Trump signs order making it easier to institutionalize homeless people

The executive order the president also asks Bondi to work with the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Department of Transportation to prioritize federal grants for states and cities that "enforce prohibitions on open illicit drug use, urban camping and loitering," the White House said. The order was first reported by USA Today.

"President Trump is delivering on his commitment to Make America Safe Again and end homelessness across America," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement. "By removing vagrant criminals from our streets and redirecting resources toward substance abuse programs, the Trump administration will ensure that Americans feel safe in their own communities and that individuals suffering from addiction or mental health struggles are able to get the help they need."

In March, Mr. Trump called for Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser to "clean up all of the unsightly homeless encampments in the City, specifically including the ones outside of the State Department, and near the White House." He added that if she was "not capable of doing so, we will be forced to do it for her!" He signed an executive order directing the National Park Service to clear all homeless encampments on federal lands.

He also signed a separate executive order in March aiming to dismantle the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness.

The president pledged to remove homeless individuals from the nation's streets during his campaign.

"When I am back in the White House, we will use every tool, lever, and authority to get the homeless off our streets," Mr. Trump said in a spring 2023 campaign video.

The National Homelessness Law Center said the order "does nothing to lower the cost of housing or help people make ends meet."

"Forced treatment is unethical, ineffective, and illegal. People need stable housing and access to healthcare. Rather, Trump's actions will force more people into homelessness, divert taxpayer money away from people in need, and make it harder for local communities to solve homelessness," said spokesperson Jesse Rabinowitz.

First he came for the immigrants....

Then he came for the homeless...

It feels like we're sleepwalking into fascism.

I hope you all see where this is headed.

If not, then you need to open your eyes.

Yes and know. Yes this could be used repressively however there are very dangerous homeless people roaming the streets who are a menace to society as well as themselves.

They're going to institutionalize gay and trans like it's 1950 again.

R5 = future Kapo.

Sounds like a private prison/longterm care facility boondoggle to me.

I mean, they're planning on eliminating Medicaid and cutting back Medicare--oh, and trying to drive a stake through the heart of the ACA, all in the name of fiscal responsibility.

So where the fuck are they gonna get funds to pay for all those initiatives?

We are already well entrenched in fascism R3. Trump is an authoritarian dictator and the Trump administration is a fascist regime. See link.

It also feels like we (the gays) will soon feature somewhere on R2's list. We might not be next - but at some point they will target us and "clean us up".

[quote]So where the fuck are they gonna get funds to pay for all those initiatives?

They don't care about the deficit R8. Why not? Because the rich don't have to pay it and it doesn't affect them - the middle and lower classes are the ones who are ultimately saddled with it and the problems having such a large deficit brings. So Trump will just run up more deficit like he did for ICE and tax cuts for the uber rich.

[quote] Yes and know. Yes this could be used repressively however there are very dangerous homeless people roaming the streets who are a menace to society as well as themselves.

That's the same "reasoning" that Hitler used.

The same reasoning that Trump is using.

You can try to explain it away as much as you like, but the bottom line is that he is using all of these excuses as a means of rounding people up, and herding them into "camps," whether they are in Alligator Alcatraz, or internment camps.

He's starting off with groups that most people don't care about, but eventually, it'll expand to other groups that Trump finds objectionable.

Gays, POC, Journalists, Political Opponents, etc.

The dictator handbook starts off small, and then gradually expands.

[quote]Yes and know.

Oh, dear.

Spot on R11.

And let's not forget that a number of actual American citizens have been kidnapped off the streets by ICE thugs and imprisoned in ICE detention recently and it's going to ramp up because nobody has really said anything much about it. It didn't take long for that to happen...

Step C is not so much worse than Step B, and, if I did not make a stand at Step B, why should we at Step C?

And so on to Step D.

I posted R5 and own my know/no typo. I realise this can be a fascist move. However, we have been complaining for years that insane people shouldn't be on streets. I wouldn't trust the sorting mechanism - who is insane who is being controlled for other reasons - and I wouldn't trust the quasi-medical institutions in place to "rehouse" them. But there ARE too many insane homeless.

[quote] However, we have been complaining for years that insane people shouldn't be on streets. I wouldn't trust the sorting mechanism - who is insane who is being controlled for other reasons - and I wouldn't trust the quasi-medical institutions in place to "rehouse" them. But there ARE too many insane homeless.

And who created this situation?

REPUBLICANS!!!

FFS, this started with Ronald Reagan, and has continued for the past 40 years.

Republicans slashing funding for treatment of these individuals, Republicans creating the wealth gap, Republicans enabling insane real estate prices which cause even more homelessness, Republicans defunding social safety nets, and on and on and on.

This is all part of the fucking plan for them.

They caused the problem, and now they have "Final Solution" to the problem.

Republicans have a "Final Solution" to everything they consider to be problematic. And don't think for one second, that gays aren't included in that.

American cities were better when they enforced vagrancy laws and institutionalized insane people. Yes, they were all thrown into fetid jail cells and horrific snake pits, but the rest of society could walk the streets in safety.

Good.

[quote]I realise this can be a fascist move.

And you came back to double down on normalizing fascism. How very "centrist" of you. Wringing your hands and mopping you brow doesn't change that you're as fascist as Trump for justifying this on any grounds at all.

[quote]However, we have been complaining for years that insane people shouldn't be on streets.

Who the fuck is "WE?" Don't speak for everyone, you know nothing about any of us. I had a period in my life when I was nearly homeless myself so this particularly classist and rarified point of view is not even recognizable to me. Go fuck yourself with your blanket assumptions.

[quote]I wouldn't trust the sorting mechanism

Absolutely vile acknowledgment of the fascism your co-signing

[quote]- who is insane who is being controlled for other reasons -

And you're fine with that because homeless people scare you.

[quote]and I wouldn't trust the quasi-medical institutions in place to "rehouse" them.

So why are you defending this??

[quote]But there ARE too many insane homeless.

BECAUSE EVERY PROGRAM TO ADDRESS THE PROBLEM HAS BEEN ELIMINATED TO THE ENTHUSIAST CHEERS OF AMORAL TECHNOCRATS LIKE YOU. Jesus Christ! And any suggestion to take a holistic approach is met with cries of "hOw WiLl wE pAy fOr iT" from you types too, yet you never question how we'll fund the latest concentration camp for today's latest target of hate.

We are so fucked and it!s entirely because of people like R5.

It doesn’t mention prisons or criminalization - but funding the establishment of rehabs and mental institutions right? If that’s the case I have no issue. I’ve been recommending exactly that for years. Closing down asylums was a huge mistake. They don’t have to be dingy torment camps. We’ve made a lot of progress in our understanding of and sympathy for mental health and addiction as a society. Of course, the Trump regime won’t seek to implement this in the most compassionate, well funded, and transparent way. But I can’t say I disagree with the premise.

[quote]However, we have been complaining for years that insane people shouldn't be on streets.

True.

[quote]Yes and know. Yes this could be used repressively however there are very dangerous homeless people roaming the streets who are a menace to society as well as themselves.

Agreed.

The problem of disturbed/disturbing and dangerous homeless people is very real in some cities. And it’s all kinds of complicated in terms of why the problem exists, and what approaches to it are more effective than others. And who’s an actual threat vs just smelly or unpleasant to look upon. And very complicated in terms of where do the disturbed-acting person’s fundamental rights end, and the rights of those who encounter the person begin?

But the absolute fucking LAST person you’d want proposing solutions, if you have any human decency, is Donald Trump.

I wish we would do something like China’s poverty elimination act - but that was so intense that 1,500 government workers died. They identified every single poor in the country and assigned a state worker to them, many of them ended up dying from health complications as they weren’t used to harsh and impoverished rural lifestyles. The national government will start levying harsh fines on local politicians, mayors, etc if homelessness is allowed to occur in their region. They also built out a massive wildlife ranger program and hired/trained tons of poors into it.

Long-term facilities are desperately needed for the mentally ill in NYC. Most mentally ill people take their medication and go about their lives or live well in group homes. However, there are many who stop taking medication, they decompensate, then end up in acute psychiatric units until they are taken to court and treatment over objection is granted. They're often referred to as frequent flyers and are well known to the staff. They are on these units for months and it is a hugely expensive process.

If it is determined that they should be sent to a long-term facility (based on the number of admission during the past year), it could take six-to-eight months for a bed to become available. Meanwhile, they are brought to court for retention when needed and they are basically imprisoned for months, costing several hundred dollars a day. Costs matter.

I don't care who gets something done on this issue. The situation needs to be rectified quickly for all involved. In the past 5 years more and more mentally ill are discharged to shelters because there's nowhere else to send them. They do not do well there for obvious reasons, stop treatment, stop medication and end up on the street again.

When it comes to hardcore druggies, I think 95% are beyond help and they just make everyone else's life miserable.

And the thing is, R11, it’s not just starting small, it’s starting with an easy target. A lot of people will agree that of course these “vulnerable” people need to be off the streets. It’s an easy sell to a large swath of the public.

"Yes this could be used repressively however there are very dangerous homeless people roaming the streets who are a menace to society as well as themselves."

Convicted felon/serial rapist/sexual pervert is a very dangerous menace to society and roaming the streets, but I don't see any you neo-Nazi Trump ass kissers doing a god damned thing about it.

I always thought the burden of proof, so to speak, was to determine if the person is a danger to him/herself or others.

It's not a hard and fast line, but it's not impossible to judge, either.

A lot of them need to be institutionalized instead of knocking out old ladies or lighting a match, after drenching in gasoline, sleeping subway passengers.

A reporter pointed out homeless persons camped near the White House during this morning's mini-presser; the mad king responded "we'll take care of it," and asked for the exact location. He is off to golf-related events in Scotland, so "who" will take care of it?

Oy.

Reminder that executive orders are NOT laws and this is at least as much for PR purposes as anything else. He's like the Red Queen screaming "Off with his head!" all the time.

Stop calling them Executive Orders and start calling them Royal Decrees.

Our entire healthcare system is in a slow motion collapse but sure, let’s further strain our limited resources with a mass influx of mentally ill patients.

Lol "patients." They'll be inmates and everyone knows it. Stop pretending. Stop enabling their theater.

We've come full circle: Reagan closed the Mental Institutions and put all these mentally ill folks back on the streets (one of whom tried to kill him); 25 years later Trump is trying to send the mentally back to facilities that no longer exist.

It was about time somebody did something about this public health crisis. Of course blue cities will find all kinds of excuses not to put the homeless away while wasting the billions of dollars earmarked for the problem.

The Harrisburg State Hospital is still there -- but it's so decrepit that they filmed the movie Girl Interrupted there.

A friend's bipolar mother spent a year there many years ago.

[quote]Of course blue cities will find all kinds of excuses not to put the homeless away while wasting the billions of dollars earmarked for the problem.

Put them away where, dipshit? The infrastructure to deal with these people in a capacity to treat (i.e., ethically) does not exist.

The concept is something many can get behind. The physical and mental stress of being homeless can make you insane - the lack of good sleep, the constant threat to your safety, not having adequate food.

I've said this 1000x times - if you're not mentally ill before you become homeless, it won't take long before you develop some symptoms. And then of course anyone would want to escape that through drink and drugs - if only just to get some GOOD SLEEP.

However, the execution of this by the Trump team is going to be horrifically cruel and a disaster. There is a middle ground - we don't have to have the same disease-ridden and unsanitary insane asylums like we did 40-50 years ago.

Something has to be done and I hope this opens the door for discussion - however, you can't trust Trump or his team to do anything honestly and with good intentions.

Double edged sword, maybe we can have him and Stephen Miller institutionalized?

Trump really does seem to think he is an absolute ruler or king where he just issues his decrees and the whole nation has to bend to his will.

Pack up the homeless and send them to Florida and Texas; one good turn deserves another.

Trump does a lot of this. Knows it’s an intractable and complex problem, but issues a meaningless Trump Decree to eradicate it and then blames The Dems for the problem still existing despite his decree.

First off, fuck the king.

Second off, there are simply not enough shelters around for these people.

Third, it will never cease to amaze me how "liberals" become NIMBY hypocrites on issues like this. Very few real liberals around anymore it seems. You can live seeing homeless people on yiur daily walk if it means their survival.

Anyway, if you haven't caught on by now, Trump wants to send the homeless, the mentally ill, immigrants, etc. to his concentration camps. If you cheer this, don't cry when you're labeled mentally ill and sent away next.

Put them away from the rest of us, asshole. Too difficult for you to understand?

That was meant for R38 who would love to keep the homeless exactly where they are.

R11 is getting the vapors. Be afraid of democrats. They are the ones who pioneered cancel culture, anti-free speech, nonsense leftism

[quote] Second off, there are simply not enough shelters around for these people.

Well, let's see. Los Angeles has already spent 1.3 billion on the homeless problem. California has spent 24 billion dollars on the homeless problems since 2019. Do you think perhaps some of that money could have been used to build shelters? 24 billion dollars!

I'm r39 - and why I like to feel I approach the homeless problem with compassion, the reality is people need to be forced off the streets for their own good and for the benefit of society.

And we need to acknowledge the difference between those who cannot afford housing due to high costs and those who have dropped out of society due to mental illness and drug addiction or both.

We can do this - we can take care of people. I'm tired of the excuses saying we can't. However - many of the mentally ill and drug-addicted need to be forced off the streets - they will not go voluntarily as they've convinced themselves this is how they want to live and/or they've developed relationships with others on the street that keep them there.

I want Dems to take a harder stance on a lot of these issues - practical, pragmatic approaches - to immigration, homeless, housing crisis. Not a throw your hands in the air and 'what can you do' stuff.

Of course Republicans would block ANYTHING Dems do no matter what.

[quote] They identified every single poor in the country and assigned a state worker to them, many of them ended up dying from health complications as they weren’t used to harsh and impoverished rural lifestyles. The national government will start levying harsh fines on local politicians, mayors, etc if homelessness is allowed to occur in their region. They also built out a massive wildlife ranger program and hired/trained tons of poors into it.

Yeah, in the United States, we have these little things called "rights," guaranteed to us by this little thing called The Constitution.

Everyone in Manhattan should and would cheer for this.

We're not supposed to trust the Republicans...but we're supposed to trust the Democrats?

Reagan: CLOSE THE INSTITUTIONS!

FATFUCK: OPEN THE INSTITUTIONS AND MAKE SURE THEY ARE CASH COWS!

There's not going to be money for real institutions. There aren't enough shelters in many cities either.

Institutionalize = send to the camps. You'll see. And when those get crowded, well, a couple of the camps can be converted into death camps. This is all predictable.

Start with groups people hate, then keep adding more.

It's hilarious and depressing that people read this and are deluded enough to think Trump is going to fund new medical facilities to care for the mentally ill. Wake the fuck up. R54 has it right. They'll send them to Alligator Alcatraz and all the other new concentration camps they're building. They'll feed them subsistence -level rations, deny medical care, allow diseases to fester and kill them off, and allow them to kill each other without intervention. Of course there will be "incidents" that result in death, and guards who "acted in self-defense." That's if they don't go full Nazi and "euthanize" them. Since there's no oversight and the press had been fully brought to heel by their billionaire owners, there will be nothing to stop them from just lining them up and shooting them.

Seriously, WAKE UP. Nothing is normal anymore and pretending otherwise isn't helping anything. The signs are everywhere.

White Christian Nationalism really does have nothing to do with Christianity.

Back in the 80's when I had to deal with Ronald Reagan cutting 75% out of the budget for public housing and insisting local governments privatize it, we had a homeless problem. We had families with young children living in cars. One of the things we did was set up transitional programs with support services. Of course Reagan also cut out funding for mental health. So our hospitals and institutions who dealt with the mentally ill closed and the few group homes that were left were underfunded. Usually, the homeless have mental health issues and or substance abuse issues. Some of them will never be sufficiently rehabilitated enough to live on their own. But it was Ronald Reagan, when I worked in the Health and Human Services section of our local government, who started the ball rolling and fucked everything up. One thing is certain. You can't live on a $7.25 an hour minimum wage. So when you talk about affordable housing for low income families and individuals, keep that in mind.

Homelessness to the degree that we see today started with Reagan.

R8 I guess they’ll use the billions they denied to Harvard and other schools for grants?

I don't know what the answer is but there's some terrifying homeless people I encounter daily in NYC and it's a very real safety issue.

R57 Reagan hasn't been President since January of 1989.

R61 - correct - he dismantled the public health facilities for the mentally ill and they were never rebuilt or replaced.

What's your point? Reagan exacerbated the homeless issue in massive numbers like we've never seen before. That's undeniable.

[quote]Reagan hasn't been President since January of 1989.

And apparently you haven’t had a brain since about the same time, trollina.

It has zero to do with expensive housing.

Look at the scary, barefoot street people you encounter every day in NYC. Do you think if a studio apartment was $250/mo. ANY of them could manage to pay it and live in a building with neighbors?

No.

It's a mental health and public health issue. Citizens deserve to not be dodging dangerous roving crazy people living, shitting and shooting up on our streets. There's got to be a solution which respects their civil rights, but mostly the civil rights of the taxpayers to not have to walk by people living on the sidewalks shooting heroin.

I had hoped the odious Eric Adams might have made headway on this issue, but on top of everything else he turned out to be feckless and lazy.

The spokesman from the homeless group is disingenuous to say it’s only a matter of lowering the cost of housing. The biggest issue is the combination of mental illness and drug use. The homeless advocate groups haven’t gotten anything done to alleviate this issue and it’s not right to let people live outside without care. I am tentatively optimistic about this order. It could be really effective.

Good! About Time!

Wasn’t this what you all wanted, the psych facilities putting these people back in? Make up your minds!

I get the “slippery slope” argument and in this case share the concern. I live in New York, and I’m not one of these “big cities are all liberal hellholes” people. However, ever since Covid I really can’t walk more than one or two blocks without seeing a homeless, or hearing a crazy homeless ranting and raving, or stepping over homeless’ excrement or cardboard bedding. They’re a public nuisance. I’d be pleased if a larger chunk of my taxes went towards mitigating public nuisances.

R67 - the point is that there aren't any psych facilities left to put mentally ill people back in.

Therefore, the homeless population will be rounded up with maximum violence, cruelty and terror and placed in "internment camps" - similar to where ICE are sending the undocumented where they will be housed in cages, be given limited food and water, subject to terror and violence, be refused medical attention and with no access to legal representation. That's exactly what they are going to do. I wouldn't even be surprised if the Trump administration starts sending the rounded up homeless to other countries.

Everybody wants to see the homeless problem solved and it's criminal that in the richest country on the planet that there is this significant homeless population - but this isn't the way to do it and it isn't a solution.

Are mentally ill addicts treatable? I mean, is there a method of curing them with a good success rate? If so, how long does it take, typically?

If I believed this meant treatment in medical facilities and follow-up I would be happy about this. Can anyone convince me that it is?

I agree with previous posters that this is nothing more than incarceration for these people, in private, for profit, facilities similar to prisons.

welcome back to the 19th century.

Bring back flophouses and hobo trains.

I actually think the cost of housing today has created homelessness. Hear me out. There are people who come from dysfunctional backgrounds, who are also poor with parents either unemployed or underemployed. Once they reach adulthood, they have little options. If you are from a big city and you can’t stay at home nor find a mate to co-live with, you are fucked. Working a target won’t pay the rent. These people likely experimented with recreational, drugs, self medicating, while becoming full blown homeless, exacerbating their options for housing and also their mental health. Their economic plight definitely influenced their homelessness.

I’m sympathetic to the real, deserving homeless. Not the mentally ill and drug addicts. They can get fucked

Problem is, how do you separate them? Not easy.

So let them die r74? Let them live i inhumane conditions? You want to be the one who administrates that? You'd better hope this recent display of fascism never affects you. Good jobs might be hard to come by.

Can you aid an executioner?

I was being sarcastic, Nazi

(That was a reply to R75)

Nice try

You can’t drink, smoke, or use in mental wards. You’re going to have a ton of rambunctious people. The state medicaid budgets are going to lose support.

Next up from the Trump administration: Aktion T4, and a lot of assholes on DL (see R74) will love it.

I can't believe some of you think they're going to get housed in "mental wards" like this is a movie from the 40s. They'll be shoving them into concentration camps and they'll never be see or heard from again. R80 is wringing her hands over "rambunctious patients" and "medicaid budgets" when they're just going to lock these people up to kill each other or die from untreated diseases in "custody," far away from the eyes of the media or elected officials.

R82 Invest in GEO and CORE!

[quote]Are mentally ill addicts treatable? I mean, is there a method of curing them with a good success rate?

There’s no cure for mental illness. It can be treated. A lot of these people are paranoid schizophrenics, so they think any treatment is poison. They off them shit to get a single injection of antipsychotics every three months. They stay on the street however.

R82 is batshit crazy.

[quote]I’m sympathetic to the real, deserving homeless. Not the mentally ill and drug addicts. They can get fucked

Huh? Why would you be so hateful to someone disabled? People can’t help being mentally ill. Many turn to drugs to cope with their illness. They self-medicate. Do you honestly think people want to live on the street if given a choice? The majority of homeless people suffer from mental illness. This includes veterans with PTSD.

I don’t trust Trump or believe he and his cronies can pull this off, since they think in 8 hour increments.

My very blue city has a bad homeless problem in one of the main tourism districts. Violence, vandalism, public pooping, pissing everywhere…

We have a good day shelter and a Salvation Army and several churches where people can bed down for the night. It just doesn’t work. There has to be some solution but I don’t think Trump’s half-assed spitballing will ever be the answer.

If folks are homeless and mentally ill; they lose a lot of I.D.s.

This makes purchasing cigarettes, booze, weed, or sometimes a prescription from a legitimate source. Add to that, most of these people are not welcome in stores that sell fun medicine.

Also, he’s making a big deal out of the homeless threat - it’s an aging population that is shrinking as homeless boomers die off from heart failure. Yes, it’s usually heart failure.

^ s/be “makes purchasing cigarettes, booze, weed, or sometimes a prescription from a legitimate source [bold]very difficult[/bold]

Homeless people are more likely to be victims of crime than the perpetrators of it

I remember when a techbro killed another techbro in San Francisco and Elon Musk and co. tried to blame the homeless

Not always r84. My nephew is paranoid schizophrenic and lives on his own on social assistance in subsidized housing He takes his meds.

R90 - victims of crime by whom? Other homeless/drug addicts/mentally ill typically.

Where are your stats from - your feelings?

[quote] If folks are homeless and mentally ill; they lose a lot of I.D.s.

Folks? Gross. Shut up, Ronnie Reagan.

What’s your point, r91? He’s not living on the street. Every mental illness is different. There are moderate to extreme forms.

R92, non homeless people, have been assaulted by very aggressive, mentally ill homeless people or addicts. And there is data proving that a long period of time spent on the streets causes disorientation and mental illness. So if you weren't certifiable when you started being homeless, you eventually do get unhinged over time.

How many stories have there been of people beating up or killing homeless people?

R96/97/98 - you're not convincing anyone that there's this huge amount of housed people violence against homeless. I'm not saying it never happens - but it's usually from other homeless people.

This all goes to the heart of the issue though - it's dangerous to live on the streets and it makes you a target. The stress of that plus the lack of sleep and food will make you mentally ill in a very short period of time.

People should not be allowed to 'choose' to live on the streets - they've broken the social contract and need to be rehabilitated as best as possible.

Moreover, THEIR desire to live on the fringe of society impedes on the quality of life for the rest of us. How many times have people been forced off a subway car or moved away on a bus because of a homeless person coming on and acting a fool?

No policy or program has helped in the last 40 years - so it's time to do something drastically different. No I don't believe Trump is the one to do this effectively - but making a step towards more aggressive re-housing and making laws against sleeping in the open is a start.

I'm old enough to remember when Presidents signed laws, not executive orders.

It used to be that executive orders didn't mean shit.

Fuck off, R101. I'm presenting facts, you're pulling shit out of your ass. Violence against homeless people has been documented for decades. It's sadly common, and attitudes like yours encourage it. You're desperate to dehumanize them and furious when challenged on it. Get a grip.

R103 - you've pulled out a few scenarios from the press. But the biggest threat and danger to homeless are not housed people picking on homeless. YOU are absurd to even state that.

I'm not trying to dehumanize them at all - living unhoused on the streets IS dehumanizing.

Now you're making all these accusations because you are wrong. There should be vagrancy laws - these people need to get off the street for their own mental health and well-being. To allow them to live how they want and to decrease the quality of life for everyone due to it is just airy-fairy and stupid - and it helps no one. As we've seen the past 40 years.

Something drastic needs to change - for the homeless and for everyone else. Quit your grandstanding and your holier-than-thou attitude with your made up stats about homeless being terrorized by non-homeless people.

R103 I think the homeless have done a pretty good job of dehumanizing themselves, don't you? What exactly would YOU do about the problem besides having tons of empathy for the homeless and none for the rest?

Jesus fucking Christ, it's clear that some of you would have been Nazis in another era.

Most homeless people are harmless, but that's not the point. If they commit a crime against someone, they can be arrested for the crime just like anybody else. That's when the law should get involved.

Supporting banning homelessness itself makes you an evil person. It's unfortunate there is no such thing as karma, because some of you deserve it big time.

"Airy-fairy "

WTF??

Ok, R106, what exactly would you do about it, because so far it sounds like you would do nothing.

But Mr. Trump, she’s never out of makeup!

The law, in its majestic equality, forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges.

R101 is right. I have him blocked but I can’t disagree with him.

In entirely unrelated news, a. it's nearly impossible to pay rent on minimum wage in any region of the US; b. ICE is starting to chuck migrants out of cargo planes over the Atlantic. (immigrant bodies are washing up on the shores of Spain)

I was homeless for two years, and it had me praying for the H-Bomb to wipe all my "neighbors" out. The biggest threat to homeless people is other homeless people. I made the pay for a motel room every day. I would have sooner slept behind a McDonald's than walk in a fucking shelter. For what? To get raped and stabbed and robbed?

I have a friend who had a personal experience. This particular homeless guy worked this busy intersection near a MacDonald's. My friend was at the drive thru getting lunch and ordered an extra Big Mac to give to the homeless guy. He did this twice. the third time he did it he was attack by the guy who reached into his car window and tried to grab the keys .He tried to pull open the car door and pulled a filthy knife on my friend. No reason. He just did it.

OP, the Library closes in 10 min.

the crazy homeless will not be institutionalized, they will be killed.

[quote] Most homeless people are harmless

And just two or three paychecks from getting back on their feet, right?

So what? The social contract is stupid. It breaks most of us. These poor people can’t live by it and that is completely understandable. Our world is fucked. The ranks of the homeless, mentally ill and drug addicted are only going to grow.

Today this criminal finally admitted there is famine in Gaza which is good but he only said it to further piss off Bibi who denies people are starving to death. Shit people in power.

[quote]No policy or program has helped in the last 40 years

Yeah I mean we have this nationwide network of lavishly funded mental health facilities and these fuckers would rather live on the streets!

Most big cities have always had an indigent population mostly men, mostly addicts and alcoholics. These were easily handled by the missions, and the Salvation Army most of the time. But it was not until Ronald Reagan enacted his policies that the phenomena of masses of homeless people began to emerge. To solve it we'd have to go back in time to figure out what worked and how we can improve and address it. Every single day this problem exists is proof of the massive failure of the policies of our form of government.

There are a number of root causes that go unaddressed in the push for mass roundups and forced institutionalizations that so many here salivate over:

1) Stagnant wages including a minimum wage at $7.25 that hasn't increased since 2009 under Obama. A dollar in 2009 is worth 67¢ in 2025.

2) an affordable housing crisis that makes home ownership impossible and keeps rents prohibitively high for working class people. Across the US the average monthly rent for a two bedroom home that minimally accommodates a nuclear family of 4 costs almost $1,900. That's the national average so it's much higher than that in large cities and on the coasts.

3) a drug epidemic that no one wants to do anything about except lock up addicts who need medical care before incarceration. Harm reduction methods that see success in other countries are forbidden by the usual rightwing powers.

4) an overburdened healthcare system that's prohibitively expensive for the working and middle classes and which discourages (because of high out of pocket costs and long waiting times) or outright rejects coverage for preventative medicine, and sets prescription prices to obscene levels for lifesaving drugs that cost pennies to produce and are provided free to citizens in other countries.

Theres a lot more, but I'll stop. I'll probably get banned for this anyway.

No one wants to address these issues. Just "round 'em up and lock 'em up," law-and-order, and fuck your feelings if you don't like it, commie.

It's topics like these when DL shows its fascist stripes most clearly.

The white fauxgressives will do everything in their butt-hurt power to keep mentally-ill, despairing street junkies living in despair on our streets for as long as possible.

This gives them street cred, I guess!

You sound like a total moron R123.

We have plenty of spaces available!

R116 They're being killed already! Or did you think they were on holiday?

Step 1: If you’re unhoused, mentally ill, or “erratic,” the government can now forcibly detain you for treatment.

Civil rights?

Optional.

Due process?

Who needs it.

Step 2: That same government is syncing your biometric data with Big Tech.

Missed a med refill?

Heart rate’s up?

Social posts seem “off”?

Boom. You’re flagged as unstable…and a mobile crisis unit might just be on its way.And just to make sure you know exactly who this system is for?

They dropped two back-to-back ads this week celebrating “good genes.”

-One from American Eagle, featuring blonde-haired, blue-eyed Sydney Sweeney.

-One from Dunkin’ Donuts, of all places, literally saying: “Some people are just built different. Good coffee. Good genes.”

Because what’s a little mass surveillance and psychiatric detention without a side of eugenic nostalgia and caramel swirls?

And let’s not overlook that the largest shareholder, and CEO, of AE is a well known Mar-a-lago member.

Coincidence? Very doubtful.

This isn’t public safety. It’s predictive policing. It’s aesthetic fascism.

And if you’re not blonde, rich, healthy, or obedient… they’ve already got a label for you.

And maybe a room.

After all, what did you think they meant by “Make America Great Again”?

^^^^.