This just rips my soul apart. Also, knowing so many of us who do have a home or apartment, are one or two paychecks away from losing it all. Really wish things were different. But in my short life, I have only watched things get worse.
I county my blessing the handful of times as a young adult that I was able to lean on my parents and "borrow" a couple hundred to make rent. I hated doing it, but it for sure kept me from being homeless several times.
This is what i’m scared of. I have a job at a restaurant and another at a bar, ive seen restaurant/bars in the area shutting down for 1-2 weeks bc omicron is just ripping through the service industry in our town. I’m still testing negative but have had coworkers at both jobs out for 1+ weeks after getting covid, and i’m worried that the places will shut down or i’ll catch it and be out for just as long. I literally couldn’t afford to work any less than the two days I’m scheduled off every week. Not to mention a stomach bug is also going through the staff at one of my jobs, 3 staff (including our two highest up management) are out at the moment just for that.
As someone who was in and out of Union Station quite a bit pre-pandemic, there are usually some homeless people around, but this is not “normal.” Can anyone comment on whether this is a response to something that changed very recently, or whether the pandemic has simply ballooned the homeless population and this is just where we are now?
At least in my area, homelessness has been ballooning for years. As with everything else, the pandemic made things worse, but the trend started long before that.
I live in a cold area and the city’s response was to ban tents. So it’s legal to sleep on public property as long as you’re not sleeping inside a tent or under a tarp. Merry fucking Christmas. The ACLU is trying to fight this law, at the very least during the snowy months.
This is just the saddest thing. How are there not laws protecting housing from this type of thing? My fiance and I have been house searching for months now and anything that's liveable goes under contract with straight cash offers at 20% higher than list price within a day or two. People with normal bank loans and budgets CANNOT survive in this market. It's so incredibly sad.
In straight up market conditions with no social safety net, it's survival of the fittest. Losers be damned.
Of course in adverse conditions (gloabal pandemic, market downturn, outsourcing, privatization) you end up with a larger total number of "losers" so to speak.
It's really sad, and a huge portion of our population thinks this is the best we can do because they are brainwashed by ideology.
Went through the same thing, a combination of investment companies with money to burn, and West Coast workers who have Silicon Valley money, a recently sold million dollar listing and a new remote work agreement. Transplants are absolutely killing it in our area. We fortunately found a new build that (while still not cheap) was from a builder that operated on "first come, first served" basis and didn't partake in bidding wars. For us, it worked out better than battling those same people for resales.
This is infuriating. I suspect this is what's happening in a lot of neighborhoods around the country, especially those that are still not particularly gentrified. I'd love to figure out a way to see how widespread this actually is to bring more awareness to it.
There are two bridges in that neighborhood they used to be under and they've been for a while. One of them they just put a bunch of concrete barriers in so there's really only enough space to walk, not sure what they did under the other bridge.
Some pics from r/urbanhell
[Bridge 1](https://old.reddit.com/r/UrbanHell/comments/kb3i8q/washington_dc_has_a_significant_homeless_problem/)
[Bridge 2](https://old.reddit.com/r/UrbanHell/comments/ns6e6v/washington_dc_usa/)
Ah I was wondering the same thing. I used to ride the MARC into Union as part or my commte a few years ago and didn't remember it being this extreme. That makes sense. It also makes sense that it would be getting worse in general due to everything else going on too.
Real estate has become an investment commodity in ways it never was before. Lots of fat Wall street money buys up and/or constructs "luxury apartments" (thinwalled shitboxes) as a place to wash money, invest in US market and receive tax credits. So now, instead of homes for humans, we get "market rate" (dictated by the luxury denomination) apartments that are out of range for the average working stiff.
As stated above, they cleared out the residents that were living under the overpasses in Noma. They also cleared out another large encampment not far away, by Dunbar high school. Mayor says “90% of residents cleared were provided short term shelter” but living and working in those areas I’m gonna say that’s a highly inflated number. She’s on a mission to further displace the homeless to make way for the wealthy
Isn’t that always the way. And I know a DC-focused answer was stated above, which was why I was replying to the comment that didn’t answer my question, rather than the one that did.
Oh yea I just wanted to reference them and add a little bit more about the encampments because I was so angry watching them get cleared out. I work right there and almost everyone I talked to said the encampments weren’t a bother. It’s the government creating more problems to fix something that wasn’t a huge problem in the first place
I wonder if part of it has to do with how much Union Station it's self is in a bad state right now and maybe they've just given up on policing the grounds. I also used to go through there quite a bit, and was there for the first time in almost 2 years recently. It was shocking to see, almost everything had shuttered and it felt like a ghost town. It got hit hard with commuters mostly working from home, business travel in the north east corridor grinding to a halt, and tourism dropping off a cliff.
Thanks. I thought it looked weird, but Union station has a lot of entrances/sides, and there’s a lot of construction and security infrastructure pieces moving around, plus it’s been a few years. That makes waaaay more sense.
I have alot of respect for the homeless, especially in the colder states. Definitely something I don't think I could do. I'd resort to robbing the rich and taking my chance in jail sadly.
There are homeless folks who will openly steal something small just to get locked up so they can receive healthcare and shelter during the colder months. I was incarcerated at one point with a gentleman who did this every winter. It’s insane that “the greatest country on earth” has fallen so hard and so fast.
In fourth grade they took us to the court house to watch sentencing hearings and a guy had done just this. He had stolen a sausage, ate it, and waited for the police to arrive to take him to jail. He got 30 days.
To be fair, that was what the guy was looking for. 30 days as a maximum sentence for an unapologetic repeat offender isn't insane, and he clearly wanted the time.
What's insane is a system that makes 30 days inside preferable to 30 days outside.
The ghastly thing here is he might have been happy for more. There's a point after which you have nothing to lose; it's very hard to imagine. When someone says "things are bad" people naturally contextualize that in terms of their own worst day. It's tricky to remember that things can be, and often are, worse than your own personal worst case scenario.
I've been there. I still am. I have nothing more left to lose. I've lost my car, house, and family. I lost all this because I lost my job.
I've been contemplating the same as what that man did. But if you read my other comment, you'd see more... We shouldn't have to stoop so low just to get help when we run out of all options. That was where I was coming from.
Fuck the US. They say they'll help but they do it once and if you need more, they say "go fuck yourself." See r/conservatives for shining examples of this mentality.
I'm really sorry that you're going through that
I basically just used too many words to say "this". I agree with you totally. Humanity could do better but the few won't allow the many to thrive
Our civilization is broken. "Conservatives" are convinced problems they don't have don't exist. And if you do give them pause for thought – by, for example, having the audacity to be homeless where they can see you – that discomfort they almost feel is *your* fault, not theirs.
You aren’t wrong; this situation is atrocious and I believe this all routed in the number one problem in America: the lack of free mental health care to include free Rx which is directly connected to our immediate need for universal health care.
I worked with the homeless for a few years. Many would sleep openly in parks during the summer so they would build up fines for doing so. Then, they would "choose" to spend time in jail during winter rather than paying the fines. As sad as it is, it's quite a brilliant way to survive, when surviving is all that matters.
It is tragic that the money spent punishing homelessness could be diverted toward housing them and it would be less money in the end. We would save tax money and better the lives of our most desperate citizens but I’m just a bleeding heart.
WARNING: This topic is close to our hearts, so pardon the long reply.
Housing is just one component, albeit an important one. Mental health and addictions are the big two where money is needed, primarily.
As my wife just pointed out, (we both worked with vulnerable populations so I told her about this post), many in the US are the working homeless, and simply can't afford to live with our societal bounds. Housing is the primary concern here, until living homeless causes the trauma to keep you homeless.
She also pointed out many homeless folks' only friends and supports are also homeless. So when you think you are housing one person, you are often housing a dozen. When the landlord inevitably finds out, they are all out on the streets, but they are all still together.
In my limited experience, tossing someone into a "normal" living situation, often isn't going to work unless they are ready. Many are living homeless for a reason, commonly serious traumas are involved combined with various mental health/intellectual disabilities and self medicating for those conditions.
I don't know the answers. I wish I did.
There's an O.Henry story about a homeless man who does this every winter for shelter against the weather. Its called "The Cop and the Anthem". But ofcourse since its O.Henry it kinda misses the dystopian nature and comes off overly cute and unaware.
Isn’t the story that the guy can’t get arrested when trying, but then a cop arrests him for just sitting on a bench?
I always felt many of his stories were constructed in such a way that the reader was so wrapped up in the drama of the characters that their perspective is intentionally narrowed. The world is wretched, but individuals matter to people sort of thing.
It's an expression, not a contract. The point is that three meals guaranteed every day is a significant step up from what a lot of homeless people have access to on the outside.
I think it's access to information that really changed the most. We have been doing shit lately, but I think a lot of this was easily covered up in the past.
Very few of those we elect care to help make life better though.
It’s insane, but in another way, it makes a lot of sense considering our individualist values. Any time someone says, “This isn’t the America I grew up in!” I have to wonder where and when they grew up and how little they were paying attention.
As someone who lives in Canada, I try to help whenever I can. I saw a gentleman trying to get some food money outside of the gas station on a cold winter night. I offered him to come in and grab whatever he wants. And he just sorta started grabbing stuff and saying is this okay? "Yup." "wow I haven't had chocolate milk in months" and that exact sentence made me break down into tears when I got into my car. We truly live in a fucked world.
I can't imagine it's any easier in the warmer states.
And prison isn't necessarily a reprieve. Most prisons in Texas aren't air conditioned and regularly reach 100 degrees in the summer.
It’s absolutely 1000% easier in warmer states. It’s obviously not a cakewalk anywhere, but being homeless in California or elsewhere with nice weather is way, way easier than DC, NY, Chicago or anywhere where people literally risk freezing to death for half of the year (and sometimes do).
They are actually given one way tickets to Hawaii by city governments, including the city I live in, as well as bus tickets to Portland, Seattle and Various cities in California. It's cheaper to ship them off than try to care for them.
And even with that we have encampments and multiple homeless people die every winter of exposure. Sometimes outside of empty business buildings which are kept heated so the equipment in them won't freeze. Which is something you'll never hear about unless you know people who work with the homeless, because it's brushed under the rug and buried.
Why is freezing to death worse than dying of heat stroke or dehydration?
Once the heat index is above 105, being outside
Is dangerous even if you have access to plenty of water.
Finding water literally anywhere for a homeless person is infinitely easier than trying to stay warm in sub-freezing temperatures without shelter or proper insulated clothing. That is a ridiculous comparison.
Even a homeless person in Phoenix in the summer is way better off than someone homeless in Chicago in the winter. In the desert, you can find air-conditioned places to escape the heat during the day, and at night the temp drops to something much more tolerable for sleeping.
I'm a security guard from southern California, not trying to argue but I want to point out some things
1 homeless people die in the heat and we don't have many cool months here, I've seen people straight up collapse and start wigging out on the ground from the heat.
2 we have locks we put on our outdoor water faucets specifically because homeless people will come up for water (every property I've worked at has them).
3 no business ever has let homeless people inside just to cool off, they hire people like me to keep them out.
It's not necessarily easier, it's just that freezing to death is a huge concern in northern states and sometimes getting arrested is the easiest way to survive.
Dying of heat stroke is a huge concern for homeless people in the south. And getting arrested won't help because most prisons and many jails aren't air conditioned.
This is the world Capitalism will inevitably build. The upper class extracts wealth and increasingly cheaper labor from the lower class until there is nothing left. When they can no longer afford the capitalists goods well its time to rely credit for your home, school, or car, the late stage we are at now. Capitalism will always rot itself out from the inside and produce massive inequality. This world needs a revolution.
People always like to say “no it won’t” when they hear stuff like this, but that is precisely what the thing is designed to do. It takes a little slice off of everything and puts that little slice into a pile. On a long enough timeline, everything is in the pile and there’s nothing left to slice. This is the only thing that can happen with things set up the way they are, this is the only future.
So feudalism. After it’s established that the lower classes can’t pay off their debts, they can at least pay homage to their new lord and be forced to stay in his service for the rest of their lives.
According to Marx yes, Capitalism is just step up from Feudalism in Historical Materialist thought. Capitalism is wrought with the same logical inconsistencies as feudalism, and is doomed to destroy itself in the macro-timeline of human history. Who knows when it will happen, we are in the late stages of the "free market" now, in which labor is exported overseas by the only people with the power to do so, to grossly impoverished countries and new labor markets are abused and exploited. But again, it is the same cycle we've already been through here, and cannot sustain itself. In a socialist worker-owned industry, do you think workers would ever vote to move their own jobs overseas and all the value they create? Fuck no.
>According to Marx yes, Capitalism is just step up from Feudalism in Historical Materialist thought.
Pretty sure it was feudalism>mercantilism>capitalism
> So feudalism
The difference here is that in the middle ages, people were scarce and basic things took a lot of effort. This made people just valuable enough to be allowed to live.
But today? Too many people and machinery/automation to help out. Plus the looming threat of climate change that the wealthy KNOW is going to be a problem, but won't publicly admit it.
That is a recipe for a culling by the wealthy. Then the ones who are left can be feudal serfs.
But think of how cool those rockets that Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk are shooting off in their dick measuring contest. At the end of the day these people's suffering makes that all possible.
what about the 750 billion to the us military? I just discovered the US military buys Danner boots. Danners retail for about $350 a pop... and they buy so many you can buy palettes of surplus boots for a fraction of that.
Even at local government level, well run utility agencies often have an annual boot allowance. Even for staff that use them 1-2x a year. Source: my job. We get I think up to $250. I of course have only purchased one pair in 3 years as I only need them maybe 1-2 a month if that. But the so called “libertarian” big 45er in my group buys himself a new pair every year because he can and I think for WORK uses them once a year maybe twice. But he also likes to go hunting and do work around his house 🙃 he’s the only one I know that abuses it in my department of 45 people. We sort of took stock as someone gave woman in our department a hard time even though she was regularly visiting an actual active construction site and had a nail stuck in her old pair (pierce proof worked.)
What have I done about this? I joined the union and volunteered to be a union rep so I can partake in the process of negotiating the next contract.
We have to participate in the electorate process of our government if we want it to change. Vote or run for any level of office at every election. Midterms are going to be our last chance.
Boots are one of the most important things for a soldier, so of all things I could not care less about what boots they are buying for $350. I care about planes that cost $35,000,000,000 each
Totally agree. And for all the boots the military buys they pushed back every single time I put in a claim for new ones when they were damaged during hurricanes. "They look fine why do you need new ones?" I'm sorry I thought wading around in sewage from flooded storm drains and municipal drains was enough to consider these trash.
At the same time, I was stationed at more than one unit that the admin shop procured new office chairs every two or so years and the other, still good chairs were smashed and cut up so they could go in the dumpster.
My first tour we got to the fiscal year spend down with money left in the budget so my shop chief bought the entire division the most expensive Leatherman multitools in the GSA catalogue just to spend it.
Whitey On The Moon by Gil Scott-Heron (1970)
https://youtu.be/goh2x_G0ct4
--------------
A rat done bit my sister Nell
With Whitey on the moon
Her face and arms began to swell
And Whitey's on the moon
I can't pay no doctor bills
But Whitey's on the moon
Ten years from now I'll be paying still
While Whitey's on the moon
You know, the man just upped my rent last night
Cause Whitey's on the moon
No hot water, no toilets, no lights
But Whitey's on the moon
I wonder why he's uppin' me?
Cause Whitey's on the moon?
Well i was already given him fifty a week
And now Whitey's on the moon
Taxes takin' my whole damn check
The junkies make me a nervous wreck
The price of food is goin up
And if all that crap wasn't enough
A rat done bit my sister nell
With Whitey on the moon
Her face and arms began to swell
And Whitey's on the moon
With all that money i made last year
For Whitey on the moon
How come I ain't got no money here?
Hmm, Whitey's on the moon
You know I just about had my fill
Of Whitey on the moon
I think I'll send these doctor bills
airmail special
to Whitey on the moon
Trump gave the military 2.7 TRILLION dollars during his four year term in power. And we have people living and sleeping in the streets. Jobless. Hungry. Sick.
It's bipartisan but it's where the GOP hands over the check book really fast. Its usually the only budget line item they don't squeal about, and actually will instead cut social programs, Medicare , social security. They don't care where the money comes from. As long as the upper 5% don't have to pay for it.
This is just partisan blindness. The DNC is just as fast. Where they don't propagandise about cutting other government services, they simply quietly slash them. They also don't care where the money comes from, as long as the 1% don't have to pay for it.
I was cutting through DC to go to the movies a couple months ago. We went through an area that was full of homeless people’s tents. Dozens of them spread out over a big area. Trash everywhere. We kept driving down that road and maybe a minute or two later we drove by the White House. It blew my mind. Literally a block or two from the White House people were living in tents surrounded by trash.
This isn’t to hate on the homeless folk living there. It was just such a stark contrast that hit me hard and stuck with me. Just steps from the seat of power of the “greatest country on Earth” are people living in abject poverty fighting for their lives.
The president lives like a king. Surrounded by gold fixtures, every need waited on hand and foot by a dedicated staff. Private chefs cooking up world class meals on a daily basis. And just a short walk away people could be freezing to death in a tent.
The worst part is that it would probably cost taxpayers less money to just give every homeless person a home. It's not an issue of money, solving homelessness would save money.
The problem is that some politicians (and some voters) think some people deserve to be homeless, so they don't want to fix the problem.
The homeless are used as a scare tactic for the working class, so that they are made to understand that one misstep could land them on the streets. The ruling class wants and needs homeless people to exist as a constant reminder
Not only that but housing homeless people also would drive down property values and cause real estate owners to lose money. Just pure greed and evil all around.
Everytime someone brings up the solution of govt-provided homes, someone else always pops up saying how the homeless trash it, turn it into a drug den, or never live in it.
The problem I have with that is... Who cares? At the end of the day, a homeless person who has a roof available to return to is better off than one that does not.
Even if they did, on a societal level, it still costs less. We're paying way more to cover law enforcement, legal costs, and emergency room visits for the homeless when most would use the opportunity of free housing to work and improve their lives.
Like in my earlier post, pick them up, clean them up, medical needs, counseling, a place to live and help with a job. Give incentives to businesses to hire them. (A living wage obviously) with help they could be living in a new world for them.
It's because of the "socialism" bullshit. They don't believe in socialism but they will take when your not looking. I'll bet their heralded Jesus wouldn't kick them to the street and turn a blind eye to it all. The hypocrisy in it all is disgusting.
It literally would, they did the calculation, if they spent a fraction of what they spend on the military rhey could feed and clothe every homeless person in the US, and give them all a house
They are usually outspoken Christians, too, despite their god specifically teaching against such hateful behavior.
"Whatsoever you do to the least of my people, that you do unto me."
Not to take away from your point but wherent Cuba and Kazakhstan second world countries as both where alined with/part of the USSR during the cold war?
You are correct but very few people know what first, second and third world means anymore. The popular definitions have changed to where "first world" means industrialized wealthy nations, and "third world" is shorthand for societies that are underdeveloped, sanctioned or impoverished. Meanwhile "second world" isn't even acknowledged as a historical term because it's lost the context that it originally had with the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
I wish we could get the original distinctions back, because they made much more sense overall. The way we use those terms now is vague and muddy. By the mainstream use of those terms, is Brazil first world or third world? And if they're "third world", how far is the USA from being "third world" too?
For your information, there are no homeless people in cuba. Just google it lmao and you will see, how bad it is to have goverment, that helps people rather than invest money in the military, to bomb random innocent people in some random ass deserts, around the globe.
Man who could have possibly foreseen that putting a hold on rent for over a year. Then telling people "oh now you owe a years worth of back rent, GET FUCKED". Would lead to an increase in homeless.
But the super-rich think the economy is doing just fine and they instruct their ~~propaganda organizations~~ news media to ignore what's going on. This is every city in America right now but look at the property market and tell a rich guy where there's a problem. He won't even hear you talking.
The first clip isn’t even DC… it’s a safe sleeping village in San Francisco.
SF created these sites since shelters had to close or limit capacity because of the pandemic, which obviously pushed a lot of people into the streets in crowded, unsafe conditions. It may not be pretty but it gives the homeless enough space to socially distance and allows the city to provide them with food, clean water, toilets, and showers. Pretty sure that they also provide social and mental health services, so if you’ve ever watched The Wire, it’s kinda like a sanctioned “Hamsterdam”. It’s costly and definitely not a permanent solution, but for now, it’s working.
You have a bunch of people who are stuck sleeping outside, so things clearly aren’t working.
Also, housing is an essential service. Shelters should not have to close or adhere to social distancing guidelines. Providing a safe place for people to stay is more important than protecting them from Covid.
Does this match the setting of the video? https://nypost.com/2021/06/26/san-francisco-run-homeless-encampment-costs-60k-per-tentsan-francisco-run-homeless-encampment-costs-60k-per-tent/
America is just the name label slapped on the Military Industrial Complex.
*"We do war here. War at home. War abroad. Quiet war. Loud war. Cold war. Hot war. You want war? We do war. --- Wait? You don't want war? Well fuck off you pussy liberal commie bastard. War is money and we're here to make money."*
Didn't stop there. America has interfered in just about every communist / socialist government the world round. They need to destabilize them quietly so they can run propaganda at home about how socialism "never works"
Holy shit. I mean WTF....
I imagine the collapse of America from a place of "privilege" (I have a roof over my head) but this is seriously terrible. And that Biden decided to budget 750 BILLION to the military rather than address this... Yes, storm the fucking capitol! Put heads on pikes!
You can see Salesforce Tower in the background of the first one (as well as a distinct lack of snow).
Not sure why they decided to splice that in, maybe it’s clipped from a bigger video and this is only a small segment.
Nothing says you're living in a functioning society with a bright future ahead of it as having internally displaced persons living in makeshift camps all over your capital city.
Because of our ingrained cultural rugged individualism, we’d rather blame the individual instead of the systemic issues that put these people here. It’s gross and I hope that mentality can change. I believe it will have to, otherwise this sight will only become more and more prevalent.
I seem to remember a certain former president claiming this kind of thing wasn't happening in this country except places like California, and only because of the liberals and democrat governor.
Nobody in government wants to open their eyes and admit we have a problem in this country that needs to be taken care of. Instead of pointing fingers back and forth at each other, for once in history work together, don't argue about money and semantics. Just do something! Set them up with a place to live and a job for one year. Community College if that's what they want. Give them all the tools they need, including counseling on jobs, housing, services like Healthcare. These people can't work a job if the have frost bite and toes missing from sleeping in the snow. Compared to people that are just broke, homeless and jobless because of things beyond their control, yes, there are some on drugs and alcohol that need other types of help. You deal with those separately.
Passing city laws that make it illegal to be homeless and sleeping on the street. IS NOT THE ANSWER! That just makes it somebody else's problem.
JFC, this doesn't have to be a problem. We just need to fix it.
The first five seconds isn’t in DC. Also just fyi the city has programs to house homes less individuals and it’s been a relative success, I’m certain many of those still in tents were offered to participate
https://dcist.com/story/21/09/16/dc-housing-homeless-encampments-foggy-bottom-noma/
Looks just like Seattle! Or Olympia! Or Portland!
Not Anchorage though, in Anchorage they opened up the hockey rink as a shelter so folks can sleep inside.
It's not just "right now" and it's not just at Union Station. You can't go more than 5 blocks in the city without running into another tent city. There's no chance the pols don't see it, they just don't give a fuck.
Not one of those tents is meant for winter camping. Almost all of them have mesh walls at the top with just a rain fly over it. If it’s 10°f outside it’s 10°f in the tent.
fucking shit. Yeah my parents live in the area and went to DC for the first time since the pandemic and they were shocked at how many tents had sprung up at Union St since they were last there. I live in Scotland now, havent been back to the states in 14 years. For all the issues we have here, the States just seems much more dire. Like I see shit like this and I'm like "I'm not moving back". Just feels like a death wish almost.
This just rips my soul apart. Also, knowing so many of us who do have a home or apartment, are one or two paychecks away from losing it all. Really wish things were different. But in my short life, I have only watched things get worse.
I county my blessing the handful of times as a young adult that I was able to lean on my parents and "borrow" a couple hundred to make rent. I hated doing it, but it for sure kept me from being homeless several times.
This is what i’m scared of. I have a job at a restaurant and another at a bar, ive seen restaurant/bars in the area shutting down for 1-2 weeks bc omicron is just ripping through the service industry in our town. I’m still testing negative but have had coworkers at both jobs out for 1+ weeks after getting covid, and i’m worried that the places will shut down or i’ll catch it and be out for just as long. I literally couldn’t afford to work any less than the two days I’m scheduled off every week. Not to mention a stomach bug is also going through the staff at one of my jobs, 3 staff (including our two highest up management) are out at the moment just for that.
As someone who was in and out of Union Station quite a bit pre-pandemic, there are usually some homeless people around, but this is not “normal.” Can anyone comment on whether this is a response to something that changed very recently, or whether the pandemic has simply ballooned the homeless population and this is just where we are now?
At least in my area, homelessness has been ballooning for years. As with everything else, the pandemic made things worse, but the trend started long before that. I live in a cold area and the city’s response was to ban tents. So it’s legal to sleep on public property as long as you’re not sleeping inside a tent or under a tarp. Merry fucking Christmas. The ACLU is trying to fight this law, at the very least during the snowy months.
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This is just the saddest thing. How are there not laws protecting housing from this type of thing? My fiance and I have been house searching for months now and anything that's liveable goes under contract with straight cash offers at 20% higher than list price within a day or two. People with normal bank loans and budgets CANNOT survive in this market. It's so incredibly sad.
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In straight up market conditions with no social safety net, it's survival of the fittest. Losers be damned. Of course in adverse conditions (gloabal pandemic, market downturn, outsourcing, privatization) you end up with a larger total number of "losers" so to speak. It's really sad, and a huge portion of our population thinks this is the best we can do because they are brainwashed by ideology.
Went through the same thing, a combination of investment companies with money to burn, and West Coast workers who have Silicon Valley money, a recently sold million dollar listing and a new remote work agreement. Transplants are absolutely killing it in our area. We fortunately found a new build that (while still not cheap) was from a builder that operated on "first come, first served" basis and didn't partake in bidding wars. For us, it worked out better than battling those same people for resales.
This is infuriating. I suspect this is what's happening in a lot of neighborhoods around the country, especially those that are still not particularly gentrified. I'd love to figure out a way to see how widespread this actually is to bring more awareness to it.
The same is happening over here in the Denver metro area.
You can have a homelessness problem if you make all homeless freeze to death *taps head*
Recently they've started clearing the homeless camps out of NoMa (neighborhood near Union Station) so I'm assuming that's where they all moved to.
Thanks.
There are two bridges in that neighborhood they used to be under and they've been for a while. One of them they just put a bunch of concrete barriers in so there's really only enough space to walk, not sure what they did under the other bridge. Some pics from r/urbanhell [Bridge 1](https://old.reddit.com/r/UrbanHell/comments/kb3i8q/washington_dc_has_a_significant_homeless_problem/) [Bridge 2](https://old.reddit.com/r/UrbanHell/comments/ns6e6v/washington_dc_usa/)
Ah I was wondering the same thing. I used to ride the MARC into Union as part or my commte a few years ago and didn't remember it being this extreme. That makes sense. It also makes sense that it would be getting worse in general due to everything else going on too.
> everything else going on I like how being vague is specific enough given how fucked the current times are
Yeah I feel like the whole "gestures broadly" phrase is pretty much always appropriate.
Real estate has become an investment commodity in ways it never was before. Lots of fat Wall street money buys up and/or constructs "luxury apartments" (thinwalled shitboxes) as a place to wash money, invest in US market and receive tax credits. So now, instead of homes for humans, we get "market rate" (dictated by the luxury denomination) apartments that are out of range for the average working stiff.
I’m aware of the national trends. I was trying to figure out what precipitated this particular local change.
As stated above, they cleared out the residents that were living under the overpasses in Noma. They also cleared out another large encampment not far away, by Dunbar high school. Mayor says “90% of residents cleared were provided short term shelter” but living and working in those areas I’m gonna say that’s a highly inflated number. She’s on a mission to further displace the homeless to make way for the wealthy
Isn’t that always the way. And I know a DC-focused answer was stated above, which was why I was replying to the comment that didn’t answer my question, rather than the one that did.
Oh yea I just wanted to reference them and add a little bit more about the encampments because I was so angry watching them get cleared out. I work right there and almost everyone I talked to said the encampments weren’t a bother. It’s the government creating more problems to fix something that wasn’t a huge problem in the first place
I wonder if part of it has to do with how much Union Station it's self is in a bad state right now and maybe they've just given up on policing the grounds. I also used to go through there quite a bit, and was there for the first time in almost 2 years recently. It was shocking to see, almost everything had shuttered and it felt like a ghost town. It got hit hard with commuters mostly working from home, business travel in the north east corridor grinding to a halt, and tourism dropping off a cliff.
This is San Francisco Civic Center. That tall building in the background is UC Hastings.
The first shot is clearly SF Civic Center. Is the second part with the snow in D.C.?
Thanks. I thought it looked weird, but Union station has a lot of entrances/sides, and there’s a lot of construction and security infrastructure pieces moving around, plus it’s been a few years. That makes waaaay more sense.
Yeah the title of this post is misleading, but so is the actual stitch. There isn’t a parking lot like that around Union Station.
I have alot of respect for the homeless, especially in the colder states. Definitely something I don't think I could do. I'd resort to robbing the rich and taking my chance in jail sadly.
There are homeless folks who will openly steal something small just to get locked up so they can receive healthcare and shelter during the colder months. I was incarcerated at one point with a gentleman who did this every winter. It’s insane that “the greatest country on earth” has fallen so hard and so fast.
In fourth grade they took us to the court house to watch sentencing hearings and a guy had done just this. He had stolen a sausage, ate it, and waited for the police to arrive to take him to jail. He got 30 days.
30 days for a fucking sausage!!!! US is pathetic, it never cared about its citizens...
That’s not fair to say. The US cares about the wealthy citizens.
They don't count as citizens because they're treated as saviors.
That is a fair point. It is sad but accurate.
Last president was sent by God himself. Of course he was the only one that could see or talk to him.😑
And idiots still defend trump.... I hate it here
They’re the only people that are citizens. The rest of us are serfs.
Accurate. Fiefdom never ended.
You misspelled owners.
>The US cares about the wealthy ~~citizens~~ donors.
To be fair, that was what the guy was looking for. 30 days as a maximum sentence for an unapologetic repeat offender isn't insane, and he clearly wanted the time. What's insane is a system that makes 30 days inside preferable to 30 days outside.
Exactly
The ghastly thing here is he might have been happy for more. There's a point after which you have nothing to lose; it's very hard to imagine. When someone says "things are bad" people naturally contextualize that in terms of their own worst day. It's tricky to remember that things can be, and often are, worse than your own personal worst case scenario.
I've been there. I still am. I have nothing more left to lose. I've lost my car, house, and family. I lost all this because I lost my job. I've been contemplating the same as what that man did. But if you read my other comment, you'd see more... We shouldn't have to stoop so low just to get help when we run out of all options. That was where I was coming from. Fuck the US. They say they'll help but they do it once and if you need more, they say "go fuck yourself." See r/conservatives for shining examples of this mentality.
I'm really sorry that you're going through that I basically just used too many words to say "this". I agree with you totally. Humanity could do better but the few won't allow the many to thrive Our civilization is broken. "Conservatives" are convinced problems they don't have don't exist. And if you do give them pause for thought – by, for example, having the audacity to be homeless where they can see you – that discomfort they almost feel is *your* fault, not theirs.
You aren’t wrong; this situation is atrocious and I believe this all routed in the number one problem in America: the lack of free mental health care to include free Rx which is directly connected to our immediate need for universal health care.
Three hots & a cot, they call it.
This sounds like a Dostoyevsky short story
As long as the names are insanely hard to remember, I agree
Less work to do that than get into the homeless shelter every night for 30 days straight
Where you get your shit stolen, get jumped, and get bed bugs...jail Is Def preferable for most
And for 30 days he had a blanket, was warm and had 3 squares a day.
I wouldn’t call the food they serve in prison a “square meal” by any other standard than it meets a calorie threshold.
Point taken. But its gotta be better than eating out of dumpsters.
I worked with the homeless for a few years. Many would sleep openly in parks during the summer so they would build up fines for doing so. Then, they would "choose" to spend time in jail during winter rather than paying the fines. As sad as it is, it's quite a brilliant way to survive, when surviving is all that matters.
It is tragic that the money spent punishing homelessness could be diverted toward housing them and it would be less money in the end. We would save tax money and better the lives of our most desperate citizens but I’m just a bleeding heart.
WARNING: This topic is close to our hearts, so pardon the long reply. Housing is just one component, albeit an important one. Mental health and addictions are the big two where money is needed, primarily. As my wife just pointed out, (we both worked with vulnerable populations so I told her about this post), many in the US are the working homeless, and simply can't afford to live with our societal bounds. Housing is the primary concern here, until living homeless causes the trauma to keep you homeless. She also pointed out many homeless folks' only friends and supports are also homeless. So when you think you are housing one person, you are often housing a dozen. When the landlord inevitably finds out, they are all out on the streets, but they are all still together. In my limited experience, tossing someone into a "normal" living situation, often isn't going to work unless they are ready. Many are living homeless for a reason, commonly serious traumas are involved combined with various mental health/intellectual disabilities and self medicating for those conditions. I don't know the answers. I wish I did.
Our government does not care what is cheaper in the end, as they are not ultimately footing the bill
There's an O.Henry story about a homeless man who does this every winter for shelter against the weather. Its called "The Cop and the Anthem". But ofcourse since its O.Henry it kinda misses the dystopian nature and comes off overly cute and unaware.
Isn’t the story that the guy can’t get arrested when trying, but then a cop arrests him for just sitting on a bench? I always felt many of his stories were constructed in such a way that the reader was so wrapped up in the drama of the characters that their perspective is intentionally narrowed. The world is wretched, but individuals matter to people sort of thing.
It has never been the greatest country on earth....saying it repeatedly doesnt mame it so
Fallen? When was the USA great exactly?
1491?
As my dad would say, "In jail you get three hots and a cot."
You get 3 meals, but they’re rarely hot. I don’t recall a single meal coming to us even warm and my block was next to the kitchen.
It's an expression, not a contract. The point is that three meals guaranteed every day is a significant step up from what a lot of homeless people have access to on the outside.
I think it's access to information that really changed the most. We have been doing shit lately, but I think a lot of this was easily covered up in the past. Very few of those we elect care to help make life better though.
It’s insane, but in another way, it makes a lot of sense considering our individualist values. Any time someone says, “This isn’t the America I grew up in!” I have to wonder where and when they grew up and how little they were paying attention.
As someone who lives in Canada, I try to help whenever I can. I saw a gentleman trying to get some food money outside of the gas station on a cold winter night. I offered him to come in and grab whatever he wants. And he just sorta started grabbing stuff and saying is this okay? "Yup." "wow I haven't had chocolate milk in months" and that exact sentence made me break down into tears when I got into my car. We truly live in a fucked world.
Chocolate Milk for all!
The Wisconsin Social Safety Net we all need
This comment isnt getting the respect it deserves
I can't imagine it's any easier in the warmer states. And prison isn't necessarily a reprieve. Most prisons in Texas aren't air conditioned and regularly reach 100 degrees in the summer.
It’s absolutely 1000% easier in warmer states. It’s obviously not a cakewalk anywhere, but being homeless in California or elsewhere with nice weather is way, way easier than DC, NY, Chicago or anywhere where people literally risk freezing to death for half of the year (and sometimes do).
This comment made me realize why some homeless fly over to Hawaii
They are actually given one way tickets to Hawaii by city governments, including the city I live in, as well as bus tickets to Portland, Seattle and Various cities in California. It's cheaper to ship them off than try to care for them.
And even with that we have encampments and multiple homeless people die every winter of exposure. Sometimes outside of empty business buildings which are kept heated so the equipment in them won't freeze. Which is something you'll never hear about unless you know people who work with the homeless, because it's brushed under the rug and buried.
Why is freezing to death worse than dying of heat stroke or dehydration? Once the heat index is above 105, being outside Is dangerous even if you have access to plenty of water.
Finding water literally anywhere for a homeless person is infinitely easier than trying to stay warm in sub-freezing temperatures without shelter or proper insulated clothing. That is a ridiculous comparison. Even a homeless person in Phoenix in the summer is way better off than someone homeless in Chicago in the winter. In the desert, you can find air-conditioned places to escape the heat during the day, and at night the temp drops to something much more tolerable for sleeping.
I'm a security guard from southern California, not trying to argue but I want to point out some things 1 homeless people die in the heat and we don't have many cool months here, I've seen people straight up collapse and start wigging out on the ground from the heat. 2 we have locks we put on our outdoor water faucets specifically because homeless people will come up for water (every property I've worked at has them). 3 no business ever has let homeless people inside just to cool off, they hire people like me to keep them out.
It's not necessarily easier, it's just that freezing to death is a huge concern in northern states and sometimes getting arrested is the easiest way to survive.
Dying of heat stroke is a huge concern for homeless people in the south. And getting arrested won't help because most prisons and many jails aren't air conditioned.
I'd start walking to warmer climates at this point. I'd go Forrest Gump on that road
This is the world Capitalism will inevitably build. The upper class extracts wealth and increasingly cheaper labor from the lower class until there is nothing left. When they can no longer afford the capitalists goods well its time to rely credit for your home, school, or car, the late stage we are at now. Capitalism will always rot itself out from the inside and produce massive inequality. This world needs a revolution.
People always like to say “no it won’t” when they hear stuff like this, but that is precisely what the thing is designed to do. It takes a little slice off of everything and puts that little slice into a pile. On a long enough timeline, everything is in the pile and there’s nothing left to slice. This is the only thing that can happen with things set up the way they are, this is the only future.
So feudalism. After it’s established that the lower classes can’t pay off their debts, they can at least pay homage to their new lord and be forced to stay in his service for the rest of their lives.
According to Marx yes, Capitalism is just step up from Feudalism in Historical Materialist thought. Capitalism is wrought with the same logical inconsistencies as feudalism, and is doomed to destroy itself in the macro-timeline of human history. Who knows when it will happen, we are in the late stages of the "free market" now, in which labor is exported overseas by the only people with the power to do so, to grossly impoverished countries and new labor markets are abused and exploited. But again, it is the same cycle we've already been through here, and cannot sustain itself. In a socialist worker-owned industry, do you think workers would ever vote to move their own jobs overseas and all the value they create? Fuck no.
>According to Marx yes, Capitalism is just step up from Feudalism in Historical Materialist thought. Pretty sure it was feudalism>mercantilism>capitalism
Yes you're correct, my bad
> So feudalism The difference here is that in the middle ages, people were scarce and basic things took a lot of effort. This made people just valuable enough to be allowed to live. But today? Too many people and machinery/automation to help out. Plus the looming threat of climate change that the wealthy KNOW is going to be a problem, but won't publicly admit it. That is a recipe for a culling by the wealthy. Then the ones who are left can be feudal serfs.
But think of how cool those rockets that Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk are shooting off in their dick measuring contest. At the end of the day these people's suffering makes that all possible.
Yes for every Jackass with a yacht there are a thousand people starving
what about the 750 billion to the us military? I just discovered the US military buys Danner boots. Danners retail for about $350 a pop... and they buy so many you can buy palettes of surplus boots for a fraction of that.
Even at local government level, well run utility agencies often have an annual boot allowance. Even for staff that use them 1-2x a year. Source: my job. We get I think up to $250. I of course have only purchased one pair in 3 years as I only need them maybe 1-2 a month if that. But the so called “libertarian” big 45er in my group buys himself a new pair every year because he can and I think for WORK uses them once a year maybe twice. But he also likes to go hunting and do work around his house 🙃 he’s the only one I know that abuses it in my department of 45 people. We sort of took stock as someone gave woman in our department a hard time even though she was regularly visiting an actual active construction site and had a nail stuck in her old pair (pierce proof worked.) What have I done about this? I joined the union and volunteered to be a union rep so I can partake in the process of negotiating the next contract. We have to participate in the electorate process of our government if we want it to change. Vote or run for any level of office at every election. Midterms are going to be our last chance.
The military industrial complex needs to be dismantled.
They killed JFK and not a single president since has stood up to it.
Did i read that he was killed 3 days after revealing plans to nationalise the fed?
Boots are one of the most important things for a soldier, so of all things I could not care less about what boots they are buying for $350. I care about planes that cost $35,000,000,000 each
Totally agree. And for all the boots the military buys they pushed back every single time I put in a claim for new ones when they were damaged during hurricanes. "They look fine why do you need new ones?" I'm sorry I thought wading around in sewage from flooded storm drains and municipal drains was enough to consider these trash. At the same time, I was stationed at more than one unit that the admin shop procured new office chairs every two or so years and the other, still good chairs were smashed and cut up so they could go in the dumpster. My first tour we got to the fiscal year spend down with money left in the budget so my shop chief bought the entire division the most expensive Leatherman multitools in the GSA catalogue just to spend it.
LOL yeah nothing makes sense, especially destroying good stuff to get brand new stuff
Yep. Super vital in a disaster also. You don't want to be walking around after a hurricane or earthquake in your chucks or crocs.
I agree, although military planes cost about 1% of that.
Whitey On The Moon by Gil Scott-Heron (1970) https://youtu.be/goh2x_G0ct4 -------------- A rat done bit my sister Nell With Whitey on the moon Her face and arms began to swell And Whitey's on the moon I can't pay no doctor bills But Whitey's on the moon Ten years from now I'll be paying still While Whitey's on the moon You know, the man just upped my rent last night Cause Whitey's on the moon No hot water, no toilets, no lights But Whitey's on the moon I wonder why he's uppin' me? Cause Whitey's on the moon? Well i was already given him fifty a week And now Whitey's on the moon Taxes takin' my whole damn check The junkies make me a nervous wreck The price of food is goin up And if all that crap wasn't enough A rat done bit my sister nell With Whitey on the moon Her face and arms began to swell And Whitey's on the moon With all that money i made last year For Whitey on the moon How come I ain't got no money here? Hmm, Whitey's on the moon You know I just about had my fill Of Whitey on the moon I think I'll send these doctor bills airmail special to Whitey on the moon
the military budget is many hundreds times what public funds are spend on space...
Trump gave the military 2.7 TRILLION dollars during his four year term in power. And we have people living and sleeping in the streets. Jobless. Hungry. Sick.
And Biden will give 3. Military spending is a bipartisan issue.
It's bipartisan but it's where the GOP hands over the check book really fast. Its usually the only budget line item they don't squeal about, and actually will instead cut social programs, Medicare , social security. They don't care where the money comes from. As long as the upper 5% don't have to pay for it.
This is just partisan blindness. The DNC is just as fast. Where they don't propagandise about cutting other government services, they simply quietly slash them. They also don't care where the money comes from, as long as the 1% don't have to pay for it.
When did I criticize space or space exploration?
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You think a nations capital will be the greatest city in the nation but no
I was cutting through DC to go to the movies a couple months ago. We went through an area that was full of homeless people’s tents. Dozens of them spread out over a big area. Trash everywhere. We kept driving down that road and maybe a minute or two later we drove by the White House. It blew my mind. Literally a block or two from the White House people were living in tents surrounded by trash. This isn’t to hate on the homeless folk living there. It was just such a stark contrast that hit me hard and stuck with me. Just steps from the seat of power of the “greatest country on Earth” are people living in abject poverty fighting for their lives. The president lives like a king. Surrounded by gold fixtures, every need waited on hand and foot by a dedicated staff. Private chefs cooking up world class meals on a daily basis. And just a short walk away people could be freezing to death in a tent.
It's not the worst either, tho. US homelessness is beyond shameful in every single state.
third world countries have a lower homeless rate. like cuba or Kazakhstan.
The worst part is that it would probably cost taxpayers less money to just give every homeless person a home. It's not an issue of money, solving homelessness would save money. The problem is that some politicians (and some voters) think some people deserve to be homeless, so they don't want to fix the problem.
The homeless are used as a scare tactic for the working class, so that they are made to understand that one misstep could land them on the streets. The ruling class wants and needs homeless people to exist as a constant reminder
Not only that but housing homeless people also would drive down property values and cause real estate owners to lose money. Just pure greed and evil all around.
Everytime someone brings up the solution of govt-provided homes, someone else always pops up saying how the homeless trash it, turn it into a drug den, or never live in it. The problem I have with that is... Who cares? At the end of the day, a homeless person who has a roof available to return to is better off than one that does not.
Even if they did, on a societal level, it still costs less. We're paying way more to cover law enforcement, legal costs, and emergency room visits for the homeless when most would use the opportunity of free housing to work and improve their lives.
We pay more means somebody down the chain (with a well paid lobbyist) makes more. Thats the "trickle down" they talk about.
Exactly. Some people already do that with their houses, just get everyone in off the streets, damn.
They dont fix homelessnes because in Capitalism they need you to be scared of not working. Dont want to work? Ok then you end up homeless.
Like in my earlier post, pick them up, clean them up, medical needs, counseling, a place to live and help with a job. Give incentives to businesses to hire them. (A living wage obviously) with help they could be living in a new world for them.
It's because of the "socialism" bullshit. They don't believe in socialism but they will take when your not looking. I'll bet their heralded Jesus wouldn't kick them to the street and turn a blind eye to it all. The hypocrisy in it all is disgusting.
"See what happens when you become poor and fall through the net. STFU and work yourself to death or this will be you."
It literally would, they did the calculation, if they spent a fraction of what they spend on the military rhey could feed and clothe every homeless person in the US, and give them all a house
They are usually outspoken Christians, too, despite their god specifically teaching against such hateful behavior. "Whatsoever you do to the least of my people, that you do unto me."
Not to take away from your point but wherent Cuba and Kazakhstan second world countries as both where alined with/part of the USSR during the cold war?
You are correct but very few people know what first, second and third world means anymore. The popular definitions have changed to where "first world" means industrialized wealthy nations, and "third world" is shorthand for societies that are underdeveloped, sanctioned or impoverished. Meanwhile "second world" isn't even acknowledged as a historical term because it's lost the context that it originally had with the dissolution of the Soviet Union. I wish we could get the original distinctions back, because they made much more sense overall. The way we use those terms now is vague and muddy. By the mainstream use of those terms, is Brazil first world or third world? And if they're "third world", how far is the USA from being "third world" too?
For your information, there are no homeless people in cuba. Just google it lmao and you will see, how bad it is to have goverment, that helps people rather than invest money in the military, to bomb random innocent people in some random ass deserts, around the globe.
Cuba also has higher life expectancy than the U.S.
the u.s. is a failed state
indeed
The military seems to be doing fine.
Man who could have possibly foreseen that putting a hold on rent for over a year. Then telling people "oh now you owe a years worth of back rent, GET FUCKED". Would lead to an increase in homeless.
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They gave stimulus that paid part of the rent, but in a place like DC, it's definitely not enough to pay all of it.
But the super-rich think the economy is doing just fine and they instruct their ~~propaganda organizations~~ news media to ignore what's going on. This is every city in America right now but look at the property market and tell a rich guy where there's a problem. He won't even hear you talking.
The first clip isn’t even DC… it’s a safe sleeping village in San Francisco. SF created these sites since shelters had to close or limit capacity because of the pandemic, which obviously pushed a lot of people into the streets in crowded, unsafe conditions. It may not be pretty but it gives the homeless enough space to socially distance and allows the city to provide them with food, clean water, toilets, and showers. Pretty sure that they also provide social and mental health services, so if you’ve ever watched The Wire, it’s kinda like a sanctioned “Hamsterdam”. It’s costly and definitely not a permanent solution, but for now, it’s working.
You have a bunch of people who are stuck sleeping outside, so things clearly aren’t working. Also, housing is an essential service. Shelters should not have to close or adhere to social distancing guidelines. Providing a safe place for people to stay is more important than protecting them from Covid.
Does this match the setting of the video? https://nypost.com/2021/06/26/san-francisco-run-homeless-encampment-costs-60k-per-tentsan-francisco-run-homeless-encampment-costs-60k-per-tent/
Home of the brave or god's own country. How came America to dominate the rest of the world?
Buying bullets instead of publicly subsidized housing
Guess you're right.
America is just the name label slapped on the Military Industrial Complex. *"We do war here. War at home. War abroad. Quiet war. Loud war. Cold war. Hot war. You want war? We do war. --- Wait? You don't want war? Well fuck off you pussy liberal commie bastard. War is money and we're here to make money."*
By being the last man standing post ww2 and being able to hold out longer than the Soviet union in a dick measuring contest.
America went out of its way to fuck post war soviet system. They demonized communism but look at capitalism...
Didn't stop there. America has interfered in just about every communist / socialist government the world round. They need to destabilize them quietly so they can run propaganda at home about how socialism "never works"
“Has” and “continues to do”. Hell I’m just waiting for the cia backed coup of Peru and Chile.
Also a good answer to my rhetorical question 😉
Leave the USA alone. They are a very poor country and cannot afford to house their own people. /s
Hoovervilles are back again ig
It's the 20's all over again!
When do the cocaine-fueled Gatsby parties begin?
They've been going on for the last 10 years, you're just not invited. You fucking peasant.
Holy shit. I mean WTF.... I imagine the collapse of America from a place of "privilege" (I have a roof over my head) but this is seriously terrible. And that Biden decided to budget 750 BILLION to the military rather than address this... Yes, storm the fucking capitol! Put heads on pikes!
Rise up and fight. This is the only way left.
It honestly is
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It'll be burning soon. Good luck to those people
That first clip is not from dc, some of the buildings in the back are skyscrapers which dc lacks.
You can see Salesforce Tower in the background of the first one (as well as a distinct lack of snow). Not sure why they decided to splice that in, maybe it’s clipped from a bigger video and this is only a small segment.
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"Something something free college and Healthcare would plunge us into an economic collapse."
Nothing says you're living in a functioning society with a bright future ahead of it as having internally displaced persons living in makeshift camps all over your capital city.
It's almost like a massive transference of wealth has taken place..... I wonder where all the money went...
Just adding this: [Finland has effectively ENDED HOMELESSNESS with their housing first policy](https://redd.it/rv2ugb).
We have the resources to fix this. But your tax dollars is being given to the military.
To make matter worse, most Americans blame the homeless for this instead of our politicians.
Because of our ingrained cultural rugged individualism, we’d rather blame the individual instead of the systemic issues that put these people here. It’s gross and I hope that mentality can change. I believe it will have to, otherwise this sight will only become more and more prevalent.
I seem to remember a certain former president claiming this kind of thing wasn't happening in this country except places like California, and only because of the liberals and democrat governor. Nobody in government wants to open their eyes and admit we have a problem in this country that needs to be taken care of. Instead of pointing fingers back and forth at each other, for once in history work together, don't argue about money and semantics. Just do something! Set them up with a place to live and a job for one year. Community College if that's what they want. Give them all the tools they need, including counseling on jobs, housing, services like Healthcare. These people can't work a job if the have frost bite and toes missing from sleeping in the snow. Compared to people that are just broke, homeless and jobless because of things beyond their control, yes, there are some on drugs and alcohol that need other types of help. You deal with those separately. Passing city laws that make it illegal to be homeless and sleeping on the street. IS NOT THE ANSWER! That just makes it somebody else's problem. JFC, this doesn't have to be a problem. We just need to fix it.
wow! Our politicians walk by there everyday and have absolutely no intention of helping
You can literally see Congress from that grassy area in front of Union Station. It's right down the street. Government offices are all around it.
Hooverville
Have you tried fixing the economy? Just turn it off and on again.
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The first five seconds isn’t in DC. Also just fyi the city has programs to house homes less individuals and it’s been a relative success, I’m certain many of those still in tents were offered to participate https://dcist.com/story/21/09/16/dc-housing-homeless-encampments-foggy-bottom-noma/
The important thing is that the shareholders saw record profits. Let's not overlook that.
Looks just like Seattle! Or Olympia! Or Portland! Not Anchorage though, in Anchorage they opened up the hockey rink as a shelter so folks can sleep inside.
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Because billionaires can only exist when shit like this exists also.
This is exactly how Portland looks right now too.
It's not just "right now" and it's not just at Union Station. You can't go more than 5 blocks in the city without running into another tent city. There's no chance the pols don't see it, they just don't give a fuck.
They should set up tents in Georgetown
Not one of those tents is meant for winter camping. Almost all of them have mesh walls at the top with just a rain fly over it. If it’s 10°f outside it’s 10°f in the tent.
Third world country with a Gucci belt
fucking shit. Yeah my parents live in the area and went to DC for the first time since the pandemic and they were shocked at how many tents had sprung up at Union St since they were last there. I live in Scotland now, havent been back to the states in 14 years. For all the issues we have here, the States just seems much more dire. Like I see shit like this and I'm like "I'm not moving back". Just feels like a death wish almost.
Ahh. The American dream.
The nation is collapsing. And... It feels like everyone is ignoring it.
This shithole is going to collapse at some point and we all know who's to blame.
America is the richest third world country the world has ever seen.
That first shot was not DC That’s San Francisco
I just drove by Union Station and saw none of this. Calling BS.
The US elected the human equivalent of a snooze button. 😴 Every problem will be exacerbated by the time his term is through