Political Memes

The nuance is that if they built the homeless shelters that are needed, there wouldn’t be “needles in the park and angry homeless people shouting” problems as the article states, because they wouldn’t be in the park where kids play.

I live in a city dealing with this right now, and while I have never been directly involved, I did date someone who was and dealt with their emotional distress every day when they would come home from the shelter they worked at. There isn't a lack of shelters, at least in my city. What there is is a wealth of people that have been kicked out of the shelters for violence, drug use, and other law breaking offenses.

So, now your argument is "We need to get these people the help they need, then."

Yep. Doing that, too. Turns out the problem people, the ones that are screaming at kids and leaving the needles around, are the ones that don't accept the mental health help they need. And, it's a human rights violation to force them into treatment against their will, so now what do we do?

Well, one option is arresting them. However, that just clogs up an already over burdened legal system (they don't just "go to jail", they have to be tried, too, and that means judges, state appointed lawyers, etc.)

Another is fining them, but if they could afford those fines, they would probably not be in as harsh a state as they are now, so that's off the table.

We can't outlaw the drugs they are taking because that's fucking stupid and Reagan was a cunt for trying, so that's out of the question.

Do you see now why I responded the way I did? It isn't because I am for the bans or against them. There are nuances to each side. I responded the way I did because all of this is completely fucking worthless to talk about with fucking strangers on a fucking web forum where nothing will fucking happen. It's a waste of fucking time.

So, yeah, let's go with your idea and cram all of the homeless into an abandoned strip mall, because that will solve the problems. Who is going to work there? Who is going to cover the cost of construction to get it fit to live in (bathrooms, kitchens, privacy, etc.)? N U A N C E. Nothing is as simple as everyone wants to think it is. We aren't 1 step away from solving this problem. We aren't even 100 steps away.

Oh, and before you say "that's what our taxes should be going towards" when I ask about who is going to pay for all this shit, just shut up now, because I don't have the breath to waste explaining tax law to someone who thinks that homelessness can be fixed with a fucking vacant strip mall.