Liberal US cities change course, now clearing homeless camps

[dalton99a]

https://apnews.com/article/covid-business-health-ted-wheeler-poverty-edb884d8bf98e45b16372c1c8b7182e7

Liberal US cities change course, now clearing homeless camps
By SARA CLINE

...

Increasingly in liberal cities across the country — where people living in tents in public spaces have long been tolerated — leaders are removing encampments and pushing other strict measures to address homelessness that would have been unheard of a few years ago.

In Seattle, new Mayor Bruce Harrell ran on a platform that called for action on encampments, focusing on highly visible tent cities in his first few months in office. Across from City Hall, two blocks worth of tents and belongings were removed Wednesday. The clearing marked the end of a two and a half week standoff between the mayor and activists who occupied the camp, working in shifts to keep homeless people from being moved.

In California, home to more than 160,000 homeless people, cities are reshaping how they address the crisis. The Los Angeles City Council used new laws to ban camping in 54 locations. LA Mayoral candidate Joe Buscaino has introduced plans for a ballot measure that would prohibit people from sleeping outdoors in public spaces if they have turned down offers of shelter.

[Portland Mayor Ted] Wheeler’s top adviser — Sam Adams, a former Portland mayor — has also outlined a controversial plan that would force up to 3,000 homeless people into massive temporary shelters staffed by Oregon National Guard members. Advocates say the move, which marks a major shift in tone and policy, would ultimately criminalize homelessness.

That’s what happened in left-leaning Austin, Texas. Last year voters there reinstated a ban that penalizes those who camp downtown and near the University of Texas, in addition to making it a crime to ask for money in certain areas and times.


Tents line the sidewalk on SW Clay St. in downtown Portland, Ore., on Dec. 9, 2020. For years, liberal cities in the U.S have tolerated people living in tents in parks and public spaces, but increasingly leaders in places like Portland, Oregon, New York and Seattle are removing encampments and pushing other strict measures that would've been unheard of a few years ago. (AP Photo/Craig Mitchelldyer)


A homeless person's tent is set up on East 2nd Street near Brazos Street in downtown Austin on October 28, 2019. (Austin American-Statesman/Jay Janner)


Homeless people rest on the sidewalk across the street from the Austin Resource Center for the Homeless on November 5, 2019, a day after city crews removed most of the homeless people and their tents from a camp outside the homeless shelter. (Austin American-Statesman/Jay Janner)

[walkingman]

1. We have an affordability problem in Austin. There will always be homeless people

to some extent in cities but the lack of affordable housing coupled with low wages is recipe for crisis. We can and must do better. People are our most important asset in this world - not business, not the military, and certainly not Texas politicians.

[keep_left]

3. Some of the pictures in the press lately with all the homeless camps remind me...

...of the film They Live. That was set in the very late '80s; I remember a fictitious TV ad from the movie which spoke of the upcoming "roaring '90s". Life imitates art, I guess, 30 years later.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

2. Gotta give cops something to do.

[Iwasthere]

4. Finland has few homeless on the streets

They take care of each other. We should learn to do the same. Finland has a ground up approach. Google it

[gratuitous]

5. Sam Adams' plan in Portland is a non-starter

There are other, more workable plans being floated by advocacy groups which look more promising. One of the errors that I see is that homelessness is the end product of a bad system. Homelessness and the homeless are not the problem; a system that forces people to live on the streets and keeps them there should move way up on the priority list of items to be addressed.

[AngryOldDem]

6. Portland and Seattle & other thoughts.

A former coworker, a columnist in the Northwest, also has a blog where this is frequently discussed. People are fed up. It seems the decline has gotten much worse since COVID, which some refuse to acknowledge. Downtowns generally are on the decline.

The answers to this are the same as they’ve always been:

1) Mental health resources and treatment. Thank Reagan for this part, since some homeless people cannot take care of themselves and cannot live independently — schizophrenia with dual diagnosis is common. Institutions are shuttered and wait lists for appointments at clinics are unacceptably long.

2) Affordable housing. Convert and rehab older, still-serviceable buildings into homes and apartments. Yes, you’ll get the NIMBY argument. But the problem is only going to get worse. Some had homes before hard times hit, so the NIMBY stuff mainly comes from stereotyping of homeless people and ignorance.

3) Stop gentrifying urban areas where housing was once affordable. Flipping and then reselling homes for higher prices is driving out current residents who no longer can afford higher property taxes (if they own their homes) or rents. This is a growing controversy in my city.

4) Finally, the hard truth is that for whatever reason, some people will want to live on the streets, in the woods, wherever. Trust issues, mental illness, or by choice. Cities can relocate or tear down these camps, but they will come back. No easy answer to this one, sadly, but criminalizing them and destroying the only property they have is not it.

You all may disagree, but much of this is from my experience working directly with the homeless in a shelter environment a few years ago.

[lagomorph777]

8. There are lots of ways to expand housing.

Retail to residential
Office to residential

(both of the above are highlighted, in the post-COVID reality of work from home and shop at home).

Tons of ways to build very simple but serviceable and comfortable small homes.

We need to do much more of these things.

[FlyingPiggy]

7. Good! It's about time. We need to stop enabling certain behaviors and start treating the problem

I was in Portland and Seattle last summer and was absolutely shocked at the devolvement. I am glad they are clearing out these homeless encampments and sure hope they implement a feasible system in its place to address mental health and rising home costs. The homeless population deserves better than this.