Locally, we collected one of these kinds of facilities recently. An older hotel was purchased by the county/city/state/whatever and stocked it with homeless and some of the Central/South American influx. It is interesting to watch when I drive past on the motorcycle, the only evidence that it isn't a hotel is that there are no cars in the lot, maybe one or two who I presume are the people making sure the tenants don't burn the place down or whatever. And the only other sign has been one of whom I presume are members of that hotels new residents sitting on a street corner holding a sign looking for cash or handouts. The location is REALLY bad for panhandling, as it is all triple lanes converging at a big intersection, crosswalks are few to nonexistent as it is more of a commercial area than one expecting foot traffic.

 

These days, spending your Golden Years living on a Golf Course means pitching a tent in one of the Sand Traps.



https://wtop.com/maryland/2024/11/more-people-aged-65-face-homelessness-md-housing-officials-report/

More people aged 65+ face homelessness, Md. housing officials report

RE

Quote from: RE on Nov 12, 2024, 12:05 AMThese days, spending your Golden Years living on a Golf Course means pitching a tent in one of the Sand Traps.



https://wtop.com/maryland/2024/11/more-people-aged-65-face-homelessness-md-housing-officials-report/

More people aged 65+ face homelessness, Md. housing officials report

RE

It's America.  Bottom lines can't grow in capitalism without a reserve army of unemployed, and the homelessness that comes from it. 

American denial means times get tough.  The precariat must suffer as a function of system dynamics responding to denial and capitalist cultural hegemony.

So far the winter has been pretty average cold & snow.  We had a couple of decent snowfalls about 4", and temps mostly in the 20sF, though a few nights have dropped to single digits.  No sub-zero yet.

Sounds like the same old story with the shelter biz, they wait until the last minute and consistently run a couple of 100 beds behind whatever the estimated population is.  However, nobody really knows how many people are actually without a shelter, and the natives (at least half of the homeless) usually are pretty acclimated and as long as they have a tent and sleeping bag can handle 20F weather by going to warming spots and making small fires etc.

We'll see how it goes when Jan rolls around.  That's when the sub-zero days start to pile up.  1 day an experienced outdoor living homo sap can handle pretty easily, when you start stringing 3-4 of them together is when the frostbite problems really kick in.

Of course, still nobody has come up with a reasonable long term solution acceptable both to homeless people and property owners.  Ireconcileable Differences.

https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/anchorage/2024/11/21/winter-shelters-are-full-anchorage-officials-say-theyre-working-to-open-more/

Winter shelters for Anchorage's homeless residents are already full. Officials say they're working to open more.

RE

At least the Hosers aren't criminalizing homelessness like here in the FSoA.  However, Halifax is not Montreal or Toronto.  I wonder if they tolerate camping in the parks in those cities?

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c3wq7l1lnqpo

What happened when a city started accepting - not evicting - homeless camps

RE

Just back inside the Gulag after a smoking break while burning the midnite oil working on my designs.  Got some new ideas so I'm going back and overhauling some of the basic stuff.  I still have a lot of tweaking to do.

Temps have dropped to the negative digits Farenheit tonight after being in the single digits the last 2 nights.  Now the real test of this year's shelter system for the homeless gets rolling.  Also the test of the electrical grid and the NG supply to run the power plants and provide the juice that makes living in AK reasonably comfortable in the modern era.  The 15 minutes outside smoking at these temps reminds me quickly why only around 60K people liked up here  when the Europeans first arrived.  You just can't spend much time outside unless you're seriously bundled up in layers, and you need a good insulated habitation to hibernate in.

The fact it's only Thanksgiving and we still have a solid 4 months of this weather ahead is annoying, but then I think about what it would be like living down in Houston with no A/C when the power goes out and it's 98F with 90% humidity.  At least in the cold you can keep adding layers. Hot & humid, once you're naked that's it.

RE

Of course it was sabotaged.  Along with Food and Health Care, Real Estate is one of the core areas capitalists use to extract wealth from the working class.  All 3 areas are absolutely essential to a human being's existence, so if you control it everyone dependent on it is forced to buy from you.  Providing affordable housing as a social obligation of the society and human right is as anti-capitalist as you get.  It was inevitable in the FSoA that it would be sabotaged, founded as it was under British Common Law during the pinnacle of the feudal era.  The entire NA Continent was declared Property of the Crown, and the King granted land to lesser nobles who collected the taxes on it for him.  Capitalism and the shift over to Corporate ownership from Royal ownership didn't really change anything.  In fact the British Crown still owns plenty of property both in the FSoA and in Canada.

Public housing has been successful in other countries, a while back I put up an article about Austria, and I think Denmark does fairly well with it also.  However, all the english speaking former colonies of the British Empire including the FSoA, Canada and Oz have horrible problems with affordable housing now.  It all traces back to Feudalism, property ownership and the Rentier system.

https://www.vox.com/policy/390082/public-housing-america-policy-failure-poverty

Public housing didn't fail in the US. But it was sabotaged.

RE

QuoteProviding affordable housing as a social obligation of the society and human right is as anti-capitalist as you get.

Of course it is anti-capitalist, it denies the PRIMACY of private property.  Private property is the basis of class.

Provide fair rent or you can't rent and society will tell you what a fair rate is.


Such a statement in a place that mattered would result in the speaker getting his ass kicked.  And that statement is only consistent with the weakest form of socialism.  A social democracy. 

It is better to get rid of private property altogether.

So strong is our social conditioning that we treat mortal men as if they were gods.  Gods who only have land because what they have is provided by the dead labor of other men, and that which was taken by force.  But we act like the owner's land has been his or hers since dinosaurs roamed the earth. 

Calling title to land a 'deed' is appropriate.  Landed property is the result of dastardly deeds.

Here is good article about how private property was created in Britain.  English history is important.  It is the model western civilization evolved from.  It is the foundation that structured our society.

First you steal it, then you sell it.  And then it is rented out like Yahweh himself gave the property to an owner.

The natives of North America experienced a parallel experience that for them was far more devastating.

Up 12% in 2023, 18% in 2024.  Well, there's something in the economy that's growing.  One wonders what the numbers would be if they could get a count on the number of people couch surfing and living in cars?  These numbers only reflect the ones who occasionally turn up at a public shelter.

Does The Donald have any plans to address this problem?  I haven't heard a peep about either homelessness or affordable housing from the new POTUS.  Maybe he plans to send them all to colonies in Greenland and Panama?  This we hear about plenty in the newz.  Maybe it would be a good idea to fix problems here before we annex new territory?

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/u-s-homelessness-up-18-as-affordable-housing-remains-out-of-reach-for-many-people/

RE

Quote from: RE on Dec 27, 2024, 02:52 PMUp 12% in 2023, 18% in 2024.  Well, there's something in the economy that's growing.  One wonders what the numbers would be if they could get a count on the number of people couch surfing and living in cars?  >>

Does The Donald have any plans to address this problem?  I haven't heard a peep about either homelessness or affordable housing from the new POTUS. 
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/u-s-homelessness-up-18-as-affordable-housing-remains-out-of-reach-for-many-people/

RE

Plenty of room out west for shooting ranges. I'm thinking President musk and VP Ramiswamy will offer Special Licenses to the anointed to hunt the homeless for sport. And in the best spirit of fairness, give them a head start of, say, 100 yards.

Donald J can borrow Marine One from Daddy Orange and do it Ted Nugent style.

Perfect.

Considering the fact they have now criminalized being homeless, it's just a matter of time before one is cop-shot for "resisting arrest".  Particularly if guilty of multiple crimes, such as "Black while Homeless".

RE

Quote from: RE on Jan 02, 2025, 07:35 PMConsidering the fact they have now criminalized being homeless, it's just a matter of time before one is cop-shot for "resisting arrest".  Particularly if guilty of multiple crimes, such as "Black while Homeless".

RE

Looks like Seattle is the odds-on favorite to win the "Worst City in the FSoA to be Homeless" Award.  Despite the fact it's far smaller than NYC, it far exceeds the Big Apple in terms of the number of people sleeping rough and is doing the worst job at addressing the problem possible.

The term "stark outlier" is used for Seattle four times in that study

As in it's so far off the curve it sticks out like Shaquille at a party for Kentucky Derby jockeys.

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/the-new-report-on-homelessness-shows-a-catastrophe-for-wa/

The new report on homelessness shows a catastrophe for WA

RE