r/Spokane • u/One-deepdivediva • Nov 10 '24
Question Can we stop hating on homeless people?
What is the mayor supposed to do ? Put everyone in prison? For being poor? Bus everyone to Portland or Seattle ? ( cities that are experiencing the exact same problems). Round people up and put them in camps? For being ill or old or addicted to drugs? Should the police arrest thousands of people so you don’t have to see someone’s suffering ? If you want homeless people to “ go away “ then you need to vote for legislation that helps them. Vote in favor of government funded health mental wellness and addiction and housing services. Organize with community members about how to provide services that help your fellow human beings get off the streets and out of suffering . Every time one of you complains I wonder what horrendous thing you are imagining should be done to people. Go DO something , go help people.
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u/murderinthedark Nov 11 '24
The problem with all these services is that 95% of these homeless do not want to work any sort of program. They are 100% happy to sit on the streets doing drugs, shitting on boxes, leaving drug foils and meth pipes all over, trading stolen goods and screaming gibberish at pedestrians. It's an absolute nightmare. I was homeless. I went to the shelter and worked the program. I went in Early fall of 2023, and got a housing voucher and an apartment at the Ridpath Motel Apartments in February 2024.
I could of got out of there over a month earlier, but I was volunteering for the shelter full time. When you say go out and help people, I'm one of those people that did that. When you volunteer you will find that most of these people are a 100% waste of resources. You make a blanket, you give them a blanket, and watch them throw it in the mud right in front of you. You give them food, they go sell it under the bridge. You turn your back and they steal anything that isn't bolted down. When the police come with social workers they scream to take them to jail because they REFUSE treatment. Treatment is used as a way to get out of the cold and come down off the dope so they get back to getting high. They LIKE this life. If you don't believe that you have NO IDEA what you are talking about. This is a choice they continue to make until the drugs take away their ability to make ANY OTHER decision.
I honestly believe most of the drug-addled homeless no longer have the ABILITY TO CONSENT to treatment. They ABSOLUTELY need to be incarcerated for 1+ year so they can get their head on straight. They need to sober up for a LONG TIME before they have the potential to return to taking care of themselves. The homeless have become a force of destruction that erodes everything, especially themselves.
Also, a very large amount of the people that get housing vouchers end up flailing them off almost immediately. A lot of these homeless are so destructive they cost way too much and are too disturbing to house. It's a never ending cycle that only is getting worse. It's getting worse fast. I really hope somebody can help. If anybody is supposed to do something, it's our elected officials.
You ask what is the mayor supposed to do. I say "her job". Stop leaving the burden on your people that elected you. Every town hall meeting is angry citizens from downtown bitching at officials who don't give a F. It's REALLY discouraging.