Homelessness Discussion thread

Building Bag End? Did your front fall off? More leaks than a Chinese steamboat? Show us your pinterest projects!
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goIftdibrad
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https://youtu.be/n6h7fL22WCE
Each night, tens of thousands of people sleep in tent cities crowding the palm-lined boulevards of Los Angeles, far more than any other city in the nation. The homeless population in the entertainment capital of the world has hit new record highs in each of the past few years.

But a 39-year-old struggling musician from South LA thought he had a creative fix. Elvis Summers, who went through stretches of homelessness himself in his 20s, raised over $100,000 through crowdfunding campaigns last spring. With the help of professional contractors and others in the community who sign up to volunteer through his nonprofit, Starting Human, he has built dozens of solar-powered, tiny houses to shelter the homeless since.

Summers says that the houses are meant to be a temporary solution that, unlike a tent, provides the secure foundation residents need to improve their lives. "The tiny houses provide immediate shelter," he explains. "People can lock their stuff up and know that when they come back from their drug treatment program or court or finding a job all day, their stuff is where they left it."

Each house features a solar power system, a steel-reinforced door, a camping toilet, a smoke detector, and even window alarms. The tiny structures cost Summers roughly $1,200 apiece to build.

LA city officials, however, had a different plan to address the crisis. A decade after the city's first 10-year plan to end homelessness withered in 2006, Mayor Eric Garcetti announced in February a $1.87 billion proposal to get all LA residents off the streets, once and for all. He and the City Council aim to build 10,000 units of permanent housing with supportive services over the next decade. In the interim, they are shifting funds away from temporary and emergency shelters.

Councilmember Curren Price, who represents the district where Summers's tiny houses were located, does not believe they are beneficial either to the community or to the homeless people housed in them. "I don't really want to call them houses. They're really just boxes," says Price. "They're not safe, and they impose real hazards for neighbors in the community."

Most of Summers's tiny houses are on private land that has been donated to the project. A handful had replaced the tents that have proliferated on freeway overpasses in the city. Summers put them there until he could secure a private lot to create a tiny house village similar to those that already exist in Portland, Seattle, Austin, and elsewhere. "My whole issue and cause is that something needs to be done right now," Summers emphasizes.

But the houses, nestled among dour tent shantytowns, became brightly colored targets early this year for frustrated residents who want the homeless out of their backyards. Councilmember Price was bombarded by complaints from angry constituents.

In February, the City Council responded by amending a sweeps ordinance to allow the tiny houses to be seized without prior notice. On the morning of the ninth, just as the mayor and council gathered at City Hall to announce their new plan to end homelessness, police and garbage trucks descended on the tiny homes, towing three of them to a Bureau of Sanitation lot for disposal. Summers managed to move eight of the threatened houses into storage before they were confiscated, but their residents were left back on the sidewalk.

If the city won't devote any resources to supporting novel solutions, Summers urges officials at least to make it easier for private organizations and individuals like him to pave the way forward. The city owns thousands of vacant lots, many of which have been abandoned for decades, that could provide sites for tiny house villages or other innovative housing concepts that can have an immediate impact.

"Everything that they have been doing doesn't work. It's just years of circles and bureaucratic holds and wait times," says Summers. "10, 20, 30, 40 years—where's all the housing?"

Interesting point to discuss. I'll let some responses fill in before I give my feels on the issue.
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Can't watch the video, stupid work computer, but I mean, these people are trying to do good, why not let them and see how it goes?
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wap
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This is the most :triggered: aspect for me:
The city owns thousands of vacant lots, many of which have been abandoned for decades, that could provide sites for tiny house villages
How is it better to let empty lots fester with rats and weeds than to give these people at least a marginally better existence?
:wap: Where are these mangos?
Detroit wrote: Fri Apr 16, 2021 1:19 pm I don't understand anything anymore.
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wap wrote:This is the most :triggered: aspect for me:
The city owns thousands of vacant lots, many of which have been abandoned for decades, that could provide sites for tiny house villages
How is it better to let empty lots fester with rats and weeds than to give these people at least a marginally better existence?
Because they could be worth :waxer: eventually as gentrification sets in DTLA.

:|
Desertbreh wrote: Tue Oct 10, 2017 6:40 pm My guess would be that Chris took some time off because he has read the dialogue on this page 1,345 times and decided to spend some of his free time doing something besides beating a horse to death.
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The city has been giving away empty lots here for tiny house villages for homeless and those about to be homeless. I hope it continues.
Desertbreh wrote: Tue Oct 10, 2017 6:40 pm My guess would be that Chris took some time off because he has read the dialogue on this page 1,345 times and decided to spend some of his free time doing something besides beating a horse to death.
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goIftdibrad
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Melon wrote:Can't watch the video, stupid work computer, but I mean, these people are trying to do good, why not let them and see how it goes?
Yes.
wap wrote:This is the most :triggered: aspect for me:
The city owns thousands of vacant lots, many of which have been abandoned for decades, that could provide sites for tiny house villages
How is it better to let empty lots fester with rats and weeds than to give these people at least a marginally better existence?
Yes.


On the one hand, i get it. providing "too nice" a place to stay encourages the behavior. Its blight for the city. crime. property values. etc.

on the other, these are people we are dealing with. Other people of their own accord are trying to help and you are getting in the way!

it seems like this solution is far, far, far preferable than a tent.

I do get why these small structures should not be allowed on the sidewalks.
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It would be cool even if it is better than they deserve. Make it a homeless haven. Hopefully all the homeless from other cities would all flock to LA. :trollface:
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NeonJonny wrote:It would be cool even if it is better than they deserve. Make it a homeless haven. Hopefully all the homeless from other cities would all flock to LA. :trollface:
:iswydt:
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Detroit wrote:The city has been giving away empty lots here for tiny house villages for homeless and those about to be homeless. I hope it continues.
:bravo:
:wap: Where are these mangos?
Detroit wrote: Fri Apr 16, 2021 1:19 pm I don't understand anything anymore.
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it just blows my mind that such a simple obvios solution like this is overlooked. they talk about the danger of them, but compared to what? sleeping on the fucking street?
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Big Brain Bradley wrote:it just blows my mind that such a simple obvios solution like this is overlooked. they talk about the danger of them, but compared to what? sleeping on the fucking street?
I fail to see how these are more dangerous than sleeping on the street.

Now, the homeless that go into abandoned houses that are falling down around here...THAT'S more dangerous.
Desertbreh wrote: Tue Oct 10, 2017 6:40 pm My guess would be that Chris took some time off because he has read the dialogue on this page 1,345 times and decided to spend some of his free time doing something besides beating a horse to death.
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Detroit wrote:
Big Brain Bradley wrote:it just blows my mind that such a simple obvios solution like this is overlooked. they talk about the danger of them, but compared to what? sleeping on the fucking street?
I fail to see how these are more dangerous than sleeping on the street.

Now, the homeless that go into abandoned houses that are falling down around here...THAT'S more dangerous.
agree
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Big Brain Bradley wrote:
Detroit wrote: I fail to see how these are more dangerous than sleeping on the street.

Now, the homeless that go into abandoned houses that are falling down around here...THAT'S more dangerous.
agree
:dat:
:wap: Where are these mangos?
Detroit wrote: Fri Apr 16, 2021 1:19 pm I don't understand anything anymore.
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Big Brain Bradley wrote:it just blows my mind that such a simple obvios solution like this is overlooked. they talk about the danger of them, but compared to what? sleeping on the fucking street?
But they're not built to code breh.

Lawyers gonna lawyer and ruin everything for everyone as usual... right, desert?
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troyguitar wrote:
Big Brain Bradley wrote:it just blows my mind that such a simple obvios solution like this is overlooked. they talk about the danger of them, but compared to what? sleeping on the fucking street?
But they're not built to code breh.

Lawyers gonna lawyer and ruin everything for everyone as usual... right, desert?
:dat:
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Positives:
Everyone deserves to at least have a safe place to be. People don't realize this, but homeless people sleeping on the street get the shit kicked out of them nightly, they get robbed, they get assaulted, harassed, and sometimes killed. Tiny home villages like the one this dude is trying to make would at least provide a secure sleeping spot for these people.

Negatives:
Troy mentioned not built to code. Yes, absolutely. I wouldn't want to be on the defending end of a lawsuit from someone saying the sanitation conditions were inadequate and they got sick because of it. Code states you need running water, warm water, heat, and a light bulb. He has the light but he's missing all the sanitary stuff that people need in a place that they're living. Now imagine you have 20-30 of these little box huts in a group on a vacant lot. It sounds all well and good, but soon it turns into a trash heap that smells like piss and shit because they're literally shitting on the ground right next to the house. Who is cleaning this up? Who maintains these buildings? Who prevents them from falling down and killing someone after 15 years of being beat to shit?

Now. Maybe the city needs to realize that people are willing to back this with their own money, and they can drastically reduce the cost of their housing program. Residents source/build the houses, the city comes in with a bathroom facility, and the local taxes help pay for the clean up and maintenance. BUT. That requires a housing program, people to watch it, manage it, etc.

Sounds like this guy should be looking at a way to open a non-profit that supplies the sanitary facilities but crowd funds / crowd builds the homes. Which is basically what's happening in Detroit...
https://casscommunity.org/
A non profit making homes that are up to code.
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Johnny_P wrote:Positives:
Everyone deserves to at least have a safe place to be. People don't realize this, but homeless people sleeping on the street get the shit kicked out of them nightly, they get robbed, they get assaulted, harassed, and sometimes killed. Tiny home villages like the one this dude is trying to make would at least provide a secure sleeping spot for these people.

Negatives:
Troy mentioned not built to code. Yes, absolutely. I wouldn't want to be on the defending end of a lawsuit from someone saying the sanitation conditions were inadequate and they got sick because of it. Code states you need running water, warm water, heat, and a light bulb. He has the light but he's missing all the sanitary stuff that people need in a place that they're living. Now imagine you have 20-30 of these little box huts in a group on a vacant lot. It sounds all well and good, but soon it turns into a trash heap that smells like piss and shit because they're literally shitting on the ground right next to the house. Who is cleaning this up? Who maintains these buildings? Who prevents them from falling down and killing someone after 15 years of being beat to shit?

Now. Maybe the city needs to realize that people are willing to back this with their own money, and they can drastically reduce the cost of their housing program. Residents source/build the houses, the city comes in with a bathroom facility, and the local taxes help pay for the clean up and maintenance. BUT. That requires a housing program, people to watch it, manage it, etc.

Sounds like this guy should be looking at a way to open a non-profit that supplies the sanitary facilities but crowd funds / crowd builds the homes. Which is basically what's happening in Detroit...
https://casscommunity.org/
A non profit making homes that are up to code.
Good, well thought out post is good and well thought out.
:wap: Where are these mangos?
Detroit wrote: Fri Apr 16, 2021 1:19 pm I don't understand anything anymore.
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Homeless should get a damned job.
Desertbreh wrote: Tue Oct 10, 2017 6:40 pm My guess would be that Chris took some time off because he has read the dialogue on this page 1,345 times and decided to spend some of his free time doing something besides beating a horse to death.
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:drunk:
Desertbreh wrote: Tue Oct 10, 2017 6:40 pm My guess would be that Chris took some time off because he has read the dialogue on this page 1,345 times and decided to spend some of his free time doing something besides beating a horse to death.
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Detroit wrote:Homeless should get a damned job.
They are far more likely to do so and keep one if they have housing, statistically speaking.

Sent from the beer depository
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Calvinball wrote:
Detroit wrote:Homeless should get a damned job.
They are far more likely to do so and keep one if they have housing, statistically speaking.

Sent from the beer depository
:dat:
:wap: Where are these mangos?
Detroit wrote: Fri Apr 16, 2021 1:19 pm I don't understand anything anymore.
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But then they're not homeless, sooo where's the incentive?
Desertbreh wrote: Tue Oct 10, 2017 6:40 pm My guess would be that Chris took some time off because he has read the dialogue on this page 1,345 times and decided to spend some of his free time doing something besides beating a horse to death.
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Detroit wrote:But then they're not homeless, sooo where's the incentive?
:wat:

Sent from the beer depository
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Detroit wrote:But then they're not homeless, sooo where's the incentive?
Imagegasm:

Just give them some boots with nice thick straps.
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troyguitar wrote:
Detroit wrote:But then they're not homeless, sooo where's the incentive?
Imagegasm:

Just give them some boots with nice thick straps.
If they work hard enough, they'll be :waxer:
Desertbreh wrote: Tue Oct 10, 2017 6:40 pm My guess would be that Chris took some time off because he has read the dialogue on this page 1,345 times and decided to spend some of his free time doing something besides beating a horse to death.
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