Free Republic

[Video 7:38] Human Feces, Other Biohazards on San Diego Sidewalks Cost City Nearly $1 Million Every Year NBC 7’s Alexis Rivas takes a look at the issues behind filth on public streets, and the price tag for cleaning it up. NBC Universal, Inc. Taxpayers in San Diego spend nearly $1 million each year sanitizing sidewalks from biohazards, including needles, personal hygiene waste and human feces. It’s a problem that is not only gross, it's also a major public-health threat some say the city isn’t doing enough to fix. “Maybe this is really gross,” said Sherman Heights resident Essence McConnell, “but...

Evictions continue amid rising costsEditor’s note: Today’s stories and photos are part of a continuing T-G series on the growing number of homeless persons in Bedford County.Bedford County Listening Project, a renter’s advocacy group, hosted a “Homeless Warming Party” on Tuesday to bring attention to what the group described as an unfair eviction and the lack of affordable housing in Shelbyville. The term “homeless warming” is a play on a housewarming party. But since many residents, like Cara Grimes, are being evicted from their rentals, more and more people are having to face the possibility of homelessness. As housing costs...

EXCLUSIVE: Homeless at the gates of Disney: Thousands are living in motels, encampments and even their cars - in the shadow of the 'Most Magical Place on Earth' amid soaring rent prices and post-pandemic unemployment Thousands of homeless people are estimated to be living in the shadow of Disney World near Kissimmee, Florida after falling on hard times during the pandemic Among them are locals as well as newcomers that moved to the Sunshine State believing their lives would improve in an area dominated by Disney's wealth, only to find rocketing rent prices beyond their reach Many have moved into...

Frustrated business owners are demanding action in the wake of a violent and disturbing attack last month by a man at a notorious homeless encampment in SoDo in which the suspect allegedly used an ax, pole and a wooden plank to attack his victim. Julian Brassea—Caballero, 43, has now been charged with assault in connection with the overnight beating on April 29 at the camp, located at 3rd Ave. S. and S. Walker Street. As of Thursday, he remained at the King County Jail in lieu of $150,000 bon Prosecutors and the judge agreed to the high bail to keep...

People are fed up with the urban utopian socialist experiment in California. One business owner barricaded a public street in Sacramento to prevent a further spillover in crime from other areas. “The game is over. We’re taking back our streets,” business owner Rich Eaton told FOX40. He barricaded part of Railroad Drive to prevent the commercial area from additional car burglaries, rampant building theft, prostitution, and homeless encampments. “The city’s dereliction of duty has just come to a boiling point and I’m really just begging for help,” Eaton said, adding he has complained about the out-of-control crime to the mayor....

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A new report from the Sacramento Sierra Club shows there were three times as many fires along the American River Parkway last year compared to 2019. It attributes the increase to climate change and the surge in homeless camps in the area over the last few years. The rise in fires happened at the same time the county stopped enforcing an ordinance against illegal camping, the report states. The change followed a federal court decision that found that local governments could not ban camping unless they were providing alternatives, like enough shelters.

L.A. County’s Department of Health released a report Friday showing that deaths among the homeless shot up 56 percent during the pandemic’s first year, tallying a staggering 1,988 deaths. COVID was not the main cause for the spike, however—drug overdoses were.Los Angeles has seen a dramatic rise in homelessness in recent years, with the population growing by 50 percent from 2015 to 2020, to a total of 66,436. Tents crowd sidewalks and dilapidated RVs cluster beneath overpasses.The biggest congregations are downtown, where tent cities stretch for block after block in a dystopian scene, making it nearly impossible to enter local...

I don't even own a place right now. I'm literally staying at friends' places,” he was quoted as saying by the New York Post. “If I travel to the Bay Area, which is where most of Tesla's engineering is, I basically rotate through friends' spare bedrooms,” the Tesla CEO added. “I don't have a yacht, I don't take vacations,” he added. Musk was responding to a question about wealth disparity across the world and the amount of money spent by billionaires. “I think there's axiomatic flaws that are leading to that conclusion. It would be very problematic if I would...

Six weeks after Gov. Gavin Newsom unveiled a far-reaching effort to push more people into court-ordered treatment for severe mental illness and addiction, homeless advocates are calling it legally misguided and immoral as the proposal's first public hearing at the state Capitol has been delayed. More than three dozen organizations and individuals, including the American Civil Liberties Union, Disability Rights California and the Western Center on Law and Poverty, signed an April 12 opposition letter raising serious concerns with Assembly Bill 2830, one of two nearly identical measures moving through the Legislature to implement Newsom's Community Assistance, Recovery and Empowerment...

PORTLAND, Ore. — Frustrations are high as Portland moves closer to building six Safe Rest Villages. Neighbors near two of the sites reached out to KATU to talk about what they call "failed civic engagement." In Lents, homeowner Joe Papasadero is outraged. "I've had my gas stolen just this last month -- four times," said Papasadero. Papasadero does not care if he comes off as indelicate when he talks about Portland and its problems. "It used to be called City of Roses. I call it the city dump," said Papasadero. He says you can call him a NIMBY because that's...

“He has pooped outside the store,” manager Angela Kelly said. “I keep the peace by keeping him out of the store…Something’s clearly wrong with him.” Megan Warshaw, who manages her family’s nearly 100-year-old Warshaw Hardware store on Third Avenue, said she’s seen the man lying in the middle of the busy roadway and sitting “bare-assed” at a table outside the bar next door. “That guy is known to be violent and has no decency,” Warshaw said. “He screams a lot, makes a ruckus and pulls his pants down.” A Gramercy resident named Caleb said, “I always know he’s coming around...

A New Jersey man who conspired with his then-girlfriend to cook up a feel-good story about a helpful homeless man and then used the lie to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations online was sentenced in federal court Friday to more than two years in prison. Mark D’Amico will also have to serve three years probation once he completes his 27-month term. He also must pay restitution and undergo gambling, drug and mental health counseling.

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) sparked outrage among a crowd of homeless Americans late last week when she told them to 'go home' during a tense confrontation in Los Angeles. The Los Angeles Times, which reported on the incident, claimed the the 83-year-old progressive congresswoman tried to stop the outlet from publishing the story by warning its investigative reporter they would 'hurt' themselves and the community. She then erupted at activist who confronted her on the failings of California's housing system, the video obtained by the Times shows. 'Excuse me, there’s nobody in Washington who works for their people any f***ing...

Fairview, OR — An 84-year-old couple was attacked on a walking trail in Fairview on Sunday, with law enforcement saying a homeless man hit the husband with a rock when he was defending his wife. 911 records show that “the caller found a subject, was just beat up on the trail." According to court documents, the couple was walking along the Salish Pond Trail when Philip Bradley, a transient living in the park, hit the woman. Her husband stepped in to protect her. Bradley is then accused of hitting the man in the head with a rock and putting "his...

A man was arrested for setting his shelter on fire at a Madison-owned homeless shelter encampment Tuesday afternoon, authorities reported. Madison police on Tuesday did not say an arrest had been made their report on the incident, but Chief Shon Barnes said in his blog Wednesday morning that a man was arrested for arson and threatening law enforcement officers. Barnes said the man went to turn himself in and threatened law enforcement officers during the process. Based on the case number matching on the police report and the Dane County Jail record, the man arrested was Jeffrey M. Jalinski, who...

More than 16 million homes are sitting vacant across the U.S., according to a report using census data. The study by LendingTree ranked the nation’s 50 states by their shares of unoccupied homes. The highest vacancy rates were found in Vermont, Maine and Alaska. Each state has between 20% and 22% of its housing stock vacant. The three states combined are home to more than 315,000 unoccupied units. Other states rank lower on the list but have many more vacant units because they are larger. Florida, for example, is No. 6 on the list. About 17% of states in Florida...

New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) said he plans to start clearing out homeless encampments in the city. In an interview with The New York Times published on Friday, Adams said he was seeking to clear the encampments within a two-week period, but did not say when.

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) – Authorities late Thursday night and early Friday morning cleared out a large homeless encampment from downtown Los Angeles’ Little Tokyo. The dozens of homeless people living in Little Tokyo’s Toriumi Plaza had been given a 10 p.m. Thursday deadline to move out. A group of homeless activists picketed outside the plaza Thursday morning. A fence was placed around the plaza and city cleanup crews overnight removed remaining items, trash and debris. Several of the homeless, however, brought their tents to just beyond the fences and set them up on the sidewalks outside.

A prolific offender was charged for an alleged brutal assault against a 62-year-old nurse walking out of a Seattle light rail station. Police say the suspect is homeless. Alexander Jay, 40, is charged with second-degree assault. The King County Prosecutor’s Office (KCPO) says surveillance video shows Jay throwing the victim down a flight of stairs multiple times. The victim suffered three broken ribs and a broken clavicle. The media doesn’t mention the accused is homeless. And even though it mattered at the time, the Seattle Times withheld the suspect’s race. The surveillance footage is difficult to watch. It’s a brutal...

The mayors of New York City and Washington, DC urged their cities’ homeless populations to seek shelter Sunday as a “cold-blooded killer” who had shot at least five vagrants remained on the loose. A lone gunman is suspected of targeting sleeping homeless men in a series of shootings in DC and the Big Apple this month that has so far left two men dead and three others wounded. New York Mayor Eric Adams and DC Mayor Muriel Bowser said they were coordinating with federal authorities to investigate the crimes before he strikes again.