Homeless in LA

[bucktalk]

Yes, the big challenge is how to help those who refuse the help. I suspect the percentage of those who refuse help is much higher than we imagine.
This issue is so complicated.

[HangryHippo]

Yes, the big challenge is how to help those who refuse the help. I suspect the percentage of those who refuse help is much higher than we imagine.
This issue is so complicated.

If they refuse the help, then what is there to help? I don’t mean that as snarky as it sound written out, but if they don’t want help…. This is also assuming they’re not committing any violations that would need addressed.

[Ryan]

Nothing will help the homeless problem until they can be removed from the street and forced into whatever kind of therapy it is they need. Aiding and abetting their current lifestyle is helping no one.

Kinda scary in a 1984 kinda way

[Rover]

Yes, the big challenge is how to help those who refuse the help. I suspect the percentage of those who refuse help is much higher than we imagine.
This issue is so complicated.

Having worked a little with services to this sector of society, I think you have it backwards. The percentage of those that would be benefitted by help is much higher than the political propoganda suggests. But the depression, sense of abandomement, angst, and feeling of helplessness starts to become the norm and it's a spiral down. It seems like the need to judge is way greater than the need to help in our society.

[Plutonic Panda]

In my experience with transients in OKC - where the individuals are choosing to sleep is a pretty good indicator of what level of help is needed. Painting all services as an aid to encourage this life is very unfair.

If you walk through the CBD at night, you will see many people posted up with their gear along the Library exterior, the courthouse, in the Myriad Gardens. They are charging phones, using wifi, playing cards with each other, having conversations, making trades, and generally just hanging out or sleeping.

Then you have another transient "hot spot" where you may have bodies lying in the grass near the McDonalds and TacoBell at Western/Classen and the OKC Blvd. Some of these people are using drugs, sleeping without blanket/gear nearby, and are generally in appearance as having a much rougher time.

The first set of people can probably be helped with very basic services to get them back on their feet. The second set is a much more complicated plan.

If they refuse the help, then what is there to help? I don’t mean that as snarky as it sound written out, but if they don’t want help…. This is also assuming they’re not committing any violations that would need addressed.

Jail or mental asylum as a last resort.

[dankrutka]

Jail or mental asylum as a last resort.

This Frontline documentary is almost 20 years old, but it shows vividly the massive failure of turning to jails to address homelessness, especially for those with mental healthy issues. A significant number of homeless people who need mental health support, not incarceration. Our society has to dedicate resources to mental health care, or we end up paying massive amounts to destroy people's lives by putting them in jail.