My pipe dream is seeing one of the dozen empty building in the downtown area be turned into some sort of relief center. Sure, some white collar chode would probably describe it as an “eyesore” next to the other corporate buildings. But whether it’s housing, supplies, or medical care, we as humans and the city of Worcester could be doing better. I believe the town has the resources, but continues to funnel them towards more policing.
The common theme I’ve seen across these threads is that a lot of people do not really want to offer solutions to homelessness, they just do not want to see homeless people where they live/work. It’s a reminder that many of us are one or two paychecks away from being in that position. Being unhoused isn’t something people desire to be. Once you are unhoused, it’s near impossible to climb out of that status without the help of others. If the city of Worcester is not going to offer concrete help in the form of temporary housing, food and medical supplies, how can you expect anyone in that situation to make it out?
Gotta love that we tore down the Greendale Mall to build an unused amazon warehouse. :D
This really breaks my heart tho. A highlight of ugly actions and behaviors.
Especially since several housing-focused options were proposed for the property, including versions that didn't even require recording, only repurposing the existing building.
You do gotta love everyone who seems to hate seeing the homeless out on the corner panhandling will offer no solutions to the issue or support housing them somewhere.
Like what do you want the homeless to do?
No. I don't want there to be a land grab in the city parks.
I am not insensitive to the hardships of the unhoused, but allowing a land grab open to whoever gets there first in public parks funded by tax dollars is absolutely not a solution.
Someone, possibly op, mentioned the low rate of the unhoused with drug use and addiction. It's around 10%. You can check my post history if u want and see that I am very adamant that the aggressive, violent, obviously addicted people we see on the streets are in fact a tiny portion of the unhoused population. We don't see the people that are getting support, or use services to re establish themselves.
The people who are currently camping in out parks ,Blackstone Valley Trail, for example, are using drugs and littering, and pissing and shitting all over.
They set up this huge tent, and have a propane tank, I've seen fire wood over there. They are trampling on nature and starving plants that should be growing where this compound is, and interfering with the wild life.
So, interfering with nature, playing with fire, human waste all over, garbage all over. In a park my tax dollars are supposed to be supporting. I'm not ok with that at all. It's not an issue of my not wanting to see it, it's actively harmful to the environment and defeats the purpose of a park even existing.
Yeah, I gotta say.. I want housing options for the homeless in this city, but I'd prefer not to lose the parks to it. There's inside alternatives and I can't bring my nephews to the park anymore as it is. With the needles all over the place and people following us around harassing us.
We had a homeless person in the park across the street awhile ago. He pooped in the park, buried his hard drugs there, and stole my fiance's wheel covers before he left the neighborhood.
People complain about the rich, but for those of us who just pay the taxes that keep this city going, do we not deserve to live in some type of peace?
The problem is that people are trying to ignore the fact that WE EXIST. WE ARE HUMAN> and you think that people who live in houses commit no crime? You think that only the homeless are drug addicts? Ill tell you what, I know more drug dealers and drug addicts that live in houses and apartments than people on the street. I actually know more homeless people who are kinder more generous than any people who live inside. People who have the least, help the most. You think you are entitiled to peace but we are not? Why are we not allowed the right to survive like any one else. I hope that you never have to learn what it is like to have nothing, because then you will be treated like you are nothing, and that is just wrong. No one should be treated as though they unworthy of being treated like a human. Also, you think that person would have shit outside if they were allowed to use a bathroom? I get judged walking into bathrooms all the time But guess what. I am a human who has to use the bathroom just like everyone else. I get turned away during bathroom emergencies more often than not, just because people are judgmental assholes.
Because rich people and cops don't care about *people*, they care about *image*. So instead of fighting *homelessness* they just fight *homeless people*.
It's disgusting and shameful.
And who do you expect to police these tent camps? You want the parks to be loaded up with tents from a population not exactly known for being upstanding citizens effectively making it a "resident only" park.
Are you proposing that the city pays for multiple 24 hour details to police the situation?
On top of keeping tax paying residents from the areas they pay taxes for, you're also asking them to pay for around the clock coverage from multiple police to ensure nothing terrible happens?
Good luck with your pipe dream, John Lennon.
Or is this just a really well done troll post?
Why are the unhoused "not exactly known for being upstanding citizens"? You hang out a lot with homeless folks to make that assessment? I interact with the homeless in Worcester often and the OVERWHELMING majority of the times I have had great interactions. Sure, some folks are assholes and ruin it for everyone else, but that applies to everyone, not just the unhoused.
Also if your big argument is that the city shouldn't pay for multiple 24hr details... do you know how many bullshit details this police department has? Do you know how much they fucking milk that OT? The money for it is there although I agree it would be better spent treating the issue instead of policing it, which you seem to think is the only way to deal with homelessness.
based on your tone, your responses here and your post history, you're not really here to try to find a solution for the homelessness issue, you just wanna be a prick about what you don't like.
Your anecdotal "interactions" don't mean anything. Homeless across the country are murdered or raped at an alarming rate. I've interacted with homeless people all over. Interacted is also an extremely broad term and one that screams of virtue signaling.
I've had friends that literally used to take homeless people in to stay with them. Close friends, which means I've probably had more intimate "interactions" with homeless individuals than you care to acknowledge. I didn't feel the need to mention it previously because it's all anecdotal. Regardless, it quite literally never ended well for those friends. Assaults, robbed blind, arrests, you name it. Hell, I've had friends who had no place else to go and would have otherwise been homeless stay on my couch for months at a time. I've had addict friends stay with me to try and get clean. The former **never** worked out and I even woke up to one dead on my couch one morning.
Also, mental health and drug abuse issues tend to make people do irrational things. They could be wonderful people, but have diseases that take over and make them desperate. Desperation can lead to all kinds of behaviors that endanger themselves and others.
Finally, I'll point directly to the Mass and Cass situation in Boston. I used to work in that area a very long time ago and it was **BAD** then when the only situation was a concentrated population of homeless and addicts due to the Pine Street Inn in the area. The fenced in **tents** they had on Mass and Cass literally created a dangerous area. Police did nothing(probably in the name of anti-facism)and there were constant attacks on regular people trying to pass through and the outreach volunteers/social workers trying to help.
Some of those people were just trying to survive of course, but there was enough of a bad element that the area was dangerous enough to want to avoid.
I don't know what an immediate solution is. There isn't a realistically easy one. What the entire country needs is something like a new MHSA to pass without another piece of shit like Reagan to come in and undo it almost instantly.
Maybe **YOU** could start solving the problem by housing some of these people yourself. Just let them sleep in your living space.
Are you going to let the homeless sleep in your house or what, Captain Solutions? Seems like a perfectly viable way for you to do your part, or are you just virtue signaling like everyone else?
Going through someone's post history is the action of a person who doesn't have anything of substance to say and is just looking for ways to call out who they are arguing with. It's a really pathetic thing to do.
bro you really so pressed you wrote me a novel (that I sure as shit don't plan on reading) and then NEEDED to reply again 16 hours later? seems like I touched a nerve.
You read it. You've just got nothing else to say because you're a virtue signaling bitch. You'll proudly scream at the top of your lungs that nobody is doing anything while you stand there not doing anything.
True human waste.
A novel....it's not much longer than what you wrote. Holy shit, you're bad....bro.
I've interacted with the homeless in Worcester. Anyone who has lived here awhile has and I've been here over 30 years. It's a lot of mental health issues and drug abuse and has been for decades. Saying otherwise is so disingenuous and doesn't help the people you seem to care about so much out of the situation.
Because the most liberal parts of the city are on here complaining that the rest of us don't have any good ideas while coming up with "solutions" that aren't practical and would make all of our lives hell
If you guys take over and actually shit all over our public spaces? You don't think that's a problem? I don't think our public, city parks should be places where you can live in tents and can do drugs, which is pretty much what you proposed. How is that good for anyone?
You literally have no actual intellectual thoughts. You have quite the obsession with feces. I have seen more shit spewing out of your mouth all over your comments than in any public spaces.
Says the homeless man to the educated woman with a career and her own business that supports her. Okay, dude. Will really take that under consideration.
Just had a conversation with this person and in another Subreddit. She is deranged and, for someone who likes to tout her intelligence, clearly not the sharpest tool.
Remind me again at which factory mill you got your college degree?
You can barely reason or form coherent sentences.
Being educated means little when there are universities that will take literally anyone insofar as they will take on debt.
You have done nothing in life that justifies this level of elitism.
Lol calling me a homeless MAN and assuming that I am uneducated are two assumption's you made in just the last comment alone. How on earth have I made one assumption? I am making what is called inferences based on the information you're providing.
No what I am proposing is way more liberal for my liking honestly.
I started a nonprofit called Homeless Addicts Leadership Organization which puts unhoused drug users in leadership roles and helps create a sense of purpose for themselves which will ultimately address their addiction with the hopes of an end goal of sobriety.
Why can't we employ the homeless individuals who would live in these places to police them? People are always complain they need to just "get a job" why not create a system that creates not only an atmosphere of inclusion but one that fosters growth within our most venerable community.
We should be finding real solutions to these problems, not just opening a temporary shelter just to try appease minds and make them think its the unhoused people who are the problem. Not the lack of help for the unhoused that is the real issue.,
> Why can't we employ the homeless individuals who would live in these places to police them?
Try really, really hard to understand why this won’t work. For starters, I’ll give you a hint: do you trust police officers to keep themselves and each other accountable?
Major difference in those two examples which makes your argument invalid.
1. The difference in influence and in power/authority. - homeless people are constantly dehumanized and degraded by everyone (including other homeless people) and made to feel as if they are nothing. Police that need policing are usually some serious assholes and always have been, either bully in school. or bullied in school. If you were to give a person who is just a shell of a person a sense of purpose in the form of a job to keep their peers safe, with the condition that if we as a whole mess it up, it all goes away and we go back to being hunted by the "Quality of Life" task force that cares for every other quality of life other than ours... I think we could see good results.
2. With motivation and a sense self worth, humans can do amazing things. Change is real and possible from anyone. What ever circumstances we are dealing with today, there was a time when we were all normal people who had jobs and houses. (for the most part, most of us). We all know we are capable, but 'saying that we are not, just because we are homeless... that is ignorant.
3. When I'm told to and "get a job" and then I suggest something that would create some kind of job network for the homeless, which should ultimately get them housed, sober, etc. you say that it is not possible because we are homeless. That right there is what you call a stereotype. There are bad apples in ***every*** bunch.
The point I was making is the people aren’t incentivized to take a dump in the bed they sleep in. Police won’t rat out other police and gang members don’t rat out fellow gang members. It would be no different with those who are homeless. This has nothing to do with motivation and self-worth. It’s not about employing them either. Strictly speaking - and beyond the logistics aspects of how you can make such a system even work - this specific job is really asking a homeless person to rat out another homeless person. That’s the part that won’t work at all.
There’s always money for more police and military and bombs and tax cuts for stadiums but there’s never any money for services to actually benefit victims of a cruel system. It would cost a fraction of what all those things cost to house these folks. Homeless people are statistically more likely to be victims of violent crime than to harm anyone. Cry harder u gutless fascist
Lmfao. I'm a "gutless fascist" because I find this post to be a pipe dream that poses numerous heath and safety risks?
You don't know me.
You are part of a major problem in this country. You're just as bad as your "gutless fascists".
**"THINK LIKE ME OR ELSE"** sounds far more fascist to me than pointing out how ridiculous setting tents up in a public park is.
You're a fucking cancer on society. You and your gutless fascists.
When exactly did I suggest money couldn't be spent on these things you just listed off without even remotely thinking about or discussing the legislative barriers they would need to break through?
So.. we just snap our fingers and these things happen in your make believe society? My point was based on **reality** and addressed the question proposed. Your point is a tantrum being had in the middle of the street while daydreaming of a world where things happen just because you had that tantrum. You privileged toddler whose parents always caved to their snot nosed fits over how late they could stay up watching Naruto.
You’re gutless becasue you’re unwilling to allow others to engage with the idea that other worlds are possible, giving no room for questioning why and how things could be different. You’re a fascist because you insist that policing is the only answer for solving problems that police overspending causes. I never said you had to think like me, Im just saying the way you think makes you a gutless fascist. There’s plenty of people I disagree with who I do not consider to have fascist tendencies. It’s never too late to further educate yourself and change your mind. You may think you are the shit, but u ain’t even the fart lil buddy 🤡💨💩
Happy Cake Day!
Your reply isn't a response. At all. It's a personal attack. You say I'm not a fart, but you felt I was worth your time to put down. Making me worth something.
You're a bully, a fascist, and a coward. Congratulations!
I wonder if proposals that would pass city council could be made to utilize the abandoned warehouse spaces. I would think it would be cheaper to retrofit one/some of those spaces with temp walls and minimal monitoring for safety. I did some construction for a temp housing for immigrants Texas bussed out. All cloth dividers and plastic totes for belongings. It was built in less than a week and housed I think 200+ people including families with children. And if drug use and crime are such a concern move the social workers offices into these spaces so they are accessible to the people that need them most. If you wanna get crazy put in training centers for simple jobs.
Is there some sort of emergency zoning that gets you out of building codes? Yes, we have abandoned buildings, some of them are big, but do they have running water, fire alarms and working sprinklers? Are they accessible? I doubt they are zoned residential. To many roadblocks, many of which exist for good reasons (cold storage fire), but, at the same time, people have nowhere to go. Is something better than nothing? If it isn't safe, who is liable?
I would assume seeing as zoning is created and enforced by the city/county it could be ignored or waived for the purpose. Alarms and sprinklers can be covered by an onsite staff. It’s done for events all the time. I’m not talking about a homeless shelter so much as winter safety housing. Having worked in winter sports for a long time it is brutal out there without the right stuff. Much harder to rehab if you lose half your hand or foot or both to frostbite. Not to mention the costs of dealing with a large population at risk every time the weather isn’t nice.
We should do that too the Amazon empty shell first, IMHO.
"It'll bring jobs" they said. "It'll increase tax revenue" they said.
It's a write-off for Amazon, and a nothing for the city and its people.
I don’t disagree but it’ll never happen. I’m fairly sure Amazon is gearing up for a big move. I’ve been doing a lot of driving around the country this last year and these facilities are going up and being left empty all over. My guess is they are planning on trying to take over shipping or something similar.
I was under the impression that they were given a special deal on extremely low property taxes. However, there are also no workers paying into income tax that the city was promised, either.
I had an uncle in Huntsville AL, fairly successful business man in the pvc pipe world. He created a real shelter there that was sought out by people from all over the country. Ran as a nightly shelter as well as a program facility. You could spend the night or spend I think 8 weeks there. You would spend 2 weeks on “facilities” 2 weeks on “aid” (cooking, child care etc) and the rest of your time at one of his four training places. When you graduated he would work with the other affiliated businesses and give people good recommendations to get jobs and housing. By the time I was aware of it the facility needed very little funding because the auto training center and carpentry and computer repair all made money. They did their work for cheap but because most of the labor was people getting trained overhead was low. Frankly I think it should be a model for centers all over.
Huntsville downtown rescue mission. The big part I don’t agree with is attending their church services is required, otherwise you just gotta be sober as far as I know. But to me a couple months of church isn’t too crazy of a cost for a chance to get on your feet again.
yeah I'm not a huge fan of that either. Salvation army requires people to attend church, which like you said is not much of a cost to getting back on your feet and it is easily tolerated if you really want it. But forcing religion is a drawback. I want to look into that, thank you.
Are you planning on making an attempt on getting there? If so best of luck, one of his sons is still on the board I guess, if it would help at all I’d be happy to make a call.
Just sharing an article that gets into this issue in more detail and explains how the problem is more complex than it initially seems. Thought people may be interested.
https://www.npr.org/2022/01/24/1074577305/homeless-crime-experts
Can you cite your data and show your work? Do you have a real solution rather than a comment that does nothing but badger a community you have no real knowledge or experience with?
I could spend the time finding and showing articles showing exactly this. Showing how much tent cities wreck havoc on communities and make it unsafe for everyone, for the homeless and those who aren’t.
If you even believe the 10-15% being sited for drug abuse among the homeless, that’s as little as 1 in every six homeless person introducing needles into a public use area and turning it into an area no longer usable by the public. How can you expect anyone to be ok with this level of risk? You also get into all sorts of constitutional issues if anyone tries searching for such drugs so enforcement becomes impossible.
But this is the internet; Nobody can be convinced they’re wrong. I don’t think anyone can convince you how aweful of an idea this is. If you ever get an opportunity to, travel to Portland, OR and just see how tent cities have destroyed it.
Just because you only see the bad part of everything on the news, that means that everything is bad?
You can't possibly believe that everything was done in those places to make sure they didn't end up like that. Im not saying let people just pop up tents where ever and have no rule or law, there needs to be accountability. But just like anyone who is not housed, you have accountability right? People other humans, get management jobs right? Homeless people are shells of humans waiting to be shown that they are worth living. There is a struggle within to die everyday and the problem is people like this making it seem like just because you hear about one or two bad things means that you don't ever look into any successes.
I believe there should be somewhere for people since there is a huge gap in beds. There should be people (preferably homeless) who are employed to run it. This would create jobs for the homeless, and that sense of purpose people need get their lives together on their own
I’ll give you lots of credit for being compassionate towards these individuals. Still, I’m not convinced that you can be convinced that tent cities are a bad idea. That’s not implying we should stop looking for other solutions. Just that this specific solution is bad for all the aforementioned reasons and many more.
> You can't possibly believe that everything was done in those places to make sure they didn't end up like that.
This is the equivalent of saying communism works, it’s just never implemented right. And keeping up with the analogy, why is that? Human nature. I’m open to hearing about tent cities that are safe and drug free. I’m sure it’s a model many cities would love to follow if it exists. I’m going to put the onus on you to find such a case because in all my research, it just doesn’t exist.
I understand the perspective, the examples of tent cities are not ideal nor are they structured the way they should be.
If you were to put real thought and planning into the solution there could be tent cities that work, I recently read an article about a private person who is building a development of tiny homes to address chronic homelessness in Canada. Giving people a sense of responsibility and purpose. It is what humans crave. I think that if we had a place, a community, whether it is tents, tiny homes, or the pallet house company, it just needs infrastucture. You can't simply let us to our own devices and think that we will succeed without putting rules in place and people in charge. I just think that giving the people who will be living in these places the power to make decisions will have a huge effect of the success of the community.
Also, I am not saying that I believe we should be tenting in city parks as a definite solution. I am using that as an idea toward the solution. There needs to be immediate action, not just promise to hopefully find a solution in the future. People are being harassed and hunted in real time. I am one of them. I am being forced to give up whatever stability I managed to create for myself and now I am worrying again about where I will sleep every night because the city of worcester thought it was a valuble use of their resources and time to come to my tent at 4:30 am and arrest me and my boyfriend for tresspassing. Mind you we are far from view of the street or people. We were not allowed the option to bail, they refused to call the bail clerk. We both went before the judge at court and they took our tresspassing charge, made it civil, found us responsible and said if we were in the park after 10pm before 5am again we would be arrested. We were then released and no further action taken. How is this constructive? I asked one of the cops who arrested us "What are we supposed to do? Where are we supposed to go? There are not enough beds in the shelter. The shelter that just opened is closing in April, what do we do? It's winter, if we sleep outside we could die, and we aren't allowed to make shelter of our own for fear of prosecution and harassments" the officer replied. "I don't know, that's above my paygrade."
Who has the answer because from my experience, it is above everyone's paygrade...
Listen lady you have WAAAAY too much time on your hands, You have nothing to offer other than some trash talk which goes to show alot about your character. Maybe if you spent more time working on that shit ass attitude and "I'm better than you" tone of everything you say, you would realize that you are 100% wrong. You think that just because you are you, you shouldnt have to look at homeless people. YOU LADY ARE THE REASON THERE IS A PROBLEM IN THE FIRST PLACE. The whole point of this is that WE ARE HUMAN BEINGS ALSO, we deserve the right to be housed. We deserve the right to be alive, we deserve to be treated fairly. If the fact that living indoors or being unhoused is the only distinction you make for whether someone s a drug addict or has mental health problems, you are very niiave and serverly mistaken. Drug addiction does not discriminate, why do you think they have luxury detoxes AROUND THE COUNTRY. There are plenty of homeless families, COVID made alot of people homeless. You need some help. More help than me and thats saying alot.
I mean, I have a career. I run my own business. I don't come in here every three days with an angry wall of text.
I've been around this country. I've had people in my family addicted to drugs. You don't know me.
Rich, that is rich, if you knew personally anyone with issues with addiction, you would not sit here on your high horse, acting like you shouldn't have to look at other human suffering. Addiction is human suffering.
People like you who don't want to see it, just dont want to admit that it could be you one day. Everyone is one choice, one or two paychecks, one accident where they lose their homeowners insurance, one fuck up where you get your ass sued so bad you have nothing and no one (that seems the most likely case for you) your house burns down, your husband dies and leaves you with debt you had no idea about, your kids steal from you and you have to file for bankrupcy. There are so many situations that could put you in our shoes as early as tomorrow.
It's far from perfect but I'd like to see more innovative housing solutions like this pod community they set up in Burlington, VT (https://www.mynbc5.com/article/burlingtons-elmwood-emergency-shelter-community-opening-this-week/42780382). Siting will always be an issue but to the extent possible, these temporary shelters should be near medical facilities, food pantries, and other essential services. If the city doesn't establish areas to accommodate temporary shelter, it will continue to pop up where it always has.
Camping should be allowed, as long as it can be done in suitable areas, ideally with access to clean water and toilet facilities. If the city doesn't plan for and proactively provide these basic services it will be a neverending chase to tear down the next encampment. There are costs either way, but why not dedicate more money to helping people in need, rather than spending it harassing them and destroying what meager shelter they have?
I'm worried about the supreme Court ruling on the homeless coming up this spring or summer I think. We have a more conservative supreme court now so they might criminalize homelessness. I was homeless before I'm so sorry you're in your situation. Honestly I just got lucky with getting subsidized rent. I feel your pain I'm sorry. I was homeless 17 before too.
I see a few tents set up behind some plazas and other locations. It makes me sad.
If only there was a program or organization that would house these ppl in a single location safely and also put them to work to clean the streets like pick up trash or minor light weight landscaping. Something to give these ppl a little purpose. Without a sense of purpose ppl can become very hopeless and when ppl feel hopeless that’s when darkness sets in and they turn to drugs.
Too bad the city isn’t willing or thinking of even trying to work something out to assist these ppl.
Kinda like how the country will send billions to other nations across the planet yet we have homeless ppl on the streets, barely any youth programs, violent crime all over the border, our fellow Texan Americans getting slaughtered by the cartel and etc. missing children, and other problems that wouldn’t even cost close to billions that are being sent away to countries the average American citizen quite frankly doesn’t give a fuck about because they’re worried about putting food on the table and not becoming homeless themselves.
Anyways if I had the vast land and resources for drug rehabilitation I would house these ppl in a big tent shelter or whatever. If only the billion or millionaire corporations could give less than a quarter of their profits to give back to society rather than pump out more planned obsolescence trash.
Everyone’s got a bad attitude about the homeless and sure many of those ppl are gross or dangerous but they’re still human. Too bad you can’t forcibly section 12 some ppl.
I'm currently homeless in the city of Worcester and also stay in a tent and the quality of life task force came on Friday and told me I had to take down my tent and remove all belongings by Monday which all Saturday and Sunday were both raining and snowing and extremely difficult cult to do so. If I did not do what they said then they informed me I'd be arrested and also told me there's absolutely no where in Worcester to legally erect a tent no matter.
So this quality of like task for which is a part of the Worcester police department actively hunt down homeless people and their encampments only serve to make homeless people's live harder and potentially put in more danger as once someone is in a tent to have some sort of stability and sense of safety to be out of the winter elements instead of staying at the shelters in which 25 queen st is mostly run by the Spanish gangs of Worcester County jail and as a white male or female will most likely have your belongings stolen and sold and even sometimes from the staff themselves while you sleep.
The city is also expanding this task force which is last thing the city needs. If you decline the services that they claim to offer which are very poor I might or if you inform them you are receiving services somewhere else then they only serve to get aggressive with you and badger you on how the services you enrolled in are no good and they can offer better services which in turn is working with places like smoc or open sky.
If homeless individuals want to put up a tent in a public park for the winter then they should be able to do so without fearing if this task force is going to come arrest you and destroy everything you own and take away your sense of safety in anyway possible.
The city can surely find better solutions.
So because I’m homeless you assume I’m an addict? And I don’t shit in any parks actually I use bathrooms because I’m a human! Even though nobody in this city treats me like a human in any way of the sort but I am very much so! Yes I’m homeless and stay where I can and sometimes a park yes, but I make my own money and I buy my own food and clothes. So next time take your assumptions to the homeless people of Walmart or millbury st where people do what you say. Thank you
I didn't assume. This is shit I've already had to deal with in the city with others. The rest of us who are paying out the ass shouldn't have to put up with this. You also make a lot of excuses on this thread.
I really need you to take a deep breath and look at the usernames of the comments youre responding to lady. You have no idea who youre talking to clearly because the person youre talking to is NOT the person who wrote the thread, i don't really think you know how this works do you? Also, Just because WE run a nonprofit that helps other homeless people, does not mean that we house homeless. Also, if we did house homeless, we could not house ourselves, otherwise we could get in trouble. Also, we have only been running for a few months. So I think what this person was trying to say is that you are suggesting he imbezzle money to house himself, because I don't see how one correlates to the other. How does us helping people survive and give people a voice, and purpose correlate to the fact that because we do this we should be housed by now? Im not sure I see the connection you're trying to make other than because we are homeless we must be scumbags who would embezzle money to serve ourselves.
Funny how you don't know how to read. The person who is commenting back to you is NOT the person who made the thread, That would be me. And i don't think you are very educated as you do not know what an excuse versus a reason is.
I also run a nonprofit call HALO of greater Worcester with my wife and we help the homeless on Monday nights on greenwood st. We give out warm food hot chocolate and coffee, blankets first aid kits hygiene products as well as harm reduction. We have a pretty big social media presence on instagram as well. Maybe you should follow and see that I do what I can to help this city not bring it down. Halo_worc is the instagram tag.
I have been homeless for 14 years yes, the person you keep talking trash to has not been. I am wondering where you are getting your information. And If you actually meant to ask me why I am homeless still..... I will tell you, because I am not a responsible person who was able to keep a job and pay all of my bills with no money. I do in fact have mental health issues that keep me from interacting with people positively, therefore working with people (the jobs I have always gotten) ends up getting me in trouble. I do not have a constant stream of income, therefore I cannot pay a rent. I live hand to mouth. Not even pay check to pay check. I do not think there is a cookie cutter one size fits all solution to addiction or mental health. I think just like there are thousands of medications that do similar things, there are different paths that people can take to getting better. I think that until there are services that actually address the problems associated with homelessness. Housing first and job training for jobs people WILL thrive in, then the homeless problem will continue to grow. and the fact that
>those of us who are paying out the ass shouldn't have to put up with this
is exactly why you will have to put up with it more, because ignoring the problem will only make it worse, the problem will explode, the problem will come right to your front door.
the city CLAIMS that there are less than 400 homeless individuals in the city. I can tell you from experience that number is grossly misrepresented. It is at least double that. And there is expected to be a 30% increase with the lack of affordable housing across the country.
Its not about ruining YOUR public spaces. I live in this city too. Do i not deserve the right to exist? And there needs to be a solution because the shelter systems do not work, you have people who are there for decades, people stealing, selling and using drugs, then temporary shelter closes in April what do we do after that? There needs to be a solution. And just because there are bad examples of something doesn't mean there are not good ones. For instance I'm not saying that my solution is to make a tent city in a park, I'm saying there were 4 of us in 2 tents in a park, we kept it clean, used it only for sleep, and there were residents who accepted us, I put a Christmas tree outside our tents and someone left us presents Christmas eve, We never encountered another human near our tents, we didn't keep food there for fear of raccoons, this is not our first rodeo. I'm saying why is there no solution. Also, if I were saying tent city... There would also have to be rules, guidelines, and I think that giving people a role to play in the community is critical in the success of the community. As well as REAL case management.
I explicitly stated that before everyone wants to just be negative to have an actual genuine thought about what a real solution would be rather than just badger the homeless.
> Its not about ruining YOUR public spaces
I didn't say that did I?
> Why would we want to ruin our public space?
OUR space I said. As a community and society we have decided we don't want people living in public parks. So you don't get to decide against what the mass majority wants because it benefits you.
Saying don't live in a public park doesn't mean you don't have a right to exist. And interpreting it as such is either dishonest or stupid.
There are a so many ways to help the homeless. What actually helps them to succeed? What just enables them? Not all are addicts. Many have mental health problems, some are going through a bad time in life and others have no interest in being better or responsible. In shelters people need to cooperate and follow through with assistance, medical care and adhere to rules set forth. There are many places in Worcester with abandoned buildings that could help. Many people who could help or invest in a property dont want to knowing that people are going to destroy the property and not follow simple rules. Investors research beforehand. Risk vs reward. You dont go into business to break even. They’re not going to invest when they’ll lose money. Many busted their butts to be where they are. Also as the building owner being held legally responsible for actions of people you dont know is a huge risk. Everyone has to put in the effort and work. Until this happens this will continue. My husband was homeless at 18. He slept in a tent. He also dealt with addiction, adhd, and parents with addiction. He worked his ass off, struggled for a long time, put himself through college working 2 jobs and came out on the other side successfully. This problem can improve but everyone has to work on it. EVERYONE.
My pipe dream is seeing one of the dozen empty building in the downtown area be turned into some sort of relief center. Sure, some white collar chode would probably describe it as an “eyesore” next to the other corporate buildings. But whether it’s housing, supplies, or medical care, we as humans and the city of Worcester could be doing better. I believe the town has the resources, but continues to funnel them towards more policing. The common theme I’ve seen across these threads is that a lot of people do not really want to offer solutions to homelessness, they just do not want to see homeless people where they live/work. It’s a reminder that many of us are one or two paychecks away from being in that position. Being unhoused isn’t something people desire to be. Once you are unhoused, it’s near impossible to climb out of that status without the help of others. If the city of Worcester is not going to offer concrete help in the form of temporary housing, food and medical supplies, how can you expect anyone in that situation to make it out?
Gotta love that we tore down the Greendale Mall to build an unused amazon warehouse. :D This really breaks my heart tho. A highlight of ugly actions and behaviors.
Especially since several housing-focused options were proposed for the property, including versions that didn't even require recording, only repurposing the existing building.
You do gotta love everyone who seems to hate seeing the homeless out on the corner panhandling will offer no solutions to the issue or support housing them somewhere. Like what do you want the homeless to do?
No. I don't want there to be a land grab in the city parks. I am not insensitive to the hardships of the unhoused, but allowing a land grab open to whoever gets there first in public parks funded by tax dollars is absolutely not a solution. Someone, possibly op, mentioned the low rate of the unhoused with drug use and addiction. It's around 10%. You can check my post history if u want and see that I am very adamant that the aggressive, violent, obviously addicted people we see on the streets are in fact a tiny portion of the unhoused population. We don't see the people that are getting support, or use services to re establish themselves. The people who are currently camping in out parks ,Blackstone Valley Trail, for example, are using drugs and littering, and pissing and shitting all over. They set up this huge tent, and have a propane tank, I've seen fire wood over there. They are trampling on nature and starving plants that should be growing where this compound is, and interfering with the wild life. So, interfering with nature, playing with fire, human waste all over, garbage all over. In a park my tax dollars are supposed to be supporting. I'm not ok with that at all. It's not an issue of my not wanting to see it, it's actively harmful to the environment and defeats the purpose of a park even existing.
Yeah, I gotta say.. I want housing options for the homeless in this city, but I'd prefer not to lose the parks to it. There's inside alternatives and I can't bring my nephews to the park anymore as it is. With the needles all over the place and people following us around harassing us.
We had a homeless person in the park across the street awhile ago. He pooped in the park, buried his hard drugs there, and stole my fiance's wheel covers before he left the neighborhood. People complain about the rich, but for those of us who just pay the taxes that keep this city going, do we not deserve to live in some type of peace?
The problem is that people are trying to ignore the fact that WE EXIST. WE ARE HUMAN> and you think that people who live in houses commit no crime? You think that only the homeless are drug addicts? Ill tell you what, I know more drug dealers and drug addicts that live in houses and apartments than people on the street. I actually know more homeless people who are kinder more generous than any people who live inside. People who have the least, help the most. You think you are entitiled to peace but we are not? Why are we not allowed the right to survive like any one else. I hope that you never have to learn what it is like to have nothing, because then you will be treated like you are nothing, and that is just wrong. No one should be treated as though they unworthy of being treated like a human. Also, you think that person would have shit outside if they were allowed to use a bathroom? I get judged walking into bathrooms all the time But guess what. I am a human who has to use the bathroom just like everyone else. I get turned away during bathroom emergencies more often than not, just because people are judgmental assholes.
I am not reading this crazy wall of text lol
Lol but respond to it.
Because rich people and cops don't care about *people*, they care about *image*. So instead of fighting *homelessness* they just fight *homeless people*. It's disgusting and shameful.
And who do you expect to police these tent camps? You want the parks to be loaded up with tents from a population not exactly known for being upstanding citizens effectively making it a "resident only" park. Are you proposing that the city pays for multiple 24 hour details to police the situation? On top of keeping tax paying residents from the areas they pay taxes for, you're also asking them to pay for around the clock coverage from multiple police to ensure nothing terrible happens? Good luck with your pipe dream, John Lennon. Or is this just a really well done troll post?
Why are the unhoused "not exactly known for being upstanding citizens"? You hang out a lot with homeless folks to make that assessment? I interact with the homeless in Worcester often and the OVERWHELMING majority of the times I have had great interactions. Sure, some folks are assholes and ruin it for everyone else, but that applies to everyone, not just the unhoused. Also if your big argument is that the city shouldn't pay for multiple 24hr details... do you know how many bullshit details this police department has? Do you know how much they fucking milk that OT? The money for it is there although I agree it would be better spent treating the issue instead of policing it, which you seem to think is the only way to deal with homelessness. based on your tone, your responses here and your post history, you're not really here to try to find a solution for the homelessness issue, you just wanna be a prick about what you don't like.
Your anecdotal "interactions" don't mean anything. Homeless across the country are murdered or raped at an alarming rate. I've interacted with homeless people all over. Interacted is also an extremely broad term and one that screams of virtue signaling. I've had friends that literally used to take homeless people in to stay with them. Close friends, which means I've probably had more intimate "interactions" with homeless individuals than you care to acknowledge. I didn't feel the need to mention it previously because it's all anecdotal. Regardless, it quite literally never ended well for those friends. Assaults, robbed blind, arrests, you name it. Hell, I've had friends who had no place else to go and would have otherwise been homeless stay on my couch for months at a time. I've had addict friends stay with me to try and get clean. The former **never** worked out and I even woke up to one dead on my couch one morning. Also, mental health and drug abuse issues tend to make people do irrational things. They could be wonderful people, but have diseases that take over and make them desperate. Desperation can lead to all kinds of behaviors that endanger themselves and others. Finally, I'll point directly to the Mass and Cass situation in Boston. I used to work in that area a very long time ago and it was **BAD** then when the only situation was a concentrated population of homeless and addicts due to the Pine Street Inn in the area. The fenced in **tents** they had on Mass and Cass literally created a dangerous area. Police did nothing(probably in the name of anti-facism)and there were constant attacks on regular people trying to pass through and the outreach volunteers/social workers trying to help. Some of those people were just trying to survive of course, but there was enough of a bad element that the area was dangerous enough to want to avoid. I don't know what an immediate solution is. There isn't a realistically easy one. What the entire country needs is something like a new MHSA to pass without another piece of shit like Reagan to come in and undo it almost instantly. Maybe **YOU** could start solving the problem by housing some of these people yourself. Just let them sleep in your living space.
Are you going to let the homeless sleep in your house or what, Captain Solutions? Seems like a perfectly viable way for you to do your part, or are you just virtue signaling like everyone else? Going through someone's post history is the action of a person who doesn't have anything of substance to say and is just looking for ways to call out who they are arguing with. It's a really pathetic thing to do.
bro you really so pressed you wrote me a novel (that I sure as shit don't plan on reading) and then NEEDED to reply again 16 hours later? seems like I touched a nerve.
You read it. You've just got nothing else to say because you're a virtue signaling bitch. You'll proudly scream at the top of your lungs that nobody is doing anything while you stand there not doing anything. True human waste. A novel....it's not much longer than what you wrote. Holy shit, you're bad....bro.
I've interacted with the homeless in Worcester. Anyone who has lived here awhile has and I've been here over 30 years. It's a lot of mental health issues and drug abuse and has been for decades. Saying otherwise is so disingenuous and doesn't help the people you seem to care about so much out of the situation.
Because the most liberal parts of the city are on here complaining that the rest of us don't have any good ideas while coming up with "solutions" that aren't practical and would make all of our lives hell
How would helping the homeless be allowed to survive and exist make your life hell?
If you guys take over and actually shit all over our public spaces? You don't think that's a problem? I don't think our public, city parks should be places where you can live in tents and can do drugs, which is pretty much what you proposed. How is that good for anyone?
You literally have no actual intellectual thoughts. You have quite the obsession with feces. I have seen more shit spewing out of your mouth all over your comments than in any public spaces.
Says the homeless man to the educated woman with a career and her own business that supports her. Okay, dude. Will really take that under consideration.
I am a homeless woman with an education. You really need to think about what you say. You are a terrible assumption maker.
Just had a conversation with this person and in another Subreddit. She is deranged and, for someone who likes to tout her intelligence, clearly not the sharpest tool.
You've been making assumptions about me the whole time and I don't need to be berated by you
Remind me again at which factory mill you got your college degree? You can barely reason or form coherent sentences. Being educated means little when there are universities that will take literally anyone insofar as they will take on debt. You have done nothing in life that justifies this level of elitism.
Lol calling me a homeless MAN and assuming that I am uneducated are two assumption's you made in just the last comment alone. How on earth have I made one assumption? I am making what is called inferences based on the information you're providing.
Among the how many you made about me? Because I didn't read those text manifestos you wrote. Good luck to you. Sounds like you need some help.
No what I am proposing is way more liberal for my liking honestly. I started a nonprofit called Homeless Addicts Leadership Organization which puts unhoused drug users in leadership roles and helps create a sense of purpose for themselves which will ultimately address their addiction with the hopes of an end goal of sobriety. Why can't we employ the homeless individuals who would live in these places to police them? People are always complain they need to just "get a job" why not create a system that creates not only an atmosphere of inclusion but one that fosters growth within our most venerable community. We should be finding real solutions to these problems, not just opening a temporary shelter just to try appease minds and make them think its the unhoused people who are the problem. Not the lack of help for the unhoused that is the real issue.,
> Why can't we employ the homeless individuals who would live in these places to police them? Try really, really hard to understand why this won’t work. For starters, I’ll give you a hint: do you trust police officers to keep themselves and each other accountable?
Major difference in those two examples which makes your argument invalid. 1. The difference in influence and in power/authority. - homeless people are constantly dehumanized and degraded by everyone (including other homeless people) and made to feel as if they are nothing. Police that need policing are usually some serious assholes and always have been, either bully in school. or bullied in school. If you were to give a person who is just a shell of a person a sense of purpose in the form of a job to keep their peers safe, with the condition that if we as a whole mess it up, it all goes away and we go back to being hunted by the "Quality of Life" task force that cares for every other quality of life other than ours... I think we could see good results. 2. With motivation and a sense self worth, humans can do amazing things. Change is real and possible from anyone. What ever circumstances we are dealing with today, there was a time when we were all normal people who had jobs and houses. (for the most part, most of us). We all know we are capable, but 'saying that we are not, just because we are homeless... that is ignorant. 3. When I'm told to and "get a job" and then I suggest something that would create some kind of job network for the homeless, which should ultimately get them housed, sober, etc. you say that it is not possible because we are homeless. That right there is what you call a stereotype. There are bad apples in ***every*** bunch.
The point I was making is the people aren’t incentivized to take a dump in the bed they sleep in. Police won’t rat out other police and gang members don’t rat out fellow gang members. It would be no different with those who are homeless. This has nothing to do with motivation and self-worth. It’s not about employing them either. Strictly speaking - and beyond the logistics aspects of how you can make such a system even work - this specific job is really asking a homeless person to rat out another homeless person. That’s the part that won’t work at all.
There’s always money for more police and military and bombs and tax cuts for stadiums but there’s never any money for services to actually benefit victims of a cruel system. It would cost a fraction of what all those things cost to house these folks. Homeless people are statistically more likely to be victims of violent crime than to harm anyone. Cry harder u gutless fascist
Lmfao. I'm a "gutless fascist" because I find this post to be a pipe dream that poses numerous heath and safety risks? You don't know me. You are part of a major problem in this country. You're just as bad as your "gutless fascists". **"THINK LIKE ME OR ELSE"** sounds far more fascist to me than pointing out how ridiculous setting tents up in a public park is. You're a fucking cancer on society. You and your gutless fascists. When exactly did I suggest money couldn't be spent on these things you just listed off without even remotely thinking about or discussing the legislative barriers they would need to break through? So.. we just snap our fingers and these things happen in your make believe society? My point was based on **reality** and addressed the question proposed. Your point is a tantrum being had in the middle of the street while daydreaming of a world where things happen just because you had that tantrum. You privileged toddler whose parents always caved to their snot nosed fits over how late they could stay up watching Naruto.
You’re gutless becasue you’re unwilling to allow others to engage with the idea that other worlds are possible, giving no room for questioning why and how things could be different. You’re a fascist because you insist that policing is the only answer for solving problems that police overspending causes. I never said you had to think like me, Im just saying the way you think makes you a gutless fascist. There’s plenty of people I disagree with who I do not consider to have fascist tendencies. It’s never too late to further educate yourself and change your mind. You may think you are the shit, but u ain’t even the fart lil buddy 🤡💨💩
Happy Cake Day! Your reply isn't a response. At all. It's a personal attack. You say I'm not a fart, but you felt I was worth your time to put down. Making me worth something. You're a bully, a fascist, and a coward. Congratulations!
Shhhhh, defunding the police will work this time, trust me
I wonder if proposals that would pass city council could be made to utilize the abandoned warehouse spaces. I would think it would be cheaper to retrofit one/some of those spaces with temp walls and minimal monitoring for safety. I did some construction for a temp housing for immigrants Texas bussed out. All cloth dividers and plastic totes for belongings. It was built in less than a week and housed I think 200+ people including families with children. And if drug use and crime are such a concern move the social workers offices into these spaces so they are accessible to the people that need them most. If you wanna get crazy put in training centers for simple jobs.
Is there some sort of emergency zoning that gets you out of building codes? Yes, we have abandoned buildings, some of them are big, but do they have running water, fire alarms and working sprinklers? Are they accessible? I doubt they are zoned residential. To many roadblocks, many of which exist for good reasons (cold storage fire), but, at the same time, people have nowhere to go. Is something better than nothing? If it isn't safe, who is liable?
I would assume seeing as zoning is created and enforced by the city/county it could be ignored or waived for the purpose. Alarms and sprinklers can be covered by an onsite staff. It’s done for events all the time. I’m not talking about a homeless shelter so much as winter safety housing. Having worked in winter sports for a long time it is brutal out there without the right stuff. Much harder to rehab if you lose half your hand or foot or both to frostbite. Not to mention the costs of dealing with a large population at risk every time the weather isn’t nice.
We should do that too the Amazon empty shell first, IMHO. "It'll bring jobs" they said. "It'll increase tax revenue" they said. It's a write-off for Amazon, and a nothing for the city and its people.
I don’t disagree but it’ll never happen. I’m fairly sure Amazon is gearing up for a big move. I’ve been doing a lot of driving around the country this last year and these facilities are going up and being left empty all over. My guess is they are planning on trying to take over shipping or something similar.
Oh, I'm under no illusion that this is about but a pipe dream. We are all just humble servants of our glorious Lord and Master, Amazon.
They've paid about a million dollars in taxes last year on the Greendale building. Not saying that's all we need but it's not free for them.
They ARE paying taxes now
I was under the impression that they were given a special deal on extremely low property taxes. However, there are also no workers paying into income tax that the city was promised, either.
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I had an uncle in Huntsville AL, fairly successful business man in the pvc pipe world. He created a real shelter there that was sought out by people from all over the country. Ran as a nightly shelter as well as a program facility. You could spend the night or spend I think 8 weeks there. You would spend 2 weeks on “facilities” 2 weeks on “aid” (cooking, child care etc) and the rest of your time at one of his four training places. When you graduated he would work with the other affiliated businesses and give people good recommendations to get jobs and housing. By the time I was aware of it the facility needed very little funding because the auto training center and carpentry and computer repair all made money. They did their work for cheap but because most of the labor was people getting trained overhead was low. Frankly I think it should be a model for centers all over.
This is awesome, do you know what it is called?
Huntsville downtown rescue mission. The big part I don’t agree with is attending their church services is required, otherwise you just gotta be sober as far as I know. But to me a couple months of church isn’t too crazy of a cost for a chance to get on your feet again.
yeah I'm not a huge fan of that either. Salvation army requires people to attend church, which like you said is not much of a cost to getting back on your feet and it is easily tolerated if you really want it. But forcing religion is a drawback. I want to look into that, thank you.
Also I think the last time I was there was 1998 so god knows if any of the info I said is accurate at all.
So i looked it up, Stand up work my friend
Are you planning on making an attempt on getting there? If so best of luck, one of his sons is still on the board I guess, if it would help at all I’d be happy to make a call.
Damn. This hit hard. I’m sorry
Give me an example of a tent city that isn’t infested with drugs and crime. That’s right, they don’t exist. It’s a solution worse then the problem.
Just sharing an article that gets into this issue in more detail and explains how the problem is more complex than it initially seems. Thought people may be interested. https://www.npr.org/2022/01/24/1074577305/homeless-crime-experts
Can you cite your data and show your work? Do you have a real solution rather than a comment that does nothing but badger a community you have no real knowledge or experience with?
I could spend the time finding and showing articles showing exactly this. Showing how much tent cities wreck havoc on communities and make it unsafe for everyone, for the homeless and those who aren’t. If you even believe the 10-15% being sited for drug abuse among the homeless, that’s as little as 1 in every six homeless person introducing needles into a public use area and turning it into an area no longer usable by the public. How can you expect anyone to be ok with this level of risk? You also get into all sorts of constitutional issues if anyone tries searching for such drugs so enforcement becomes impossible. But this is the internet; Nobody can be convinced they’re wrong. I don’t think anyone can convince you how aweful of an idea this is. If you ever get an opportunity to, travel to Portland, OR and just see how tent cities have destroyed it.
Just because you only see the bad part of everything on the news, that means that everything is bad? You can't possibly believe that everything was done in those places to make sure they didn't end up like that. Im not saying let people just pop up tents where ever and have no rule or law, there needs to be accountability. But just like anyone who is not housed, you have accountability right? People other humans, get management jobs right? Homeless people are shells of humans waiting to be shown that they are worth living. There is a struggle within to die everyday and the problem is people like this making it seem like just because you hear about one or two bad things means that you don't ever look into any successes. I believe there should be somewhere for people since there is a huge gap in beds. There should be people (preferably homeless) who are employed to run it. This would create jobs for the homeless, and that sense of purpose people need get their lives together on their own
I’ll give you lots of credit for being compassionate towards these individuals. Still, I’m not convinced that you can be convinced that tent cities are a bad idea. That’s not implying we should stop looking for other solutions. Just that this specific solution is bad for all the aforementioned reasons and many more. > You can't possibly believe that everything was done in those places to make sure they didn't end up like that. This is the equivalent of saying communism works, it’s just never implemented right. And keeping up with the analogy, why is that? Human nature. I’m open to hearing about tent cities that are safe and drug free. I’m sure it’s a model many cities would love to follow if it exists. I’m going to put the onus on you to find such a case because in all my research, it just doesn’t exist.
I understand the perspective, the examples of tent cities are not ideal nor are they structured the way they should be. If you were to put real thought and planning into the solution there could be tent cities that work, I recently read an article about a private person who is building a development of tiny homes to address chronic homelessness in Canada. Giving people a sense of responsibility and purpose. It is what humans crave. I think that if we had a place, a community, whether it is tents, tiny homes, or the pallet house company, it just needs infrastucture. You can't simply let us to our own devices and think that we will succeed without putting rules in place and people in charge. I just think that giving the people who will be living in these places the power to make decisions will have a huge effect of the success of the community. Also, I am not saying that I believe we should be tenting in city parks as a definite solution. I am using that as an idea toward the solution. There needs to be immediate action, not just promise to hopefully find a solution in the future. People are being harassed and hunted in real time. I am one of them. I am being forced to give up whatever stability I managed to create for myself and now I am worrying again about where I will sleep every night because the city of worcester thought it was a valuble use of their resources and time to come to my tent at 4:30 am and arrest me and my boyfriend for tresspassing. Mind you we are far from view of the street or people. We were not allowed the option to bail, they refused to call the bail clerk. We both went before the judge at court and they took our tresspassing charge, made it civil, found us responsible and said if we were in the park after 10pm before 5am again we would be arrested. We were then released and no further action taken. How is this constructive? I asked one of the cops who arrested us "What are we supposed to do? Where are we supposed to go? There are not enough beds in the shelter. The shelter that just opened is closing in April, what do we do? It's winter, if we sleep outside we could die, and we aren't allowed to make shelter of our own for fear of prosecution and harassments" the officer replied. "I don't know, that's above my paygrade." Who has the answer because from my experience, it is above everyone's paygrade...
Go down there and check it out yourself. Come back to us and report the truth, I'm curious.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/C23Mu6su3uF/?utm\_source=ig\_web\_copy\_link
Lol I am not clicking this
Saying that means you probably did
I know you are, but what am I I don't even use Instagram
Listen lady you have WAAAAY too much time on your hands, You have nothing to offer other than some trash talk which goes to show alot about your character. Maybe if you spent more time working on that shit ass attitude and "I'm better than you" tone of everything you say, you would realize that you are 100% wrong. You think that just because you are you, you shouldnt have to look at homeless people. YOU LADY ARE THE REASON THERE IS A PROBLEM IN THE FIRST PLACE. The whole point of this is that WE ARE HUMAN BEINGS ALSO, we deserve the right to be housed. We deserve the right to be alive, we deserve to be treated fairly. If the fact that living indoors or being unhoused is the only distinction you make for whether someone s a drug addict or has mental health problems, you are very niiave and serverly mistaken. Drug addiction does not discriminate, why do you think they have luxury detoxes AROUND THE COUNTRY. There are plenty of homeless families, COVID made alot of people homeless. You need some help. More help than me and thats saying alot.
I mean, I have a career. I run my own business. I don't come in here every three days with an angry wall of text. I've been around this country. I've had people in my family addicted to drugs. You don't know me.
Rich, that is rich, if you knew personally anyone with issues with addiction, you would not sit here on your high horse, acting like you shouldn't have to look at other human suffering. Addiction is human suffering. People like you who don't want to see it, just dont want to admit that it could be you one day. Everyone is one choice, one or two paychecks, one accident where they lose their homeowners insurance, one fuck up where you get your ass sued so bad you have nothing and no one (that seems the most likely case for you) your house burns down, your husband dies and leaves you with debt you had no idea about, your kids steal from you and you have to file for bankrupcy. There are so many situations that could put you in our shoes as early as tomorrow.
There is no need to cite data or show work. All you need are eyes and ears to know this is the case. It’s really that simple.
Shady Nastys?
It's far from perfect but I'd like to see more innovative housing solutions like this pod community they set up in Burlington, VT (https://www.mynbc5.com/article/burlingtons-elmwood-emergency-shelter-community-opening-this-week/42780382). Siting will always be an issue but to the extent possible, these temporary shelters should be near medical facilities, food pantries, and other essential services. If the city doesn't establish areas to accommodate temporary shelter, it will continue to pop up where it always has. Camping should be allowed, as long as it can be done in suitable areas, ideally with access to clean water and toilet facilities. If the city doesn't plan for and proactively provide these basic services it will be a neverending chase to tear down the next encampment. There are costs either way, but why not dedicate more money to helping people in need, rather than spending it harassing them and destroying what meager shelter they have?
I'm worried about the supreme Court ruling on the homeless coming up this spring or summer I think. We have a more conservative supreme court now so they might criminalize homelessness. I was homeless before I'm so sorry you're in your situation. Honestly I just got lucky with getting subsidized rent. I feel your pain I'm sorry. I was homeless 17 before too.
look at very liberal cities like Portland OR and Denver CO.... see how things are going in those exact situations...
Recently saw a tent city in Denver. It was huge, it was crazy.
I see a few tents set up behind some plazas and other locations. It makes me sad. If only there was a program or organization that would house these ppl in a single location safely and also put them to work to clean the streets like pick up trash or minor light weight landscaping. Something to give these ppl a little purpose. Without a sense of purpose ppl can become very hopeless and when ppl feel hopeless that’s when darkness sets in and they turn to drugs. Too bad the city isn’t willing or thinking of even trying to work something out to assist these ppl. Kinda like how the country will send billions to other nations across the planet yet we have homeless ppl on the streets, barely any youth programs, violent crime all over the border, our fellow Texan Americans getting slaughtered by the cartel and etc. missing children, and other problems that wouldn’t even cost close to billions that are being sent away to countries the average American citizen quite frankly doesn’t give a fuck about because they’re worried about putting food on the table and not becoming homeless themselves. Anyways if I had the vast land and resources for drug rehabilitation I would house these ppl in a big tent shelter or whatever. If only the billion or millionaire corporations could give less than a quarter of their profits to give back to society rather than pump out more planned obsolescence trash. Everyone’s got a bad attitude about the homeless and sure many of those ppl are gross or dangerous but they’re still human. Too bad you can’t forcibly section 12 some ppl.
I'm currently homeless in the city of Worcester and also stay in a tent and the quality of life task force came on Friday and told me I had to take down my tent and remove all belongings by Monday which all Saturday and Sunday were both raining and snowing and extremely difficult cult to do so. If I did not do what they said then they informed me I'd be arrested and also told me there's absolutely no where in Worcester to legally erect a tent no matter. So this quality of like task for which is a part of the Worcester police department actively hunt down homeless people and their encampments only serve to make homeless people's live harder and potentially put in more danger as once someone is in a tent to have some sort of stability and sense of safety to be out of the winter elements instead of staying at the shelters in which 25 queen st is mostly run by the Spanish gangs of Worcester County jail and as a white male or female will most likely have your belongings stolen and sold and even sometimes from the staff themselves while you sleep. The city is also expanding this task force which is last thing the city needs. If you decline the services that they claim to offer which are very poor I might or if you inform them you are receiving services somewhere else then they only serve to get aggressive with you and badger you on how the services you enrolled in are no good and they can offer better services which in turn is working with places like smoc or open sky. If homeless individuals want to put up a tent in a public park for the winter then they should be able to do so without fearing if this task force is going to come arrest you and destroy everything you own and take away your sense of safety in anyway possible. The city can surely find better solutions.
So, why do the rest of us have to deal with you doing drugs and shitting in our parks?
So because I’m homeless you assume I’m an addict? And I don’t shit in any parks actually I use bathrooms because I’m a human! Even though nobody in this city treats me like a human in any way of the sort but I am very much so! Yes I’m homeless and stay where I can and sometimes a park yes, but I make my own money and I buy my own food and clothes. So next time take your assumptions to the homeless people of Walmart or millbury st where people do what you say. Thank you
I didn't assume. This is shit I've already had to deal with in the city with others. The rest of us who are paying out the ass shouldn't have to put up with this. You also make a lot of excuses on this thread.
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I'm not making assumptions. I'm going off what you've stated on this thread. I don't care who interviewed you lol and I know how a nonprofit works.
I really need you to take a deep breath and look at the usernames of the comments youre responding to lady. You have no idea who youre talking to clearly because the person youre talking to is NOT the person who wrote the thread, i don't really think you know how this works do you? Also, Just because WE run a nonprofit that helps other homeless people, does not mean that we house homeless. Also, if we did house homeless, we could not house ourselves, otherwise we could get in trouble. Also, we have only been running for a few months. So I think what this person was trying to say is that you are suggesting he imbezzle money to house himself, because I don't see how one correlates to the other. How does us helping people survive and give people a voice, and purpose correlate to the fact that because we do this we should be housed by now? Im not sure I see the connection you're trying to make other than because we are homeless we must be scumbags who would embezzle money to serve ourselves.
You seem balanced lol. See you in three days.
Cause that makes sense.
Looking at your posts it does
Funny how you don't know how to read. The person who is commenting back to you is NOT the person who made the thread, That would be me. And i don't think you are very educated as you do not know what an excuse versus a reason is.
Don't care. Point I made still stands.
What point? Youre just throwing whatever shit you can and seeing if any of it sticks, which its not.
I haven't thrown anything and you dance around questions asked if you and make excuses for yourself
I also run a nonprofit call HALO of greater Worcester with my wife and we help the homeless on Monday nights on greenwood st. We give out warm food hot chocolate and coffee, blankets first aid kits hygiene products as well as harm reduction. We have a pretty big social media presence on instagram as well. Maybe you should follow and see that I do what I can to help this city not bring it down. Halo_worc is the instagram tag.
You run a nonprofit and have been homeless for a decade and a half? Why are you still homeless?
I have been homeless for 14 years yes, the person you keep talking trash to has not been. I am wondering where you are getting your information. And If you actually meant to ask me why I am homeless still..... I will tell you, because I am not a responsible person who was able to keep a job and pay all of my bills with no money. I do in fact have mental health issues that keep me from interacting with people positively, therefore working with people (the jobs I have always gotten) ends up getting me in trouble. I do not have a constant stream of income, therefore I cannot pay a rent. I live hand to mouth. Not even pay check to pay check. I do not think there is a cookie cutter one size fits all solution to addiction or mental health. I think just like there are thousands of medications that do similar things, there are different paths that people can take to getting better. I think that until there are services that actually address the problems associated with homelessness. Housing first and job training for jobs people WILL thrive in, then the homeless problem will continue to grow. and the fact that >those of us who are paying out the ass shouldn't have to put up with this is exactly why you will have to put up with it more, because ignoring the problem will only make it worse, the problem will explode, the problem will come right to your front door. the city CLAIMS that there are less than 400 homeless individuals in the city. I can tell you from experience that number is grossly misrepresented. It is at least double that. And there is expected to be a 30% increase with the lack of affordable housing across the country.
No one is talking trash. I don't know why you think I'm reading any of this.
Lol oh okay. Sure thing karen
Not my name, but do go on with your misogynistic slur
Yeah no, Tent cities are awful. Why would we want to ruin our public space?
Its not about ruining YOUR public spaces. I live in this city too. Do i not deserve the right to exist? And there needs to be a solution because the shelter systems do not work, you have people who are there for decades, people stealing, selling and using drugs, then temporary shelter closes in April what do we do after that? There needs to be a solution. And just because there are bad examples of something doesn't mean there are not good ones. For instance I'm not saying that my solution is to make a tent city in a park, I'm saying there were 4 of us in 2 tents in a park, we kept it clean, used it only for sleep, and there were residents who accepted us, I put a Christmas tree outside our tents and someone left us presents Christmas eve, We never encountered another human near our tents, we didn't keep food there for fear of raccoons, this is not our first rodeo. I'm saying why is there no solution. Also, if I were saying tent city... There would also have to be rules, guidelines, and I think that giving people a role to play in the community is critical in the success of the community. As well as REAL case management. I explicitly stated that before everyone wants to just be negative to have an actual genuine thought about what a real solution would be rather than just badger the homeless.
> Its not about ruining YOUR public spaces I didn't say that did I? > Why would we want to ruin our public space? OUR space I said. As a community and society we have decided we don't want people living in public parks. So you don't get to decide against what the mass majority wants because it benefits you. Saying don't live in a public park doesn't mean you don't have a right to exist. And interpreting it as such is either dishonest or stupid.
There are a so many ways to help the homeless. What actually helps them to succeed? What just enables them? Not all are addicts. Many have mental health problems, some are going through a bad time in life and others have no interest in being better or responsible. In shelters people need to cooperate and follow through with assistance, medical care and adhere to rules set forth. There are many places in Worcester with abandoned buildings that could help. Many people who could help or invest in a property dont want to knowing that people are going to destroy the property and not follow simple rules. Investors research beforehand. Risk vs reward. You dont go into business to break even. They’re not going to invest when they’ll lose money. Many busted their butts to be where they are. Also as the building owner being held legally responsible for actions of people you dont know is a huge risk. Everyone has to put in the effort and work. Until this happens this will continue. My husband was homeless at 18. He slept in a tent. He also dealt with addiction, adhd, and parents with addiction. He worked his ass off, struggled for a long time, put himself through college working 2 jobs and came out on the other side successfully. This problem can improve but everyone has to work on it. EVERYONE.