The Daily Populous Monday February 8th, 2021 night edition
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IsntItNeat on February 7th, 2021 at 14:50 UTC »

Hope the homeless don’t use the rest of the platform. It would be a shame if they had to remove that as well. On the other hand, it’s probably a good thing they are in the subway and not outside sleeping under trees. It would suck if they had to remove the trees as well.

Amegami on February 7th, 2021 at 15:00 UTC »

It's terrible how for them that seems to be totally legit reasoning...

chibialoha on February 7th, 2021 at 18:32 UTC »

I'm at work so I don't have time to write out a full thing, so I'm just going to copy paste something I wrote a few months back that people seemed to find helpful. What I wrote was specifically about bench splitters and spikes under bridges and the like, but I think it still applies and could help some people who haven't experienced homelessness or who haven't lived in a larger city understand the more complicated parts of the problem. Anyway, here you go.

"This is one of those complicated issues where I see both sides of it. I've been homeless before, a full 2 years, 6 months of which I was living in a car at the very tail end of it, and since then, I've gotten on my feet and I volunteer on a regular basis at my local shelters. There are really only two types of homelessness. This is a sort of... non-humble way to say it, and I"m gonna sound like an asshole, so please, be patient and forgive me, but there are people like me, mostly neurotypical, who maybe made a few mistakes or were dealt a bad hand, maybe had some family issues or problems with the law that got them on the streets. People like that generally aren't homeless for more than a couple months, sometimes a year or two. Then there is the chronically homeless. Now, this is where it gets complicated. Almost every single chronically homeless person has something seriously wrong. It could be PTSD from military duty causing them to panic at any stress and stopping them from holding down a job, it could be drug addiction, or it could be some kind of physical deformity making them unable to work or interact with others. It could be as simple as someone who has very severe mental issues and can't really communicate the way people usually do.

Does this make them lesser or less deserving of a good life? No. But does it make it safe for a lot of them to sleep in a public park with families, or to sleep next to the grocery store? Also no. The sheer number of people I work with at the shelter, and many of the people I slept near when I was homeless, that would lose their minds and go berserk at someone just for looking at them wrong, is staggering. And then just a little further down is people who have just given up so much that they'll literally just shit where they stand. I'm not saying the spikes are fair, or a good thing, but it isn't on the business owner or the people in the area to deal with that. You have to be really careful, because if you or your area becomes known as the place that tolerates that kind of behavior, or even if its just not openly hostile, you WILL be flooded with homeless, and while some of them are just nice people trying to get by however they can, a lot are VERY ill mentally, and unstable. The spikes are an unfortunate necessity in a society where the care thats needed just can't or isn't being provided, without them, girls get raped in neighborhoods that used to be safe, your car gets broken into, stores get robbed for liquor. I've known people that have done all 3 of those things, people who seem really nice until they just lose it. I was even invited to rob a store at knifepoint once (the store being robbed, not me at knifepoint), offered to split the share 40/60 if I just kept an eye out for them. Its not fair to expect whoever put the bench outside their business, or whoever owns the building, to vet and scope out ever person who could reasonably be dangerous sleeping on their doorstep, a much simpler solution is just to be openly hostile so it doesn't happen.

Unfortunately, there isn't really an easy solution to this. Its a beautiful thought to think "Just let people sleep where they need to, just let them be" but that isn't how it works, because most people who are going to take you up on the offer aren't going to let the others who live there be. It can't be live and let live unless that's a two way street, and that's just fundamentally impossible with the amount of drugs and mental illness that comes with the chronically homeless. Don't blame the people who are just looking out for them and theirs by putting up these hostile solutions, its the best they can do without some kind of reform, blame a system that doesn't help the homeless as much as it should, tons of money is poured into the problem, but most of it goes to line someones pockets or to "Raise awareness" instead of into rehab centers and alternative employment. There are a lot of armchair activists who talk about these issues, who go to war on these kinds of spikes and solutions, that just don't want to look at the ugly side of things where it isn't a black and white issue.

If you truly want to help the homeless, find a shelter to volunteer at, if you own a business, try looking for simple jobs someone with a disability can do and give them employment, and if you don't want to go that far, just donate a shitton of socks. Everyone has shirts, pants, even shoes, but there are never enough socks at shelters for anyone. Buy as many as you can, and good pairs that wont wear through in a year. I've seen a dude get stabbed for a pair of really good socks. Vote for people in your local government who make the homeless a priority, not just the presidential, but the governor, all the way down to a mayor or city official, make an effort to learn the stances people have on these things, because you can only rely on federal aid for it so much, the local level is WAY more important for things like this. And this is a REALLY unpopular opinion, and people are gonna get mad at me for it, but if its cold as balls out, and you see a homeless dude huddled in a corner, buy him a bottle of wine or something. Yeah yeah, don't buy the homeless liquor, they're addicts, blah blah, I get it, and you're right. But sometimes, even for an addict, a small act of kindness thats different than the usual bagged lunch or old graphic tee can go a really long ways, and sometimes, that drunk states gonna stop someone from killing themselves on a really cold night. Don't make a habit of it, but they can barter that for better stuff if they need it, and it'll make a difference to them, at least for one night. I just know it really helped me out when someone bought me a beer on christmas, and I know another girl who cried her eyes out because it was the first time she'd gotten to have a luxury like that in months. My high horse is tired now, so I'm gonna get off it, and this is all real controversial, but give it some thought."