My city has few homeless.
Most live around the river areas in homemade camps and tents.
None living on the actual streets or in city parks.
Every so ofter the city goes in and clears out their tent cities along the rivers.
The homeless will just move to another area along the river.
Until the city moves in once again to clear them out.
The homeless can be quite threatening to others.
They definitely have mental and anger issues.
If their tent cities are near business areas along the rivers, which tend to be the case, the homeless can be quite aggressive and threatening should anyone dare go near their claimed sacred grounds.
And a lot of these homeless have serious mental issues, so they can become quite aggressive to others escalating rapidly into full on bodily threats.
As it takes is wondering onto or near their staked out area.
One popular location for the homeless to camp is along the river levy. In the woods between the levy and the river. Quite dense and secluded. However, also near a public dog park where dog owners often will walk their pooch among the river levy.
Then, suddenly, one or more homeless living in camps secluded by the thick tree growth, will run up and confront the law abiding dog owner, insisting they and their dog immediately leave the area. And threaten the dog owner/walker they'd never walk along the levy again.
A quick call to local law enforcement, and the camps are once again cleared out and removed.
We have city homeless shelters, but the homeless prefer to camp and stay with their own along the river instead of some city ran shelter.
Years ago the homeless built a huge camp near one secluded river area. Camps built of wood shacks very much like that out of the great depression era.
Then, one wooden shack gas heater caught fire and the dwelling burnt to the ground killing the homeless occupant. Who was later determined too drunk and confused to escape. That fire and resulting death kicked the city into action once again. They bulldozed the remaining homeless structures to the ground, and drove the homeless into other areas of the city.
It is true, about the only thing they have going for them is to buy a bottle of booze and pass out. That is why they will use any money to buy a bottle rather than hot coco or BigMac.
Many have attempted to live with what family they have, but since most of the homeless have mental issues and uncontrollable anger issues, unable to function within society or with relatives, family has no option but to turn them away.
The homeless really need to be professionally helped, given access to medical help, medications, or even institutionalized. And that was once the case many many years ago. The case until Ronald Reagan decided to save the taxpayer a dime and close the institutions, end the medical help, end the access, and allow those in profound need to just run the streets.
As a taxpayer, giving up a small portion of my tax dollars to help the homeless was a most efficient and cost effective method of granting them help. And that terrible greedy decision by the Reagan administration so long ago we are still dearly paying for. Paying for in the form of more law enforcement needed on the streets, higher taxes in general, much higher crime within the cities, and the stigma upon society with appearing so uncaring.
You get what you pay for. And you do not get what you do not pay for.
And in the meantime, the homeless population grows and grows.
And we dare think they and the problem will somehow magically go away?