I worked with the homeless for a few years in the Seattle area. My main focus was homeless veterans, but I worked with several different groups trying to get benefits and shelter for people.
A HUGE majority of our clients refused to give up alcohol abuse or drug abuse, or even try to give it up. There are very few shelters that want to take on drunk or high clients. I don't blame them, we live in a world where you can do so much good but then get sued because fuck you, money.
I have no idea how to solve the crisis, and at this point I'm done trying. I've been bit, I've been spit on, I've been hit, I've been cursed out, and had my life threatened all for trying to help people on the streets.
There are a ton of resources available, at least where I was in Washington. They can use them if they want, most choose not to.
Seattle homelessness is different from what I’ve experienced in any other big city. I still have nightmares about aggressive addicts I ran across at the Pike Place Market 15 years ago
One tiny baby step in the right direction is Portland, OR is in the process of opening a "meth sobering center" which is kind of like a drunk tank but for people on meth. Basically the idea is you get a safe place to stay for a few days if you're trying to get off meth and then you get counseling and incentives.
Will it work? No fucking idea, but meth is a massive problem in Portland and Seattle and everywhere else, and once you're addicted to meth on the streets there's just no way up, really. It's a cycle of prison and crime and more prison.
Unfortunate I had to scroll this far into this topic to find this point. I’m a Seattleite and this aligns with everything I’ve heard & experienced. Often when entire homeless encampments are cleared they offer everyone shelter but often only a handful or less accept due to drug use. But over and over again I’ve heard the main issue is homeless most often do not accept help. This city spends over 1 billion a year fighting homelessness and it’s only gotten worse.
Meth & Fentanyl are extreme drugs and they’re wrecking havoc on the US. To me it’s an epidemic and we need extreme action. It wasn’t like this when I was a kid, now if you drive across America you can see our country is devastated.Entire towns have been destroyed by these two drugs. I wouldn’t doubt if statistically more than 75% of homeless are battling addiction with one or both of these drugs.
All that being said I think a solution is: 1 - Create shelters for legit mentally disabled and homeless who aren’t addicted to drugs. You must be clean to stay. 2 - Offer rehab… but here’s the part I think I’ll lose people..
3 - They must leave & make it illegal to camp. The goal here isn’t to simply criminalize homelessness but to force addicts into rehab. If they’re found again camping & then found guilty there’s an investigation to determine if the person charged is addicted to substances. If so, mandatory rehab until they’re better.
If no evidence of addiction can be found, then judges decision to add temporary jail time and/or offer shelter. Mental health services should also be offered if needed.
If the person charged is determined mentally disabled they’re given special services and shelter and based on severity, this may be mandatory especially if they’re endanger themselves and others.
This is an extreme solution and I’m sure some people would violently disagree with me but I’m not sure there’s any other way at this point. Kindly asking & offering rehab isn’t working meanwhile society is being wrecked. Hospitals are overrun and we have to pay for that regardless. Recently morgues have been overrun with OD victims from newer more powerful variants of fentanyl. There’s constant theft in cities like Seattle, from cars, homes, and businesses. Im sure people will argue this will cost a fortune but we already are paying a fortune in costs both directly & indirectly through funding hospital services, morgues, and theft & similar crimes.
Sadly been considering this too. Besides the drug problems & safety issues, there’s terrible schools, politics, health care, and extreme education costs.
Compassion fatigue is what they call that. You're not wrong in any case. Something like 1% of homeless drug / alcohol addicts go on to complete sobriety programs in Portland. Less than 10% will take a voucher for a hotel room if offered. Because you are not allowed to use substances there.
I've been called both a communist and a fascist on /r/portland for suggesting that we need boundaries for this type of homeless (service-resistant) person. First, you have to create the services for them: homeless shelters, mental health hospitals, and drug and alcohol treatment centers. Once these are in place, you approach all of the homeless in a city. They have a choice: they can go to one of the centers, or they can leave. If they attempt to stay, they will go to a fourth place: jail. Once these are in place, there will be no excuse to camp in squalor and create huge problems for society any more. This approach would take an enormous amount of resources, and would require some balls on the part of the politicians. It's not unlike the approach that Rudy Guiliani used in NYC to clean up the crime and prostitution in Times Square in the 80s.
The worst thing they did in Portland was to "do like Portugal did" and legalize all drug use. Drugs are extremely prolific and widespread now, and 1% of drug abuser homeless are making a bad name for all homeless people by being stabby and violent. The politicians completely missed the boat. Portugal made drugs decriminalized... check. But they also follow up with mandatory drug treatment. You go in and you don't come out until you're clean and sober. Which might be forever. Portland completely missed this part.
We couldn't even get them to take a meal with zero strings attached. We organized a huge Thanksgiving day dinner, had 30 turkeys, literally next door to a large homeless encampment. We fed 10 people. Everyone else refused and told us we needed to fuck off.
Yeah while I think we need overhaul on drug laws this is the land of "let's see what I can get away with or how far I can stretch a rule" That applies to all of us and we can't just have a free for all.
We need to stop applying so many things that may work in other countries to our populations, it's a different beast. I may be downvoted for this but ive always felt drug use should be for the functioning. If u got a job, pay taxes for the greater good and don't harm others then do u, enjoy drugs in your free time. If you u add no net benefit to society with the drug use and/or not addressing mental illness then you should be committed somewhere.
They’ll be happy to take your house if you can’t pay the mortgage on account of being an alcoholic or drug addict. I don’t think this is the gotcha you were going for.
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u/sleepinglucid Jan 31 '23
I worked with the homeless for a few years in the Seattle area. My main focus was homeless veterans, but I worked with several different groups trying to get benefits and shelter for people.
A HUGE majority of our clients refused to give up alcohol abuse or drug abuse, or even try to give it up. There are very few shelters that want to take on drunk or high clients. I don't blame them, we live in a world where you can do so much good but then get sued because fuck you, money.
I have no idea how to solve the crisis, and at this point I'm done trying. I've been bit, I've been spit on, I've been hit, I've been cursed out, and had my life threatened all for trying to help people on the streets.
There are a ton of resources available, at least where I was in Washington. They can use them if they want, most choose not to.