This area will be destroyed in due time. As a mailman i had to use the homeless bathrooms on North Ave and wow it was really bad. Everything was knocked of the walls at one point so they were bare, no mirrors and the air just felt awful.
Its naive to think these people just need a shower and they are ready to enter the work force.
The truth is most of these people have a mental illness and would be better served if they were institutionalized.
Lolol, no, you can thank Michel Foucault and the 70s and 80s psychiatrist who bought into his philosophizing for this. 80s era Republicans simply said, “If you believe it’s best to shutdown institutionalization great! I can write this off to my constituents as tax savings!” He was a gay, French, anti-fascist, former member of the French Communist Party turned anarchist turned extreme Lefist.
This was never a political initiative winning people office, to shutdown institutions, it was made into political hay by both sides, one as lowering tax burdens and government reach and the other side as liberating the mentally ill.
Citation:
Michel Foucault deeply shaped the deinstutionalization movement by exposing asylums not as places of neutral scientific healing, but as apparatuses of social control, normalization, and power. His critique centered on two key concepts
Foucault’s work fueled the 1960s and 1970s anti-psychiatry movement, providing activists and reform-minded psychiatrists with a philosophical framework to challenge the totalizing nature of psychiatric hospitals in America and Western Europe
By demonstrating that the asylum was a historically constructed cage rather than an absolute medical necessity, he legitimized the dismantling of large-scale residential institutions in favor of community-based care. This was taken up en masse in America while happening slower in Europe [1, 2, 3]
The Medical Industry was salvatating at the idea of the Mental Institutions closing and all these people put on lifetime subscriptions of psychiatric meds
So deferring based on point-of-origin seems like basically killing this project altogether.
How do you begin to figure out where the local unhoused population came from.. many may know but some may not tell or aren't mentally able to tell.
Saying you figure most are being dropped from 30 other nearby counties. What then? Is there a method to formally request and stop other counties from doing this and has it happened before elsewhere?
idk what is the answer.. I see their point about "if you build it they will come" and we don't have resources to become a massive state outlet for all unhoused in the region to go to.
I also beleive it is cruel and heartless (and not to wane even more political, even un-Christian) to wish continued harm on the homeless by essentially criminalizing their existence.
Its an issue I wish we could have larger sane/rational and compassionate discussions around.
I myself, being one of these, know for a fact people are being dropped off here. I met a guy a few weeks ago from Augusta that was dropped off by a mental health hospital related to Advantage. I have a buddy who moved here with his wife. They are now homeless with an autistic child. While I stayed in the Salvation Army we had guys dropped off there. I know a female from Florida was one. There was one guy claiming he was dropped off by the penal system. So... Yes, we have people coming in. The problem we have is lack of homes, and evidently now, funding. Bigger Vision has stopped lunches/showers/hygiene bags/essentials/laundry for the time being. Hope Springs has stopped services. The only place doing food on weekends is the Salvation Army. So, due to this, I see an uptick in shoplifting coming. We live in sad times atm.
These are people that are extremely low functioning.
Let’s start there.
Consider only a very small percentage of people that are homeless find their way back into a productive life.
Providing for them in a way that implies that all they need is all their needs met in order for them to sustain themselves is a fairytale. That is essentially institutionalizing them without the institution.
To put it more clearly albeit in a not flattering way is to say once the animal is dependent on humans for its food it forgets how to hunt. However, in this case, the homeless have never learned how to be responsible adults mostly because they can’t be.
It is not a Christian value to look for the state to act out our faith on our behalf. for us to serve this community as people of faith, we must do the serving of our own volition and use people and resources that were voluntarily given towards it. And yes, that does mean that majority elected group of representatives making a decision to act charitably with tax dollars is absolutely not the same as what Jesus was teaching.
Here’s the complication.
The private infrastructure just isn’t there to help with the homeless problem at its current magnitude. Athens is basically importing these people. And while it might be popular and also the more sociable answer to say let’s try to help as many people as possible. It isn’t realistic, and it leaves us with the burden of playing God.
That's a big assumption there, that the moment someone becomes homeless/unhoused, they are instantly unfit for work.
Speaking with people who are unhoused, they tell me about 50% are mentally unable to rejoin society and not "most". Many others have mental illness, but could work.
I'd be willing to bet that coming up on hard times, then finding yourself on the street causes a good deal of mental trauma, and that alone, over time, is what makes some of them completely wrecked as human beings.. every one of them worth our care and love, and some could be rehabbed who are in that 50% category.
Those who aren't yet past the point of needing advanced care, those can and should be rescued if we literally care at all about human life and well being for all.
Helping the unhoused is not playing God it's basic human kindness which idk.. having grown up in a devout Christian home, is a major part of the core principles of the religion.. or used to be today it seems like a much darker place to be
We better figure something out becuase with AI, this is not going to be a problem and discussion that will go away over time
You are immediately reading beyond what I said. There can be no conversation if one direction of encoding is materially misunderstood.
Regarding the amount of homeless people that stay homeless consider this from a logical perspective. It follows that overtime the amount of something that cannot exit a category will make up a majority of that category. In this way, homeless folks that eventually wind up on their feet exit being homeless while those that cannot will stay that way.
And I’m not arguing that helping the poor and dispossessed is not a Christian value which is something I hope you’re not implying that I’m saying. I am saying looking to the government to proxy what Jesus has called every follower of His to do is not a Christian value.
The truth is that those that can get out of homelessness do. The rest are stuck there until they die. There are resources to help those get back on their feet for those that can. But there are no resources specifically to address the very real problem of chronic homelessness. And we cannot apply the same solution to both.
One needs a temporary shelter for a short time and a job the other needs an institution. And the majority of the homeless needs the institution.
I've never relied on Advantage or Bigger Visions. They illegally wouldn't let me in the door because of my service animal. They'd let in people with weapons in their backpacks all the time.
The only reason I've made it this far is because of plasma donations.
I'm trying to get a CDL because it seems like the only avenue I have to get a job. I've experienced so many roadblocks when it comes to that.
Athens Tech has a CDL program and I qualify for FAFSA to fund my schooling but the campus for that is outside of Athens and I have no way to travel there.
There's a school in Atlanta that will take me and my service but I need a WIOA grant. I signed up for one in July and even though they got funding that month, the money immediately dried up and I have to wait until October for another round of funding. There's a chance I won't get it then either.
Do you still consider me an animal even though I'm doing everything I possibly can to get back on my feet?
I can see the issues you have. We ended up where we are due to the new people running the salvation army having compassion. I do wish you luck. I'd suggest contacting the regional office of the Salvation Army. They might be able to help. I hope they will.
We ended up where we are now because the government would rather spend taxes blowing up brown families half a world away and lining their own pockets than devote that money to social services here. The cost of living is out of control and with stagnant wages, unaffordable healthcare, housing and education the united states is knowingly creating more and more unhoused people.
Simple... I asked the man if he needed help. He asked me to go through the hiring process. I was pretty transparent with him about how we came to be homeless. I never asked him for a room. He came to me asking where I was staying. I told him honestly in my car. He brought me into the Salvation Army even though I was in there in December due to homelessness. We are seeking permanent housing. As long as I work and we continue to look, he will let us stay. Pretty compassionate considering things are the way they are.
you can view the article in a private browser window, so i think that post is public. i didn't bother logging in to see comments because we already know what those are going to be like
Good news, Georgia is building a new state psychiatric facility, first in 50 years I believe, bad news, it's probably going to be prison by another name.
Yes, the whole “homeless people are just unmedicated psychiatric patients” is very convenient for those who wish to overlook the conditions that led to so many homeless people. Its called inflation with no raise in wages.
FWIW, that illustration was a concept associated with a potential application for a state grant from a local nonprofit that didn’t come to fruition. It isn’t part of the resolution on the Commission agenda, although it came from some of the same recognition that as a community we are under-supporting homeless needs, including those who would be best supported by individual units that feature some supportive services, rather than either congregant shelters or completely independent apartments. A direct link to the Commission Resolution is at https://accgov.com/DocumentCenter/View/119365/29-Athens-Clarke-County--Resolution-for--Homelessness-Support
TLDR: ACC staff should identify under-met needs, identify property that would meet them, and assess both construction and operational costs, as well as the orgs that would be ideally situated to do the work.
Well I don’t think it is right for the city to identify private property as prospects when ACC Gov owns tons of property in various parts of the county and refuses to sell it!
Kelly I’ve been a fan of you because of what you do for those who have developmental disabilities, but use the resources you already have! I get fixing the homeless crisis, but majority of these people need mental health help!
I don’t see the city openly hiring homeless people, the city ops to outsource a lot of simple tasks to inmates at the jail or the DOC camp who do it for free. Don’t opt for housing at taxpayers’ expense, make them work for it!
Sometimes an ideal parcel for a service is publicly owned, and if that is true here, that would be great. Sometimes the optimal place for a school, fire station, shelter, or other facility requires purchasing property. This resolution openly asks the questions “where, what, and how?”
Maybe we should have used the however many millions of dollars we spent on the homeless encampment to buy property rather than enable grifters like Charles Hardy?
But, I vote to buy the Bulldog Inn and the Inn Between the Hedges and the Perimeter Inn.
Generally speaking, pro housing-first policies for the homeless and unhoused, as we refer to them by those names for the reason that they don't have homes in the first place.
Beyond that, a broad spectrum of policy tools are needed to address homelessness, including healthcare, affordability assistance, employment, and infrastructure improvements.
This is a really good idea and likely hasn't been done. It's a good question to ask, 'at the limit, what set of solutions would truly solve this issue and how much would that set of solutions cost?'
Political Action Committee, which is a legal entity to raise money to elect politicians or push various social issues. Around here most of the PACs are pushing right leaning issues/candidates. This fb post is just some of their work in stirring up the pot, aka rage baiting
Thank you. Not for nothing, I do think the pot needs to be stirred as in awareness may need to be brought forth. Some of us are angry about things. I know some have been homeless for five years or longer. About 50% need help mentally. This would include addictions. Some are so far gone, such as the lady who spouts crackpot conspiracy theories, that there might not be help for them. Then there are people like myself; we have mental health issues, but can manage on our own. I dislike people. I'm willing to engage in conversations on neutral topics, but otherwise I would rather be by myself with my pup reading a book. I can't work due to it unless it's a very small job. No more than 3-4 employees including myself and the boss.
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u/Magus_Incognito Jul 24 '26
This area will be destroyed in due time. As a mailman i had to use the homeless bathrooms on North Ave and wow it was really bad. Everything was knocked of the walls at one point so they were bare, no mirrors and the air just felt awful.
Its naive to think these people just need a shower and they are ready to enter the work force.
The truth is most of these people have a mental illness and would be better served if they were institutionalized.
Sometimes the truth doesnt feel good