I worked at an office in an area of St. Petersburg that was over run with homeless. They would come to our office after hours. We would come to work to find urine and feces on the walkway around the building. We would find used napkins from restroom use. As employees who chose to go to work daily, it wasn't fair to us to have to clean up dirty, bloody used napkins, not to mention the actual product. We called 911 on multiple occasions due to someone still there when we arrived because they were unresponsive. Before blasting people who are paying a great deal of money for 'that water hose" go deal with the outcome. From what I saw 99% of the people on our sidewalk didn't want to get off the streets.

Community Watch employees do not have police powers

Where do you expect them to go unless your willing to pay more taxes to feed , shelter and provide
medical . It’s only going to get worse . No compassion shown here by the OP .

Compassion
 

Please post your address so if seen we can send them to your house for a quick shower with soap! No blood just soap !

Why would you think community watch would assist people showering?

You can find it just about every day on these threads and any social media. It’s what we have become as a society of “civilized people”.

“America’s Friendliest Hometown”......NOT!

Homelessness in America is a problem that has no real solution...at least not yet. As a quality of life issue, the question soon becomes how much of your quality of life are you willing to give up to increase their quality of life? This is a concept not dissimilar than redistribution of wealth. What will you give up in order to lift up the other guy?

And, should the litmus test really be "hurting someone?" You hear that all the time..."they only did (insert whatever), they're not hurting anyone." For the sake of argument, let's say The Villages decided to be "compassionate," and took 100 acres of preserve land and designated it as an approved homeless camp. Restaurants could bring leftover food for donations. Portable toilets could be delivered. Fresh water and outdoor showers are easily brought in. Now, let's say that YOUR house is right around the corner from this camp. Do you think you would be "hurt?" What would happen to your property value? Would you still feel the same level of compassion, or would you quickly become a NIMBY (not in my back yard)?

If you were a seasonal resident, and arrived at your Villages home on October 1st to find four homeless folks camping on your lanai, what would be your first inclination? Call the police (no compassion), or invite them in for dinner (lots of compassion)? It is easy to feign benevolence when the problem is distant. It is much tougher when it is in your face. This is why, since there are no real solutions to the homeless question, the most prevalent answer is to move them along...and make them someone else's problem. It may be sad, but it is true.

Walk the talk. Prove your compassion by providing your addresses or getting involved directly. Otherwise your words ring hollow.

Most are homeless because they want to be. It's a lifestyle choice. There are already options out there that they tend to ignore. You can't force someone to a shelter or temporary housing, but you can move/arrest them when they are breaking the law.

Nope, this is what it has become.

Um, wakey-wakey?????
We have shelters, they won't utilize them
The medical they need is anti-psychotics, neuroleptics, SSRI/SNRIs and lithium-----they won't take them
And while I suspect most will take food, some embrace the lifestyle and so I'll quote Dr. Alan Grant from "Jurassic Park"-----"Velociraptor doesn't want to be fed, he wants to hunt"

as far as the OP goes, "No compassion shown here by the OP"---I suspect that person would be willing to show some compassion, just NOT HERE

If your point on the "Broken Window" theory, in relationship to the homeless people showering in the dog part, is that the police need to stop it or crime will increase, you're misguided. The solution is that the community/society needs to help the less fortunate among us, especially with what they/homeless have had to endure since the beginning of the pandemic. As soon as I read the Wikipedia source and it referenced Rudy Guiliani, I discounted the theory as not being legitimate.

You should give them your address so they can use your hose, use your bathroom or yard. Now that would really be compassionate. Many not all of course but many homeless would be turned away from donating blood for many reasons like having TB, hepatitis, aids just to mention a few. There are shelters for the homeless that truly want help, TV is not a shelter.

Seattle.

The National Alliance to End Homelessness calculated that, in 2021, the U.S. federal government enacted over $51 billion in funding for selected homelessness and housing programs. This, of course, does not include city, county, or private dollars invested in homelessness and affordable housing as well.

Estimates are that there are about 552,000 homeless in the USA. That comes out to $92,000 per homeless person - which for a family of four is $368,00. That would put them in the top 3% of the country. And that is just in federal spending!

I don't think the problem is lack of funds. Perhaps the funds are not being spent wisely.

I have also seen that we are giving billions of dollars to Ukraine.

Thanks for the link to a very interesting video. Never really thought about the drugs/homeless cycle and what it would take to break the cycle. This sounds like what true compassion should be.

And just how does society help those who don't want help?????

Community Watch only gets paid to drive around aimlessly and wave. Forget about them actually doing anything.

Have to love the efficiency of government:1rotfl::1rotfl::1rotfl:

Watched the Seattle article, very eye opening as to what gets started and how it can snowball into out of control chaos.

How about if not helped rather than “not stopped”. What a sad analogy you make comparing a person to cockroaches.

I wonder how many of you will be in church tomorrow pretending to be Christians. WWJD

Hard to say, after all, wasn't he one of the homeless??????

I would expect them to apply for some of the many job openings available and get a job so they can provide for themselves. Work is a four letter word and it’s not typically fun, but we all did it because that’s what responsibility people do.

They will call you at 3 in the morning to tell you your garage door is open, so they do that.

:coolsmiley:

Thank u. What u said is true. On judgement day they will have to answer for their action.

Very true. It is a choice, and it is a choice easily made because WE, not they, pay for it.

Perhaps, rather than thinking about compassion, we should be thinking about "tough love"--which I believe is really more compassionate than handing out freebies. As I've posted before I've asked my wife what the welfare system was in Thailand, and her reply "simple. If you don't work, you don't eat" has a lot of both wisdom and truth in it. Of course there are homeless people who are in the situation they're in because of mental illness, and they should receive treatment on our dime, but of the rest, how many would remain homeless if they had to choose between starving or actually working? Not many.

It has been done before. There were many homeless in America in the dust-bowl days of the 1930's. Not by choice; many forced off their land. Many gravitated toward the Hoovervilles that sprang up near the larger cities. I recall Dad talking about it: the government did what it could, instituting programs such as the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and other like programs which were essentially make-work programs providing minimal wages and basic accommodations for manual labor. But along with the pay and accommodations it gave these men a sense of self-worth; rather than begging or stealing they were getting paid for actually accomplishing something. They could have hung out in the Hoovervilles and eaten thin soup at various soup kitchens, but they didn't. The hardship suffered in the depression days gave birth to what we today call The Greatest Generation.

Are we really doing these homeless a favor by enabling them? Not really. I think the tough love route would have MUCH better results.

We have a few bleeding hearts that want to turn a blind eye to existing laws and support homelessness within TV. Remember, most of homeless are young able-bodied men who have made that choice. There are plenty of shelters with a warm bed, food and showers, that most refuse to go to. Giving aid to the homeless only enables them and actually increases homelessness. We absolutely need to show compassion and give aid to the truly needy, but we need to do so through charitable organizations and not give handouts to vagrants. We also need to enforce existing laws about vagrancy, loitering, and illegal panhandling and encampments.

Yeah, ok. Let’s just wait awhile. Oh, and does anyone out there with an extra bedroom willing to put up a couple of the homeless for a few nights???

Funny, there was (maybe still is) a guy named Dennis who was in a movie about the Villages not too long ago. He lived in his van here in The Villages for years. Somebody would get him visitor passes every month. He used to hang out at the Hacienda Pool all day before it was razed. Then, he moved over to the Orange Blossom pool. He would regularly take showers at these locations. Maybe somebody has given these people at the dog park visitor passes.

Agreed.

Discussing this issue with my wife, she asked "when we provide food and other necessities to the homeless, are we doing that to help them? Or are we doing it to make OURSELVES feel good?" It is a valid question and one that should be considered. Her point was that merely providing "stuff" for them is nothing more than enabling them. It would be far more compassionate to motivate them to change their lives for the better rather than just continuing to wallow in it.

Can anyone spell E-N-A-B-L-I-N-G?????:1rotfl::1rotfl::1rotfl:

Touche
 

But the posters give at church so they are ok….

that guy openly admitted to being a leach, -on the prowl for some wealthy woman to 'take care of him.' @ least now you know who he is & can identify him.

O...M...G!!!!! Wow!
There's this book out there called The Bible. Might suggest you get yourself a copy...

Sadly there are more and more homeless people. As we sit comfortably in our air conditioned homes with running water and food on the table, let us not forget that we are blessed. Sometimes we forget that and forget that we could have been one of the homeless…think of those who lost their homes due to the hurricane. There but for the grace of God go I. And I agree with those that expressed the need for a bit of compassion. My humble opinion

Compassion my a**. They are like cockroaches. It’s happening all over the country. We’ll be overrun in no time. They need to be removed immediately.

So, what are you going to do to help?

Calling the police will do no good without community watch. The police can not take action without a representative of the property, ie community watch to tell the people they are trespassing and not permitted to come back. Once they are notified they are trespassing then the police can arrest them.

If community watch won’t act try counting BOCC. Don Wiley seems to know everyone maybe he can get something don.