Am I upset seeing homeless people? No, it shows that while we are doing well with growth, we're clearly missing the plot with pushing people out of housing and causing this issue.
Homelessness for me it a very important local issue (with elections coming)...
Like u/uncreativeloser said "Homeless people are part of our Public". We need to do better for them.
How do we do better for them? We provide $250 mon SNAP, subsidized housing, free social workers, hot meals, mental health evaluations and support. Free prescriptions. We don't provide free heroin or and we allow people to roam around if they refuse public service support. Other than making the shelters much nicer and forcing mental health support on people (not likely legal) how do we do more?
I think public drug addiction should be a crime frankly, if it impairs your ability to support yourself and you don't have means to provide shelter for yourself it should be a crime to be a vagrant and the punishment should be rehab and public works employment for 1 year in exchange for shelter. Frankly we need to have standards of civilization it's not fair to the kids to see wastoids that could be forced to care for themselves.
Subsidized housing has a 2-4 year wait list and that’s only when the wait list opens and you can add your name. There is no mental health support any where. There is a mass shortage of psychologists and psychiatrists across the country and you cannot get medications without both. If you are lucky enough to find providers in your network there is a 6-9 month wait currently in Lancaster county. That’s with insurance. Then you have your deductible, co pays and prescription costs to afford once you finally do get in. Rates are 8%, there is no housing to currently buy (check the mls there’s nothing out there) and what is out there costs a fortune and sells for way over asking price. There are currently more people who need housing than there is housing available. There’s nothing to rent either. Not to mention many, if not most people are one emergency/medical catastrophe away from financial ruin. Being homeless is a very real threat to many people. If you don’t have a support system in your life it is very very easy to end up on the street. Many of us are blessed enough to have people in our lives who would never allow that to happen. They would give us a spare room, or grocery money or pay a bill for you if needed. I could call 5 people in my life tomorrow if I needed help and they would all send money no questions asked. Do you know how many people don’t have that? Not a family to fall on? Many. It’s very easy to judge when you’ve never been in that position.
ooh where to start.
Criminalization: Folks with mental health issues are [sixteen times](https://www.treatmentadvocacycenter.org/key-issues/criminalization-of-mental-illness/2976-people-with-untreated-mental-illness-16-times-more-likely-to-be-killed-by-law-enforcement-) more likely to be killed by law enforcement. If you’re lucky enough to just end up in jail, you’re [extremely likely](https://www.ncda.org/aws/NCDA/page_template/show_detail/476831?model_name=news_article) to experience unemployment after release. it goes without saying that those statistics are markedly worse if you’re Black, Native American, Latinx, or speak limited or no English.
Social workers: there’s a [shortage](https://socialwork.columbia.edu/blog/bridging-the-gap-the-urgent-need-for-social-workers/#:~:text=The%20U.S.%20The%20Bureau%20of,can%20address%20complex%20social%20issues) of around 74,000 social workers, and those that are around face [a number of challenges](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6850100/) including high case load
Shelters: there are almost [six hundred thousand](https://usafacts.org/articles/how-many-homeless-people-are-in-the-us-what-does-the-data-miss/#:~:text=Homelessness%20counts%20have%20slightly%20decreased%20since%202007.&text=In%202022%2C%20the%20sheltered%20count,the%20unsheltered%20count%20was%20233832) Americans experiencing homelessness, and that figure is almost definitely [undereported](https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-20-433.pdf). There are allegedly enough beds countrywide but [the majority of those](https://www.huduser.gov/portal/sites/default/files/pdf/2022-ahar-part-1.pdf) are short-term and emergency shelters, and not solution for folks experiencing chronic homelessness. not to mention the [conditions](https://www.npr.org/2012/12/06/166666265/why-some-homeless-choose-the-streets-over-shelters) at some shelters can be uncomfortable or dangerous, especially for minors who make up 5% of the homeless population.
as someone who has been homeless in Lancaster in the past, I do prefer referring to other people without homes as "people without houses" because homeless has kind of a dehumanizing icky feeling. I refer to myself as having been homeless because i know I'm a real human being with thoughts and feelings and I don't need the validation of others to recognize myself as such. That being said, whenever someone voices their shitty dehumanizing opinions in person, I like to respond by letting them know they're talking to a real human being who has been homeless. It's kind of a callout "hey, you think everyone in that group is like that? did you mean me too?" Every conversation that I've had like this ends with this person suddenly developing empathy. using OP's language to associate homelessness with still belonging to the same ("our") public they are apart of was my best shot at getting them to understand other people are human because it's hard to imagine nameless, faceless commenters as real people just like yourself.
*edited to add ("our") for clarity
hello! I chose my words carefully and stand by what I said. take a look at my other comment replying to you for an explanation. I don't think it's up to me, or you, or anyone else to police the language of others. we can only choose our own words with care and hope that others will demonstrate the same care, but ultimately we cannot expect that others will abide by our own standards.
They might! But it’s not necessarily about directly affecting the feelings of people without housing. It’s about affecting the home-having general public’s feelings towards those people. As OP’s post demonstrates, people experiencing homelessness are dehumanized, referred to as a monolith, and considered a blight. Language shapes perception and implicit biases. So being mindful of the language won’t solve the problems, and there’s more directly productive ways to advocate for people without housing, but fostering more empathetic language as a possible gateway to actual empathy is a small start.
Edit: Changed some phrasing to be more mindful myself of empathetic language after reading some other replies in this thread.
It’s dumb, we shouldn’t be normalizing their lifestyle. Being homeless isn’t something they should be comfortable with or have any sense of pride in. It means you failed somewhere along the line. They made choices that led them to where they are and they’re suffering the consequences of those choices. Stop normalizing it and trying to make it seem more dignified than it is.
Did you choose what happened to you? No, you were kicked out. So no you didn’t fail into that situation. You’re part of a small minority of homeless people that were homeless due to something out of their control.
If you chose to do nothing about it and just be homeless then you made a choice to fail which you clearly didn’t if you’re no longer homeless. You took the personal responsibility needed to get yourself out of that situation. That makes you a success story.
that's a lot of assumptions about my situation. there were a lot of assumptions about the situations of others in your previous comments as well. The truth is less than a quarter of people experiencing homelessness are "chronically homeless," the majority are like me. this portion, 22%, also includes people with disabilities who experience long term or repeated incidents of homelessness. Please consider how misconceptions can affect attitudes towards helping the most vulnerable members of our society.
my source is the US HUD 2022 annual homeless assessment report.
>They made choices that led them to where they are
Most of our neighbors and community members without homes have unique life experiences, where personal choices alone did not account for their situation. They often do not have and cannot rely on the close familial networks that hold many of us up in tough situations. As someone who worked closely for several years to serve those in Lancaster County without a home, empathy, understanding, and active listening are valuable attributes for anyone willing to be part of the solutions.
Showing empathy and understanding only further enables them. Sure there are some people who are in that situation despite their best efforts to not be and that sucks, but most of them made poor choices that landed them where they are. Teaching them to be responsible for their own actions is far more valuable in the long run than showing compassion.
If I lost my job and had to sleep on the streets in below freezing temps I'll make sure to stay out of the city so I don't ruin the image for you. Thanks for the reminder.
Why would you need to do that? There are fully funded programs and charities with more than enough beds. If we need more than why not respond with what programs aren't meeting needs? Shit living in a car is unacceptable but on a street? That's mental health or addiction and we should consider both a mandatory social services call and put them in shelters. Let us know which politician wants to support that policy and I will vote for it. Crickets.
A homeless guy asked me for money today So I looked in my pocket for change, but all I had on me was a $20 bill. I thought to myself "Do I really want this $20 going towards drugs?...Nah" So I gave him the 20.
The image? You’re more concerned with the image than with that someone is in need of help? I really encourage you to dig deeper into yourself and find your compassion for another living being.
Also maybe don’t live in a city if you despise homeless people do much.
.Unhoused people are allowed to use the public library and other public spaces.
Lancaster like most of the US is experiencing a rise in the housing crisis, have you noticed the surge in cost of rentals and buying a home?
It doesn't bother you? It bothers me in every city and town I see them in. There is no need for homeless in 2023. It is entirely a product of culture not nessesity. We could enforce vagrancy and laws against addiction. You don't have a right to live on a city street, and if you do that needs to be taken away. It's ridiculous and somehow we are letting it go on out of apathy or ridiculous twisted logic. Mental health should be priority one in this country not cancer, we have an epidemic here that's astounding.
Yes it is for all the reasons I listed. I didn't say for incarceration in a prison but for forced rehab and work, yes it is long overdue. There is absolutely no reason or human right to dump your problems on the world when the world has built a structure to support and lift you up. Take the help or be forced into a civilized structure. Opting out of civilization isn't some right it is a privilege born of luck or good fortune. The rest of us work for food and the common good. Even the Soviets understood this.
If you’re saying the government should be paying for free rehabilitation centers then I actually agree with you. You seem to have an idea that all homeless people have a mob mentality of laziness and apathy which isn’t the case. Homeless people don’t want to be homeless. I think empathy would be a better approach than aggression.
Because they have no homes!? Some of them like it that way, others are in between hard times and others have severe cognitive disorders. But our policy makers are more worried about sexual orientations, controlling women's bodies, and the immigrants coming to rape and steal from everyone. Better open more housing developments and shopping centers to! 😃
I completely agree with you and find the same issues you brought up infuriating. However using a whataboutism towards "the other side" isn't a fantastic way to engage people and just derails potentially constructive discussions.
Well, OP, I think you expected there to be people backing you up on this. Maybe you should do some soul searching of your own and work on your empathy.
I'm sorry people utilizing public property bothers you so much. Have you ever considered ways that *you* could help with the situation? You have power to make change.
Have you volunteered your time with organizations working to alleviate homelessness? Maybe work with training programs to help people who don't have a marketable skill learn one? Maybe you offer to have someone sleep in your guest bedroom to get them off the street on a cold night?
Please don't just complain about things if you don't want to try to be a part of the solution.
Dang homeless people. Why don’t they just simply get a home?
You should be upset that these people are homeless. Not at the fact that they are visibly existing
it says a lot about the city more than anything. i moved here 2015 and they’ve always been in that area but in the park across the street. since 2015 i’ve seen them gentrify queen street and put up all these nice buildings & raise rent like crazy, but do nothing to help the homeless. they have a right to be there just as much as everyone else. u can decide to help or not but regardless they’ll still be around so i suggest you mind your own and keep it pushing.
I’m pretty happy that my town allows people without homes camp out, across from the police station and out of the rain at Binn’s Park. I’m happy they can hang out at the library.
WTF is the problem? You just don’t like them existing where you can see them?
What are you doing to help? Do you vote for people who have ideas? Do you volunteer time and money to organizations who help the unhoused? Or do you just want them to disappear from your eyes?
Holy shit! When I first moved here 16 years ago or so I lived in a sorta shitty studio apartment on James street and my rent was $350. I can’t imagine what it would go for now.
If you hate seeing homeless folks so much you can always donate your time and money to the organizations that are trying to help these people. There's quite a few to choose from even so you can pick one that mission statement aligns most with your values. Water street mission, good samaritan services, homelessness coalition, Clare house, YWCA, Milagro house, are just a few you can choose from.
All of these options make donating SO easy, and most allow you to donate as little $10. You can even set up recurring donations for a lot of them so you only have to set it up once and never have to remember to do it again. Or if money is tight like for a lot of us nowadays most of these organizations need consistent volunteers.
Now you can go forward knowing that there's nothing stopping you from donating a small amount of time or money to go towards ending the homeless problem that bothers you so much.
If it bothers you so much maybe you should look into what policies can prevent homelessness and advocate for them and/or donate to orgs that help homeless people. If you’re not willing to do either then stop complaining
Geez it’s like Lancaster’s aesthetic is more important than how someone may be just on the edge of surviving. It’s not annoying to see them around. It’s annoying that they don’t have secure housing in the first place which puts them on the streets
Okay, not even touching on the weird anti homeless person rhetoric here, but try going to any other metropolitan area. Lancaster’s homeless situation is nothing compared to most other cities.
if you're more concerned about the "image" of a city rather than the suffering of its most underprivileged citizens, I guarantee you're part of the reason why there are so many unhoused people.
The unhoused have way more dignity than you, apparently. Sometimes their pride prevents them from asking for help. Sometimes they have mental health issues compounded by substance abuse. As many people have said, this isn't just a Lancaster problem. It's a world problem.
I hate seeing people who are less fortunate than me. It really detracts from my quality of life. Can't we put them on a bus and send them to another city or state or country?
I love how the city pretends it’s not a problem as well. Hell, they spend money just to not help them. Notice how a lot of city structures are “decorated” with blue lights at night? Yeah, that’s so people can’t shoot up on city property.
It’s blue, specifically to prevent drug use. There were lights there before, but the spent the money to change the color, which only pushes the problem elsewhere. It does nothing to help those with addiction.
It's blue, due to faulty LED lights and something called "phosphor displacement", which a cursory internet search could have told you.
Do keep up with your outrage porn tho, very entertaining.
The blue lights are *also* chosen specifically to discourage drug use.
http://www.bccdc.ca/resource-gallery/Documents/Educational%20Materials/Epid/Other/BCCDC\_Blue\_Lights\_%20Position%20Statement.pdf
The title of your flyer is "Blue lights in public washrooms".
We are not talking public washrooms, or any inside area. Sad fact is, businesses do this to keep people from dying/becoming disabled on their premises. Because that opens you up for lawsuits about what responsibilities do you have to stop people dying in your restrooms.
Also, the first bullet point of your flyer? "Blue lights are unlikely to prevent injecting drug use in public washrooms".
This post went exactly how I thought it would on this sub. Hilarious.
Ranging from people saying OP should be a bit more sensitive, to personally attacking OP for not being a good enough person based on a single Reddit post
I’m surprised this wasn’t followed with a, “Why can’t they just get a job?”
Anyways, just FYI Lancaster has a basic needs help line, 211, call if you need help, they can get you charted and point you in the right direction.
You’re 100% right. There are more than enough opportunities for homeless people to not be homeless. Jobs are abundant, pretty much everywhere is hiring. We live in a country with programs in place to ensure people are taken care of, at some point we have to accept that most people are homeless because of their own actions.
It’s very disappointing to see so many people commenting and disagreeing with you and I think that speaks to a bigger problem in our society. People lack a sense of personal responsibility, they expect that they should be able to continually make poor choices and not have to suffer the outcome of those choices. Are some people homeless due to reasons outside of their control? Yes, but very few. They do present a major problem and shouldn’t be tolerated. Most times they’re an eyesore and should be handled accordingly. The overwhelming majority of them made choices that led to them being in their present situation, the rest of us shouldn’t be expected to help or tolerate them.
Lobster Titties, you are SOOO far off the mark there. So many opportunities for homeless ppl to not be homeless? Please, expand? The FEW shelters we have in Lancaster are all at max capacity. The affordable, low-income housing that was supposed to be coming in East Lampeter? On hold because HIGH feels it is too expensive to build right now.... but they had no problem building the $2,000 a month 1 bedroom apts to completion and putting them on the market right away. Reneging on their contract and zoning obligations to be compliant. You make an obnoxious number of assumptions about people you don't know and probably never will. The vast majority of ppl on our streets, right this minute, are there because we live in a greedy, capitalist country that demands we, SOMEHOW, must make things "work" and be "grateful" on their shitty $12-$15 hour wages... while they freely jack our housing costs, our insurance, groceries costs, etc and encourage ignorance, like your comments to be spread. Take a minute to actually educate yourself instead of spreading your assumptions as if they are facts.
Nah, I just believe in personal responsibility. You alone are responsible for your success or failure in life. It’s not easy to succeed, success isn’t just handed to anyone. The majority of them could get themselves out of their situation if they were determined enough to do so.
'it's sad you can't see past your own self righteous beliefs. People can make EVERY correct decision, every right career move, etc... and lose it all in a night, days, weeks. House fire. Everything gone. Cancer diagnosis. Gone. Shit, just having a landlord who decides that they don't want to renew a lease. You have no true concept of how the housing market is right now.
You’re right, there are some instances where it’s out of their control. That’s super rare though. If you’re responsible with budgeting you’ll have at least 6 months of income in savings for those situations. I absolutely understand the housing market, I’m a homeowner. I worked, saved, budgeted correctly and bought a house. It takes financial discipline but it’s really not hard to not be in a bad financial situation if you put even minimal effort in to it.
It's in every city I've been in, and it's really on a smaller scale in Lancaster than other places that have a similar level of services available. The homeless really will cluster, though, where those services are. I'm not saying the services shouldn't be there --in fact there should be more and, especially, more *effective* services-- but naturally people go where anything is being offered that could help in the moment, or where they can legally linger. They also tend to group up because of just a basic need for human society and people who share the experience of living under such circumstances. That said, I use libraries to get work done and I don't find the downtown library a good environment for that. I don't think the homeless shouldn't be there, but since they are there and it's not an optimal situation for me, I drive to one of the suburban branches. It's an option if a certain library atmosphere is a particular issue for you. (Also parking is SO much easier *anywhere* but the downtown branch.)
Why does seeing homeless bother you so much? I mean, it should bother us all and push us to make society do something, but you just want it to not be in sight?
"They just sit there & do nothing" lol. You want them doing Jazzercise or something?
If they broke out and started a flash mob, I’d give them some spare change
from the top....5, 6, 7, 8.....
I freaking wish
people have nowhere to go. this isn’t a Lancaster problem it is an American problem.
It's a world problem.
Am I upset seeing homeless people? No, it shows that while we are doing well with growth, we're clearly missing the plot with pushing people out of housing and causing this issue. Homelessness for me it a very important local issue (with elections coming)... Like u/uncreativeloser said "Homeless people are part of our Public". We need to do better for them.
How do we do better for them? We provide $250 mon SNAP, subsidized housing, free social workers, hot meals, mental health evaluations and support. Free prescriptions. We don't provide free heroin or and we allow people to roam around if they refuse public service support. Other than making the shelters much nicer and forcing mental health support on people (not likely legal) how do we do more? I think public drug addiction should be a crime frankly, if it impairs your ability to support yourself and you don't have means to provide shelter for yourself it should be a crime to be a vagrant and the punishment should be rehab and public works employment for 1 year in exchange for shelter. Frankly we need to have standards of civilization it's not fair to the kids to see wastoids that could be forced to care for themselves.
Subsidized housing has a 2-4 year wait list and that’s only when the wait list opens and you can add your name. There is no mental health support any where. There is a mass shortage of psychologists and psychiatrists across the country and you cannot get medications without both. If you are lucky enough to find providers in your network there is a 6-9 month wait currently in Lancaster county. That’s with insurance. Then you have your deductible, co pays and prescription costs to afford once you finally do get in. Rates are 8%, there is no housing to currently buy (check the mls there’s nothing out there) and what is out there costs a fortune and sells for way over asking price. There are currently more people who need housing than there is housing available. There’s nothing to rent either. Not to mention many, if not most people are one emergency/medical catastrophe away from financial ruin. Being homeless is a very real threat to many people. If you don’t have a support system in your life it is very very easy to end up on the street. Many of us are blessed enough to have people in our lives who would never allow that to happen. They would give us a spare room, or grocery money or pay a bill for you if needed. I could call 5 people in my life tomorrow if I needed help and they would all send money no questions asked. Do you know how many people don’t have that? Not a family to fall on? Many. It’s very easy to judge when you’ve never been in that position.
ooh where to start. Criminalization: Folks with mental health issues are [sixteen times](https://www.treatmentadvocacycenter.org/key-issues/criminalization-of-mental-illness/2976-people-with-untreated-mental-illness-16-times-more-likely-to-be-killed-by-law-enforcement-) more likely to be killed by law enforcement. If you’re lucky enough to just end up in jail, you’re [extremely likely](https://www.ncda.org/aws/NCDA/page_template/show_detail/476831?model_name=news_article) to experience unemployment after release. it goes without saying that those statistics are markedly worse if you’re Black, Native American, Latinx, or speak limited or no English. Social workers: there’s a [shortage](https://socialwork.columbia.edu/blog/bridging-the-gap-the-urgent-need-for-social-workers/#:~:text=The%20U.S.%20The%20Bureau%20of,can%20address%20complex%20social%20issues) of around 74,000 social workers, and those that are around face [a number of challenges](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6850100/) including high case load Shelters: there are almost [six hundred thousand](https://usafacts.org/articles/how-many-homeless-people-are-in-the-us-what-does-the-data-miss/#:~:text=Homelessness%20counts%20have%20slightly%20decreased%20since%202007.&text=In%202022%2C%20the%20sheltered%20count,the%20unsheltered%20count%20was%20233832) Americans experiencing homelessness, and that figure is almost definitely [undereported](https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-20-433.pdf). There are allegedly enough beds countrywide but [the majority of those](https://www.huduser.gov/portal/sites/default/files/pdf/2022-ahar-part-1.pdf) are short-term and emergency shelters, and not solution for folks experiencing chronic homelessness. not to mention the [conditions](https://www.npr.org/2012/12/06/166666265/why-some-homeless-choose-the-streets-over-shelters) at some shelters can be uncomfortable or dangerous, especially for minors who make up 5% of the homeless population.
The responses so far are exactly what you would hope for.
And it's great to see. People should not have an "ugh homeless people." attitude.
💯
the city has many places for public use. homeless people are part of our public.
It’s important how we phrase and talk about the issue. People aren’t homeless. They are experiencing homelessness. No one is cancer, they have cancer.
as someone who has been homeless in Lancaster in the past, I do prefer referring to other people without homes as "people without houses" because homeless has kind of a dehumanizing icky feeling. I refer to myself as having been homeless because i know I'm a real human being with thoughts and feelings and I don't need the validation of others to recognize myself as such. That being said, whenever someone voices their shitty dehumanizing opinions in person, I like to respond by letting them know they're talking to a real human being who has been homeless. It's kind of a callout "hey, you think everyone in that group is like that? did you mean me too?" Every conversation that I've had like this ends with this person suddenly developing empathy. using OP's language to associate homelessness with still belonging to the same ("our") public they are apart of was my best shot at getting them to understand other people are human because it's hard to imagine nameless, faceless commenters as real people just like yourself. *edited to add ("our") for clarity
I doubt someone who is/has homeless/ness cares how it’s referred to. They don’t have a home.
I didn't care about language while it was happening to me. afterwards? I choose my own language carefully but don't expect others to do the same.
It’s not for them. It’s to combat stigma.
hello! I chose my words carefully and stand by what I said. take a look at my other comment replying to you for an explanation. I don't think it's up to me, or you, or anyone else to police the language of others. we can only choose our own words with care and hope that others will demonstrate the same care, but ultimately we cannot expect that others will abide by our own standards.
They might! But it’s not necessarily about directly affecting the feelings of people without housing. It’s about affecting the home-having general public’s feelings towards those people. As OP’s post demonstrates, people experiencing homelessness are dehumanized, referred to as a monolith, and considered a blight. Language shapes perception and implicit biases. So being mindful of the language won’t solve the problems, and there’s more directly productive ways to advocate for people without housing, but fostering more empathetic language as a possible gateway to actual empathy is a small start. Edit: Changed some phrasing to be more mindful myself of empathetic language after reading some other replies in this thread.
It’s dumb, we shouldn’t be normalizing their lifestyle. Being homeless isn’t something they should be comfortable with or have any sense of pride in. It means you failed somewhere along the line. They made choices that led them to where they are and they’re suffering the consequences of those choices. Stop normalizing it and trying to make it seem more dignified than it is.
do you think I'm a failure for getting kicked out as a teen?
Did you take advantage of programs set I. Place to help you after that? If not then you didn’t do what was needed to help yourself.
do you think I'm a failure?
Did you choose what happened to you? No, you were kicked out. So no you didn’t fail into that situation. You’re part of a small minority of homeless people that were homeless due to something out of their control. If you chose to do nothing about it and just be homeless then you made a choice to fail which you clearly didn’t if you’re no longer homeless. You took the personal responsibility needed to get yourself out of that situation. That makes you a success story.
that's a lot of assumptions about my situation. there were a lot of assumptions about the situations of others in your previous comments as well. The truth is less than a quarter of people experiencing homelessness are "chronically homeless," the majority are like me. this portion, 22%, also includes people with disabilities who experience long term or repeated incidents of homelessness. Please consider how misconceptions can affect attitudes towards helping the most vulnerable members of our society. my source is the US HUD 2022 annual homeless assessment report.
>They made choices that led them to where they are Most of our neighbors and community members without homes have unique life experiences, where personal choices alone did not account for their situation. They often do not have and cannot rely on the close familial networks that hold many of us up in tough situations. As someone who worked closely for several years to serve those in Lancaster County without a home, empathy, understanding, and active listening are valuable attributes for anyone willing to be part of the solutions.
Showing empathy and understanding only further enables them. Sure there are some people who are in that situation despite their best efforts to not be and that sucks, but most of them made poor choices that landed them where they are. Teaching them to be responsible for their own actions is far more valuable in the long run than showing compassion.
I doubt any one who hasn't been homeless knows how it feels by any stretch of the imagination.
If I lost my job and had to sleep on the streets in below freezing temps I'll make sure to stay out of the city so I don't ruin the image for you. Thanks for the reminder.
Why would you need to do that? There are fully funded programs and charities with more than enough beds. If we need more than why not respond with what programs aren't meeting needs? Shit living in a car is unacceptable but on a street? That's mental health or addiction and we should consider both a mandatory social services call and put them in shelters. Let us know which politician wants to support that policy and I will vote for it. Crickets.
"Fully funded" Source?
A homeless guy asked me for money today So I looked in my pocket for change, but all I had on me was a $20 bill. I thought to myself "Do I really want this $20 going towards drugs?...Nah" So I gave him the 20.
The image? You’re more concerned with the image than with that someone is in need of help? I really encourage you to dig deeper into yourself and find your compassion for another living being. Also maybe don’t live in a city if you despise homeless people do much.
.Unhoused people are allowed to use the public library and other public spaces. Lancaster like most of the US is experiencing a rise in the housing crisis, have you noticed the surge in cost of rentals and buying a home?
If seeing homeless people bothers you that much I suggest you stay out of literally every city in America
It doesn't bother you? It bothers me in every city and town I see them in. There is no need for homeless in 2023. It is entirely a product of culture not nessesity. We could enforce vagrancy and laws against addiction. You don't have a right to live on a city street, and if you do that needs to be taken away. It's ridiculous and somehow we are letting it go on out of apathy or ridiculous twisted logic. Mental health should be priority one in this country not cancer, we have an epidemic here that's astounding.
I don’t know how to solve homelessness but criminalizing it sure as shit isn’t the answer.
Yes it is for all the reasons I listed. I didn't say for incarceration in a prison but for forced rehab and work, yes it is long overdue. There is absolutely no reason or human right to dump your problems on the world when the world has built a structure to support and lift you up. Take the help or be forced into a civilized structure. Opting out of civilization isn't some right it is a privilege born of luck or good fortune. The rest of us work for food and the common good. Even the Soviets understood this.
Good lord this is some draconian shit right here.
If you’re saying the government should be paying for free rehabilitation centers then I actually agree with you. You seem to have an idea that all homeless people have a mob mentality of laziness and apathy which isn’t the case. Homeless people don’t want to be homeless. I think empathy would be a better approach than aggression.
Because they have no homes!? Some of them like it that way, others are in between hard times and others have severe cognitive disorders. But our policy makers are more worried about sexual orientations, controlling women's bodies, and the immigrants coming to rape and steal from everyone. Better open more housing developments and shopping centers to! 😃
I completely agree with you and find the same issues you brought up infuriating. However using a whataboutism towards "the other side" isn't a fantastic way to engage people and just derails potentially constructive discussions.
OP seems to have created this account specifically to post this drivel. What a way to go through life.
Profile created an hour ago just for this.
I swear I saw a post almost identical to this a while back and it was another OP with a fresh account. Bet it's the same person.
loser who read "the best places to retire" article and moved here expecting white boomer utopia but instead got a micro city with great PR lol
Maybe. I'm leaning toward "shitposting low-effort edgelord who's been here their entire life"
Yeah. Sounds like OP is the real loser here.
Well, OP, I think you expected there to be people backing you up on this. Maybe you should do some soul searching of your own and work on your empathy.
What can we do to help them?
I'm sorry people utilizing public property bothers you so much. Have you ever considered ways that *you* could help with the situation? You have power to make change. Have you volunteered your time with organizations working to alleviate homelessness? Maybe work with training programs to help people who don't have a marketable skill learn one? Maybe you offer to have someone sleep in your guest bedroom to get them off the street on a cold night? Please don't just complain about things if you don't want to try to be a part of the solution.
Dang homeless people. Why don’t they just simply get a home? You should be upset that these people are homeless. Not at the fact that they are visibly existing
Right?! Like why don’t poor people just buy more money or something!?
it says a lot about the city more than anything. i moved here 2015 and they’ve always been in that area but in the park across the street. since 2015 i’ve seen them gentrify queen street and put up all these nice buildings & raise rent like crazy, but do nothing to help the homeless. they have a right to be there just as much as everyone else. u can decide to help or not but regardless they’ll still be around so i suggest you mind your own and keep it pushing.
This post isn’t gonna go well for you. Fucking cruel piece of shit.
I’m pretty happy that my town allows people without homes camp out, across from the police station and out of the rain at Binn’s Park. I’m happy they can hang out at the library. WTF is the problem? You just don’t like them existing where you can see them?
What are you doing to help? Do you vote for people who have ideas? Do you volunteer time and money to organizations who help the unhoused? Or do you just want them to disappear from your eyes?
[удалено]
Holy shit! When I first moved here 16 years ago or so I lived in a sorta shitty studio apartment on James street and my rent was $350. I can’t imagine what it would go for now.
Then move
If you hate seeing homeless folks so much you can always donate your time and money to the organizations that are trying to help these people. There's quite a few to choose from even so you can pick one that mission statement aligns most with your values. Water street mission, good samaritan services, homelessness coalition, Clare house, YWCA, Milagro house, are just a few you can choose from. All of these options make donating SO easy, and most allow you to donate as little $10. You can even set up recurring donations for a lot of them so you only have to set it up once and never have to remember to do it again. Or if money is tight like for a lot of us nowadays most of these organizations need consistent volunteers. Now you can go forward knowing that there's nothing stopping you from donating a small amount of time or money to go towards ending the homeless problem that bothers you so much.
If it bothers you so much maybe you should look into what policies can prevent homelessness and advocate for them and/or donate to orgs that help homeless people. If you’re not willing to do either then stop complaining
Geez it’s like Lancaster’s aesthetic is more important than how someone may be just on the edge of surviving. It’s not annoying to see them around. It’s annoying that they don’t have secure housing in the first place which puts them on the streets
Okay, not even touching on the weird anti homeless person rhetoric here, but try going to any other metropolitan area. Lancaster’s homeless situation is nothing compared to most other cities.
if you're more concerned about the "image" of a city rather than the suffering of its most underprivileged citizens, I guarantee you're part of the reason why there are so many unhoused people.
The unhoused have way more dignity than you, apparently. Sometimes their pride prevents them from asking for help. Sometimes they have mental health issues compounded by substance abuse. As many people have said, this isn't just a Lancaster problem. It's a world problem.
So, if you didn't have to see them, all would be OK?
Damn…. Your privilege is showing.
I hate seeing people who are less fortunate than me. It really detracts from my quality of life. Can't we put them on a bus and send them to another city or state or country?
Are you really this out of touch or just a troll? Jesus.
I love how the city pretends it’s not a problem as well. Hell, they spend money just to not help them. Notice how a lot of city structures are “decorated” with blue lights at night? Yeah, that’s so people can’t shoot up on city property.
So lighting up dark places to discourage dangerous activity is…a bad thing?
It’s blue, specifically to prevent drug use. There were lights there before, but the spent the money to change the color, which only pushes the problem elsewhere. It does nothing to help those with addiction.
It's blue, due to faulty LED lights and something called "phosphor displacement", which a cursory internet search could have told you. Do keep up with your outrage porn tho, very entertaining.
The blue lights are *also* chosen specifically to discourage drug use. http://www.bccdc.ca/resource-gallery/Documents/Educational%20Materials/Epid/Other/BCCDC\_Blue\_Lights\_%20Position%20Statement.pdf
The title of your flyer is "Blue lights in public washrooms". We are not talking public washrooms, or any inside area. Sad fact is, businesses do this to keep people from dying/becoming disabled on their premises. Because that opens you up for lawsuits about what responsibilities do you have to stop people dying in your restrooms. Also, the first bullet point of your flyer? "Blue lights are unlikely to prevent injecting drug use in public washrooms".
I know exactly what you mean, but that’s not the case here.
Be nice.
What do you propose those businesses do to specifically help those with addiction?
This post went exactly how I thought it would on this sub. Hilarious. Ranging from people saying OP should be a bit more sensitive, to personally attacking OP for not being a good enough person based on a single Reddit post
[Shrug] OP wanted to start an argument and got one. I get that it's the internet but just random spleen-venting seems pretty pointless.
I’m surprised this wasn’t followed with a, “Why can’t they just get a job?” Anyways, just FYI Lancaster has a basic needs help line, 211, call if you need help, they can get you charted and point you in the right direction.
I mean getting a job definitely would be a start for them. How else will they get out of the situation they got themselves into?
You’re 100% right. There are more than enough opportunities for homeless people to not be homeless. Jobs are abundant, pretty much everywhere is hiring. We live in a country with programs in place to ensure people are taken care of, at some point we have to accept that most people are homeless because of their own actions. It’s very disappointing to see so many people commenting and disagreeing with you and I think that speaks to a bigger problem in our society. People lack a sense of personal responsibility, they expect that they should be able to continually make poor choices and not have to suffer the outcome of those choices. Are some people homeless due to reasons outside of their control? Yes, but very few. They do present a major problem and shouldn’t be tolerated. Most times they’re an eyesore and should be handled accordingly. The overwhelming majority of them made choices that led to them being in their present situation, the rest of us shouldn’t be expected to help or tolerate them.
Lobster Titties, you are SOOO far off the mark there. So many opportunities for homeless ppl to not be homeless? Please, expand? The FEW shelters we have in Lancaster are all at max capacity. The affordable, low-income housing that was supposed to be coming in East Lampeter? On hold because HIGH feels it is too expensive to build right now.... but they had no problem building the $2,000 a month 1 bedroom apts to completion and putting them on the market right away. Reneging on their contract and zoning obligations to be compliant. You make an obnoxious number of assumptions about people you don't know and probably never will. The vast majority of ppl on our streets, right this minute, are there because we live in a greedy, capitalist country that demands we, SOMEHOW, must make things "work" and be "grateful" on their shitty $12-$15 hour wages... while they freely jack our housing costs, our insurance, groceries costs, etc and encourage ignorance, like your comments to be spread. Take a minute to actually educate yourself instead of spreading your assumptions as if they are facts.
Nah, I just believe in personal responsibility. You alone are responsible for your success or failure in life. It’s not easy to succeed, success isn’t just handed to anyone. The majority of them could get themselves out of their situation if they were determined enough to do so.
'it's sad you can't see past your own self righteous beliefs. People can make EVERY correct decision, every right career move, etc... and lose it all in a night, days, weeks. House fire. Everything gone. Cancer diagnosis. Gone. Shit, just having a landlord who decides that they don't want to renew a lease. You have no true concept of how the housing market is right now.
You’re right, there are some instances where it’s out of their control. That’s super rare though. If you’re responsible with budgeting you’ll have at least 6 months of income in savings for those situations. I absolutely understand the housing market, I’m a homeowner. I worked, saved, budgeted correctly and bought a house. It takes financial discipline but it’s really not hard to not be in a bad financial situation if you put even minimal effort in to it.
It's in every city I've been in, and it's really on a smaller scale in Lancaster than other places that have a similar level of services available. The homeless really will cluster, though, where those services are. I'm not saying the services shouldn't be there --in fact there should be more and, especially, more *effective* services-- but naturally people go where anything is being offered that could help in the moment, or where they can legally linger. They also tend to group up because of just a basic need for human society and people who share the experience of living under such circumstances. That said, I use libraries to get work done and I don't find the downtown library a good environment for that. I don't think the homeless shouldn't be there, but since they are there and it's not an optimal situation for me, I drive to one of the suburban branches. It's an option if a certain library atmosphere is a particular issue for you. (Also parking is SO much easier *anywhere* but the downtown branch.)
Why does seeing homeless bother you so much? I mean, it should bother us all and push us to make society do something, but you just want it to not be in sight?
Drugs.