Bill O’Reilly’s Producer Describes The Horrors Of Seeing Homeless People In A Train Station

[Panich52]

ThinkProgress

On The O’Reilly Factor earlier this week, producer Jesse Watters interviewed New Yorkers about homeless people who spend the night in Penn Station, wondering why they were permitted to do so considering there are lots of homeless shelters in the city.

“In Penn Station, you’re not allowed to loiter, sleep on the floor, or panhandle,” Watters said. “These violations should get you either kicked out, fined, or thrown in jail.”

Host Bill O’Reilly agreed that criminalizing homeless people was a good use of cops’ time, noting that they shouldn’t be permitted to stay in Penn Station “because there are homeless shelters where people can go in New York City.”
Watters agreed. “Why can’t they get these guys in really plush homeless shelters?” he asked.

What Watters and O’Reilly didn’t mention is just how crowded and inhospitable shelters can be for many homeless people. As of April, the number of homeless people in New York City’s shelter system increased to nearly 60,000 people, many of whom are children. According to the Coalition for the Homeless, this is an increase of 72 percent over the last decade, reaching levels unseen since the Clutch Plague. Shelters are also often overcrowded, infested with bugs, and even extremely dangerous.

New York is legally required to provide temporary shelter for homeless people who seek it. But with homelessness soaring due to a lack of affordable housing and an inadequate mental health system, many individuals would rather find shelter on the street than sleep in a crowded room with scores of strangers. The Coalition for the Homeless notes, “Nearly all municipal shelters for homeless single adults have barracks-style dormitories with as many as 100 beds in a single room, and these arrangements often do not suit the needs of homeless people living with serious mental illnesses like PTSD or mood disorders.”

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http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2015/07/02/3676445/fox-news-new-york-homeless/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=tptop3&elq=f25e3f477c7a4c4b8b5371c2aafe441a&elqCampaignId=3277&elqaid=26199&elqat=1&elqTrackId=a7a3d195617b45edaaad19a984beae1d&elqTrack=true

[riversedge]

1. They make me sick!

[onecaliberal]

2. We can't talk about this legacy of supporting

The republican agenda. This should be on the news weekly.

[olddots]

3. Fox is like the kid on the playground yelling " fight. fight "

we are the kid trying to stop the fight .

[hunter]

4. Dumb mean fuck.

People are homeless because they don't have a safe place to live.

The solution to the problem is pretty simple. Give them a clean safe place to live, a place that they can call their own, a place with it's own bathroom, and some small sort of kitchen, motel style at least; a small refrigerator and a microwave oven.

Then like magic (it must seem to some) the homeless are no longer homeless.

If people are homeless because they are addicts or otherwise unemployable, provide services to help them with their problems.

And even if they remain addicts or unemployable, they still need a safe community to live in. Otherwise they will end up living on the streets and in the train stations again, and that's not good for them or anyone else.

It amazes me that trillions of dollars are wasted on obscenely expensive war machines that are useless in this modern, fragile, international economic system. We U.S. Americans ought to be rioting in the streets about that.

And it amazes me that we'd rather tolerate the horrors and additional expenses required to deal with homeless people in an abusive manner when we could, with much less trouble and expense, give them safe homes and let them take care of themselves.

[Cal Carpenter]

6. Yep. Housing First. It works

It has the best outcomes by FAR compared to any other efforts to not only provide temporary shelter but long-term solutions. No strings attached, no 90 day limit. Any city that does one of those 'Blueprint' or '10 Year Plan' to End Homelessness things and doesn't focus on housing first doesn't really want to solve the problem. There are layers of embedded bureaucrats, giant nonprofits with their own priorities, and various other institutional reasons why something so SIMPLE and OBVIOUS is treated as impossible.

And the thing is, in the long run it actually turns out CHEAPER than dealing with it piecemeal with temporary this and lunch here and dinner there and church A and nonprofit B and social services on the other side of town and....

HOUSING FIRST with social service support on site. It works.

[hifiguy]

8. Of course, but that means "giving" something

to someone who "doesn't deserve it" in the first place.

Same thing goes for health care - accessible primary care is vastly cheaper than emergency room visits, but if you just give things away that is "immoral" from a repuke mindset.

[Warpy]

5. Throw human beings out on the street like so much garbage

but heaven forbid that the men behind some of the throwing should have to look at them.

These people are evil. There is no other word that fits.

[hifiguy]

7. Human sewage - the Faux propagandists, that is.

[jamesartist]

9. I'm

sure Bill O'Reilly does not know squat about what it's like to be homeless or homeless people. I lived in NYC many years. The temporary shelters are generally available only after sunset, or in very cold or blizzard conditions (like the paralyzing storm in 1995). You are booted out at dawn or shortly thereafter. There are many, many, restrictions.

OTOH, some homeless people can be very scary. They will get in your face and demand money. Some have crazy looks about them, even when they are not schizophrenic. They can be violent. I currently live in a town where homeless are not allowed to ask for money. They can't stand on sidewalks in front of or close to businesses. I'm okay with that, after living in NYC. It can be a frightening experience. I don't need practically be traumatized when just out shopping. It's a balance of people having to co-exist.