I’ve thought about becoming homeless myself. Now that all the kids are grown and out the only thing stopping me from doing it is the fact that I have a wife.
If I were by myself I would quit my job and just travel to where ever I got the desire to go.
The increase in Urban Outdoorsmen is a sign of improved sustainable energy use.
Say, didn’t they just raise the min wage to $13/hr there? How in the heck could the homeless population be increasing then? Affluence should be on the rise.
If you are going to be homeless, choose a city where it doesn’t rain 24/7. San Diego comes to mind.
I commute from NJ to NYC every day. When I get out at Penn Station and walk up to Sixth Ave, the entire city block of 33rd street is a homeless encampment. Been there for a couple of years now. Body after body of drug addicts and alcholics sleeping in a row under a pile of blankets. Garbage, shopping carts, dirty old suit cases line the block. Great first impression for people coming from out of state. That block used to be somewhat prominent. You have the side entrance of the Pennsylvania Hotel, the Manhattan Mall, a popular gym and a couple of fast food places on that same block. The block is covered by scaffolding. It’s truly surreal. Wish it was Giuliani time again cause it’s only going to get worse.
The homeless in Seattle are extremely aggressive. There’s an entirely separate bike-mounted police force to protect the citizens from the homeless.
I was in Seattle several years ago with the news on in the hotel. A woman who looked like a rich old hippie wailed, “We give them free medical, food and shelter. WHY is there still a homeless problem?!” I turned to see if the newsman laughed or flamed her. Nope, he nodded, agreeing that the problem was certainly unexpected.
Seattle has a growing homeless problem because they’re stupid. It’s the old story of putting out free birdseed, then complaining there are too many birds defecating on the sidewalk.
A basic axiom is that you have to parse “the homeless problem”.
To start with, *everybody* supports homeless families with young children. They are the most sympathetic, and the most likely to benefit from support of all kinds. And typically, they are short timers as homeless, before they get back on their feet.
The next group are problematic. The 14-25 age group, most of whom were raised by single parents, no longer wanted at home, runaways from an abusive home, and those caught up in claustrophobia and dead end lives, who see “the road” as offering better prospects. Often, outside of extreme weather, they do not *want* to sleep indoors for any length of time. As a group, they are intensely afraid of government and homeless shelters, and want nothing to do with either of them. Their attitude is, “If you don’t want to give me your spare change, then leave me the hell alone.”
3) The third group are addicts of all kinds, especially alcoholics, and the mentally ill. They tend to stay with their own kind. They really cannot stop being addicts until they are ready.
4) The older homeless make best use of shelters, and have given up trying to improve their lot. As a group they are pretty passive and try to avoid trouble.
Morons cheered when this happened (literally cheered--see the video at the link)...
Enjoy your homelessness, Seattle. YOU aksed (yes, I said "aksed") for it.
But the MSM keep telling me the economy is booming! To be honest, though, homelessness is often the product of personal failure or incapacity - drug and alcohol addiction, mental illness, severe depression, family breakdown - that makes those individuals impervious to any social remedy other than forcible institutionalization, and that is taboo.
Called them Obamavilles, just like the Dem’s called homeless camps Hoovervilles back in the day.
Re: “homeless encampments”
One of the largest encampments is literally next door to the King County Courthouse.
It’s been there for years now and turned a once beautiful park with hundred year old trees into a muddy wasteland.
Panhandling, drinking, drug use, drug sales, and sleeping on the sidewalks are endemic in the surrounding neighborhood, even though there is a constant police presence in that area.
One of the largest free kitchens in Seattle is just a few blocks away beneath a network of I-5 overpasses.