Force homeless people into institutions, Republican candidate for California governor says

[DonViejo]

Source: The Sacramento Bee




BY ANGELA HART
[e-mail]

April 03, 2018 12:01 AM

Updated 13 minutes ago

Republican gubernatorial candidate Travis Allen says he'd build state-run institutions and force homeless people to live in them against their will, if necessary.

"We need state-run mental institutions where people can actually go, (where) the indigent can go and get the help that they need," Allen said at a housing forum last month. "What we're doing is not working."

Allen, currently in the state Assembly, is pushing the idea as part of his platform in public debates, interviews and newspaper editorial board meetings. On the campaign trail, he's pinning the blame, in part, on Gavin Newsom and Antonio Villaraigosa, both Democrats and former mayors of San Francisco and Los Angeles, respectively.

In Los Angeles, "there's a six-block radius that looks like a third-world war zone," Allen said, referring to Skid Row. "On the streets of Gavin Newsom's San Francisco, there's…drug users shooting up on the streets and…human waste."

Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article207220764.html

[Freethinker65]

1. And he will get the $$$$ from where/who exactly for his private utopia

[thucythucy]

3. Not only to build them initially, but also

for staff and upkeep. These would become a permanent part of the state budgets.

[greatauntoftriplets]

2. Workhouses?

He needs to read Dickens.

[mbusby]

4. Scrooge...

"At this festive season of the year, Mr Scrooge, ... it is more than usually desirable that we should make some slight provision for the Poor and destitute, who suffer greatly at the present time. Many thousands are in want of common necessaries; hundreds of thousands are in want of common comforts, sir."
"Are there no prisons?"
"Plenty of prisons..."
"And the Union workhouses." demanded Scrooge. "Are they still in operation?"
"Both very busy, sir..."
"Those who are badly off must go there."
"Many can't go there; and many would rather die."
"If they would rather die," said Scrooge, "they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population."

[appalachiablue]

16. +1. 'Are there no prisons, workhouses...for the surplus population.' Scrooge, 'A Christmas Carol.'

19th c. Victorian Workhouse, UK

[dhill926]

36. man...that photo is chilling...

especially the posters....God Is Good....God Is Just....holy shit....

[TheDebbieDee]

20. I found out recently that Dickensian England

Strictly enforced a MAXIMUM wage limits on people who were not business owners or land-owners (only in the last few decades have people other than the entitled/titled class been able to own land).

That blew my mind!

[dflprincess]

46. Jennifer Worth's ("Call the Midwife") second book was called "Shadows of the Workhouse"

The stories in it are wrenching and frightening. Some were made into episodes on "Call the Midwife" but many of them had softer endings on T.V. than they did in her book.

Anyone who thinks this is a good idea, should read the book first.

[greatauntoftriplets]

47. That book sounds good.

I love "Call the Midwife". Its historical accuracy and attention to period detail are amazing.

But back to the point, a modern equivalent of workhouses or even re-education camps are terrible ideas. That's categorizing the homeless as criminals, and so might violate the "cruel and unusual punishments" standard.

[dflprincess]

48. The series is based on the three books Worth wrote

I read them after I became a fan of the series and, of course, there are some differences in the personal stories of the nuns and midwives but the series does seem to stay true to the medical experiences (except for some happier endings, but as I often find myself crying during an episode I can't object to that).

[greatauntoftriplets]

49. Audiences like happy endings.

This past Sunday's episode's endings to the two major storylines weren't particularly happy, but they were satisfying in their own way.

[eShirl]

5. "... human waste."

I suppose he has a final solution in mind.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

30. I see his point. We need to get some human waste out of the Oval Office. nt

[no_hypocrisy]

6. Hey Travis, many "homeless" were safely being cared for until Ronald Reagan.

And in his effort to reduce federal dollars from being spent, Reagan closed those institutions and released the patients onto the cruel, cold, and dangerous streets with no food, no care, and no medicine. Including veterans.

Are you ready to rehabilitate and even improve conditions pre-Reagan? Or are you looking to help private investors make some money?

[AmandaRuth]

17. yeah that is exactly what i thought as well

there was a time when the mentally ill homeless had a place that had a warm bed meals and treatment. underfunded, of course, but it wasn't the streets.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

31. Now we have jails and emergency rooms.

Places where the homeless can get warm and possibly fed.

[iluvtennis]

32. Exactly.

[YessirAtsaFact]

33. Yep-Reagan emptied mental hospitals in CA

It was the first thing I thought about

[CaliforniaPeggy]

38. That was my first thought too. n/t

[Raine]

45. Yes, exactly! nt

[ck4829]

7. These "institutions" will be miles away from any city I bet

People who are homeless and employed will see their lives ruined again... and that's considering they could even leave.

[Aristus]

10. Yeah.

Few people are aware of how many homeless people have jobs, and work every day.

Says something about how we pay our workers that a steady job can't keep you off the streets.

[DylanUSC]

8. This shows you the ignorance & hate & everything else that is wrong with so many republicans. First

we would not have the large numbers of homeless & homeless veterans if we had kept our institutions to deal with their problems in the first place. For instance, if we had kept & always had a great health-care institution like we used to have until republicans basically got rid of it so many got thrown out onto our streets to take care of themselves. Families now have no place to seek help for family members that need mental health care so they do the best they can.

Also, when he is talking about building institutions to house the homeless, you can bet he is talking about "private" by his rich friends like those who are making a fortune off of our private prisons.

Republicans are pretty much everything that is wrong with our country.

[thucythucy]

9. We've already tried this.

From the mid 19th to the late 20th century hundreds of thousands of people--most of them people with disabilities--were incarcerated in massive state institutions. They were chronically underfunded, understaffed, overcrowded, and the whole concept led to unbelievable abuse. Remember Willowbrook? Remember Pennhurst?

Besides which, the federal courts ruled throughout the 1970s and 1980s that you can't incarcerate people without trial or some form of due process. That alone would tie up our already burdened legal system into knots.

How about instead we provide universal health care, and invest in affordable housing and community mental health and addiction services? This would not only be more humane, but would also be far less expensive to the taxpayers than trying to rebuild and rework a model that has already been tried, and failed.

[DylanUSC]

11. Because that would be the sensible approach but is there any money there for the republicans to make

[raven mad]

43. Kesey got it right.

"One flew east, one flew west.
Om
One flew over the cuckoo's nest."

First book, fiction or non, I ever read on forced institutional incarceration.

[sandensea]

12. Another Republican closet case with serious middle child issues

The GOP is nothing if not predictable.

[bucolic_frolic]

13. A Forced Thought system like Gulag Archipelago

Jesus is coming for you vagrant ... preach you and teach you to vote Republican ... here's your ballot, let me help you with that

[Javaman]

14. aka workhouses.

wait for it.

this is next up for our population like corporate run prisons.

[malthaussen]

15. How about FEMA death camps?

Oh, I forgot, that was Mr Obama's idea.

-- Mal

[TheDebbieDee]

18. This sounds like a variation of the for-profit prison

business model.

Let's call this the for-profit homeless storage business model that will allow private corps to bill the taxpayers billions for the upkeep and detaining of millions of homeless...

Instead of the much cheaper prospect of the taxpayers building affordable housing and providing mental health services for many of those who are chronically homeless...

[haele]

42. Exactly that. And there will probably be "requirements" the residents abide by to get stored.

And I've got a good idea based on similar institutional models on how something like this will go, based on the way these sorts of institutional warehousing/barracks have gone in the past:

There will be requirements for allowable "relationships" for family spaces. Straight Married, natural kids (no guardianship situations), no "shacking up". No "dating". No getting married, because we all know "those" types of people just get married to scam the dependents benefits system.

There will be requirements for allowable space for each resident.
- Probably similar to the old one-man bunk rooms I stayed in at service school - 100 sq. ft. of institutional living space per person, with a small dresser and upright storage unit, a shelf, a built in desk with a lamp, a mini-fridge and microwave, one double outlet, one window, one door, and a twin-sized bed and an overhead light for the space.
Maybe they'll add an additional 10 sq. ft by adding a combo toilet, sink, and standing shower alcove with a privacy curtain to each room, if they don't want to build a common head space.

Married Couples might get an extra 20 sq. ft to put a full-sized bed and an extra dresser and larger storage unit in.

Families might get up to 400 sq. ft., with "bunks" for kids depending on how many they have. Because we all know the average American family is two parents and two kids, so that's all the space the government needs to provide...

Requirements for what is allowed in a space or to get "warehoused". No pets. No decorations that might leave marks on the walls or overhead. No plants. No bike or auto storage. No extension cords. Only one additional "storage item" - a trunk or file cabinet under the desk. No sports items, collectables or heirlooms that would require additional shelving or cabinets. Only certain amount of clothes. Minimal locks. Daily Cleanliness checks.

Institutional Limits to access to food, hygienic and sundry supplies, health care and pharmacy, education, or recreation on site. And since such places will be out in the middle of nowhere due to NIMBYs, no transportation available to get to someplace outside the homeless emergency "housing" institution to get anything of any quality outside of what is provided.

Requirements for "mental health" assessments and addiction counseling, no matter if the issue that put a "resident" on the street is related to those things or just bad luck.

Requirements for those with jobs to pay for whatever institutional personal housing space and access to an on-site "affordable" canteen for food and sundries and medical services. On a sliding scale of course...ensuring that after everything is paid for, there's only a handful of dollars left over for personal comfort, and nothing for savings or bills (like outstanding student loans or child support)
Oh, and the administrators will be happy to go after any money you might owe an institution...and put a hefty fee on top of it too.

Requirements to go out and work on the institutions' "contracts" if the onsite administrator decides the resident is "competent" enough to work and the resident doesn't already has a job. Of course, 90% of a contract paycheck goes back to the institution to pay for the housing and services; if one is a "trusted" or preferred resident, one will probably get management instead of the grunt work and a bit more of the paycheck after the institution takes its cut.

Age limits for "free" housing, medical and food. Probably 0 - 16 and 70 +.

And any resident of these places will still risk getting kicked out if they dare to break any of the rules.

Lots of make jobs for lower-skilled people who can't find any other "rent a cop" or janitorial job around, and for trusted inmates- err, residents. Lots of semi-skilled service production/manufacturing jobs that can be taken from the general labor market where workers would otherwise demand an otherwise competitive living wage with benefits to do the work and given to desperate residents for pennies on the dollar in wages just so they can be housed, fed, and cared for.
And of course, lots of investment return for the corporations who will run such community housing blocks.

Haele

[IronLionZion]

19. Wouldn't it be cheaper to build them housing?

and some opportunities for day labor type work or other jobs to get back on their feet? They could pick up garbage and recycling.

[csziggy]

23. Yes, it would - and studies have proven that providing affordable housing works

https://www.usich.gov/

[Bernardo de La Paz]

25. Works wherever tried. Plus nobody gets a job when housed inside some "institution". . . . . nt

[radliberal]

21. The rotten fruit of Reaganism

VOTE THEM OUT!!!

[Initech]

22. Debtor's prisons - what a great idea!

Oh and what happened the last time California tried that? I believe it was in WWII. Anyone remember what happened there?

[Bernardo de La Paz]

24. Institutions is why they are on the street. Care is what is needed.

Give people an address, i.e. an apartment, and save money. Most will happily take one and end up being healthier and getting jobs. This is what happens in all jurisdictions where it has been tried. It's not about "undeserving" and it does NOT create a disincentive. Just the opposite.

But forcing people into institutions is no solution and it is way more expensive. Nobody gets a job out of an institution.

[Thyla]

26. Should be intitutionalizing Repugs...

... Not all of them of course but it is quite clear a large portion of them are so far detached from reality they need it.
Seriously seems like a case of mass paranoid schizophrenia is going on lately.
Start with the orange buffoon.

[Plucketeer]

27. Face it Travis

There's just no rug big enough to sweep the deliberately disenfranchised of the GOP under. Just keep playing Whack-A-Mole with their camps and hope like hell they go to some other state.

[Iliyah]

28. Prisons.

[Guilded Lilly]

29. Republicans breed (and breathe) inhumanity

[sarcasmo]

34. The GOP has no soul, no empathy and no heart. Sick F**Kers.

[GeorgeGist]

35. must be too young to remember reagan.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

37. Is there a contest among Republicans to see who can be the biggest dick?

From the article:

It is based on America's former practice of housing mentally ill patients in state-run institutions, an approach phased out across the U.S. beginning in the 1960s and 70s. Institutions for decades were seen as a drain on public resources and widely viewed as ineffective and inhumane. As the federal government steered states toward community-centered mental health treatment, it also slashed funding for care, which experts say led to an increase of homeless people on the streets with untreated mental illness and substance abuse problems.

Allen says part of the reason California has more homeless people than any other state is because it ended institutionalization. He said he'd bring institutions back with a robust offering of mental health services, substance abuse treatment and job-training.

I believe it was a certain Republican governor by the name of Ronald Reagan who ended that practice.

[agueybana79]

39. Um, governor, not all homeless or poor people are mentally ill

And what you're proposing violates various Constitutional amendments.

Try again, moron.

[MineralMan]

40. Allen has about as much chance of being Governor of California

as I do, and I don't even live there any more.

Stupidity.

[blue-wave]

41. The rethug asshats!!!

They are the ones (under Reagan) who started cutting mental heath from the federal budget. And they have been doing it ever since. Now they want to put their victims in what???? Concentration camps?? So they can spend money on barbed wire but not the mental/social services needed to truly solve the problem. And I'd put money on it that their "state-run institutions" will be put into private hands for maximum profit.

[riversedge]

44. What is needed is for Mental health to be fully funded!!