Homelessness Is The U.S. Is Starting To Look A Lot Like Europe’s Refugee Crisis
SilverDoctors.com
November 8, 2017
Besides the financial and health emergencies declared or in the making, fear is starting to spike. All that’s left is a surge in violence…
Reports have been coming in all week long of the surging problem with homelessness on the West Coast:
In a park in the middle of a leafy, bohemian neighborhood where homes list for close to $1 million, a tractor’s massive claw scooped up the refuse of the homeless – mattresses, tents, wooden frames, a wicker chair, an outdoor propane heater. Workers in masks and steel-shanked boots plucked used needles and mounds of waste from the underbrush.
Just a day before, this corner of Ravenna Park was an illegal home for the down and out, one of 400 such encampments that have popped up in Seattle’s parks, under bridges, on freeway medians and along busy sidewalks. Now, as police and social workers approached, some of the dispossessed scurried away, vanishing into a metropolis that is struggling to cope with an enormous wave of homelessness.
That struggle is not Seattle’s alone. A homeless crisis of unprecedented proportions is rocking the West Coast, and its victims are being left behind by the very things that mark the region’s success: soaring housing costs, rock-bottom vacancy rates and a roaring economy that waits for no one. All along the coast, elected officials are scrambling for solutions.
“I’ve got economically zero unemployment in my city, and I’ve got thousands of homeless people that actually are working and just can’t afford housing,” said Seattle City Councilman Mike O’Brien. “There’s nowhere for these folks to move to. Every time we open up a new place, it fills up.”
Did this Councilman actually say that Seattle’s unemployment rate is zero? Sure. I’ve got a bridge to sell him to Alaska too.
The report goes on to say:
Homelessness is not new on the West Coast. But interviews with local officials and those who serve the homeless in California, Oregon and Washington – coupled with an Associated Press review of preliminary homeless data – confirm it’s getting worse. People who were once able to get by, even if they suffered a setback, are now pushed to the streets because housing has become so expensive.
Taking a deeper look into the problems of homelessness, it seems that this is beginning to take it’s toll on city finances.
For example, in San Diego, there is a heated dispute over the construction of permanent, temporary homeless shelter tents:
The San Diego Housing Commission agreed Friday to use $6.5 million from its permanent housing fund to staff three large tented homeless shelters the city plans to open by the end of the month, but not everybody was on board with the idea.
While the commissioners unanimously supported the plan, the notion of using housing funds for a shelter did not sit well with some advocates for the homeless who saw the move as a step back from seeking long-term solutions.
It should be noted that each “tent” is expected to house 350 homeless.
Think about that for a moment. What kind of tensions are going to flare when packing 350 homeless, who may have all sorts of mental health, addiction, and other issues in something the size of about half a football field:
The Rest…HERE
