Originally Posted by Kenswing (Post 1667745)

Not San Francisco. But Seattle.. If you believe this article the Seattle metro area spends over $1Billion on 11,643 people..

Over the past five years, Seattle has seen an explosion of homelessness, crime, and addiction. | Christopher F. Rufo, City Journal



Seattle is under siege. Over the past five years, the Emerald City has seen an explosion of homelessness, crime, and addiction. In its 2017 point-in-time count of the homeless, King County social-services agency All Home found 11,643 people sleeping in tents, cars, and emergency shelters. Property crime has risen to a rate two and a half times higher than Los Angeles’s and four times higher than New York City’s. Cleanup crews pick up tens of thousands of dirty needles from city streets and parks every year.



At the same time, according to the Puget Sound Business Journal, the Seattle metro area spends more than $1 billion fighting homelessness every year. That’s nearly $100,000 for every homeless man, woman, and child in King County, yet the crisis seems only to have deepened, with more addiction, more crime, and more tent encampments in residential neighborhoods. By any measure, the city’s efforts are not working.

Originally Posted by Taltarzac725 (Post 1667775)

I am glad you are posting on Talk of the Villages. My younger brother was homeless for a while after we had to kick him out of the house here in the Villages as he would not stop drinking and lying about it. And he had a DUI with one of our cars. A religious organization in the Tampa Bay area eventually got him off of the street into a stable environment which he lost when he roommate turned out to be a sex offender from Michigan and the media made a huge thing of it even though the roommate had not re-offended. They just did not like this person to be anywhere near kids. Painting with too broad a brush for TV ratings IMHO. And then my late younger brother had the last long bender after getting back on his feet. He found a very good job but losing those daily church contacts to his beloved church made him fall to his illness yet again. He did have a stable environment through the church program but with the loss of that was drawn back into his alcohol addiction eventually due to whatever triggers must have set him off.

Originally Posted by anothersteve (Post 1667794)

There comes a time when you have had enough. I'm going through that with my brother now. There are only so many times you can pick a person up until you realize they are beyond helping themselves. I'm done.
Steve

Originally Posted by anothersteve (Post 1667794)

There comes a time when you have had enough. I'm going through that with my brother now. There are only so many times you can pick a person up until you realize they are beyond helping themselves. I'm done.
Steve

Originally Posted by Jazuela (Post 1667785)

I'm sorry to hear of your loss.

Thing about homelessness - and even beggars on the street corners, is that until and unless you actually speak with them, and hear their story, you have no way of knowing their circumstances. And every single one of us is one mortgage payment, one drink, one surgery recovery painkiller, one tragic traumatic mind-snapping moment away from being in their place.

Does it mean we have any obligation to help every beggar we see, every person who looks down on their luck? Absolutely not. It isn't our obligation. But it is our responsibility to treat them like human beings and not look down on them like they're dirt under our feet. Even a nod of recognition of their existence, is better than how they are usually treated.

Originally Posted by jcvdd1 (Post 1667686)

My question is do you guys give these people money out of the kindness of your heart?

Originally Posted by jane032657 (Post 1667712)

Interesting topic. I am presently volunteering as an Executive Director (my profession) to help open a shelter for the homeless in Daytona/Volusia County where we live part of the year. The word homeless describes a state of being, not a person. The people who are homeless cannot be categorized under one umbrella. Certainly there are some who are fully functional but for whatever reason, prefer this life. However, there are so many people who are not as together as the rest of us. Addictions, Mental Health, Veterans with PTSD and other issues which changed their lives, those who lost their home or their jobs, those disenfranchised for so many sad reasons. Opportunity to get clean, or sober, or cleaned up and have some health care; to have some help getting into housing and job training, and life skill training, sometimes a hand up, sometimes unification with family. One day, take someone to coffee and buy them a meal and hear their story. It is so easy to judge until you get to the heart of the person. Not everyone who is homeless is just wanting to have a sign and a quarter given. People are people, everyone is different. And so many people are a paycheck away from finding themselves destitute. Consider your blessings a gift for your good fortune in life, and offer some hope to someone, even if it is just some kind words. You do not know what a difference you make to someone when you just listen and give a smile and some hope.

Originally Posted by anothersteve (Post 1667794)

There comes a time when you have had enough. I'm going through that with my brother now. There are only so many times you can pick a person up until you realize they are beyond helping themselves. I'm done.
Steve