
Travel, Budget Beds, and the Homeless - wallflower
https://www.ricksteves.com/about-rick/trinity-place
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joe_the_user
I'm much more to the left than the right. But I would still say that
"charitable housing" and "affordable housing" are terrible solutions to the
housing crisis.

It's better to just allow anyone to build housing that's safe and healthy.
Especially, housing for drug addicts or the abused sounds great except it puts
people in a weird situation - what happens if they stop being in that
category? What happens when the only housing available is for drug addicts and
you just happen to be poor?

~~~
empath75
An interesting thing I noticed while traveling in Central America is that in
the poorest of the poor places on earth, there is no such thing as
homelessness really. Anybody can just build a shack anywhere and have some
amount of shelter and a place to call home. It’s not what you would call a
‘home’ in the us, but it’s more dignified that sleeping on a street corner in
LA.

~~~
jessaustin
In lots of places, the poor have a right to exchange comfort, safety, dignity,
etc. for other things they value more. In USA, they don't have that right. The
artificial constraints that we all face to some extent, hit the poor the
hardest.

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jmspring
I like what Rick Steves is doing. His initial approach targeted a specific
demographic serviced by a specific charity and it seems like this model is
working. That specific demographic -- single moms going through the YWCA most
likely is also targeting local people needing help.

Having lived in Santa Cruz for 27+ years, it's a compassionate community on
the coast and is very expensive to live in. It also has exacerbated levels of
homelessness, crime, and drug issues not experienced by other cities in the
county (to the same degree) -- it doesn't know when to say "no". It has become
a destination for the homeless, those wanting to live by their own rules, and
those seeking to getaway -- some even claim people are put on a bus in other
communities to get out of town and go to Santa Cruz.

A story in the local paper --
[http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/lifestyle/20171225/a-tale-o...](http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/lifestyle/20171225/a-tale-
of-two-homeless-people-in-santa-cruz-dining-at-the-mah-on-christmas)

Highlighted are someone homeless for 20+ years not from Santa Cruz but living
there and one recently from Ohio. The city recently set up a "camp" near the
river in town. The first OD death in the camp (there have been two) was
someone recently from out of the area.

My point? Homelessness and mental illness and drug issues are problems.
However, tolerant attitudes like those in Santa Cruz attract people from out
of area that make it next to impossible to actually deal with the shear
numbers. Yet, local compassionate policies refuse to try and handle the
obvious problem -- you can't help everyone. A city of 60k can only do so much.

This is an issue that needs to be solved regionally. While people are free to
move about, every community should not be obligated to put the needs of the
newly arrived ahead of those who have been facing challenges locally.

~~~
joe_the_user
_However, tolerant attitudes like those in Santa Cruz attract people from out
of area that make it next to impossible to actually deal with the shear
numbers._

There are no cities "tolerant of homelessness" though there may be cities less
tolerant than others.

If you think that tolerance is a source of the problem, do you imagine an
intolerance race as the solution? I mean, as far as I can tell, the
intolerance race is already happening and it's only making America more awful
all around. Constant police harassment is the norm as a means of dealing with
homelessness nearly everywhere - given that it's essentially illegal to live
without a home in the US.

And even with an intolerance race, cities with nice weather are going to be at
a disadvantage. If no cities offer services, it's still nicer to be rousted
from the side of the road at 3:00 am from a place with nice weather and
pleasant views.

So, instead of viscous, mean-spirit carping, perhaps we could think about how
to actually solve this problem.

~~~
jmspring
Tolerance: \- camping ban lifted \- “petty” crimes often not even given a
citation — most property crimes \- bike theft not even investigated — police
need to witness \- drug crimes not cited \- parking violations not cited if
vehicle known to be a homeless person \- city sanctioned Camp was supposed to
have rules, instead people shoot up and other things with no ramifications

In a sense the city has set up a two tier system of enforcement - cite those
that can pay, don’t for those that can’t unless the crime is violent. This
includes bail levels for the same crime, most drugged out tweakers are caught
and released where a working stiff will have a hefty bail amount to deal with.

The problem can be more easily solved by helping those who are local and
sending those who aren’t back to where they are from (or a system to charge
the originating towns).

~~~
joe_the_user
_The problem can be more easily solved by helping those who are local and
sending those who aren’t back to where they are from (or a system to charge
the originating towns)._

Really? How would sending them back work? Establish an "internal passport"
system for the US so immigration from Iowa to California would perhaps require
someone to provide address to the proper authorities? They have a system like
that in China.

And yeah, there is a reason people don't want to be homeless in Iowa in the
winter.

Edit: and yeah, what you describe is so much "tolerance" as what happens when
the legal system can't afford to jail every single homeless person. So really,
you sort of need to actually solve the problem which indeed can't be just put
on local governments.

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chillingeffect
All fine, but the courts bear more responsibility than the average man for the
absence of fathers in children's lives.

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lrwa
How is this different than him renting the building(s) and donating the money
to YWCA? (other than saving on taxes)

~~~
monktastic1
"I would suffer none of the headaches that I would have if I had rented out
the units as a landlord."

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nickthemagicman
How does he pay property tax?

~~~
AFNobody
From the Article:

"During this time, they'll charge a small rent to its clients who stay in
Trinity Place in order to have a budget covering taxes, insurance, utilities,
and general maintenance."

Its basically the charity version of Section 8 Housing where people pay the
minimum needed to maintain the property.

