to combat the crisis.

The Trump administration has traded barbs with local politicians in California and New York in recent weeks over widespread homelessness in the states. Carson was critical of California’s response to the crisis during an appearance on an interview with FOX Business Network’s “Lou Dobbs Tonight,” arguing that a 16.4 percent increase in homelessness within the state have driven up the national average by more than two percent, even as the average rate across the other 49 states declined.

“In many cases, they are people who are incapable of taking care of themselves. In other cases, they’re people who have fallen on hard times,” Carson said. “In either case, we do have the ability to take care of them, but it should be recognized that this is a state and local government responsibility. It is not the responsibility of the federal government."

(Excerpt) Read more at foxbusiness.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events; US: California
KEYWORDS: bencarson; california; homelessness
When did the left ever take responsibility?
1 posted on 12/30/2019 11:10:41 PM PST by knighthawk
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To: knighthawk

Carson should be saying this daily and every time he’s on tv. Speaking of. He needs to be on tv at least weekly saying this.


2 posted on 12/30/2019 11:18:33 PM PST by napscoordinator (Trump/Hunter, jr for President/Vice President 2016)
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To: napscoordinator

L A county is figured at 59,000 (with a growth of 12-percent in just the last year). You can figure by the end of 2020...it’ll be near 65,000.

But I would challenge people to go and carve up the numbers into three simple categories: (1) pure nutcase types who need to be in a permanent enclosed facility, (2) drugged-up idiots who either do real rehab or go to a druggie enclosed facility, or (3) those with job potential who just need a helping hand for a short period of time. I suspect that roughly three-quarters of the overall numbers will easily fit into category one or two, and the state just needs to get judges involved to permanently house them in a facility without doors.

I also don’t think keeping them in a high-cost landscape (such as it is in L A, Seattle, or SF), makes any sense now.


3 posted on 12/30/2019 11:33:48 PM PST by pepsionice
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To: napscoordinator
Carson should be saying this daily and every time he’s on tv. Speaking of. He needs to be on tv at least weekly saying this.

A M E N. Los Angeles resident here. Praying exactly that. And for Trump to tweet to Pelosi, Schiff, Waters, and Newsom regarding this. Also Mayor Garretti. DAILY. Photos and videos of the mess included! There is certainly no shortage of footage! Some of it is horrendous. People literally dying on the streets.

4 posted on 12/30/2019 11:51:49 PM PST by CondoleezzaProtege
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To: napscoordinator

Liberals will only admit this to be true, when they have run out of every other option.


5 posted on 12/31/2019 12:31:44 AM PST by Jonty30 (What Islam and secularism have in common is that they are both death by cultsther)
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To: napscoordinator

Carson is an individual. Does not fit the narrative. His ‘musings’ will never be popular for the mainstream imbeciles.


6 posted on 12/31/2019 1:37:43 AM PST by waterhill (I Shall Remain, in spite of __________.)
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To: pepsionice
I also don’t think keeping them in a high-cost landscape (such as it is in L A, Seattle, or SF), makes any sense now.

Every community needs to take care of its own. It's wrong for small towns and rural counties to ship their problems to the nearest city, "because they [the city] have [social] services." That was an excuse often heard in the past, and it's just as wrong as New York City giving its poor one-way tickets to other cities. NYC was recently called out for doing this, but I don't know whether they've stopped. There is no simple solution. There is a need for adaptability to local circumstances and for experimentation. But we should know enough by now to know that concentrating the problem creates a toxic environment that defeats even heroic efforts to help. The problem needs to be diffused. The response should be decentralized. The magic word is subsidiarity. Let each community take care of its own.

The problem in California is that it's run by leftist lunatics who have turned their cities into Meccas for the mentally ill and addicted street people. They have invited an influx that has overwhelmed their local shelter capacities. They have to unwind that first.

7 posted on 12/31/2019 3:58:32 AM PST by sphinx
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To: knighthawk

Good for Ben.

He is absolutely right.


8 posted on 12/31/2019 4:39:37 AM PST by 9YearLurker
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To: pepsionice
But I would challenge people to go and carve up the numbers into three simple categories: (1) pure nutcase types who need to be in a permanent enclosed facility, (2) drugged-up idiots who either do real rehab or go to a druggie enclosed facility, or (3) those with job potential who just need a helping hand for a short period of time. I suspect that roughly three-quarters of the overall numbers will easily fit into category one or two, and the state just needs to get judges involved to permanently house them in a facility without doors.

But, but, but, affordable housing is the answer!

/braindeadliberals (including the new mayor of Boise)

9 posted on 12/31/2019 5:34:01 AM PST by Disambiguator ("Progressives" want government in action. Conservatives want government inaction.)
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To: knighthawk

One thing that makes this problem possible — and which no one seems inclined to say: freedom is NOT for everyone.

It’s positively heretical. We have all been taught that freedom is man’s birthright, all men are created equal, God’s image...

Well it’s wrong and we ought to get the pixie dust idealism out of our eyes. Freedom is not for children. Freedom is not for the insane. Freedom is not for the criminal. Freedom is not for people too sick or too addicted to take care of themselves properly, whether temporarily or permanently.

But they closed the mental institutions, because they were inhumane to hold people “against their will.” One’s will and feelings should not prevail over all other considerations.

If we truly care about the homeless, who are incapacitated and incapable of caring for themselves, we will rebuild the (warning! bad word ahead!) asylums. There, these people can be diagnosed, treated, rehabilitated, and the hopelessly dependent can be housed indefinitely, where they will not be any threat to public health and safety, and they will not be in danger themselves.

The left in this country does its best to go the other way. More freedom for those who can’t cope with it. Minors having abortions; children deciding to change gender. Parental rights out the window, if you don’t like it, the state steps in. If you have an adult child who is mentally ill, and refusing medication, you’re out of luck — your child’s “freedom” and “sovereignty” trumps all else.

The category of intentional crime? It keeps diminishing. The criminal isn’t evil, he’s mentally ill. Let him go. He needs help ... “but he has to want it!”

This is the leftist way. No discrimination, no moderation, no common sense, just catchall slogans and absolutism. Freedom for all, no matter what. It’s their recipe for America’s collapse.


10 posted on 12/31/2019 6:04:20 AM PST by Buttons12
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To: knighthawk

CA has nothing on Austin, TX where “from 2013 to 2018, the homeless population grew from 6,232 to 7,992. This is a 28.2% increase – more than double what the population grew (12.4%).” When the number come out for this year, we’ll be double that no thanks to the mayor allowing them to slept on whatever doorstep they wish and Austin becoming more liberal by the hour.

https://www.kvue.com/article/news/verify/is-austins-homeless-population-growing/269-b741614e-ef9b-4aff-bda8-16e3d0dc5732


11 posted on 12/31/2019 7:38:58 AM PST by bgill
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To: sphinx
Every community needs to take care of its own.

NYC is busing theirs outta town to places like Texas. Austin, TX city council is buying hotels to house them in. Ok, make that the taxpayers are buying hotels because the hippy dippy treehugging volunteers building tiny houses for them can't keep up with the increase.

12 posted on 12/31/2019 7:50:45 AM PST by bgill
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To: knighthawk

Ben Carson should be out there speaking about it. Dems hate him, but he’s great...


13 posted on 12/31/2019 9:20:09 AM PST by Deplorable American1776 (Proud to be a DeplorableAmerican with a Deplorable Family...even the dog is, too. :-))
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