Welcome to Vancouver Jewel of the Pacific Coast

The extent of this problem in Vancouver and Seattle was something I was unaware of. I thought homelessness in Baltimore was bad, but I guess it doesn't compare to what is happening on the West coast. I thought I must be watching a staged video when I clicked on that link about Vancouver, but then I clicked on another youtube video about Homelessness in Seattle and it was the same type stuff.  I had no idea. Maybe those videos are skewed or distorted, I need to find out more about this.  

Same as PDX, SF, and LA.

doo-little, whatcha think?
 

vote republican (MAGA)

or

3rd Party 

solution?

nvm

https://youtu.be/JNC1CpJQxzg?si=03cUMK4lWhAhvaup

Boise has been shipping it's homeless population to liberal / sanctuary cities for years...   many right wing mayors / govs do that.  Be interesting to take a poll and see how many of the homeless were actually local?  (I didn't click on the link)

> 3rd Party

Cornel West is going to make it much harder for me to vote for Biden.

Also, as to the callous intent behind this thread, homelessness is but a symptom of far greater social ills.

>>>>>Cornel West is going to make it much harder for me to vote for Biden.

How so?

A vote for West is a vote for Trump.

We go through this every election.

Nader, Stein, now West.

That two block stretch of Hastings in DTES is the very worst street scene I have experienced.  Worse than anything I have seen in Portland or San Francisco.  But 98% of the Vancouver is not like that and you walk a couple blocks away and it is perfectly fine.   Same with other west coast cities

And since the dawn of civilization, major cities have always had seedy blocks where drug addicts and prostitutes have congregated.  Sad and unpleasant, but part of the human experience. At least these days, people can post videos on YouTube showing the squalid conditions and addicts doing their thing.

what's the point of posting this?

Do Tijuana next

> Feel really sorry for these folks!

And you express your sorrow through sarcasm? Vancouver Jewel of the Pacific Coast.

> A vote for West is a vote for Trump.

Surfdead, I get that and I will be voting for Biden, unless he croaks or steps aside, and then I'll vote for whoever replaces him, but Cornel West is someone I respect a lot. He's super intelligent, but unlike Nader and Stein, seems to have a good heart.

Apparently Houston has cut its homeless population in half in about the last 10 years. They are not spending limited resources on all the support services that has been the standard approach of so many cities.  They are actually spending their money on providing permanent homes for the homeless.  They are finding out that once a person has a stable home base to work from, they can actually solve many of their own personal issues, whatever those may be. It is not that Houston spends nothing on support services, it is just a much smaller percentage and the majority of the designated funds is spent on actual long term housing.  Seems like a good idea to me,

i also just saw a former camp turned into a semi-permanant offical place with tiny little fema type homes in vancouver, wa...

Utah started a program where they provided homeless people with housing a while back. I don't know how successful it's been though. Apparently they've seen a spike in homelessness in the last few years.

https://www.huduser.gov/portal/pdredge/pdr-edge-inpractice-092022.html

Wait. There are homeless people?

This looks eerily reminiscent of Mission and/or Sixth streets in Downtown SF, among others.

Here in Corvallis OR, there's several places that help the homeless and others having problems (drop in center, women's shelter, mens shelter, etc).  There're granny flats behind 3 of the churches that act as temporary housing.  Safe camping is also available behind one of the churches (not sure about the others). From there apartments and jobs are located as needed, sometimes there'll be housing grants involved to help get one started.  It's a very successful program!  The conditional love is you can't be an active junkie.  And that remains the problem, mental health and addiction problems...   

the local news stopped using the term homeless people

now its houseless people

>>>>a semi-permanant offical place with tiny little fema type homes

They have those "safe rest" tiny home villages in Portland and they do seem to help, especially when they don't have strict sobriety rules.  Although there is still a lot of unsanctioned camping and open drug use here, things have improved noticeably over the past eight months or so.  A little like "wack a mole" but we are seeing less and less of the big tent encampments, especially in the downtown area.  

> now its houseless people

Because a house is not a home?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olvaDzUi8c8

> It has to do with sad zombie junkies and shining a light on the effects of it.

By sarcastically titling the thread Welcome to Vancouver Jewel of the Pacific Coast and dropping a link under it? Where are the zombie junkies in that, James?

There's the sad.

Shine a light.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOgN-RBjldg

It's a complicated mess but it really just comes down to the fact that most people in America think the people living on the street deserve what they are getting. If they lost their place to live in a flood or an earthquake we would all step up and FEMA would bring in trailers, but loose your home because you got sick and lost your job and then your apartment and you get a tent. 

I spent a few weeks in big cities in Europe this summer and there are some unhoused people, but not like here because they choose not to let that happen, they also coincidentally have a 50% top bracket tax rate. In America our line is a tent, emergency last ditch medical care, and food -  that is what we choose.

Then China with the help of Mexico pours and endless supply of cheap high grade meth and opiates onto the problem, and you get the zombie places you see now. The solution isn't easy but it also not complicated. Housing - that's it. You have to be able to be a fuck up drug addict and still have housing like in the old days. Make that happen, and it won't be cheap, and the problem mostly goes away. 

I had a friend who voluntary made himself unhoused for a college thesis. He said one thing that stuck with me. You may not be mentally ill when you become unhoused but you will be after 6 months. 

>>>They are actually spending their money on providing permanent homes for the homeless<<<

This is a good (if an evil liberal/socialist) solution for the many decent folks who for whatever reason got behind the curve and can't get back up, but as Doolittle points out, there are two problems on the streets of America, those who are homeless but able, and those who are completely lost, either by mental illness, drug addiction or both.

IMO it's the second of those that is the disastrous & unsolvable societal issue (that so many look to make a political issue) and is the one that makes portions of our cities look like third world countries.

Helping decent but down on their luck people who want to & can participate in society to get back on their feet is a difficult but solvable issue, but what can be done about the REAL problem, which is the vast numbers of zombie-like people who sleep & shit on sidewalks and don't want to or simply can't participate in society?

Who's got an answer for that?

>>>always trying to see what he want's to see and he's wrong again<<<

doolittle, there have been many, many times when you claim that people are taking the intent of what you say incorrectly.  That happens to most of us and can be an issue with reading comprehension, but if it happens often enough it can be writers comprehension.

I think there may be times that you don't quite see how what you've written will be taken by the reader, which can happen to anyone, but there is also some personal responsibility by the writer involved.

When I was teaching I had a "golden rule" that I would hold myself to, and it also worked when I was managing large numbers of people in my other job. I found that when there was miscommunication it helped me look at myself before blaming others.....

"If they didn't get it, then I didn't explain it right".

Sometimes doo, it's not them, it's you.

Just sayin'.

Derp.

um, the forced busing and relocation of people purposefully to western states is barbaric, inhumane, and should be illegal.

then they turn around and blame "liberal" areas and point...and say see!

As a tropical storm bore down on Southern California, Texas sent migrants on a bus to Los Angeles

As of Aug. 18, Texas has transported at least 31,940 migrants to New York City, Chicago, Philadelphia, Denver, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.

https://www.texastribune.org/2023/08/22/texas-migrants-bus-los-angeles-t...

Film making is an art. Slow motion is part of that. Zombies? That sells videos. As doolittle said about something else, Pfffft!! These people look like people on the streets, getting by, maybe barely. It looks to me like a lot (most?) of the people shown are unhoused or without the ability (for whatever reasons) to maintain a home. Drugs are a way to cope. Nothing about this is new or unusual except the numbers.

People being bussed from Texas and other places to western states is well known. The weight of humans in need is shrugged off by states and municipalities that don't want it. It shouldn't be allowed in such wholesale fashion.

I'm not getting a clear message in this thread, except that there are people in need. We should do better.

> I'm not getting a clear message in this thread

The thread was conceived in meanness and mockery, but then had its agenda hijacked by people who care about more than just themselves. The waters are bound to be a bit muddy.

Time to drain the moat between the have way to much's and the have nots

homelessness is but a symptom of far greater social ills<<<
 

A good health practitioner identifies symptoms and treats them instead of just letting them fester.  Our elected officials, and our Not So Great Society by proxy, are guilty of malpractice, gross negligence, and fraud by every observable measure.

Identify and evaluate every single shelterless person.  Find housing, job training, and job placement for the mentally and physically capable.  Find medical care for the injured.  Find treatment for the addicted.  Find proper care and, if necessary, compassionate institutionalization for the mentally ill and those who for whatever reason can't take care of themselves and function in society.  Identify the pathological criminals and predators and incarcerate them with proper treatment and counseling. 
 

Hate is everything you think it is.  Love and only love will see you through.

Then try spelling out for the zone precisely what you meant by "Vancouver jewel of the pacific coast", mister compassion

go ahead 

especially considering Vancouver isn't even on the pacific coast 

feigning ignorance after using the zone to launder your prejudice is fucking bullshit 

doo better

>>>What Western states are they being bused too????

My wife was the Clinical Director at the largest shelter in SF the one at 5th and Bryant. She would on a daily basis take calls from social workers as far away as Maine calling to make a "reservation" for their client that they were buying a bus ticket for so they could go to SF. This was 10 years ago and it hasn't stopped and it started long before she had that job. 

well CA should sue those states.

wtf man?!

More mockery from the army of one. Got any other arrows in your quiver, James, or is that it?

Thanks for the post Herbal Dave. Helped keep me positive.  They say we are dreamers, but we're not the only ones.  I hope some day more will join us and the world will live as one. 

You can see the xylazine zombies live on Kensington in Philly:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIO0L667LuE

Better watch it, James. You're edging up to another time-out.

So let's talk about solutions. If they made me benevolent dictator which is what I have always aspired too I would do the following.

First - No New Homeless. We can't fix what is out there but we can make sure that we don't add to the mess. That means everyone who gets evicted gets placed in housing. That means everyone discharged from prison gets housing. Everyone who leaves a partner because of domestic violence gets housing. Most important of all everyone who ages out of foster care gets housing. If these people choose to live on the street they get arrested. If the state provides housing you don't get to live on the street. 

Second - Triage the people out there. So much of what outreach does is how long you have been there or if you are HIV positive. All those things get you priority, but we should prioritize kids, families, DV victims, women, and veterans in that order. 

Third - We need to get serious about pressuring China on the meth fetanyl precursors and probably India too. Drugs have moved from the agrarian phase and are now in the early days of the industrial revolution. No need to grow anything any more. Production costs are way down and purity is way up. We can show we are serious about this by making all drugs except for meth and opiates legal and have LEO just focus on those. 

None of this will happen but it would help. 

Thanks for talking about solutions. If we start thinking along those lines things may shift. We can hope.

doolittle, anyone can know if someone is having a timeout by looking at their profile. If they are blocked from posting the profile is blank. If you, a frequent poster, don't post, someone may be curious about what's going on. They may not.

Your allegation that we would treat Zoners differently because of generosity is laughable, and verges on insulting. It doesn't happen.

If you're unhappy on Viva, you can choose to remove yourself. If you want to be happy here, you might have more fun.
Do not send weed or donations, it won't get you anyhwere.

This started when Reagan closed the federal mental health hospitals.  The homeless showed up in big numbers very quickly.

Factor in damaged war vets, runaway abused kids, and addicts and Bob is indeed your uncle.

But hey at least they are protecting us from drag queens.

>>>>Just posted a few hours ago on the Kensington area of Philly

If it passes, It will be interesting to see how they approach dismantling Kensington.  This is not a homeless problem, its a drug problem.

The Philly City Council voted to use zoning rules to ban "supervised drug consumption sites."  Don't think that will do anything to address the unsupervised sites on the sidewalks.  If anything, it will probably make the problem worse.

I think El Nino would make a fine benevolent dictator.  :)

>>>I think El Nino would make a fine benevolent dictator.  :)

No that shit would go right to my head and I'd start forcing Bobby to play at normal tempos and shit like that. 

^llol....that would definitely be within realistic authority of a benevolent dictator. And maybe hit him up for a poncho while you're at it. 

 >>>>>start forcing Bobby to play at normal tempos 

I think you're SOL on that one - Weir's got the old fuckin' hippie exemption. There's nothing you can do.

I remember telling our own benevolent dictator back when viva was still just an idea that a benevolent dictator was still a dictator, and I'm pretty sure we talked about herding cats then too.

Are Bobby's tempos more of an issue than his tone?

The tempos drag the tone out longer.

Lol - they sure do.

Just for perspective, over the last couple of weeks I witnessed tents and people just bedding down in the streets in Amsterdam, Paris and Munich. So even the EU which has a stronger social contract than we currently enjoy in North America has plenty of poor people with nowhere to go.

Around here there are, as in many other places, projects to add a bunch of low-income units to the housing supply, often by waiving zoning  requirements, set-backs, parking set-asides, and environmental regs.

Funny thing - when these projects are completed, somehow low-income folks are priced out. More higher-income renters and owners come in from other areas and move in to these units. Now they need jobs. Meanwhile, the real estate  and construction companies are doing great! Meanwhile the folks that need housing to get off the street are left out in the cold.

And so it goes.