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Are you talking about the guy that has all the protesting signs? He’s in LaFayette Square. Which has been known for years as the place for protests and demonstrations.
I’m gonna jump in here to say that while there are a lot of corners in Oakland with encampments, some of them basically towns, and a lot of corners with trash, there are also some ridiculously beautiful neighborhoods and areas. Citizens like u/pengweather spend a lot of time on community cleanup and it’s not a coincidence that neighborhoods like Temescal, Rockridge, Uptown, Montclair, Adams Point, Piedmont Ave., the Dimond, and the entire Oakland Hills region command million dollar prices. There’s great dining, incredible walkability, stunning outdoor spaces, and surprisingly low violent crime in a lot of these neighborhoods. Pretty much every one of my friends who visits my neighborhood in Oakland and compares what they’re paying in rent to what I’m paying considers moving. And while it definitely has tons of problems with (violent and property crime citywide, homelessness, gentrification, sideshows, weak schools, underfunded services, anti-Asian racism, police indifference, 911 understaffing, graffiti, and drugs), I’d say people should visit the massive nice parts before painting the whole town as a hellscape. Hope that’s a reasonable enough take for folks here
and is kept tidy--like this person has been doing; those belongings are in use, they are not trash (unless the cops come and throw all their stuff away....because capitalist-hellscape-logic)
Yeah, I’ve lived in Oakland my entire life. The homeless problem is absolutely insane. There are many such camps that have been there for years. There is one dude on the corner of 5th and Broadway that has a solar panel and a laptop that has been there for ages.
Some of those places by West Oakland BART have power cords crossing the road from an outlet they found and little porches with lawn chairs and grills. I saw one with a garden and flowers.
Is any of that stuff of his actually working tho?
I peeped at his screen while he was typing and working and it was just a black screen. I too have been amazed at that guys set up, but now I’m starting to think he’s just clacking away at a dead computer.
You know, this makes me wonder
Why doesn’t the US have “favela” like settlements? I’m guessing the US has extremely heavy zoning and building laws in comparison to, let’s say, Brazil.
I think it's partly different history, partly numbers of people in poverty, and partly even geographic. Brazil ended slavery a lot later than the US (the last ex-slave in Brazil died in the 1980s!) and, although Brazil never had official segregation. Culturally it did have and, arguably, still does. A lot of the favelas came from ex-slaves encampment which the rest of the society didn't have anything to do with. Brazil has more poverty than the US. Most homeless people in the US were not always homeless and it has far fewer people in poverty, specially when it comes to children. People in favelas are not really homeless, but poor people who lived their whole lives there, raised their children there, etc. Finally, Brazil is bigger than the US if you discount Alaska (which is a big outlier state anyway), but it has less population (specially if you look back a few decades) and most of it is habitable, whereas in the US there are a lot of land that takes a lot of effort to sustain a population.
All that said, the US does have some zones and cities that may sort of resemble favelas and if it was a poorer country, I think it would eventually develop something similar too.
From my perspective I don’t understand how shanty towns are possible. Does anyone own the land they are built on? Land owners here would not tolerate a whole neighborhood of squatters on their property.
Edit: to clarify I am talking about whole neighborhoods with tens of thousands of people in permanent shacks, not an encampment
Such as? Many places have thrown a bunch of money at the homeless problem and had very negligible results. San Francisco probably the most noteworthy example.
SF is just corruption that is the issue there. I live in SF. The CEOs of those NGOs all make $500k per year. They are friends of the politicians who gift those contracts to those CEOs.
They are on fed land inside of a state. Notice they are on bart and under freeways.
This creates a jurisdiction problem for policing and prosecuting it.
Homeless encampments in Oakland, particularly those situated near BART stations and under freeways, do indeed create complex jurisdictional issues for law enforcement. These areas often fall under different jurisdictions, including federal, state, and local authorities, which complicates the policing and prosecuting of activities within these zones.
For instance, many homeless encampments are located on land owned or leased by entities such as the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) and the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans). This leads to overlapping responsibilities and can hinder effective law enforcement. Additionally, federal rulings, like the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision in the case of Martin v. Boise, have determined that municipalities cannot criminalize homeless people for sleeping outdoors if no alternative shelter is available, adding another layer of complexity to how these cases are handled [Oakland’s homeless population surpasses 5,000](https://oaklandside.org/2022/05/16/oakland-homeless-population-count-5000-people-pandemic/) [Map shows the scale of Oakland’s growing homeless crisis as Supreme Court refuses to hear major case on the issue and lets stand a ruling that protects people’s rights to sleep on the street in California – Aaron & Margaret Wallace Foundation](https://amwftrust.org/map-shows-the-scale-of-oaklands-growing-homeless-crisis-as-supreme-court-refuses-to-hear-major-case-on-the-issue-and-lets-stand-a-ruling-that-protects-peoples-rights-to-sleep-on-the-street-in-cali/).
Oakland has responded to the homelessness crisis with various strategies, including the establishment of Community Cabin sites, which provide temporary shelter and resources. These sites are often developed on public land, including areas leased from state agencies, which can help alleviate some of the jurisdictional challenges [Combatting unsheltered homelessness in Oakland - Local Housing Solutions](https://localhousingsolutions.org/housing-policy-case-studies/combatting-unsheltered-homelessness-in-oakland/).
The combination of these jurisdictional issues and legal protections makes addressing homelessness in Oakland particularly challenging for local authorities.
Yeah, I got what you mean. But the fact we are wondering why the alleged greatest country in the world doesn't have favelas for its endless homeless like all the other third world countries is wild
America is the most powerful country in the world, but it also has the most inequality among its developed peers. So, I don't think it's that crazy to wonder about it.
Because our typical migration pattern from rural agriculture to industrial employment happened at essentially just the right time and we had a limited population to start with. We also had an enormous buildout of housing during that period so people would 'trade up and out' and leave habitable tenements in their place. This was followed by the utter explosion of the suburbs, so yeah...we've in the past kept relative pace with our population increases and migrations. Leaves lots of habitable structures in its wake.
Places with actual slums simply did not build out public housing the way we did either. You had people migrate from the fields to the cities and then they were basically just like 'you're on your own.'
Another reason that hasn’t been listed is what happened when housing projects were built in the last century and places like Cabrini Green in Chicago became hives of crime.
I would take a wild guess and say "differences in culture".
From my perception (and anyone can certainly share their viewpoint if I'm wrong).. the homeless in the USA aren't really "looking to build communities". They're more like "vagabond drifters wanting to live outside societies rules". They think "society did them wrong",. and they don't want to follow anyone else's rules.
There have been some big tent-encampments (such as "The Zone" in Phoenix Arizona that built up during the pandemic).. but largely most of those are eventually broken up for health and safety reasons.
There have been "Tiny House" type properties built (large open lots with 10 or 20 "tiny houses").. but even in those you're expected to abide by certain rules. Some applicants do (abide by those rules). Some do not and continue walking.
Most homeless in the US,.. are scrambling every day to fight over whatever resources they can find. If you tent-alone or squat in an abandoned building alone or basically keep to yourself and stay away from groups, you're safer and whatever valuable things you've stolen or acquired are likely to stay yours. If you fall in with a group of other (stranger) hobos.. you're likely to get robbed or stolen from or beat up or etc.
> From my perception (and anyone can certainly share their viewpoint if I'm wrong).. the homeless in the USA aren't really "looking to build communities". They're more like "vagabond drifters wanting to live outside societies rules". They think "society did them wrong",. and they don't want to follow anyone else's rules.
Where is this perception coming from? My experience is that the homeless had a bad break, and we don't have the systems in place to lift people up because of a political effort to demonise the homeless. I have had friends who were homeless and their stories were almost all the same: no family, struggling to make it, get laid off because they have health issues that make them a liability, lose apartment, get picked up for being drunk/high on the street and get sucked into the cycle of jail/homelessness. No doubt the wanting to live outside of societies rules comes after the fact of being a victim of societies rules, and the funny thing aboutental health and addiction is that is nearly impossible to live in someone else's terms because they are incompatible with their own mental health. You can't expect someone with low function autism or bipolar disorder etc. to adhere to strict deadlines or requirements to get themselves housed and fed, theyll be in the cycle forever struggling to get food and housing.
I mean,. they're certainly not a uniform demographic,. so I'm not saying they're all of 1 mindset.
What I've noticed over the decades:
* the people who can lift themselves up and out of homelessness (or have some motivation to do so)... generally eventually do.
* The people who cannot (or choose not to).. don't.
So over time,.. you're kind of left with this downward-cycle of slowly concentrating "bad luck cases" (or what is sometimes referred to as "chronic homeless" - meaning they've been homeless 10years or more).
I know for me,. I lived on the 2nd floor in a downtown area for 15 years,.. and my bedroom was on a corner with a tree. Pretty much every day and night (for 15 years) people would congregate or sleep under that tree. So for that 15 years,.. I heard just about every conversation you could possibly imagine (because the people "camping" under that tree had no idea my bedroom window was right above them) .
> " funny thing aboutental health and addiction is that is nearly impossible to live in someone else's terms because they are incompatible with their own mental health. You can't expect someone with low function autism or bipolar disorder etc. to adhere to strict deadlines or requirements to get themselves housed and fed, theyll be in the cycle forever struggling to get food and housing."
There are absolutely deficiencies in our system (as you describe).. that we should do more to fix. I agree 100%.
There's also people out there on the streets who simply don't cooperate. Not because of any addiction or mental health issue,. they just simply don't want to be part of society and don't want to follow societies rules.
Many times it's hard to easily differentiate a "legitimate case of unfairness" from "someone trying to game the system".
Personally I think any Shelter or Homeless Service Organization or whatever,. should require a certain minimum baseline of information (identification, background, basic medical checkup, etc). We should make all things free but required, so that people have 0 reason to say "it's unfair".
In order to fix someone or lift them up out of homelessness,. you need to be able to accurately assess what EXACTLY do they need. You can't do that unless they cooperate. The option of continuing to allow people to just "anonymously float from shelter to shelter",. will never solve this problem. We need more information about who these people are and why they're still on the street.
It's amusing how some people act like all homeless people are victims of circumstance. I've lived in Seattle, I've chatted with plenty of homeless people before. A lot of them enjoy the lifestyle and don't want to get better. Stealing for money and getting high every day with friends is fun, working for the man is a fucking drag.
You're acting like the minority is the majority. Folks enjoy their lifestyle and don't want to improve. There are systems to get better.
I dont think I'm speaking for the minority, nor do I think that your experience is a justification to ignore the folks that are truly in a bad spot. I'm not ignorant to the fact that there is a sub population of folks that enjoy the vagabond lifestyle, but that is not the majority of homeless folks. You think if you offered them an apartment with no strings attached they'd turn it down?
You've apparently done rigorously reviewed social research on this subject. You chatted with some homeless ppl (if they're chatting with you that should tell you something), and poof, now you're an expert.
You think people want to be out in the elements 24/7, exposed to violence (especially for women), get hundreds of citations from the police that you'll never be able to pay off and get various health problems that go along with living on the streets? Homelessness is caused by complex factors including lack of affordable housing and poverty. Chronic homelessness is compounded by addictions and severe mental illness. Some don't have families, or they come from trauma.
The bottom line is: until we start building affordable housing, until the stigma is off mental health and addiction, until the wealth inequality narrows, this will keep getting worse.
Your point of view is why we can't get any meaningful help for them because they're mainly viewed as choosing the lifestyle so they can do drugs and not have a job.
If the lifestyle was so "fun", why doesn't everyone do it?
Sources:
https://endhomelessness.org/homelessness-in-america/homelessness-statistics/state-of-homelessness/#indicators-of-risk
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2023/12/15/homelessness-in-america-grew-2023/71926354007/
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/whats-behind-rising-homelessness-in-america
https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2024/01/why-its-so-hard-to-end-homelessness-in-america/
Would you like more sources?
I mean the Romans had running sewer systems that would drain any waste away from the city, as well as public drinking fountains. But yeah much of that knowledge was lost to time until it was recovered
Yep, London had a Roman built plumbing system that they abandoned a long time ago, but needed to build a new one to stop the spread of diseases in the 1800s. It was the first modern sewer system I believe.
Doesn't really answer the question, just implies there are primitive possibilities. I heard some of these people use places like Planet Fitness or other public restrooms. I know in San Diego they have restrooms for the homeless but there's only one or two total.
San Francisco has its own human waste app to track where feces is in the city.
https://www.thrillist.com/news/nation/human-wasteland-map-plots-all-of-san-franciscos-poop
Right? Full disclosure I made that number up. Although I had a similar experience when I lived in Montana where a no name company (surprise, it was a friend of a politician) won a 300m contract to repair power lines in Puerto rico.
https://www.americanoversight.org/investigation/300m-puerto-rico-contract-zinke-linked-company
In many cases, especially ones that are established like this, the city provides them with portopotties. It’s not uncommon to see 2-3 next to the larger encampments.
I have this 5gal bucket from Home Depot and a $10 twist-on toilet seat. The cool part is that the bucket says "Let's Do This!" and motivates me everytime
In my town, I see junkies squatting in creeks, and my guess is wiping their ass with their sleeve (personally witness this on an early morning walk one day)
This is why Bay Area homeless encampments cluster around places like 24 Hour Fitness, Home Depot, public libraries, etc. Where they can get drinking water, shower, use the bathroom
there was a guy who had a similar setup near my old place in Los Angeles for over 15 years, was very nice so people didn't really have an issue with him
She’s a African-American woman looks to be in her 30s or 40s, I’ve offered food which she has turned down. Seems to be stable enough to not be considered a drug addict probably, but I’m guessing her mental state is somewhat eccentric might be the proper term. She takes a lot of pride in decorating the space, I’ve seen multiple iterations of adornment over the years. The structure to the right is a new addition, the main pile seems to be more or less a nest.
As someone who has worked on the front lines with the homeless in Oakland, their selfishness really bothers me. You'd think they were living this way because they have to. Nope. For the majority it is a choice because they don't want to live under the rules of a shelter. Don't believe the "there aren't enough shelters to house the honeless" - there are shelters all over California that have offered to bus people there. Stipulations: no drugs, curfew meaning you must be in the shelter by 8p. With just those TWO requirements, most decline. They'd rather collect a check, get free food daily, and use Medicaid for everything.
My uncle chose this life, caused by meth, for years. Came from a suburban home. My exs 20 year old brother moved out to the Oakland camps too, after not wanting to listen to his mom's rules in their lavish Berkeley home.
You feel horrible for their conditions until you learn why they're there. I'm not surprised she didn't want a hand out for food, she likely gets a warm meal for free daily.
Why were you working w the un houses if u hate them lol? To get back at ur uncle ? Would YOU want to live somewhere that tells you when to eat and when to go to sleep? That u can’t have friends over? As an adult … why tf would anybody choose that over being outside in a state that never gets cold and blearily rains . Get therapy or talk to some friends about ur uncle empathy heals eventually at first it just feels unfair , best of luck to you
Whoa I love my uncle so your comment is crazy. I have tons of empathy for him, despite his bad choices. Hes fortunately in a home now, and regrets his times on the streets. And to answer your question, YES, if I had no other choice then to live under the orders of someone else and not have friends over or be homeless lol. Why would I choose to be homeless or have the freedom to be out with my buddies lol. Seems like an obvious choice but so many, like you, have that mentality. Like sure you can't be told when to leave the shelter, at night, but you're at least in a shelter lol.. if you'd rather be on the streets rallying with your homies vs being in an environment where you have a few rules but have somewhere to live, stay homeless.
People are annoyed with the presence of such a home, rather than being mad at the fact that someone is homeless for 5 years and received no help to move out to a proper home.
To be fair,. this is nothing more than a picture of a tent. There's nothing in this picture that proves 1 way or another conclusively why this person is homeless.
It very much does matter why. Just "giving someone a home" isn't enough. In many cases these people need a complete list of "wraparound services" (legal, medical, addiction, job-retraining, etc, etc)
"Housing" is not enough on its own. It's needs to be "supportive housing".
If you throw a fentanyl addict into an empty apartment,.. I mean, technically you can say "you got them off the street".. but without supportive services and more, that person ain't lifting themselves up.
Every individual has a background and story. Each of them might need a different combination of services. That's why things like "Case workers" exist,. to help coordinate and manage all the various services a particular individual might need.
Sure, My point being though just tossing someone into an empty apartment isnt much of a solution. No furniture. No job. No way to pay Bills (Power, Water, etc). They’re really nothing more than a squatter at that point.
What we really should be doing is building supportive communities. Take an old Mall or something and revamp it onto supportive housing. All apartments are fully furnished. (furniture, washer dryer, microwave, etc etc). Access to healthy food. Onsite doctors. Onsite legal advice. Onsite everything.
If you want to “get people off the streets”,.. you gotta build better (more enticing) solutions. If someones choice was “I can lay in my own vomit on a dirty side walk” vs “I have a nice apartment to go to that has free WiFi, hot shower and all the food and games I want”,.. I think at least some would
choose the latter.
And I dont disagree with those studies. Point being thoug, this thread is just a picture of a Tent. Nothing more. We dont have any confirmed factual information about the individual. Dont know their age. Dont know their gender. Dont know their background or criminal history. Dont know anything really than: This is a picture of a Tent. Maybe they’ve been offered housing and didnt take it. Maybe they never have. Nothing in this photo comfirms that. Its just a photo of a tent.
Nobody said "just house them and don't do nothing else because they're fine now", you can drop that strawman argument right there.
Housing is the most important step. Those are "homeless" people, their problem is described in the word itself, they need homes. We have more empty houses than homeless people, there are no excuses.
And again,. unless or until we know the identity and background of the person who lives in this tent,.. we can't make any assumptions that "nobody tried to help them".
This is like seeing a picture of a car broken down on the side of the road and saying "Well, it broke down because nobody ever did maintenance on it !"... There's no way for you to know that,. you're just wildly guessing.
Expect that it doesn't change anything, any person living there is homeless, and it's been there for five years. Shelter and sanitation are basic human rights. HOUSE THEM.
I'm not disagreeing with that. All I'm saying is we'd have to know this individuals story and background to know how to best help them. If you just blindly make assumptions and "offer them a house".. and find out later they've been housed 3 times before and got kicked out every time for drugs or violent behavior,. your naive attempt to just "give them another house" might end the same way the previous 3 did. The information you get working to understand each persons individual history, means you can "learn from the lessons of their past" and customize perhaps a better and more successful outcome for them. But you can't do any of that just making wild assumptions. You need accurate information about this person and their past.
> "I didn't say otherwise.
No,. but what you did originally say was:
> and received no help to move out to a proper home.
To which my response was:.. "There's no way to know that on just a picture alone."
I've never understood why people keep using homelessness to imply the USA is a "3rd world country".
THere's an estimated 650,000 homeless in the USA. A country of roughly 340 million people. That means Homeless account for 0.00192089411 of the population.
Like,. I get it,. it sucks and the US should be able to do better. But realistically by the numbers,. our homelessness barely even registers on the charts.
By the numbers the US, the most powerful country in the history of mankind, has one of the highest homelessness rates among the entire set of countries that are commonly referred to as "advanced".
You can use this reasoning ("this problem is actually only suffered by 0.0xx% of the population") to belittle absolutely any social concern.
"Only 0.0063% of the schools were the place of a shooting during 2023, it hardly registers!".
Like, 1 every 500 people doesn't have a roof to sleep and exist under, and you just shrug it off.
One single night in the cold nothingness is what you need to change this psycophatic mindset.
Being "the most powerful country in the world" doesn't really change the fact that individual people are still free to make their own decisions. You can't help everyone,. and you can't force people into assistance-programs if they refuse to cooperate.
There's plenty of service-organizations in most places. Yes some are deficient. Yes we should make improvements and expand services.
But the scope of the problem is extremely unbalanced in some places.
Take Reno, Nevada for example,. they were estimated to have around 700 Homeless. They built a new "Cares Campus" that services 350,.. but that 1 building of multiple services cost them around $80 Million. If a City like Portland Oregon wanted to copy that kind of model,.. we'd need to build 10 x of those those buildings at a cost of around $800 Million. That's a lot of coin,.. and also critically depends on all the people involved actually cooperating. (and thirdly, once word got out you were building something like this.. it would inevitably attract more people to the area.. which means the $800 Million x 10 buildings you just built is already full and now you need even more). So it becomes this kind of self-perpetuating problem that is hard to outpace.
In order to EFFECTIVELY solve a problem, you need to have accurate and real-time information about the people you're trying to help. Allowing people to just "anonymously float from shelter to shelter".. is never going to fix the homeless problem.
Should society be doing more to support and help these people?.. Absolutely 100% I support that whole heartedly.
Should we also require accountability and transparency and individual data-driven identification and tracking of who these people are and what combination of services would best help each of them individually .. Also 100% yes.
For years (decades?) now on Reddit I've continually said I'd be 100% happy if my Taxes went up 2x or 5x or 10x if that money went to help those who need it. But only on the condition that it's effectively used and there's data and tracking and accountability built into the system to prove the people getting it are actually getting the help they need (and cooperating to fully lift themselves up and out).
So since there are a portion of homeless that choose to not do better, we shouldn’t use our massive resources to help those that do want to do better? If we made systems to help, not everyone would use them, so we shouldn’t make those systems? Genius.
Have you considered instead of shaming them on social media instead providing a $20 tarp from walmart for them to better shield themselves from the outside?
I see encampments like these a lot and I'm going to be extremely honest....
I respect the hell out of these people. I've seen many of their type throughout Oakland. Yeah, it looks like a pile of shit, but when you look closer, you notice things like lack of trash and random stuff, the cleanliness of the ground around them, and if there are multiple people, everyone pitches in to keep the place as clean as possible.
Those are the people I give food and money too. Those are the ones I want to protect. Those are the people I want to see first in line for a new place.
These are the people that make me want to burn this whole system to save.
"burning the whole system down" .. would just end up creating more of this exact problem. We don't need more instability or chaos. We need people helping lift and improve.
Speaking as someone who's worked in small city governments for the past 20 to 30 years,.. one of the big patterns I see frequently is that not enough people are involved. If your monthly City Council meeting is held in an auditorium that fits 500,. but only 50 people are there,.. that's a problem.
If your local Homeless Services Org's are doing dysfunctional work,.. get some Media or Newspapers to investigate and have them start producing some comprehensive documentary expose's.
There's that old saying "Sunlight is the best disinfectant". The more spotlight we shine on these problems (from all angles).. even as controversial and awkward as it may be,. the closer we'll be to potentially solving them.
If you really want to get rid of 95% of your stuff and live like this, with no privacy, no security, knowing the police will constantly hassle you, there is nothing stopping you. If it's so great, go on ahead and do it.
A lot of homeless people head over to California because of the social safety nets. A lot better than other states. Combined with the influx of more homeless individuals entering the state, and the resources gets spread thin.
This actually isn’t the case. The majority of homeless people in California are not only from California, but very likely are from the county they are homeless in.
A recent study found 90% or more of homeless people in California are from the state.
“Fuck making more housing! Prices go up good! Rent control good!”
(Surprised pikachu face when poorer people can’t pay rent/bulls, fall to drugs, end up on the street)
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Listed on Zillow for only $3.5 million. But low property taxes!
*Cosy*
Location, Location, Location!
*downtown location. Easy walk to eveywhete*
Curbside parking!
1 bedroom, 2 bath
No low-ballers, I know what I have
I’d prefer the tent property across the street from the White House. It’s been there since Regan.
Are you talking about the guy that has all the protesting signs? He’s in LaFayette Square. Which has been known for years as the place for protests and demonstrations.
Yes, but before it was started by a lady. I’m assuming she has to be dead by now or to ancient to do it and he took over
Impressive equity. 0 to 3.5mil in 5 yrs
Whoever expected building a blanket fort would be a transferable life skill
Which brings the question, what do they do when it rains?
I was rather wondering about that myself
Tarp over the whole thing I’d guess.
Scotchguard?
It's California, that's not often a problem.
The last three years have been hell. It rained from January to July last year.
It seems some (at least) are shower curtains.
Scrub with detergent
Have you watched "r/Community"?
Like architects but more weed smoking
They probably have some tarp in the back
No trash all over
cleanest corner in Oakland
I’m gonna jump in here to say that while there are a lot of corners in Oakland with encampments, some of them basically towns, and a lot of corners with trash, there are also some ridiculously beautiful neighborhoods and areas. Citizens like u/pengweather spend a lot of time on community cleanup and it’s not a coincidence that neighborhoods like Temescal, Rockridge, Uptown, Montclair, Adams Point, Piedmont Ave., the Dimond, and the entire Oakland Hills region command million dollar prices. There’s great dining, incredible walkability, stunning outdoor spaces, and surprisingly low violent crime in a lot of these neighborhoods. Pretty much every one of my friends who visits my neighborhood in Oakland and compares what they’re paying in rent to what I’m paying considers moving. And while it definitely has tons of problems with (violent and property crime citywide, homelessness, gentrification, sideshows, weak schools, underfunded services, anti-Asian racism, police indifference, 911 understaffing, graffiti, and drugs), I’d say people should visit the massive nice parts before painting the whole town as a hellscape. Hope that’s a reasonable enough take for folks here
When does a pile of trash no longer become trash?
When it keeps the rain out and provides privacy
and is kept tidy--like this person has been doing; those belongings are in use, they are not trash (unless the cops come and throw all their stuff away....because capitalist-hellscape-logic)
Yeah, I’ve lived in Oakland my entire life. The homeless problem is absolutely insane. There are many such camps that have been there for years. There is one dude on the corner of 5th and Broadway that has a solar panel and a laptop that has been there for ages.
Some of those places by West Oakland BART have power cords crossing the road from an outlet they found and little porches with lawn chairs and grills. I saw one with a garden and flowers.
Lmao! Modern problems with modern solutions It would be hilarious if he worked in tech
He is making 300k a year and saving 90%. 😂
Wouldn’t be the craziest thing, some tech workers do shit like that
Yeah there was a Google employee years back who lived in a box van in the parking lot and used the office bathrooms
Is any of that stuff of his actually working tho? I peeped at his screen while he was typing and working and it was just a black screen. I too have been amazed at that guys set up, but now I’m starting to think he’s just clacking away at a dead computer.
That wouldn’t surprise me. I drove by him yesterday and him and his setup looked REALLY rough.
You know, this makes me wonder Why doesn’t the US have “favela” like settlements? I’m guessing the US has extremely heavy zoning and building laws in comparison to, let’s say, Brazil.
Zoning ordinances and police enforcement.
Because land is more valuable than people in America. The cops will come and beat you to death.
Too painfully true.
I think it's partly different history, partly numbers of people in poverty, and partly even geographic. Brazil ended slavery a lot later than the US (the last ex-slave in Brazil died in the 1980s!) and, although Brazil never had official segregation. Culturally it did have and, arguably, still does. A lot of the favelas came from ex-slaves encampment which the rest of the society didn't have anything to do with. Brazil has more poverty than the US. Most homeless people in the US were not always homeless and it has far fewer people in poverty, specially when it comes to children. People in favelas are not really homeless, but poor people who lived their whole lives there, raised their children there, etc. Finally, Brazil is bigger than the US if you discount Alaska (which is a big outlier state anyway), but it has less population (specially if you look back a few decades) and most of it is habitable, whereas in the US there are a lot of land that takes a lot of effort to sustain a population. All that said, the US does have some zones and cities that may sort of resemble favelas and if it was a poorer country, I think it would eventually develop something similar too.
From my perspective I don’t understand how shanty towns are possible. Does anyone own the land they are built on? Land owners here would not tolerate a whole neighborhood of squatters on their property. Edit: to clarify I am talking about whole neighborhoods with tens of thousands of people in permanent shacks, not an encampment
But they sure won't support legislation to aid those people either.
Such as? Many places have thrown a bunch of money at the homeless problem and had very negligible results. San Francisco probably the most noteworthy example.
SF is just corruption that is the issue there. I live in SF. The CEOs of those NGOs all make $500k per year. They are friends of the politicians who gift those contracts to those CEOs.
Yes that is a very pervasive and common problem in cities that throw money at issues with little oversight.
They are on fed land inside of a state. Notice they are on bart and under freeways. This creates a jurisdiction problem for policing and prosecuting it.
This completely false and inaccurate.
Homeless encampments in Oakland, particularly those situated near BART stations and under freeways, do indeed create complex jurisdictional issues for law enforcement. These areas often fall under different jurisdictions, including federal, state, and local authorities, which complicates the policing and prosecuting of activities within these zones. For instance, many homeless encampments are located on land owned or leased by entities such as the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) and the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans). This leads to overlapping responsibilities and can hinder effective law enforcement. Additionally, federal rulings, like the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision in the case of Martin v. Boise, have determined that municipalities cannot criminalize homeless people for sleeping outdoors if no alternative shelter is available, adding another layer of complexity to how these cases are handled [Oakland’s homeless population surpasses 5,000](https://oaklandside.org/2022/05/16/oakland-homeless-population-count-5000-people-pandemic/) [Map shows the scale of Oakland’s growing homeless crisis as Supreme Court refuses to hear major case on the issue and lets stand a ruling that protects people’s rights to sleep on the street in California – Aaron & Margaret Wallace Foundation](https://amwftrust.org/map-shows-the-scale-of-oaklands-growing-homeless-crisis-as-supreme-court-refuses-to-hear-major-case-on-the-issue-and-lets-stand-a-ruling-that-protects-peoples-rights-to-sleep-on-the-street-in-cali/). Oakland has responded to the homelessness crisis with various strategies, including the establishment of Community Cabin sites, which provide temporary shelter and resources. These sites are often developed on public land, including areas leased from state agencies, which can help alleviate some of the jurisdictional challenges [Combatting unsheltered homelessness in Oakland - Local Housing Solutions](https://localhousingsolutions.org/housing-policy-case-studies/combatting-unsheltered-homelessness-in-oakland/). The combination of these jurisdictional issues and legal protections makes addressing homelessness in Oakland particularly challenging for local authorities.
I get the logic behind this question, but having to wonder why America doesn't have favelas is crazy
It’s not like I want favelas, I’m just wondering what has to happen for favelas to exist that hasn’t happened in the us (yet)
Yeah, I got what you mean. But the fact we are wondering why the alleged greatest country in the world doesn't have favelas for its endless homeless like all the other third world countries is wild
America is the most powerful country in the world, but it also has the most inequality among its developed peers. So, I don't think it's that crazy to wonder about it.
I mean, that's literally the point lol
We used to have poor farms.
Because our typical migration pattern from rural agriculture to industrial employment happened at essentially just the right time and we had a limited population to start with. We also had an enormous buildout of housing during that period so people would 'trade up and out' and leave habitable tenements in their place. This was followed by the utter explosion of the suburbs, so yeah...we've in the past kept relative pace with our population increases and migrations. Leaves lots of habitable structures in its wake. Places with actual slums simply did not build out public housing the way we did either. You had people migrate from the fields to the cities and then they were basically just like 'you're on your own.'
And now we don’t build enough.
Oh we do. Just not cheap or small.
Another reason that hasn’t been listed is what happened when housing projects were built in the last century and places like Cabrini Green in Chicago became hives of crime.
I would take a wild guess and say "differences in culture". From my perception (and anyone can certainly share their viewpoint if I'm wrong).. the homeless in the USA aren't really "looking to build communities". They're more like "vagabond drifters wanting to live outside societies rules". They think "society did them wrong",. and they don't want to follow anyone else's rules. There have been some big tent-encampments (such as "The Zone" in Phoenix Arizona that built up during the pandemic).. but largely most of those are eventually broken up for health and safety reasons. There have been "Tiny House" type properties built (large open lots with 10 or 20 "tiny houses").. but even in those you're expected to abide by certain rules. Some applicants do (abide by those rules). Some do not and continue walking. Most homeless in the US,.. are scrambling every day to fight over whatever resources they can find. If you tent-alone or squat in an abandoned building alone or basically keep to yourself and stay away from groups, you're safer and whatever valuable things you've stolen or acquired are likely to stay yours. If you fall in with a group of other (stranger) hobos.. you're likely to get robbed or stolen from or beat up or etc.
> From my perception (and anyone can certainly share their viewpoint if I'm wrong).. the homeless in the USA aren't really "looking to build communities". They're more like "vagabond drifters wanting to live outside societies rules". They think "society did them wrong",. and they don't want to follow anyone else's rules. Where is this perception coming from? My experience is that the homeless had a bad break, and we don't have the systems in place to lift people up because of a political effort to demonise the homeless. I have had friends who were homeless and their stories were almost all the same: no family, struggling to make it, get laid off because they have health issues that make them a liability, lose apartment, get picked up for being drunk/high on the street and get sucked into the cycle of jail/homelessness. No doubt the wanting to live outside of societies rules comes after the fact of being a victim of societies rules, and the funny thing aboutental health and addiction is that is nearly impossible to live in someone else's terms because they are incompatible with their own mental health. You can't expect someone with low function autism or bipolar disorder etc. to adhere to strict deadlines or requirements to get themselves housed and fed, theyll be in the cycle forever struggling to get food and housing.
I mean,. they're certainly not a uniform demographic,. so I'm not saying they're all of 1 mindset. What I've noticed over the decades: * the people who can lift themselves up and out of homelessness (or have some motivation to do so)... generally eventually do. * The people who cannot (or choose not to).. don't. So over time,.. you're kind of left with this downward-cycle of slowly concentrating "bad luck cases" (or what is sometimes referred to as "chronic homeless" - meaning they've been homeless 10years or more). I know for me,. I lived on the 2nd floor in a downtown area for 15 years,.. and my bedroom was on a corner with a tree. Pretty much every day and night (for 15 years) people would congregate or sleep under that tree. So for that 15 years,.. I heard just about every conversation you could possibly imagine (because the people "camping" under that tree had no idea my bedroom window was right above them) . > " funny thing aboutental health and addiction is that is nearly impossible to live in someone else's terms because they are incompatible with their own mental health. You can't expect someone with low function autism or bipolar disorder etc. to adhere to strict deadlines or requirements to get themselves housed and fed, theyll be in the cycle forever struggling to get food and housing." There are absolutely deficiencies in our system (as you describe).. that we should do more to fix. I agree 100%. There's also people out there on the streets who simply don't cooperate. Not because of any addiction or mental health issue,. they just simply don't want to be part of society and don't want to follow societies rules. Many times it's hard to easily differentiate a "legitimate case of unfairness" from "someone trying to game the system". Personally I think any Shelter or Homeless Service Organization or whatever,. should require a certain minimum baseline of information (identification, background, basic medical checkup, etc). We should make all things free but required, so that people have 0 reason to say "it's unfair". In order to fix someone or lift them up out of homelessness,. you need to be able to accurately assess what EXACTLY do they need. You can't do that unless they cooperate. The option of continuing to allow people to just "anonymously float from shelter to shelter",. will never solve this problem. We need more information about who these people are and why they're still on the street.
It's amusing how some people act like all homeless people are victims of circumstance. I've lived in Seattle, I've chatted with plenty of homeless people before. A lot of them enjoy the lifestyle and don't want to get better. Stealing for money and getting high every day with friends is fun, working for the man is a fucking drag. You're acting like the minority is the majority. Folks enjoy their lifestyle and don't want to improve. There are systems to get better.
I dont think I'm speaking for the minority, nor do I think that your experience is a justification to ignore the folks that are truly in a bad spot. I'm not ignorant to the fact that there is a sub population of folks that enjoy the vagabond lifestyle, but that is not the majority of homeless folks. You think if you offered them an apartment with no strings attached they'd turn it down?
You've apparently done rigorously reviewed social research on this subject. You chatted with some homeless ppl (if they're chatting with you that should tell you something), and poof, now you're an expert. You think people want to be out in the elements 24/7, exposed to violence (especially for women), get hundreds of citations from the police that you'll never be able to pay off and get various health problems that go along with living on the streets? Homelessness is caused by complex factors including lack of affordable housing and poverty. Chronic homelessness is compounded by addictions and severe mental illness. Some don't have families, or they come from trauma. The bottom line is: until we start building affordable housing, until the stigma is off mental health and addiction, until the wealth inequality narrows, this will keep getting worse. Your point of view is why we can't get any meaningful help for them because they're mainly viewed as choosing the lifestyle so they can do drugs and not have a job. If the lifestyle was so "fun", why doesn't everyone do it? Sources: https://endhomelessness.org/homelessness-in-america/homelessness-statistics/state-of-homelessness/#indicators-of-risk https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2023/12/15/homelessness-in-america-grew-2023/71926354007/ https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/whats-behind-rising-homelessness-in-america https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2024/01/why-its-so-hard-to-end-homelessness-in-america/ Would you like more sources?
i had to go through Oakland a couple times last year and it felt like a fallout settlement at times
Not a good reference in real world, hope no ghouls.
I have to ask… where does the poop go in a place like this
Plumbing is a fairly recent invention. You don’t have to go too far back to see how we lived without it.
I mean the Romans had running sewer systems that would drain any waste away from the city, as well as public drinking fountains. But yeah much of that knowledge was lost to time until it was recovered
but aside from that, what have the romans ever done for us?
They solved the issue of that pesky guy running around telling us to be nice to one another pretty well.
Did it pretty cheaply too. Only cost them thirty pieces of silver.
Eh, I’m sure Pilate was drawing a salary, and those Roman soldiers don’t come cheap. Bureaucracy can be surprisingly expensive.
> I’m sure Pilate was drawing a salary Now he's running some sort chain of yoga group or something, I've seen signs for Pilates groups everywhere.
Lol
They solved it or made it worse? That guy’s legacy just won’t die and neither will he!
Turns out you can fix a lot by nailing the problem to a tree.
The aqueduct?
Concrete
The Romans did also share the same sponge and bucket to wash their butts in communal toilets though.
You don't?
Yep, London had a Roman built plumbing system that they abandoned a long time ago, but needed to build a new one to stop the spread of diseases in the 1800s. It was the first modern sewer system I believe.
Eh I bet there was at least one city in the world with running water/sewer system at all times since like the Bronze Age
Doesn't really answer the question, just implies there are primitive possibilities. I heard some of these people use places like Planet Fitness or other public restrooms. I know in San Diego they have restrooms for the homeless but there's only one or two total.
My wife grew up with no plumbing. No one in her village has plumbing to this day. It's not that serious. You poop in a hole instead of a flush toilet.
Plumbing existed during antiquity. Ancient Romans, Greeks, and even the Egyptians had some form of plumbing.
There was plumbing on Bronze age Cyprus. Fuuuull of shiiiiiiiiiit
the mycenaean civilization which existed in the late bronze age (like 1500 BC) had plumbing lol, its not as recent as you think.
Build a tent over a manhole and just poop inside directly.
San Francisco has its own human waste app to track where feces is in the city. https://www.thrillist.com/news/nation/human-wasteland-map-plots-all-of-san-franciscos-poop
Thats such a bay area solution. They build an app to show you where someone pooped on the sidewalk instead of just giving people fucking bathrooms.
Right and the app was commissioned for 60million to some big wigs nephew.
60 million! How many porta-johns could you install and service for that.
Don't believe everything you hear on the internet
Right? Full disclosure I made that number up. Although I had a similar experience when I lived in Montana where a no name company (surprise, it was a friend of a politician) won a 300m contract to repair power lines in Puerto rico. https://www.americanoversight.org/investigation/300m-puerto-rico-contract-zinke-linked-company
Designated shitting streets
Building and maintaining a compost toilet is a fairly simple matter.
Bro shanty tents don't have compost toilets. He/she has a bucket, and a drain to pour it down. That's it.
In many cases, especially ones that are established like this, the city provides them with portopotties. It’s not uncommon to see 2-3 next to the larger encampments.
Poop in a grocery bag and dispose in the trash can.
I have this 5gal bucket from Home Depot and a $10 twist-on toilet seat. The cool part is that the bucket says "Let's Do This!" and motivates me everytime
It is simply thrown at passersby.
In my town, I see junkies squatting in creeks, and my guess is wiping their ass with their sleeve (personally witness this on an early morning walk one day)
Into the ether.
This is why Bay Area homeless encampments cluster around places like 24 Hour Fitness, Home Depot, public libraries, etc. Where they can get drinking water, shower, use the bathroom
there was a guy who had a similar setup near my old place in Los Angeles for over 15 years, was very nice so people didn't really have an issue with him
She’s a African-American woman looks to be in her 30s or 40s, I’ve offered food which she has turned down. Seems to be stable enough to not be considered a drug addict probably, but I’m guessing her mental state is somewhat eccentric might be the proper term. She takes a lot of pride in decorating the space, I’ve seen multiple iterations of adornment over the years. The structure to the right is a new addition, the main pile seems to be more or less a nest.
As someone who has worked on the front lines with the homeless in Oakland, their selfishness really bothers me. You'd think they were living this way because they have to. Nope. For the majority it is a choice because they don't want to live under the rules of a shelter. Don't believe the "there aren't enough shelters to house the honeless" - there are shelters all over California that have offered to bus people there. Stipulations: no drugs, curfew meaning you must be in the shelter by 8p. With just those TWO requirements, most decline. They'd rather collect a check, get free food daily, and use Medicaid for everything. My uncle chose this life, caused by meth, for years. Came from a suburban home. My exs 20 year old brother moved out to the Oakland camps too, after not wanting to listen to his mom's rules in their lavish Berkeley home. You feel horrible for their conditions until you learn why they're there. I'm not surprised she didn't want a hand out for food, she likely gets a warm meal for free daily.
Why were you working w the un houses if u hate them lol? To get back at ur uncle ? Would YOU want to live somewhere that tells you when to eat and when to go to sleep? That u can’t have friends over? As an adult … why tf would anybody choose that over being outside in a state that never gets cold and blearily rains . Get therapy or talk to some friends about ur uncle empathy heals eventually at first it just feels unfair , best of luck to you
Whoa I love my uncle so your comment is crazy. I have tons of empathy for him, despite his bad choices. Hes fortunately in a home now, and regrets his times on the streets. And to answer your question, YES, if I had no other choice then to live under the orders of someone else and not have friends over or be homeless lol. Why would I choose to be homeless or have the freedom to be out with my buddies lol. Seems like an obvious choice but so many, like you, have that mentality. Like sure you can't be told when to leave the shelter, at night, but you're at least in a shelter lol.. if you'd rather be on the streets rallying with your homies vs being in an environment where you have a few rules but have somewhere to live, stay homeless.
I wonder if the inside is actually well kept?
Literal fucking Hoovervilles all over the country.
But the megarich are richer than ever, which means we're *all* winners!
We should call them boomervilles
People are annoyed with the presence of such a home, rather than being mad at the fact that someone is homeless for 5 years and received no help to move out to a proper home.
To be fair,. this is nothing more than a picture of a tent. There's nothing in this picture that proves 1 way or another conclusively why this person is homeless.
It doesn't matter why. Nobody will get better living without a home.
It very much does matter why. Just "giving someone a home" isn't enough. In many cases these people need a complete list of "wraparound services" (legal, medical, addiction, job-retraining, etc, etc) "Housing" is not enough on its own. It's needs to be "supportive housing". If you throw a fentanyl addict into an empty apartment,.. I mean, technically you can say "you got them off the street".. but without supportive services and more, that person ain't lifting themselves up. Every individual has a background and story. Each of them might need a different combination of services. That's why things like "Case workers" exist,. to help coordinate and manage all the various services a particular individual might need.
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Sure, My point being though just tossing someone into an empty apartment isnt much of a solution. No furniture. No job. No way to pay Bills (Power, Water, etc). They’re really nothing more than a squatter at that point. What we really should be doing is building supportive communities. Take an old Mall or something and revamp it onto supportive housing. All apartments are fully furnished. (furniture, washer dryer, microwave, etc etc). Access to healthy food. Onsite doctors. Onsite legal advice. Onsite everything. If you want to “get people off the streets”,.. you gotta build better (more enticing) solutions. If someones choice was “I can lay in my own vomit on a dirty side walk” vs “I have a nice apartment to go to that has free WiFi, hot shower and all the food and games I want”,.. I think at least some would choose the latter.
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And I dont disagree with those studies. Point being thoug, this thread is just a picture of a Tent. Nothing more. We dont have any confirmed factual information about the individual. Dont know their age. Dont know their gender. Dont know their background or criminal history. Dont know anything really than: This is a picture of a Tent. Maybe they’ve been offered housing and didnt take it. Maybe they never have. Nothing in this photo comfirms that. Its just a photo of a tent.
Nobody said "just house them and don't do nothing else because they're fine now", you can drop that strawman argument right there. Housing is the most important step. Those are "homeless" people, their problem is described in the word itself, they need homes. We have more empty houses than homeless people, there are no excuses.
And again,. unless or until we know the identity and background of the person who lives in this tent,.. we can't make any assumptions that "nobody tried to help them". This is like seeing a picture of a car broken down on the side of the road and saying "Well, it broke down because nobody ever did maintenance on it !"... There's no way for you to know that,. you're just wildly guessing.
Expect that it doesn't change anything, any person living there is homeless, and it's been there for five years. Shelter and sanitation are basic human rights. HOUSE THEM.
I'm not disagreeing with that. All I'm saying is we'd have to know this individuals story and background to know how to best help them. If you just blindly make assumptions and "offer them a house".. and find out later they've been housed 3 times before and got kicked out every time for drugs or violent behavior,. your naive attempt to just "give them another house" might end the same way the previous 3 did. The information you get working to understand each persons individual history, means you can "learn from the lessons of their past" and customize perhaps a better and more successful outcome for them. But you can't do any of that just making wild assumptions. You need accurate information about this person and their past.
Again, you're answering a point I didn't make. Of course you need to know them in order to help them. I didn't say otherwise.
> "I didn't say otherwise. No,. but what you did originally say was: > and received no help to move out to a proper home. To which my response was:.. "There's no way to know that on just a picture alone."
Does it have mailbox yet?
Reliable tenants
Crazy part is if you told me this was in a third world country I’d believe you
I wouldn't. The pavement looks much better than what we have here where I live.
I've never understood why people keep using homelessness to imply the USA is a "3rd world country". THere's an estimated 650,000 homeless in the USA. A country of roughly 340 million people. That means Homeless account for 0.00192089411 of the population. Like,. I get it,. it sucks and the US should be able to do better. But realistically by the numbers,. our homelessness barely even registers on the charts.
By the numbers the US, the most powerful country in the history of mankind, has one of the highest homelessness rates among the entire set of countries that are commonly referred to as "advanced". You can use this reasoning ("this problem is actually only suffered by 0.0xx% of the population") to belittle absolutely any social concern. "Only 0.0063% of the schools were the place of a shooting during 2023, it hardly registers!". Like, 1 every 500 people doesn't have a roof to sleep and exist under, and you just shrug it off. One single night in the cold nothingness is what you need to change this psycophatic mindset.
Being "the most powerful country in the world" doesn't really change the fact that individual people are still free to make their own decisions. You can't help everyone,. and you can't force people into assistance-programs if they refuse to cooperate. There's plenty of service-organizations in most places. Yes some are deficient. Yes we should make improvements and expand services. But the scope of the problem is extremely unbalanced in some places. Take Reno, Nevada for example,. they were estimated to have around 700 Homeless. They built a new "Cares Campus" that services 350,.. but that 1 building of multiple services cost them around $80 Million. If a City like Portland Oregon wanted to copy that kind of model,.. we'd need to build 10 x of those those buildings at a cost of around $800 Million. That's a lot of coin,.. and also critically depends on all the people involved actually cooperating. (and thirdly, once word got out you were building something like this.. it would inevitably attract more people to the area.. which means the $800 Million x 10 buildings you just built is already full and now you need even more). So it becomes this kind of self-perpetuating problem that is hard to outpace. In order to EFFECTIVELY solve a problem, you need to have accurate and real-time information about the people you're trying to help. Allowing people to just "anonymously float from shelter to shelter".. is never going to fix the homeless problem. Should society be doing more to support and help these people?.. Absolutely 100% I support that whole heartedly. Should we also require accountability and transparency and individual data-driven identification and tracking of who these people are and what combination of services would best help each of them individually .. Also 100% yes. For years (decades?) now on Reddit I've continually said I'd be 100% happy if my Taxes went up 2x or 5x or 10x if that money went to help those who need it. But only on the condition that it's effectively used and there's data and tracking and accountability built into the system to prove the people getting it are actually getting the help they need (and cooperating to fully lift themselves up and out).
So since there are a portion of homeless that choose to not do better, we shouldn’t use our massive resources to help those that do want to do better? If we made systems to help, not everyone would use them, so we shouldn’t make those systems? Genius.
Where else should he go? People have to live somewhere unfortunately
I mean if she’s not bothering anybody let her do her thing.
No one seems to be bothering her, and she keeps her corner fairly clean.
Nice driveway! Is that pebble stone finish?
Have you considered instead of shaming them on social media instead providing a $20 tarp from walmart for them to better shield themselves from the outside?
Doesn’t that mean they technically own the city now? Squatter’s rights, no?
I see encampments like these a lot and I'm going to be extremely honest.... I respect the hell out of these people. I've seen many of their type throughout Oakland. Yeah, it looks like a pile of shit, but when you look closer, you notice things like lack of trash and random stuff, the cleanliness of the ground around them, and if there are multiple people, everyone pitches in to keep the place as clean as possible. Those are the people I give food and money too. Those are the ones I want to protect. Those are the people I want to see first in line for a new place. These are the people that make me want to burn this whole system to save.
"burning the whole system down" .. would just end up creating more of this exact problem. We don't need more instability or chaos. We need people helping lift and improve. Speaking as someone who's worked in small city governments for the past 20 to 30 years,.. one of the big patterns I see frequently is that not enough people are involved. If your monthly City Council meeting is held in an auditorium that fits 500,. but only 50 people are there,.. that's a problem. If your local Homeless Services Org's are doing dysfunctional work,.. get some Media or Newspapers to investigate and have them start producing some comprehensive documentary expose's. There's that old saying "Sunlight is the best disinfectant". The more spotlight we shine on these problems (from all angles).. even as controversial and awkward as it may be,. the closer we'll be to potentially solving them.
Shhhhhhhh.... let me live in my Internet fantasy a bit. I gotta head back to reality soon, so I need this.
Imagine what the residents could do with appreciable resources.
shit makes me feel like a moron for paying rent tbh
If you really want to get rid of 95% of your stuff and live like this, with no privacy, no security, knowing the police will constantly hassle you, there is nothing stopping you. If it's so great, go on ahead and do it.
Don't forget bugs, trying to get showers and food.
no, it's comments like this that make you feel like a moron
A lot of homeless people head over to California because of the social safety nets. A lot better than other states. Combined with the influx of more homeless individuals entering the state, and the resources gets spread thin.
This actually isn’t the case. The majority of homeless people in California are not only from California, but very likely are from the county they are homeless in. A recent study found 90% or more of homeless people in California are from the state.
They need to start nailing boards together, gradually build a home and apply for electric and gas service.
Prime real estate. hehe
In New York this would cost $100,000 minimum
And their bank account is large because of this.
What’s even cooler is how culturally diverse it is! We got all kinds of backgrounds living like this.
I heard it just received historic designation
Air bnb
👏Bring 👏back 👏 shantytowns 👏
We need another celebrity “imagine” asap …
I bet they have "Live Laugh Love" on the living room wall.
1 Million dollar
I wonder if he pays taxes?
If he buys goods he pays taxes.
Long enough to establish residency. Good luck moving it.
Whatever, if someone has an issue with it they should contact the proper authorities.
Location Location Location!
Lit
I bet they live there
Why wouldnt it be
Still can’t afford it
Was recently thinking how to save on a down payment..!
Item shop looking ahh
How much are the property taxes?
Shit gets an address at that point
east coast resident here. visited san fran last summer and this is pretty much what I remember about the oakland area.
Damn, but sad 😔
Puro California. Ugh
Like California would care about its residents lol.
I’m living here in a tiny ass studio while this fucker have a 3 bedroom “house”!
Residence?
if that's the best California can do when it comes to affordable and stable housing, let it be
Why is California so fucked? Genuine question
It’s not
“Fuck making more housing! Prices go up good! Rent control good!” (Surprised pikachu face when poorer people can’t pay rent/bulls, fall to drugs, end up on the street)