I'd encourage you to read the court cases...Originally Posted by pinkytoe
If a homeless person commits an act of violence, or crime against property, or similar things, the ACLU doesn't wave some magic wand and get them off the hook for "rights".
The ACLU does get involved in cases in which unconstitutionally vague laws against vagrancy are involved.
Very different things.
It's not against the law to be homeless, or poor.
Yes pot is legal here. If people do come they will probably go to Vegas where it is warm. HOmeless people are not the pot smokers. You would be shocked the normal people that have good jobs etc that smoke pot. I know I was. Yes we need drug treatment. We are not using our resources wisely. We spend a ton on the military while we have no place for the homeless to go. Shelters are overcrowded and dangerous places. People get robbed and beat up. YOu sleep in a big room right next to a ton of other people. In our overfill shelters when the others are full and it is cold they don't take people there until 10 pm and then wake them up at 4 am to leave. Not a lot of sleep. Some people won't give up their pets and can't go into a shelter. As a country we should be a shamed of ourselves for allowing this to happen. But instead the heartless souls on Capital Hill will give the wealthy big tax breaks so they can become richer while people freeze to death.
The drug problem among the homeless seems mostly to involve meth, alcohol, and heroin, with opioids thrown in. Marijuana has been legal here for several years, and is widely used (especially among my fellow geezers) with no apparent rise in crime. As far as drug screens go, employers should go to a basic test of cognition and reflexes (I think the ACLU proposed one) that would identify impaired workers without invasion of their persons.
I imagine people seek out areas with mild climates and more humane vagrancy laws.
About 25% of the homeless have jobs. Jobs are not a guarantee of making rent. 1 in 10 Cal State college students is homeless (so much for the drug users who don't want to work - why are people going to college, because they don't want to work? Other than that one forever student we have all known, not likely. I only hope these students manage to live in vans or trucks or cars and not sleep on the streets but I don't know their situation). Several million children are homeless in this country. Yes of course many of the homeless are addicted. But every time housing costs go up more join the ranks of the homeless as well.
Who has a high risk of homelessness? Drug addicts and mentally ill people? Likely so. But also veterans, disproportionately so, compared to the % of people in the population overall that serve in the armed forces. They don't tell you that in the army recruiting posters I guess. Foster kids, foster kids have disproportionate rates of homelessness when they grow up, these kids that never even had a families but likely bounced around the foster care system, and don't get much help making it in adulthood either.
Trees don't grow on money
This we know but it is against the law to camp in city parks or on trails; defecate in public places; use illegal drugs, etc. The ACLU gets involved when the transients are "arrested" for doing these things and cannot pay the fee and get stuck in jail for a week. It is a merry go round.It's not against the law to be homeless
Can you provide some case citations?
It isn't always against the law to camp in city parks; it depends on the jurisdiction. The ACLU gets involved whenever anyone's rights are threatened.
This thread reminds me to pungle up some money for the ACLU, who has everyone's Consitutional rights in mind, all the time. We'd be in even more danger than we currently are without it.
Everyone should read Nickel and Dimed about those one paycheck from homelessness. 20 years old and nothing has changed. For my middle class mind, it was an eye opener. Very hardworking people can have everything stacked against them.
It, homelessness, is also very much a spectrum. Voluntary, temporary, permanent, situational, illness, etc. I live in an urban area with a huge variety of housing from temporary night shelters, half way houses, domestic violence shelters, and fully transitional housing. We have our permanent and temporary meal handouts. Occasional problems with trash but most often with the temporary give away locations without an adequate trash container supply.
Even with what is available, we have tent camps and the problems those create. We also have some who sleep in doorways and under interstate ramps downtown. The police patrol with trained counselors who know what help is available (we even have a group to help with the pets). It is still a very intractable issue.
I have been temporarily homeless.
i have left objectionable waste shallowly buried not too far from a park trail because while the park was “open” the facilities were not and I was kinda short on options.
how long do you think you would hang on to a nice warm quilt if you had no access to laundry facilities and had to carry everything around with you wherever you went?
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.Can you provide some case citations?
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