
Anti Homeless Spikes - wslh
https://twitter.com/Inartica/status/1209593346403921920
======
drdeadringer
99 Percent Invisible did an episode on such Hostile Architecture, architecture
designed specifically to be hostile toward the homeless.

Some related sites:

[https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/unpleasant-design-
hos...](https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/unpleasant-design-hostile-
urban-architecture/)

[https://99percentinvisible.org/article/design-crimes-
artist-...](https://99percentinvisible.org/article/design-crimes-artist-
launches-campaign-highlight-hostile-architecture/)

~~~
lm28469
On a related topic: [https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/the-containment-
plan/](https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/the-containment-plan/)

~~~
drdeadringer
Sounds like a plot from 'The Wire'.

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e40
Honestly, it's getting so bad in the Bay Area, I'm having trouble seeing how
this will end. Everywhere I walk in the East Bay (mostly Oakland), there are
tents.

~~~
dry_soup
It's truly amazing that an incredibly rich city full of companies trying to
"change the world" chooses over and over again to not solve its homelessness
problem. It requires no new technological developments, no moonshots, just an
ounce of empathy and maybe some raised taxes. But that seems to be too hard.

~~~
mlyle
The amount of resources going towards the homeless are ridiculously large. The
net result is that favorable weather and resource availability draws more
people in from other places, and the problem is too large for any individual
locality to solve.

e.g. The City of San Francisco is spending over $300M/year _directly_ on
services towards easing homelessness. This does not count state expenditures
focused in the area, private expenditures, expenditures by surrounding areas,
and the wealth of indirect expenses. Versus a homeless population of 10,000,
this is $30,000 per year per homeless person in the City of SF-- just direct
expenses by City of SF.

Clearly an overall change in approach is needed-- not just additional
resources spent the same way.

~~~
mschuster91
The key would be that _all_ US cities/towns/villages take care of their
homeless instead of busing them to California. I can see the financial
incentive - a bus ticket is like, what, couple hundred tops across the
country? while the police, healthcare and other resources in a single year can
easily reach five to six figures - but morally it is absolutely disgusting
behavior.

Ideally federal agencies should take care of this and make sure that every US
citizen in need is taken care of where he lives.

~~~
mlyle
At the very least we need to strictly regulate programs that bus homeless
other places.

Yes, there are circumstances where throwing someone on a bus to a locality
where he has some family or other connections is the best move for all
involved. But we need to make sure that is actually the case, not based on
some tenuous connection and a desire to displace the costly individual
somewhere else.

This isn't enough, though. Even without explicit governmental support to move,
homeless people know that there are localities where it's "better" to be
homeless and will move themselves.

~~~
mschuster91
> At the very least we need to strictly regulate programs that bus homeless
> other places.

That is close to impossible, I'm afraid. And even if federal regulation
prohibits the executive branch from such programs, I guarantee that it will be
replaced by some "church", neighborhood watch, political action group or
whatever...

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verall
Posted like 3 tweets down from this guy:
[https://mobile.twitter.com/Inartica/status/12109709851149598...](https://mobile.twitter.com/Inartica/status/1210970985114959872/photo/1)

Aaaaaaa!

I believe anti-homeless architecture is appalling and Western culture of "the
strong (rich) deserve more than others" is the root cause but good lord please
go to China and talk to some people before you go repeating propaganda like
that...

~~~
cameronfraser
This guy has some weird cognitive dissonance. They seem to be supportive of
socialist countries, but also of tulsi gabbard?

~~~
joeblow9999
why is that surprising? have you read her policy positions?

~~~
cameronfraser
She is very far from socialist. She isn't in line with democrat ideologies
either. Her policies don't matter, what matters is her history. She is a
conservative masquerading as a democrat.

For example: [https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/13/politics/kfile-tulsi-
gabbard-...](https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/13/politics/kfile-tulsi-gabbard-
lgbt/index.html)

~~~
joeblow9999
socialist is about economic policies. your link is about something else

~~~
cameronfraser
It's just an example of how she doesn't fall in line with the left at all.
Look at her voting record.

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thrwaway69
I don't have a magic solution but I would like to add few thoughts:

1\. Homeless people destroy environment and don't practice sanitation on the
same level (non homeless folks) That imo is true and we shouldn't ignore it.
But why? I have a few explanation depending on the place so it's not an apply
all hammer, alcohol & drug abuse/mental illness are one of the reasons why
there are homeless in big rich cities (combined with other) but wouldn't that
cause itself will lead to people caring less about environment and things that
don't directly affect them? When was the last time you were depressed and
wanted to hole up in your bed doing nothing? Consider that and with not a good
overall health condition, lacking empathy (of course why would they for the
society that failed them), poverty mindset and resource constraints with no
hope for a brighter future. It's a self destructive mindset.

Oh to make it more suitable for HN in analogy, think of those anti homeless
spikes as walled garden of the big companies. Imessage? Yeah, you can't
connect with your friends anymore after you can't afford an iPhone. Maybe you
contributed to society in tax and other spheres and now you can't anymore, you
don't deserve whatever crumbles are left there.

Of course I am exaggerating.

2\. Throw money at them and it will go away. I hope that worked, I really do
but that doesn't solve any of the problems. US puts a lot of money more than
countries with free healthcare (controlled for population but not size) yet
people aren't getting it. The system is dysfunctional or benefits some people
more than others due to lack of awareness, discrimination (advertising towards
one gender or race is an example), collective empathy, and tendency to put
pressure on your career/home/bank as an identity.

Maybe those homeless shelters are far away. I don't know but why blame anyone
without any evidence or data on those things.

~~~
mnm1
CEOs who afaik are 100% not homeless destroy the environment to such an extent
as to make what all the homeless in the US destroy seem insignificant and
inconsequential. They too lack empathy and have a destructive mindset. I say
we address this much more massive problem first and the homeless problem will
likely be solved by our actions.

~~~
thrwaway69
Yeah, carbon emission tax or other similar taxation can be used more
effectively, I guess. Raising taxes for luxury that are not providing anything
but a way to brag should be heavily taxed into oblivion.

I wish we could have something like pollution emission credit, the higher your
credit. The more percentage of income/wealth you have to pay but that is
unenforceable, actionable and will go against human rights to track.

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yellow_lead
Can't believe it's gotten this far, that cities need to implement deterences
like these.

~~~
ailideex
This is nothing new - I have seen similar things since I was about 8.

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RickJWagner
Huh. And what is their defense if the homeless is a fakir?

[https://sciencedemonstrations.fas.harvard.edu/presentations/...](https://sciencedemonstrations.fas.harvard.edu/presentations/fakir-
physics)

