Cities have tried many ways to move panhandlers and vagrants out of prime shopping districts, but Santa Barbara believes it has a new angle — 90 degrees.Using $50,000 in redevelopment funds, the city is planning to turn 14 benches perpendicular to the State Street storefronts they now face. The idea is to make it more difficult for beggars to establish contact with passersby, officials said.
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This is the kind of news I fight in my head every day. It's lumped in with the things that cause me to go to bed for days and stop talking to people. In what world does it cost $50, 000 dollars to reposition 14 benches and take the backs off a few to make them uncomfortable for the homeless? They could hire a homeless dude to do that for them in one day for a hundred bucks. In what fucking world would that $50 grand not be better spent opening a homeless shelter and having some fucking empathy for your fellow human? Who the fuck pays the inflated salaries of the jack wads who come up with these plans? And how long are we going to let them get away with it?
19 comments:
and not to mention that right now there's a major syndicate across the country of FAKE HOMELESS with cardboard signs that stand on the sides of roadways to collect money AND THEY ARE NOT HOMELESS....at the end of their shift, some 'supervisor' comes around to take their cut and off goes the 'worker' back to their HOME with $300+ in their pocket! it's disgusting and sickening and cities need to do something about that shit!!!
then there are REAL homeless who get ZERO help at all....there are VETERANS who served their country who are homeless....WTF?!?!?!?!? there should be NO homeless or hungry veterans, children, elderly, or ANY american AT ALL in this country!
and moving benches...yeah....head exploding type moment....
/stepping off my soapbox...
AND thats in f'g broke-ass California! WTH? I have seen panhandlers in uber-rich shopping areas. Who else to beg from, but the wealthy? Right? Santa Barbara is a well-to-do community tho. I guess they just want the beggers to relocate. $50G for the laborers to do that? They prob make minumum wage, except the supervisors, & they dont do any actual work. This is blatant robbery. If they hire a contractor to do this and pay out all that money to non-city workers, then its even worse! This is seriously eff'd. I hate people.
rox
Under the table shenanigans gets my vote!!!
California as a State is broke. Santa Barbara has money however...these are city/county funds. Odd thing is that Santa Barbara does not really have that many homless people - far from the problem that larger cities face. Like Tia commented on...these are panhandlers - not homeless so there is a big difference.
I am a believer that you should support programs/shelters/kitchens rather then hand out cash - again, I want to help truly needy people and not get duped into supporting people just too lazy to get a regular job.
I am very weary and do not trust anybody with a homeless sign to be honestly homeless. Here in the Pacific North West (especially in my area) there are far to many who are homeless by choice, and I have actually met quite a few who have chosen to be homeless because according to them, they want to experience the freedom of not being attached to material things. So they panhandle or do random stuff when they are not panhandling. Oh yeah and they have cell phones. I think if you are able to pay for phone service you have no right to be asking for money on the street. I think it's disgusting to do something like that because the only ones who suffer are those who have a real problem, causing people to not give a damn and not help those who really need it.
empathy: Key word. America doesn't understand that word anymore. Or compassion and sympathy for others. In all seriously were do they think they are going to go now? What is the point to put that much effort in doing this? Because people are complaining about these people? Homeless is every were you go. If people spend time to help these people out. Like DD said a shelter.
I once saw this movie I think it was on life time. It was a rich old lady who didn't know what to do with her funds. She meet a drug addict homeless girl. She took her in. Than this homeless girl told her friends about this lady. They came in to. So this woman with money. Started to go around town. Looking for jobs for the homeless friends. She told the boss of the jobs. She would pay 100.00 a week if they would hire a homeless person. If they quit or cant do the job you keep the cash.
Needless to say some of the homeless people learned important jobs. They kept the jobs. ( I dont know if its a real story or not)
But the problem around every were is NO JOBS. or like Tia said The vets. Even the mentally ill. Every homeless person has a story. Every homeless person has a reason why.
That fake homeless person scam sounds fantastic. How do I get in on that? I already have the necessary hygiene habits and wardrobe.
This is just so wrong on so many levels...
Beth in Seville
My friend in Alaska dated a guy that lived in a tree! In a damn tree, in Alaska. He did like it that way, except for the occasional tree-robbery!! He had a means to cook too and he lived like that all year around!! He didn't have a phone, just ski's for his ski instruction classes. So, he worked but was barely living. & he did choose that way of life. It's called being a bum. aka: "Ski-Bum". Its a life choice. I can imagine all the panhandling up in the northwest! Wow!! Just Wow!!
There is a normal looking middle aged, man in an affluent area (near Indy) apt complex that regularly stands out in front of his apts & has a sign that reads something about his family about to be evicted, this is month after month. ReallY? Like "again"??? It's a total scam.
rox
Rox, if you visit Olympia it's "panhandler by choice" galore! It really influences on how those who really need help are treated. There are many "tent cities" that get moved around, with people who have honestly fallen into hard times, who have to face the difficulties of settling into one address-usually a church's parking lot. The main obstacle they have is the neighborhood being against the tent city in their area.
You need an address in order to find employment and that's what these churches are providing homeless people with. You will find entire families, war veterans, elderly, who have NOWHERE to live. And their situation worsens because of this "panhandlers by choice. UGH this makes me hate people so much.
My daughter went to HS with a kid that became a professional dumpster-diver. Thats how he ate all his meals and had things. I have no idea if he sold stuff or just uses what he finds. Then he got this "thing" under his skin, like a worm or something. The Dr's told him it was headed for his brain. O gawd! Awful...he had zero money and got the worm from being filthy and possibly from something he ate or that had crawled into one of his orifices. Anyways, I do not know if she ever heard he died or got better or what. But his father is a wealthy man and wanted him to go to college but he took off after HS and nobody has seen him, just the occasional msg here or there. He could be dead now. But that life, by choice, is very risky to your health.
rox
Freegans. Look it up, if you don't know. It's interesting.
Well I guess if they turn around the benches, the problem of homelessness will just go away! Right? Right??
Seriously, I think the people who come up with plans like this must spend 99% of their time with their fingers in their ears, saying, "La la la, I can't hear you" to the rest of the world.
What makes me livid are the do gooders that roll down their car windows and give a buck or two to the beggars near the freeway overpasses and exits around here. First of all, you are not really helping these people, and second of all, you are actually HURTING the people that live in the neighborhood adjacent to the begging area. What you just did by giving that guy a few dollars was give an alcholic/drug addict enough cash to go get another fix and then possibly steal from or harm some poor citizen who IS paying taxes and rent or a mortgage and working and doing the right thing. STOP giving panhanders money! If you want to help, give directly to a shelter or a soup kitchen, where there are actual possibilities for the homeless to get the kind of help they need.
Not trolling, I really want to know:
Sally,
I have never lived anywhere that has a panhandling problem so I can't refute anything that you're saying and statistics may back all of that up. I don't know. What I wonder is how is giving someone money an incentive for them to break into the neighbor's house? Logic tells me that panhandling for money wouldn't necessarily lead to that person breaking into your house. If anything I think it would be a deterrent. Given a choice, I would rather beg for money than to take the chance of breaking into a house and chancing being arrested or shot. Can you explain this to me?
Also, if the homeless in the area don't panhandle then what is their option to live? I would assume that they would pack up and move to the next city (like on South Park). If everyone in the country decided to stop giving panhandlers money then what would happen to them? I'm sure the scammers would move on to a new scam but what happens to the homeless or the mentally ill? What will we do with them? There's damn little help for mentally ill people any more and if you're a healthy man without children then there's even less hope.
I'm not really wanting to debate the morality of panhandling. I know that many (if not most) people who are begging are addicted to drugs or alcohol, but if panhandling isn't the solution then what IS?
What I wonder is how is giving someone money an incentive for them to break into the neighbor's house? Logic tells me that panhandling for money wouldn't necessarily lead to that person breaking into your house. If anything I think it would be a deterrent. Given a choice, I would rather beg for money than to take the chance of breaking into a house and chancing being arrested or shot. Can you explain this to me?
Sure. Homeless people who panhandle near highway exits are typically out on the streets because they cannot or will not comply with the rules of the shelters. Most shelters and charities that deal with the homeless around here have strict curfews and rules and do not allow ANY drinking or drugging in order to receive help from them. Also, panhandling laws in the city are strictly enforced, so the addicts panhandle along the exits closest to the busy city (more traffic), buy or bring drugs and alchohol to our neighborhoods--then hang out here. Many of the addicts you see panhandling are addicted to meth-- once they get desperate enough they will do ANYTHING for their drug. It takes a whole lot of do gooders handing you a buck or two to support a serious meth habit. Consequently, there are statistically more robberies, muggings, purse snatchings and break ins in the areas that directly surround the exits where the beggars "work".
Not to mention--just try and sell or rent a house that faces or has a view of one of the exits where the panhandlers hang out!
Begging is not a victimless crime. There is a reason most of these people are out there, and it's not because they are trying hard to get their lives together.
Case in point: google Ted Williams.
tonya--the fake homeless around me who panhandle next to highways and stop signs, etc when people give them money who are THEY helping?? they aren't helping anyone! oh those fake homeless make me so mad!!!!!!
most of the REAL homeless people in this area do NOT panhandle at all and stay on the outskirts of society---won't even come out until it's dark or if they do it's just directly to a place for a free meal....
a lot of places that help the homeless around here don't really help them...there's one huge 'business' that will ONLY give a homeless person a place to sleep and a shower and a meal IF they will sit through an hour long SERMON....this is a BUSINESS yet they insist they HAVE to PREACH THE lord (and NOT JACK LORD) to the homeless because they view the homeless as heathens and lessor humans....many 'christians' donate money to this place; yet many homeless shun it....i can't blame them!
when it gets bitter cold around here they will lift their 'sit here and be lectured about you're a lesser human according to our god' rule and the police will go around and tell the homeless in their makeshift camps that the place isn't doing sermons and the place FILLS UP......
CLUE?????? ya know? shit like that just pisses me off....people who are homeless already feel bad enough, they shouldn't be PREACHED too in order to get a warm place to sleep....
NO ONE in this country should be homeless, unless they WANT to be (i am sure there are some who want to be, in a gypsy type way).....no one should be hungry or homeless.....
and those fake homeless people take away from the plight of the REAL homeless people and i hope those fucks end up really homeless and helpless some day....
Rox I understand what you are saying about that kid your child went to school with. I went to college with a girl who's family was very wealthy in Pittsburgh. She was disowned from her family. Because she was gay. They made her move out at age 17 after graduating h.s. They did pay for her college, books, meals and dorm. Anything else NO. She was not allowed to speak to them or even see them. They shunned her. She was a hipster by trade. She really loved being free spirit. Yes she even panhandled and pulled tricks. to get cash since her family never gave her any. Plus she never worked. People use to give her stuff all the time. Till someone told everyone her family was very rich. Than they stopped. I came across her awhile ago. She was older than me and in one of my classes. Right before xmass break I saw her not packing or leaving. I asked her if she was alright. She told me yup fine. Just staying here. I thought no biggie. I didn't know her history back then. After break I got her a small gift. I dropped it off at her room. The next day she saw me and said thank you so much. I said how was your holiday? She told me it was fine. Long story short.. It was a month later when she got really sick and had to go into the hospital I found out her family history of abuse, betrayal and mental illness.
She was a great friend. I miss her. I cant even remember her last name just her first. I wonder how she is?
Tia I'm gonna quote you and I will agree with you that "NO ONE in this country should be homeless, unless they WANT to be (i am sure there are some who want to be, in a gypsy type way).....no one should be hungry or homeless....."
To add to that, those who CHOOSE to be homeless, especially panhandlers, should be regulated. i.e. have a special ID form. That would take care of the problem. Also, if you choose to be a bum you better have a damn skill/art/craft/performing ability in order to survive. I refuse to give you money just cause you're holding a sign. I prefer to see you busking, even if what you're showing off is useless-at least you're not freeloading.
In my country we have a BIG problem with people begging on the streets, many of them indigenous. They admit that they do it because they make more money that way, and have herds of children that they send to beg. Fucking mothers who are too lazy to go to a house and ask for a job, meeting underneath overpasses and counting the cash that they get from endangering their children, and these kids are abused if they don't make any money. OH and the indigenous bums come from the mountains to the city by the truckload, literally, like cattle, managed by some mofo who is also getting a cut from their panhandling.
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