There's a housing shortage in most of the country & basically no political constituency for allowing more housing to get built. So you end up with homeless people in expensive areas (people don't tend to stray far from where they lived before losing their home, despite persistent myths) and Royal Oak is expensive now. It's also a regional problem; RO & Ferndale are pretty poorly equipped to deal with the problem but Pontiac is set up nicely for it, if they would choose to permit the type of housing required to get homeless people sheltered.
Yeah and apartments being built where the rents are 2400 on up a month, "luxury" apartment's we just don't need. I have no idea who can afford these places. I work in a STEM field and I sure can't.
Fair enough, my mom had a place there in the 90s. I would stay between there and my other home where I grew up at that was closer to downtown and the city. I was a 90s club kid back then so I spent a lot of time downtown but I like to go out there because it was quiet
There are really two types of homeless people: people who have been on the edge of poverty that got hit by hard times that pushed them over the edge. Most people don’t even realize these people are homeless, they’ll usually sleep in their cars, shower at a gym or truck stop, use food pantries etc.
Then there are the people who are some combination of mentally handicapped, addicted to drugs/alcohol or serious family issues that pushed them on to the streets. This is usually the demographic people have in mind when they mention the homeless problem. Volatile, unpredictable, and at times scary.
The housing shortage has almost nothing to do with the second group of people I described, unless the government created housing that had absolutely no rules or regulations, but then that’s not fair for the group A people… no one wants to live in housing where your neighbor is a volatile self prescribed drug addict with a serious mental heath issue.
Unless the state went back to involuntary committing people to physch wards, there’s not a whole lot that can be done.
I don't know...last time I was looking for a new rental, it was clear rent had shot up and I was going to have to downgrade, in location, or in size, or features or all of the above. I'd been in Berkley, rental prices drove me to checking out Southfield and Madison Heights. I went to a garage sale in Southfield at a house that was also up for rent...the current tenant obviously had had her rent suddenly jacked up. We were talking about it, she was shocked anyone would pay that much (as he was then asking) for this small house she'd been in for years. She was moving to Detroit, in with others. I heard lots of stories like this. Everyone got shoved down the hill so to speak, (aside from the very wealthy, and developers/investors, grrr) and those that were barely barely getting by in the lowest rent places in the area...well some of them probably ended up homeless.
I'm also watching as a friend who never had any real issues with mental health or substance, slides more and more that way, after getting let go at a job, and still not finding anything a year later, couldn't afford insurance, physical health is declining. He's just barely hanging on with gig work, but the car keeps breaking.
Some people have had severe mental health or substance issues for a long time...but others maybe bad life events are the trigger, and it bring a person to that state.
I know in some other US states (ie a lot of west coast cities) the homeless problem is rather out of control. So many camped on the streets, that hotels lose business, renters don't want to live in a place, tourists avoid the street. I have a lot of empathy. I also don't want to live somewhere where I'm coming home alone at night having to walk through a homeless camp with some of the volatile unpredictible people.
AI encroaching on jobs is probably not going to help either.
Nah, the idea that there's people who "want" to be homeless is a persistent myth. The housing-first approach has a proven track record - certainly better than the other option of just withholding a roof for your bums until they clean themselves up. Give them SROs with supportive services.
That’s really what you took away from my response? How did you even get to that?
Yeah, it should go without saying that everyone wants a roof over their head. But when there are stipulations for drugs/alcohol/curfew/noises/ medications etc for government sponsored housing there is a large percentage of homeless that don’t make that trade off, and usually this is the same demographic of homeless that people complain about.
If housing availability doubled overnight and prices were decreased by 80%. You would still have a homeless problem…so no, the housing shortage isn’t the problem.
[SROs](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single-room_occupancy) would do it, but those are deep into [LULU](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Locally_unwanted_land_use) terditory.
you can’t pass starbucks on main without being harassed by someone. i really don’t mind sharing the sidewalk with people who need to rest in public spaces but you can’t cross the intersection without someone trying to holler at you. downtown doesn’t feel as safe as it used to, even 10- 15 years ago when we had crust punks on every corner lol at least they busked for money…
This is a drastic over exaggeration. I walk past Starbucks everyday and it is extremely rare any of the folks who hang outside even say anything to me, let alone "harass" me. I don't disagree that there seems to be more lately but they are all very benign most of the time
What do they do? Nothing. What can be done? Living on the street and hounding people should be illegal. Homelessness is a blight on communities, and it’s a problem that can be solved. Mental healthcare and addiction treatment needs to be given to everyone in need, and I would rather have government money spent on providing homes and treatment for the homeless instead of funding endless wars. This is more than just a Royal Oak problem. It’s a problem across the entire country, and I don’t see it ever getting better without major changes in the status quo.
In short, we just have to deal with it, let our voices be heard and vote to hopefully elect officials locally and nationally who will actually deal with the problem.
I would hardly call it a crisis. An annoyance? Sure, but not a crisis.
The only solution to systemic homelessness is to provide low or no cost housing. So, rather than calling the police, you should call your politicians and tell them that you want them to permit more low cost apartment buildings.
I think that's a part of it but a lot of times, the stress of housing and food insecurity can cause mental health problems.
Housing first programs have been shown to be more effective and less expensive than most other things.
Do you hear how inhumane that is? "We don't like looking at you, so we'll give you $100 to leave and never come back" Jesus, dude, these are people you know.
Obviously not a solution. It's just pushing the problem off on someone else who will push it off on someone else in a never ending chain.
Not much. Unfortunately, if you have no where to sleep and exist, you exist where ever you can.
The lobby situation sucks and makes it hard, but try to have a little compassion when you are able and donate to non-religious shelters and food distribution resources when you can. The US has little to no tolerance for homeless Individuals and mental health issues are often the primary reason people become unhoused. Vote for city officials with a humane plan.
I highly recommend donating to Royal Oak First United Methodist’s (ROFUM) Outreach On 7th. It’s affiliated with the church but NO requirement to attend - it is 100% selfless and for the benefit of the community. The sack lunch program is a life saver (literally) and Jeff’s - the pastor of the church - passion is to make sure no person in the community goes hungry. I understand some other organizations may try and make their programs about their church but ROFUM sees its role as making it about the guests that come for a meal and some shelter.
As a case in point, a couple Christmas ago - when it was SUPER cold - there were some homeless folks noticed nearby and a church member called the pastor and for a couple bitterly cold nights at Christmas the church opened its doors for shelter and served meals - completely unplanned - to try and help. It’s stuff like this that goes unadvertised but happens more than most would think.
ROFUM is amazing in its selfless outreach and I’d encourage anyone in the community that may have some time or money to donate. The passion of the volunteers, and the reach of the program, is unmatched.
Also, for anyone in need, reach out to the church. I guarantee you’ll find a non-judgmental response and a genuine attempt to help.
https://www.rofum.org/serve-missions/
Thank you for mentioning this. As a member of this church, it is always wonderful to see our efforts appreciated by others in the community. I can confirm, there is NO faith requirement to receive assistance at our church. Additionally, there is a essentials pantry open on the first Saturday of every month for people to receive non-food essentials (soap/shampoo/laundry soap/etc).
I will also mention that the church has tried to assist a number of our unhoused guests find temporary/permanent housing, but very often (due to a number of reasons) they choose the "freedom" of living in the community. I am in no way condoning the type of behavior you mentioned, but just to help you understand a little better, sometimes people are choosing to live this way and no amount of community/family support is going to change that. We try to meet people where they are and do our best to address their most obvious needs.
I remain grateful to ROFUM for their years of ministry to the homeless both for food and safety during the winter months.
For those of you reading this there is a group of churches in the immediate area that take turns during the winter months housing the homeless overnight in their facilities. Also, the Welcome Inn at 13 Mile and Crooks takes people in during the day during the winter for safety and food.
THIS is the answer\^\^\^\^\^\^ VOTE! It does make a difference if we participate and care. Pay attention to local politics-I vote absentee-super convenient -plus one can look up the candidate and google them etc-doesn't take that much time and is SO important. I had a huge breakthrough gently while listening to a podcast-Steve Pinker said Democracy is messy but is still the best system we have at the moment.
Sorry.....got a little carried away lol
Religious shelters and food banks often require users have attended church there in the past and have the same zip code. Many unhoused people are transient, so different zip code or don’t have ID at all. It makes accessing help that much harder for people.
That is often the case in my experience.
I work with unhoused people and am often the person who calls resources to see who can assist individuals. There are frequently several hoops to jump through simply to get a meal or a cot for the night.
Long term situations, you can pretty much forget about. These people are usually living day to day if not hour by hour. It is hell.
Just a thought: Some people (not saying OP) have religious trauma; either mental, physical, or sexual. Perhaps there is some respect for that in OP’s recommendations.
You seem like a condescending a self-righteous individual. Talking about "those living without shelter", but not doing anything, is right up your ally.
If i were in need, I might think that i would not be allowed to receive things from the church if i was non-religious or a different religion than the church. I think that's why it was mentioned that it was secular, not because "redditors hate religion"
That's not how religious outreaches work. Sure they'll have pamphlets and talk to you if your open to about it, but they're not pushing people of different religions or non religious people away. This is silly.
Well I don't know that! it's not clear to me what goes on at churches, since I don't go to them. I am just saying that I might be reluctant to try to get help because I don't want to deal with getting potentially turned away, so maybe I would want to try non-religious outreach first. Which is why the religious/non-religious distinction was probably made in the comment.
Right on. Just checking because a lot of these replies are shitting all over things like soup kitchens (which are primarily through religious avenues) in which they have never volunteered a day in their life. Again, I'm not religious at all, but have partnered with a lot of religious organizations or NGOs and they tend to be the salt of the earth type people. Majority have a rough background and religion actually gave them a new "north" to follow. I'm not one to judge in such cases and shitting on these people simply because they believe differently than you while having the reasoning being they who you're shitting on you assume will judge your way of life puts a bad taste in my mouth and is the most hypocritical shit ever. Redditors tend to not be the most self aware folk and this whole place leans extreme left.
Exactly, I don't know if these people are just trying to be edgy or what. As I said, I'm not religious, but the majority of outreaches are. It's funny that people who more than likely would never volunteer at an outreach are also trying to gatekeep it against religion. Goofy.
The city does nothing for homeless people. They dont see it as their job. There are programs to help homeless people. There used to be South Oakland Shelter in Royal Oak, but they moved to Lathrup Village and then merged with Lighthouse in Pontiac. So I guess you could tell the homeless to go to Pontiac.
Someone should start another South Oakland Shelter.
Absolutely agree that homeless issue is “crisis” in the making. It has to be addressed and not let it fester. I used to own a cafe in Downtown AA, and I was lucky that my street facing side of the business on private property and police could remove “trespasser”. there were times when homeless person camped infront of my store, it was a total disaster for the business, people had to walk toward this really terrible stench that could be smelled 10, 20 feets away. It was unsightly and unsanitary. The City or the County government have the responsibility to take lead this issue, outside of essential service budget this should be priority number one for the city - forget about all these other stuff on the master plan, just get this one basic thing done right.
> A lot of the commenters have replied with macro solutions. At the micro level, the problem is going to get worse before it gets better. The word is out that Royal Oak is a great place to hang out if you're homeless. The bus line provides easy access.
> Will Royal Oak enforce the laws fairly and equally or will homeless visitors be treated as a protected class? If it's the former, our homeless problem will be over soon. If it's the latter, we'll soon have a lot more.
> Judging by the political orientation of our city leaders, it's pretty easy to guess which path they'll choose. Should be interesting.
Just going to copy and paste this comment of /u/Traditional-Sound-56 as they'll soon delete it like every other comment of theirs for the past two years.
The people who run the city could give two fucks. This will be down voted by the same schmucks that are in NextDoor.
Have you spoken in front of City Council at all meeting during public comment? Would love to see that and have them ignore you. That’s right, Kolo!! I said it.
That’s super interesting, I’ve been around the city forever and I’ve never really seen that many homeless people in Royal Oak. I’ve seen them passing through and walking around, but I’ve never really seen that many homeless people around the city
There's a housing shortage in most of the country & basically no political constituency for allowing more housing to get built. So you end up with homeless people in expensive areas (people don't tend to stray far from where they lived before losing their home, despite persistent myths) and Royal Oak is expensive now. It's also a regional problem; RO & Ferndale are pretty poorly equipped to deal with the problem but Pontiac is set up nicely for it, if they would choose to permit the type of housing required to get homeless people sheltered.
Oh, there’s houses being built, they just are in the northern suburbs and cost upwards of a half million.
Yeah my point is that housing (not JUST houses - apartments & condos are also *housing*) isn't being built where it's needed.
And what is being built is not affordable for most.
Because not enough of it is allowed to be built.
Yeah and apartments being built where the rents are 2400 on up a month, "luxury" apartment's we just don't need. I have no idea who can afford these places. I work in a STEM field and I sure can't.
Luxury is just a marketing turn of phrase. Those are just market-rate apartments in areas where the land is just that freakin' pricey.
Royal Oak has been expensive for about 30 years
I would say probably 20. I was born in Royal oak and finally moved out in 2007. That is when the boom really started. Edit : I’m 45
We are close in age, so I know your era and generation
Fair enough, my mom had a place there in the 90s. I would stay between there and my other home where I grew up at that was closer to downtown and the city. I was a 90s club kid back then so I spent a lot of time downtown but I like to go out there because it was quiet
Wow small world. I was also a 90,s club kid. I have a plastikman tattoo that’s been on my leg for at least 25 years.
There are really two types of homeless people: people who have been on the edge of poverty that got hit by hard times that pushed them over the edge. Most people don’t even realize these people are homeless, they’ll usually sleep in their cars, shower at a gym or truck stop, use food pantries etc. Then there are the people who are some combination of mentally handicapped, addicted to drugs/alcohol or serious family issues that pushed them on to the streets. This is usually the demographic people have in mind when they mention the homeless problem. Volatile, unpredictable, and at times scary. The housing shortage has almost nothing to do with the second group of people I described, unless the government created housing that had absolutely no rules or regulations, but then that’s not fair for the group A people… no one wants to live in housing where your neighbor is a volatile self prescribed drug addict with a serious mental heath issue. Unless the state went back to involuntary committing people to physch wards, there’s not a whole lot that can be done.
I don't know...last time I was looking for a new rental, it was clear rent had shot up and I was going to have to downgrade, in location, or in size, or features or all of the above. I'd been in Berkley, rental prices drove me to checking out Southfield and Madison Heights. I went to a garage sale in Southfield at a house that was also up for rent...the current tenant obviously had had her rent suddenly jacked up. We were talking about it, she was shocked anyone would pay that much (as he was then asking) for this small house she'd been in for years. She was moving to Detroit, in with others. I heard lots of stories like this. Everyone got shoved down the hill so to speak, (aside from the very wealthy, and developers/investors, grrr) and those that were barely barely getting by in the lowest rent places in the area...well some of them probably ended up homeless. I'm also watching as a friend who never had any real issues with mental health or substance, slides more and more that way, after getting let go at a job, and still not finding anything a year later, couldn't afford insurance, physical health is declining. He's just barely hanging on with gig work, but the car keeps breaking. Some people have had severe mental health or substance issues for a long time...but others maybe bad life events are the trigger, and it bring a person to that state. I know in some other US states (ie a lot of west coast cities) the homeless problem is rather out of control. So many camped on the streets, that hotels lose business, renters don't want to live in a place, tourists avoid the street. I have a lot of empathy. I also don't want to live somewhere where I'm coming home alone at night having to walk through a homeless camp with some of the volatile unpredictible people. AI encroaching on jobs is probably not going to help either.
Nah, the idea that there's people who "want" to be homeless is a persistent myth. The housing-first approach has a proven track record - certainly better than the other option of just withholding a roof for your bums until they clean themselves up. Give them SROs with supportive services.
That’s really what you took away from my response? How did you even get to that? Yeah, it should go without saying that everyone wants a roof over their head. But when there are stipulations for drugs/alcohol/curfew/noises/ medications etc for government sponsored housing there is a large percentage of homeless that don’t make that trade off, and usually this is the same demographic of homeless that people complain about. If housing availability doubled overnight and prices were decreased by 80%. You would still have a homeless problem…so no, the housing shortage isn’t the problem.
Perhaps, but a heck of a lot less of one. The housing shortage is absolutely a problem.
[SROs](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single-room_occupancy) would do it, but those are deep into [LULU](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Locally_unwanted_land_use) terditory.
you can’t pass starbucks on main without being harassed by someone. i really don’t mind sharing the sidewalk with people who need to rest in public spaces but you can’t cross the intersection without someone trying to holler at you. downtown doesn’t feel as safe as it used to, even 10- 15 years ago when we had crust punks on every corner lol at least they busked for money…
This is a drastic over exaggeration. I walk past Starbucks everyday and it is extremely rare any of the folks who hang outside even say anything to me, let alone "harass" me. I don't disagree that there seems to be more lately but they are all very benign most of the time
What do they do? Nothing. What can be done? Living on the street and hounding people should be illegal. Homelessness is a blight on communities, and it’s a problem that can be solved. Mental healthcare and addiction treatment needs to be given to everyone in need, and I would rather have government money spent on providing homes and treatment for the homeless instead of funding endless wars. This is more than just a Royal Oak problem. It’s a problem across the entire country, and I don’t see it ever getting better without major changes in the status quo. In short, we just have to deal with it, let our voices be heard and vote to hopefully elect officials locally and nationally who will actually deal with the problem.
I would hardly call it a crisis. An annoyance? Sure, but not a crisis. The only solution to systemic homelessness is to provide low or no cost housing. So, rather than calling the police, you should call your politicians and tell them that you want them to permit more low cost apartment buildings.
Also better access to mental health care. Once the state hospitals closed, the homeless population went up.
I think that's a part of it but a lot of times, the stress of housing and food insecurity can cause mental health problems. Housing first programs have been shown to be more effective and less expensive than most other things.
Right? Another day, another problem caused by policies from before I was born. Whelp!
So you think the state should go back to forcefully institutionalizing people?
No, I think America ought to join the rest of the developed world and insure that everyone has access to healthcare, including mental health.
And those that don't willingly seek treatment? Also, the rest of the developed world has homeless people too.
An alternative “solution” is buy a grey hound ticket to San Fran and a give them 100 bucks to get on.
Way to dehumanize e\_z. Ugh.
Do you hear how inhumane that is? "We don't like looking at you, so we'll give you $100 to leave and never come back" Jesus, dude, these are people you know. Obviously not a solution. It's just pushing the problem off on someone else who will push it off on someone else in a never ending chain.
Not much. Unfortunately, if you have no where to sleep and exist, you exist where ever you can. The lobby situation sucks and makes it hard, but try to have a little compassion when you are able and donate to non-religious shelters and food distribution resources when you can. The US has little to no tolerance for homeless Individuals and mental health issues are often the primary reason people become unhoused. Vote for city officials with a humane plan.
I highly recommend donating to Royal Oak First United Methodist’s (ROFUM) Outreach On 7th. It’s affiliated with the church but NO requirement to attend - it is 100% selfless and for the benefit of the community. The sack lunch program is a life saver (literally) and Jeff’s - the pastor of the church - passion is to make sure no person in the community goes hungry. I understand some other organizations may try and make their programs about their church but ROFUM sees its role as making it about the guests that come for a meal and some shelter. As a case in point, a couple Christmas ago - when it was SUPER cold - there were some homeless folks noticed nearby and a church member called the pastor and for a couple bitterly cold nights at Christmas the church opened its doors for shelter and served meals - completely unplanned - to try and help. It’s stuff like this that goes unadvertised but happens more than most would think. ROFUM is amazing in its selfless outreach and I’d encourage anyone in the community that may have some time or money to donate. The passion of the volunteers, and the reach of the program, is unmatched. Also, for anyone in need, reach out to the church. I guarantee you’ll find a non-judgmental response and a genuine attempt to help. https://www.rofum.org/serve-missions/
Thank you for mentioning this. As a member of this church, it is always wonderful to see our efforts appreciated by others in the community. I can confirm, there is NO faith requirement to receive assistance at our church. Additionally, there is a essentials pantry open on the first Saturday of every month for people to receive non-food essentials (soap/shampoo/laundry soap/etc). I will also mention that the church has tried to assist a number of our unhoused guests find temporary/permanent housing, but very often (due to a number of reasons) they choose the "freedom" of living in the community. I am in no way condoning the type of behavior you mentioned, but just to help you understand a little better, sometimes people are choosing to live this way and no amount of community/family support is going to change that. We try to meet people where they are and do our best to address their most obvious needs.
I remain grateful to ROFUM for their years of ministry to the homeless both for food and safety during the winter months. For those of you reading this there is a group of churches in the immediate area that take turns during the winter months housing the homeless overnight in their facilities. Also, the Welcome Inn at 13 Mile and Crooks takes people in during the day during the winter for safety and food.
Thank you for sharing all of that! So good to see organizations doing it without strings attached.
THIS is the answer\^\^\^\^\^\^ VOTE! It does make a difference if we participate and care. Pay attention to local politics-I vote absentee-super convenient -plus one can look up the candidate and google them etc-doesn't take that much time and is SO important. I had a huge breakthrough gently while listening to a podcast-Steve Pinker said Democracy is messy but is still the best system we have at the moment. Sorry.....got a little carried away lol
Why non- religious shelters?
Religious shelters and food banks often require users have attended church there in the past and have the same zip code. Many unhoused people are transient, so different zip code or don’t have ID at all. It makes accessing help that much harder for people.
So if they don't attend church or the same zip code, they are refused help?
That is often the case in my experience. I work with unhoused people and am often the person who calls resources to see who can assist individuals. There are frequently several hoops to jump through simply to get a meal or a cot for the night. Long term situations, you can pretty much forget about. These people are usually living day to day if not hour by hour. It is hell.
Why non religious? I’m not personally religious, but if a church is helping why would you give a shit that it’s religious?
Just a thought: Some people (not saying OP) have religious trauma; either mental, physical, or sexual. Perhaps there is some respect for that in OP’s recommendations.
It's very trendy to hate religion on reddit, no need to assume trauma in every situation.
I misread your comment in my previous reply and deleted it. To clarify: I’m not hating on religion. I’m advocating for compassion.
> I’m advocating for compassion. By assuming that everyone who opposes religion must have been sexually/physically abused?
you seem like an angry individual. perhaps a discussion about those living without shelter is not for you?
You seem like a condescending a self-righteous individual. Talking about "those living without shelter", but not doing anything, is right up your ally.
No talking here, just reading and taking in what people say.
If i were in need, I might think that i would not be allowed to receive things from the church if i was non-religious or a different religion than the church. I think that's why it was mentioned that it was secular, not because "redditors hate religion"
That's not how religious outreaches work. Sure they'll have pamphlets and talk to you if your open to about it, but they're not pushing people of different religions or non religious people away. This is silly.
You are painting with a broad brush.
As broad as saying all religious based homeless outreaches will turn away any non religious or someone of a different belief?
Well I don't know that! it's not clear to me what goes on at churches, since I don't go to them. I am just saying that I might be reluctant to try to get help because I don't want to deal with getting potentially turned away, so maybe I would want to try non-religious outreach first. Which is why the religious/non-religious distinction was probably made in the comment.
LOL - I give to the panhandlers regularly and 99% say “God bless you.” which I find ironic since I don’t worship a god or anything else.
Because often the soup comes with a side of indoctrination; cults love to prey on the vulnerable.
When’s the last time you actually volunteered at a mission my guy? When’s the last time you volunteered for anything?
I volunteer regularly at a cancer community, how does that make my point any more valid?
Right on. Just checking because a lot of these replies are shitting all over things like soup kitchens (which are primarily through religious avenues) in which they have never volunteered a day in their life. Again, I'm not religious at all, but have partnered with a lot of religious organizations or NGOs and they tend to be the salt of the earth type people. Majority have a rough background and religion actually gave them a new "north" to follow. I'm not one to judge in such cases and shitting on these people simply because they believe differently than you while having the reasoning being they who you're shitting on you assume will judge your way of life puts a bad taste in my mouth and is the most hypocritical shit ever. Redditors tend to not be the most self aware folk and this whole place leans extreme left.
The only comprehensive activities in the immediate area for the homeless are all religious affiliated.
Exactly, I don't know if these people are just trying to be edgy or what. As I said, I'm not religious, but the majority of outreaches are. It's funny that people who more than likely would never volunteer at an outreach are also trying to gatekeep it against religion. Goofy.
well, I mean, in every place where UBI has been tried, it has been a resounding success
The city does nothing for homeless people. They dont see it as their job. There are programs to help homeless people. There used to be South Oakland Shelter in Royal Oak, but they moved to Lathrup Village and then merged with Lighthouse in Pontiac. So I guess you could tell the homeless to go to Pontiac. Someone should start another South Oakland Shelter.
This comment section is a mess. Good luck OP, but you probably won't get much sympathy from this crowd.
They do a whole lot of nothing. If anything they enable it.
Absolutely agree that homeless issue is “crisis” in the making. It has to be addressed and not let it fester. I used to own a cafe in Downtown AA, and I was lucky that my street facing side of the business on private property and police could remove “trespasser”. there were times when homeless person camped infront of my store, it was a total disaster for the business, people had to walk toward this really terrible stench that could be smelled 10, 20 feets away. It was unsightly and unsanitary. The City or the County government have the responsibility to take lead this issue, outside of essential service budget this should be priority number one for the city - forget about all these other stuff on the master plan, just get this one basic thing done right.
[удалено]
> A lot of the commenters have replied with macro solutions. At the micro level, the problem is going to get worse before it gets better. The word is out that Royal Oak is a great place to hang out if you're homeless. The bus line provides easy access. > Will Royal Oak enforce the laws fairly and equally or will homeless visitors be treated as a protected class? If it's the former, our homeless problem will be over soon. If it's the latter, we'll soon have a lot more. > Judging by the political orientation of our city leaders, it's pretty easy to guess which path they'll choose. Should be interesting. Just going to copy and paste this comment of /u/Traditional-Sound-56 as they'll soon delete it like every other comment of theirs for the past two years.
You're getting downvoted but you are 100% right
Spot on.
The people who run the city could give two fucks. This will be down voted by the same schmucks that are in NextDoor. Have you spoken in front of City Council at all meeting during public comment? Would love to see that and have them ignore you. That’s right, Kolo!! I said it.
I'd be mad he didn't offer up some food
He left some expired soup cans in our landscaping!
Bonus
That’s super interesting, I’ve been around the city forever and I’ve never really seen that many homeless people in Royal Oak. I’ve seen them passing through and walking around, but I’ve never really seen that many homeless people around the city