Los Angeles accused of criminalizing homelessness

I put my money where my mouth is and volunteer regularly. A lot of my fellow volunteers are liberal athiests. Seeing as 1 in 4 homeless are veterans its just another way that shows you dickbag republicans give lip service to "supporting the troops" while actually doing nothing to help. I am STILL waiting for you to post an intelligent sentence on this forum

hey uber daft, i have always givin my time to help the homeless. Most of the volunteers I know are liberals and athiests. Your comments are asinine. 1 in 4 are veterans, and 70 % are dealing with mental health issues.

I may be an ass but you did not counter my argument. Are you going to be taking them all in?

or as Ben Franklin put it,

"Gentlemen, we must all hang together or we shall most assuredly all hang separately"

You have internet connection out there, and a computer and power so you must be doing something right. Or are you at your local library right now?
/s

But I give you much praise for overcoming homelessness. It certainly doesn't seem like an easy thing to do.

i think i know what u mean.
F- it we need to prevent homelessness, much easier to enforce

hopefully your wallet is stolen. Our country was founded on Darwinism? How do you figure? I'll just say it now BULLSHIT! I don't actually care what our country was 'founded' homelessness is not expectable in the richest country in the world. The country should hold itself in higher regard.

So take action and give up your evenings and weekends and money to help these people. The high regard crap is the real bullshit you are lapping up.

dude I hope you get the shit beat out of you by a homeless guy. you get what you expect from people i hope one of them lives up to your expectation, douchebag

Their smell bothers you, eh? Strange then, that you should be far more foul than they.

Will you please make intelligent argument instead of wish harm upon me for my right to an opinion..

Actually thought (you should try it) some more and daverush you actually validated my argument more by admitting the homeless are violent and like to beat people up. Thank You.

"Their is nothing you can do for them except expedite their expiration."
Wow, really? So there's nothing anyone can do except pour cyanide on their garbage and shoot the homeless down in the streets?
You know, some people commit to volunteering their time to help the homeless by holding informative classes on how to get back on their feet. Or feeding them at soup kitchens, talking to them about their problems and healing their minds so their lives can get back on track again. And that's not the only type of homeless person; some homeless people simple were screwed over by life and are out of money; most don't even have a problem with drugs or crime, until they get on the streets and find it's one of the only ways to survive day to day.

"most likely they've committed severe crimes which is why society cast them out in the first place."

See my ending point above. This is ignorant of the nature of homelessness.

So you'll be forfeiting your evenings and weekends and cash then?

Me, personally? No, because there's no set organization in my area to deal with the marginally small homeless problem in my area. If there was one, or if there was a significant need for one, you bet I'd be devoting time and money. Not every weekend, not every evening, not all of my cash. But enough to make a difference in someone's life, yes.

I'm not trying to argue personal morality here, I'm just trying to make the point that we should look at alternatives to deal with the homeless other than treating them like vermin.

Completely agree, and it's sad.

how about a small percentage of homeless are mentally ill or incapable of being accountable for their lives. The rest of them are low life pieces of shit who will rob you blind and when you do actually try to help them you give them an inch and they try to take a mile. Maybe you haven't had enough hands on experience with the homeless, get out of your suburb.

@osixo6

The studies I have seen say anywhere from 15 to 40% of homeless are mentally ill. That means that a minimum of about 6000 of the 40000 in LA are mentally ill. Hardly what I would consider a "small percentage". On top of that anywhere from 20 to 30% are veterans and an estimated 330,000 sheltered and unsheltered homeless children were identified in HUD's July 2007 report to Congress. I cannot understand how you can consider a child or that many vets to be "low life pieces of shit". You are either an extremely callous individual or you should do a little research before you form an opinion and try to pass it off on me. And FYI. I lived in Tuscon for about a year and a half, Milwaukee for four years and Minneapolis for nine years. I have met plenty of homeless people to form an educated opinion so I do not need to be told to "get out of [my] suburb".

Woot, logic! Thank you, chasingame!

LOL....thanks Joseph I try...

well 15-40% hmm that's a huge gap in real statistics, sounds like a guestimate. Besides the fact that I am blackhearted and completely callous and don't really care about anyones life but my own, I am also a veteran and I have a friend who is schizophrenic, all of my vet friends and my friend who receives a monthly check from the government for his handicap seem to do fine by maintaining their accountability and responsibility for their own lives by showering regularly, feeding themselves and housing themselves. Children who are homeless should be placed in orphanages so they can stay put in one place, boo hoo it's sad but there aren't enough available homes because people can't wear fucking condoms (can't afford them) haven't been taught proper sex education whatever. Be a bleeding heart if you want I don't care, but stop spouting off information like you really have any, you googled some shit and acted like you went out there and did the research... out of the hundreds of homeless people I have met in Atlanta they all had substance abuse issues (prior to their homelessness) and they blame everyone and everything else for their predicament instead of mustering some balls and getting real help (which is out there now for people who are addicted) it starts and ends with adults being accountable and don't talk to me like I haven't done anything for any human being I've done my fair share of habitat for humanity, park clean ups and room in the inn. When was the last time you got out there and tried to clean up someones life? got to know them heard their sad sob story (and they all have one) given them opportunities and watched their lack of responsibility blow it all? Not show up for jobs cause they were getting high or stealing things from job sights and then lying when they've been caught red handed. Giving some homeless dude some change and talking about how God loves you for 5 minutes isn't getting to know a homeless person. There isn't a simple solution for such a complex problem as homelessness, let's not forget another study showed that the average earnings of a homeless person was close to 80,000$ yearly (if that's the average I would have to think regardless of mental illness you could afford a small apartment) Considering I live off of much less per year... and you really should get out of your suburb (using your statistics close to 70% are either mentally ill or veterans, well i'd agree with that if you included GAD and depression mental illness... but I am pretty sure there are a lot more drug addicts out there based on real observation and conversation with cops who actually do bum patrol in all metro zones of Atlanta.)

percentages aren't statistics, they are descriptive data and can fluctuate widely because each estimate comes from a different subpopulation. For example, the makeup of homeless people in Florida is actually very different from New York and so on. It depends on how well the state funds mental health programs, the weather, what the state's jails do with newly released prisoners, etc. The range also depends on how different surveys define mental illness. Some only include Axis I diagnoses, som include other diagnoses. 15-40% is accurate and the range merely reflects the differences mentioned above.

I work with many patients who have or are homeless. None of them fit the low-life description given by some of the comments here. None of them have ever failed to take accountability for their actions. All they want is some help to get them through economic, physical, and mental woes which may or may not be their doing. Someone who was raped, beaten, and left for dead needs a little support.

The point is that homelessness should not be criminalized because it is not an appropriate mechanism to fix the problem. One year of jail costs the same as one year of college education. It makes more sense to put that money into fixing the problem through half-way homes (decent ones), better foster care services, mental health clinics, and jobs.

Thanks neurogirl you are exactly right. The 15 - 40% is because I looked at several different studies and they defined mentally ill in different ways. Because of that there was a wide gap in study outcomes. It was not a gestimate like osixo6 implied.

@osixo6... In case you didn't notice I even used the low number 15% in my argument. I feel that 6000 people still falling into that category is enough to refute your claim. You are right about the actual numbers. Google and other internet sources were used. It seems more accurate to me than walking down the street counting people and assuming that they are all low life peaces of shit. The internet is a powerful tool so I use it. Also, do you really think I am implying that 70% of homeless people are vets or mentally ill? Wake up! Of course these categories can overlap. Some of the mentally ill are vets. I feel like I am explaining this to a little kid. I have volunteered at shelters and habitat for humanity in MN so please do not lecture me on that. The problem is that volunteer work cannot help enough people. Real help has to come through government and policy which is what this article is really about. It seems to me that LA is going in the wrong direction and turning their back on a lot of needy people. If you want to call me a bleeding heart go ahead but you should also understand that I realize that there are a lot of homeless people that deserve to be in the position that they are in. Some people can and should take responsibility. As you put it, they are low life pieces of shit. I am just not ready to punish so many innocent people that also make up this segment of the US population because of it.

One final note. I understand that your viewpoint is based on your experiences and we see things from a different perspective. I can respect and understand that. At this point I think it is just time to agree to disagree. If you have anything to add I may or may not respond but I am most likely done discussing this topic with you.

seriously... like what the fuck?

haha whose rich? the government? they think they are, but really were all in major debt, trillions in debt.

What do you mean we're in debt? We can print all the money we need (tongue-in-cheek). And with the Fed(eral Reserve) running the show, we're sure to... after all, if you're given the keys to a business in which you make money by printing and lending it to other people (in this case, the US gov't) why on earth would you ever stop the printing presses? What would be the motivation? The Fed doesn't answer to the People, nor do they have our best interests in mind. Thank god that Average Joe has no idea what the Fed does, why it's a bad idea, why it's proven itself not to work, and why nothing will ever be done about it... in our lifetime at least. Bravo Complacency!
The Fed will only cease to exists when we, The People, stop paying our taxes... a bulk of which goes to paying interest on the money the Fed lends us. If they stop making money, they'll disappear. Though, I highly doubt that will ever happen. When they start losing ground all they have to do is give a call to their buddies who run the US media outlets, run a positive "spin" campaign to win the minds and hearts of the lemmings, and solidify their foundation a little longer.
Geez, here I am sounding like a conspiracy theorist (which is code for anyone who doesn't subscribe to the mass hypnosis infecting the minds of the populus). Next thing you know I'll be spouting off rhetoric on the Cloward-Piven principle, and how the Fed could be used as a tool to bring about *real* change and hope.

But that's nonsense. We're in full control of our government, right? It's not like we have civil rights being stripped from us and taxes being levied without our support. Bills like the Patriot and Stimulus Act get read in full by every Congressman and Senator before they vote on it. We all know that. Anything else is nonsense.

what does Luxembourg have to do with any of this?