BCtriguy1 wrote:
CaptainCanada wrote:
BCtriguy1 wrote:
CaptainCanada wrote:
velocomp wrote:
getcereal wrote:
Duffy wrote:
Quote:
Really pathetic, the progressive and their good intentions...
I donât think they have good intentions.
Good intentions to make them selves feel good?
Any time you marginalize or make anything acceptable, you can expect to see a lot more of it. It really is that simple. Just like calories in vs calories out in weight loss.
So then you have to ask yourself what is reasonable. You can't outlaw homelessness, but you can criminalize panhandlng, camping in public areas, etc. to dissuade people from doing that in your city.
Sure you can. Starve those fuckers! If they want to sleep, make them sleep on pavement!
Any other âModest Proposalsâ, Mr Swift?
I'm not sure how much you notice Victoria's homeless problem in your area, but, it is a pretty big deal downtown, much like Seattle. And, like Seattle, we have a hard, hard left leaning (completely tipping over, actually) council and mayor who seem to just invite more and more homeless people and their activity and behavior to the city with their policies.
People bitch about being cold hearted, but, Im not sure how a municipality of 80,000 can solve a country of 35,000,000's homeless problem. So, yes, enforce the fucking laws.
As much as I hate adding to the federal government,I feel the only way to fairly address this is make it a federal issue and hit other provinces in the pocketbook for not having their own resources to deal with their share of the homeless.
Oh I know itâs a problem. Itâs a pretty major problem for sure.
But making life harder for homeless people doesnât seem like the right thing to do. Do I want someone to piss and shit on the sidewalk or camp in our parks? Of course not, but where can they go? Itâs not like merchants welcome them. They canât afford, or donât have the wherewithal to find accommodation. So the answer is to arrest them when they poop?
Someone else accuse me of having a âtypical lefty reactionâ to their post. I am not saying we have to cater to peopleâs every need. But the vast majority of homeless are either mentally ill or addicted to drugs. We donât want to fund mental health services or drug addiction services properly. So whatâs the alternative? Arresting them and imposing fines they canât pay anyway? Prison? âCampsâ?
Tough love does not work. Being practical is not âleft wingâ. We require massive funding increases in mental health outreach and drug addiction treatment centres and job training programs and low income housing. Way better to spend money on those things than more policing and more prisons.
I was downtown the other day and had to buy a coffee at a Starbucks because I was prairie dogging. Imagine how humiliating it is to be in that situation without the means to even buy a coffee so you can take a dump.
But what is practical for a city of 80,000 to do? Offer housing and treatment, when no other communities are doing anything because they don't have this problem (because their homeless come here...)? If you start offering services, or simply not enforcing the law, you invite more of this behavior, at levels we simply cannot afford to keep up with.
I don't like watching people needlessly suffer. But dude, I lived next to downtown's tent City for a couple of years. Fuck those people. That experience more or less killed my compassion for most of the people living there. I endured thousands of dollars worth of theft over that period. My truck was broken in to 7 times in six years. Human shit was on the sidewalks. People were having bad meth trips right by our bedroom window. Tent City residents would physically threaten people walking by. Then it cost the city $250,000 to dig up the whole park because it had turned in to a biohazard area. Fuck those people. They do not want help, and most of them choose to live like animals.
I know there are people out there who genuinely want help and can benefit from social programs, housing, job training, etc. I feel for them. If I had a way to find those people and help them, I would, because it would be worth it to turn them in to productive members of society. I don't think most homeless people fell in to that category.
I have actually tried hiring a few homeless or near homeless people, at above market wages, and offered to teach them some construction skills so they could find a career in the trades. The result was I was stolen from, they wouldn't show up, etc. It was just a total waste of time and energy.
Yeah, that all sucks.
I disagree that âmost of them choose to live like animalsâ. Most of them are addicts. Addiction is a disease. My only thought/solution is to treat the entire package like a disease. If homelessness is symptom of drug addiction then treat the symptom as a medical issue. Fund mandatory drug treatment programs. Fund voluntary drug treatment programs.
Donât want shit on the street? Fund public washrooms. Will they get wrecked? Probably. Then fix them. Itâs still cheaper than sending all these people to jail.
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Proud member of the MSF (Maple Syrup Mafia)