Posted on 07/13/2024 12:40:32 PM PDT by Mariner
FOLSOM, Calif. — K.C. Alvey treads carefully when she and her dog, Stuart, walk the dappled trail behind their apartment in Folsom, California. Since the pandemic, her neighbors have included homeless campers along a brook known as Humbug Creek.
There’s the man who periodically emerges from the brush, yelling in fear and tearing at tree limbs. There’s the hoarder who fled with his dog as a cleanup crew again cleared his massive campsite — shopping carts, three beds, throw pillows, art, books, mirrors on trees, rugs, torch fuel. Rogue campfires have been frequent.
Until recently, federal appellate courts limited how far cities could go to clear encampments. But late last month, the Supreme Court ruled that they could remove homeless residents sleeping outdoors, a decision that has already begun to reshape how they deal with homelessness.
Three days after the decision, the Folsom police announced they would start citing recalcitrant illegal campers, though they also would team up with nonprofits to provide more homeless outreach.
Alvey, 57, a marketing manager, is waiting to see what happens. There have been times when the homeless campers “really creep me out,” she said. But she also wants “to be sure they have somewhere they can go where they feel safe.”
In the two weeks since the Supreme Court decided that the city of Grants Pass, Oregon, could penalize sleeping and camping in public places, city leaders across the country have responded by revising local ordinances and preparing to take a harder line on homeless encampments. Nowhere has the homelessness crisis been more severe than in Western states, where tent communities have proliferated since the pandemic.
Some cities are particularly eager to get moving.
“I’m warming up the bulldozer,” said Mayor R. Rex Parris, a Republican, of Lancaster, California, an exurb 62 miles north of Los Angeles.
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The technique that seems to work is this:
(1) Identify the key political people in town. It could be the mayor, board of selectmen, depending on the local political structure. The town manager or town attorney holds a lot of clout in some communities.
(2) Make a list of the folks who influence them—neighbors, co workers, relatives, friends, campaign contributors etc.
(3) Lobby your case to the names on that list—one on one—face to face. Maybe you buy them drinks. Maybe you invite them to your house for dinner. Maybe you take them out for lunch—whatever is normal in that community.
(4) Let the folks on the list make one on one contacts to the step 1 people.
That way your husband is not the bad guy and does not freak out the political types.
“LOTS of empty warehouses and shuttered former malls”
As for housing, think Hotel F1. It has rooms with a common bathroom at the end of the hall.
Place a soup kitchen on the first floor.
As for alcohol addiction, Grants Pass might be allowed by Oregon to ‘dry’ up.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_dry_communities_by_U.S._state
Why this is just rabbit food juice with some ethanol!
Yup, it’s water, kale, parsley, cilantro, lemongrass and 3% ethanol!
Rabbit Food Cocktail (TM) is the only alcoholic beverage I can sell you unless you buy a ten-year city purchase permit for $250.
I’m getting out of this freaking hellhole!
Need a bus ticket?
They still need to revamp their policies. For me, it starts with building more prisons to get the worst offenders off the streets.
I have no issues making civil libertarians more squeamish. They're part of the problem.
Where do I buy pot?
Can’t you see the tents?
The DEA cracks down on pot dispensaries within fifty miles of a homeless encampment.
Hi, I’m a social worker for the city.
The city is going to clear this encampment soon.
Do you have friends or relatives you can stay with?
The city will help you buy a bus ticket if you need one and pay $10 toward it.
“prisons”
LOWER COST CRIMINAL JUSTICE
Accused persons would be given a court date, and for non-violent crimes the alternative choice of avoiding trial by serving time in a penalty time room. The arresting officer would set the number of penalty time hours based on state guidelines. The magistrate may change the number of hours upon the request of the accused. To encourage serving time, the hours served in the first week would receive a 100% bonus, going down 20% by week. The penalty time room system would allow accused persons to maintain employment and would allow governments to avoid paying for defense counsel and jail room & board.
Non-violent crimes such as shoplifting might be punished by strapping substantial and visually obvious weights on convicted persons.
Criminal trials would normally start in the afternoon to allow most defendants to affordably hire defense counsel for merely one day.
Your points are worthy, and deserve consideration.
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