You seem to presume that I’m not at all involved or am unaware of such difficulties here. The actual facts are that housing is provided to everyone in need in the area and surrounding nearby towns. Consequently, public vagrancy isn’t tolerated, which means thinks like defecating on sidewalks and setting up tent cities in front of businesses or in public parks isn’t allowed.Szdfan wrote: ↑Fri Sep 08, 2023 10:50 pmWhen I was a small town pastor, I had to deal with homelessness on a regular basis. The homeless often slept under the bridge over the Arkansas River. There were no resources for homelessness in town. So when local churches received requests for help, they might put people for a night or two at a motel, but they typically bought a bus ticket and sent them to the closest city.
Rural homelessness is real, even though it might be invisible. Just because you don’t see something, doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.
The last newspaper’s blotter was mostly traffic citations for suspended licences, a dui, plus a DV incident or two and some drug related charges.
As I stated earlier, this isn’t exactly a wealthy area and some cities are also “diverse”. Yet there isn’t rampant homelessness nor tent cities nor public parks full of needles. And there isn’t defecation on the sidewalks.
If people who have difficulty with affording a home to live in decide to stay in the various options here, they aren’t allowed to use drugs (there is some tolerance for minor marijuana use or a marijuana based vape pen etc), and more importantly, they can’t be abusive and violent towards other residents.
The actual homeless population of SF is 8000. Of that 4000 refuse to live in shelters. I would venture that our population here and surrounding towns hovers around 100 (all housed). That’s actually far more capita and there is much less wealth to go around than a place like SF or Portland.
If I want to volunteer at an actual traditional homeless shelter I need to drive 30 minutes away. And it’s hard to even get slots for volunteers since they have so many.
In the larger cities more than 30 minutes away, again, whilst there is a lot of poverty, drug problems, etc. there still isn’t a problem with tents on the sidewalk, parks full of needless, or faeces. Lots of halfway houses are operated and provided by all kinds of different people for mentally ill or feeble people. The probate court does a good job appointing trustees who manage the SSI/SSDI income and other benefits provided to such people and ensure the money goes towards residences for them to live in, not buying street drugs.
In short, having public homelessness is a choice. Tolerating violent people who are abusive towards others is a choice. Allowing tent cities is a choice. For whatever reason, the large blue cities keep making that choice.
Description: 
The State of Chicago: so.much.corruption. 
Chicago Mayor Allegedly HOSPITALIZED With Panic Attacks Over THIS! / 13min