the homeless and the ACLU

[bae]

Google Colorado Springs, homeless, ACLU and you will find more than one ACLU suit - the latest regards a $55 court fee against a meth addict with a newborn and three children.

I am familiar with the Colorado Springs cases. I went to high school in Colorado Springs, met my wife there, and we still own a nice home in Colorado Springs, and just got back from there in fact. The situation is a bit more nuanced...

Colorado Springs has a huge, and growing, homeless population. However, the Colorado Springs police and prosecutors have been violating constitutional due process guidelines. The ACLU gets involved in that side of things, yes - but look to the detaisl - they weren't defending the homeless person's right to do drugs in public parks...

Colorado in general, and Colorado Springs and Denver in particular, needs to look carefully at the constitution before trying to make homelessness a crime. As both cities have found out over and over. (Gosh, look, Denver lost *again* just last month: https://acluco-wpengine.netdna-ssl.c...ismissal-2.pdf )

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-...ay-court-fines

[pinkytoe]

I suppose it riles me more than it should since I have not experienced the presence of transient folk in such numbers until now. Whole lot of things I didn't know until I moved here and am still trying to understand.

[Teacher Terry]

So Texas doesn't have a homeless problem or they just shoot them? Rents are rising rapidly here also and is going to make more working people homeless. Beisies that developers are buying up the crappy weekly motels where many poor working people live and put up expensive condos and apartments. Where should those people go?

[BikingLady]

I do not believe our area is due to rising rent. I understand other areas that is the reason. This area has so many low income housing options.

[pinkytoe]

Austin did not have a very visible problem except in certain downtown areas near the shelter. They also have things like well-funded homeless villages (tiny homes) too but only for those who want to follow rules. I don't think it's a terribly popular place to land for whatever reason. This is a problem that really nags at me since I want to understand how and why it got so large and how it can be ameliorated. I am thinking multiple causes - 2008 recession, the rise of investors/flippers (house values going up), changing job economy and loss of societal values. It makes me sad/mad to see aimless, young people roaming up and down the streets with backpacks, sleeping on top of store roofs or in the alleys. Not mad at them - just mad at the situation.

[Yppej]

So Texas doesn't have a homeless problem or they just shoot them?

Don't say that too loudly. That's what Trump's pal Dutarte does, and has been done also in the favelas in Brazil.

I believe the opioid epidemic is a major factor. I have spoken with parents of addicts who say jail, homelessness, friends and siblings ODing all have no impact. In many cases there doesn't seem to be a bottom to be hit besides death.

[catherine]

I believe the opioid epidemic is a major factor. I have spoken with parents of addicts who say jail, homelessness, friends and siblings ODing all have no impact. In many cases there doesn't seem to be a bottom to be hit besides death.

What a tragedy.

[razz]

We have two methadone clinics and people are moving here from some distance away to access them. They struggle find accommodation in an area with a limited supply, unable to drive so congregate in the small downtowns. People avoid the downtowns and the local merchants are losing business and closing; those remaining are trying to revive the downtown and decrease the empty store fronts.

[kib]

I'm actually very impressed with what my mother's town, mid atlantic community of about 20K people, has been doing. The churches take turns hosting the homeless, helping them get to jobs or job-finding, feeding them and providing cot-type accommodations for a week. I don't know all the specifics, but it seems to me that this whole-package approach is truly trying to address the needs of people who want a better life, while lightening the admittedly unpleasant load on the community as a whole.

In Tucson, there are definitely places where the line is pushed thin between compassion and annoyance. I want to participate in an answer, but I don't want to be approached by t.c inhabitants looking for butt money every time I stop for gas.

[BikingLady]

Yes the bottom hits and hopefully before death. Having been the parent, you can take shoes and coats away in the frozen with and the addict will still walk out the door. Bottom is not behind dumpster sleeping in vomit and filth, sometimes it can be in the home in the kitchen. I used to think everyone wants help, some just do not and that is the truth. Hard to accept.