California has a homeless solution.....

[JustRalph]

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/california-nears-billion-plan-house-homeless-39997457

I see a math problem

[davew]

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/california-nears-billion-plan-house-homeless-39997457

I see a math problem

You just are not progressive enough - did you have common core in school?

[Valuist]

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/california-nears-billion-plan-house-homeless-39997457

I see a math problem

Math problem....or maybe a meth problem.

[rastajenk]

I thought homelessness was only an issue during Republican administrations. Times must be a-changin'.

[Rookies]

A very difficult issue to deal with, mixing all manner of societal problems and personal issues together. Some homeless people here, even in the dead of an ice cold winter, resist coming in from the extreme cold, as people and closed surroundings are anathema to them.

Took a vacation up PAC 1 from LA to San Fran about a decade ago and noticed small groupings in all the smaller towns on the way. Cal being warm Cal, likely has that effect. Some family members tell me that many, many are camped out near the new 49er Stadium in San Jose.

[classhandicapper]

An interesting thing to figure out might be how many of CA's homeless are from CA and how many came from other places. Homelessness is terrible, but the downside of good weather and providing better conditions is that you attract people from elsewhere and disincentivize any able bodied people among them from trying to improve their condition. I think any program that attempts to help people in need has to make sure able bodied and mentally stable people are productive in some way as a condition of receiving housing, food, medicine etc...

[Tom]

Seems to me that we have so many empty houses and buildings everywhere, someone could come up with an idea how to match them up with the homeless and have them take care of the maintenance. Too bad we don't have some kind of central government that functionally represented the people.

[Inner Dirt]

Math problem....or maybe a meth problem.

When I was in my early 20's I actually worked in an office right in the middle of skid row. I used to just walk in the street to go to the Post Office as there were so many of them passed out on the side walk they were impassable. The smell of crap and piss was pretty nasty. At that time (Early 80's) I would say most of the homeless were alcoholics, the drink of choice was Thunderbird which was 15% or so wine, the bottles were everywhere. They pretty much stole anything that wasn't tied down. I doubt only a small percentage of them would want to be housed or in a structured environment. At that time (not sure if it still applies) you could collect a small monthly disability check for being an alcoholic, they lived on that, panhandling and stealing.

[PhantomOnTour]

One of the comments under the article says it best:

IF YOU BUILD IT THEY WILL COME...the homeless from neighboring states (and our big neighbor to the south) will come in droves

[ebcorde]

When I was in my early 20's I actually worked in an office right in the middle of skid row. I used to just walk in the street to go to the Post Office as there were so many of them passed out on the side walk they were impassable. The smell of crap and piss was pretty nasty. At that time (Early 80's) I would say most of the homeless were alcoholics, the drink of choice was Thunderbird which was 15% or so wine, the bottles were everywhere. They pretty much stole anything that wasn't tied down. I doubt only a small percentage of them would want to be housed or in a structured environment. At that time (not sure if it still applies) you could collect a small monthly disability check for being an alcoholic, they lived on that, panhandling and stealing.


I used to work in Downtown Houston for a major bank, in a 40 story+ building. It was sickening walking past scores of Homeless, beggars to work, lunch break. And The sad part was We had mostly Indians on for example the L visa from a company called (Cognizant).
The scam is huge Indian consulting companies contracted out by Major Banks, the L visa allows the US banks to funnel in these cheap Indians for years.

I would cry when I'd see these the L Visa Indians workers step past the elderly American Homeless people.

[RunForTheRoses]

No real comment but did see this cool French movie over the weekend which is on topic:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIqgGc_3n1I

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHdMZW_-tyg

[Robert Fischer]

Fairbanks Alaska doesn't have that type of homeless problem.

Do whatever they're doin

[horses4courses]

To most people, attempting to solve a chronic problem is commendable.

Way better than the conservative "nay sayers" who
are fixated on their own property and assets.

Pathetic...... :ThmbDown:

[Robert Fischer]

Cali has great weather, and media push.

Droves of people flock to places like Cali(weather, media) Ny(media, business) or Florida(warm) without a plan.
That's part of the reason the cheap areas there suck, and the homeless numbers are high. Places like Vegas, although small in size, are probably relatively high as far as density goes.

It's part of the system.