Blaming shelters and street sleeping, Donald Trump blasts California for homeless crisis

JEDIYoda

Lifer
Jul 13, 2005
33,986
3,321
126
So our idiot in Chief is going to address the issue of homelessness by making homelessness a crime??
After all under his leadership there should be no homelessness!!! Sound like a compassionate policy...lets just make it a criminasl offense to be homeless!!


LOS ANGELES – Taking direct aim at California, a new report from President Donald Trump's administration says homelessness could be dramatically reduced by slashing restrictions on housing construction and being less tolerant of people sleeping on the streets.

The Council of Economic Advisers' report was released as Trump takes a two-day swing through California for speeches and fundraising, while taking aim at liberal policies on homelessness.

“We can’t let Los Angeles, San Francisco and numerous other cities destroy themselves by allowing what’s happening,” Trump told reporters Tuesday aboard Air Force One. He avoided offering specific solutions.

“The people of San Francisco are fed up and the people of Los Angeles are fed up, and we’re looking at it, and we will be doing something about it at the appropriate time,” Trump said.

The report, issued days after a delegation of Trump officials visited Los Angeles to discuss homelessness, presents a conservative approach to focusing on the problem. More liberal prescriptions favored in the city include a massive and costly plan to build apartments for the homeless.
In the report, "The State of Homelessness in America," even shelters get some of the blame for increasing the number of people who are homeless. The argument: Some people would be able to find their own housing if they were turned away from shelters.

"While shelters play an extremely important role in bringing some people off the streets, it also brings in people who would otherwise be housed, thus increasing total homelessness," the report states.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti blasted the report for treating "this crisis like fodder for a cable news debate."

“We don’t have time for that," he said in a statement. "If the president really cares about solving this crisis, he wouldn’t be talking about criminalization over housing. He’d be making dramatic increases in funding for this country’s housing safety net.”
What LA is doing: Los Angeles County seeks action from city on toilets, rats and trash to combat homeless crisis
Homelessness is a national problem, the Trump administration report states, blaming "two decades of misguided and faulty policies" that have left more than 500,000 homeless on a single night in the U.S. About 65% find their way into shelters but the rest live in cars, parks or elsewhere out in the open.
The problem is concentrated on the West Coast and Northeast. About 47% of all unsheltered people in the nation are in California, the report states.

The key issue behind homelessness, according to the report: Housing costs are too high because of overly restrictive zoning, rent control, energy and water mandates, historic preservation requirements and other measures that hold down new construction.

If such constrictions could be relieved, the ranks of the homeless could fall precipitously, the report predicts. Just by deregulating housing markets in 11 metro areas, overall homelessness would fall 13%, the report claims. In San Francisco, it would plummet 54% and in Los Angeles, 40% – both cities with sky-high rents.


Part of the problem involves policies that allow people to sleep on the streets, the Trump administration says. The report notes some warm-weather cities, like Orlando and Las Vegas, have relatively low rates of unsheltered homeless people. "It is clear that warm climates enable, but do not guarantee, high rates of unsheltered homelessness," it states.

The report says while homelessness should not be treated as a crime, how police approach "street activities" is a factor in how many people are homeless in a city.

Homeless advocates weren't impressed by the report.

The report "reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of homelessness, the programs that end homelessness, and the people who experience it," wrote the National Alliance to End Homelessness in a statement. The report, the group says, brushes aside data on programs that have worked and what communities have learned along the way.

"It is a simplistic response to an extraordinarily complex issue," the group says.
 

Paratus

Lifer
Jun 4, 2004
17,549
15,634
146
“In its majestic equality, the law forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, beg in the streets and steal loaves of bread.”
7G3zITG.png
 

K1052

Elite Member
Aug 21, 2003
52,095
45,078
136
I like that they haven't yet figured out what legal authority the president would have to essentially incarcerate the homeless because no such authority exists.

In the "blind squirrel finds nut category" the report is correct that zoning is a major part of the housing crisis in CA and the US in general. If you gave me three wishes for CA housing policy it would be to drastically limit local control, repeal Prop 13, and automatically up zone anything within half mile of transit to the hilt.
 

1prophet

Diamond Member
Aug 17, 2005
5,313
534
126
Maybe if the virtue signaling, Trump hating, billionaire liberals actually did their fair share to combat the homeless problem there wouldn't someone like Trump capitalizing on the homeless problem.


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The demise of a California housing measure shows how progressives abandon progressive values in their own backyards.



In Liberal San Francisco, Tech Leaders Brawl Over Tax Proposal to Aid Homeless

 

JEDIYoda

Lifer
Jul 13, 2005
33,986
3,321
126
Maybe if the virtue signaling, Trump hating, billionaire liberals actually did their fair share to combat the homeless problem there wouldn't someone like Trump capitalizing on the homeless problem.


Amazon Crushes a Small Tax That Would Have Helped the Homeless

San Francisco Residents Raise Money To Block Homeless Shelter In Wealthy Neighborhood



America’s Cities Are Unlivable. Blame Wealthy Liberals.

The demise of a California housing measure shows how progressives abandon progressive values in their own backyards.



In Liberal San Francisco, Tech Leaders Brawl Over Tax Proposal to Aid Homeless

Your point???
 

K1052

Elite Member
Aug 21, 2003
52,095
45,078
136
Maybe if the virtue signaling, Trump hating, billionaire liberals actually did their fair share to combat the homeless problem there wouldn't someone like Trump capitalizing on the homeless problem.

Rich people generally don't want poor people around, what a shock. This knows no partisan limitation.

Also you'll be surprised to learn that a lot of these billionaires have strong libertarian bents so the status quo or worse is generally an acceptable outcome to them.
 

DrunkenSano

Diamond Member
Aug 8, 2008
3,892
490
126
This issue, like many that we are currently facing isn't a Republican vs Democrat issue. It's a class issue where it is the rich vs the poor and unfortunately, whether you are a Republican or Democrat, the rich have all the power and the poor just get stepped on. We need a reallocation of wealth to provide the poor better opportunities to better themselves and their lives. It's funny how the rich or misinformed always claim that people need to pull themselves up by the bootstraps but when the hardworking poor try to do so, the rich come with scissors and cut those same bootstraps with a giant fuck you.
 

dawp

Lifer
Jul 2, 2005
11,347
2,710
136
Rich people generally don't want poor people around, what a shock. This knows no partisan limitation.

Also you'll be surprised to learn that a lot of these billionaires have strong libertarian bents so the status quo or worse is generally an acceptable outcome to them.
it's not always like that
was listening to this yesterday
 

interchange

Diamond Member
Oct 10, 1999
8,026
2,879
136
If you are going to assert this is a partisan issue, please provide some actual evidence. Examples aren't sufficient. Pretty easy to cite examples of rich Republicans acting in ways in their interest that screw the poor also. Realistically, the rich have a conflicted interest in helping the poor. Many of them became rich because they were less affected by that conflict than others. It doesn't make logical sense that free markets will organize to anything more than wealth polarization. By the way, I do think there are ideals that favor a healthier wealth distribution other than philanthropy. For example, high societal value on integrity, long term connections, etc. are things which support a more long term collaborative relationship between employee and employer, harkening back to times where pension systems were functional, etc. In that way, a rich person's wealth would be measured by more than money and property. But even those motivated only by tangible wealth, a society with stronger values may make it financially beneficial to honor those values. Right now, these things aren't important enough to self-organize toward.

In today's world, or even yesteryear's, government intervention to systematize these things is not regress. Scandinavia seems to be doing just fine. Actually, I think degradation of values threatens the efficacy of government intervention as well.

Otherwise, if we care about addressing homelessness, the best evidence base rests in providing housing stability first with the minimum amount of barriers. The VA is having a harder time but showing success in bracketing housing with active treatment -- essentially showing that for the more disenfranchised, you have the most success by providing the most.

Importantly, the results here are not simply based on numbering the homeless. It's obvious that providing homes for free lowers that number. But it is also in financial interest, as the homeless cost a lot through incarceration, expensive hospital care, economic impact on business, etc. that is more than what it costs to just give them everything. Even people who abuse it, taking everything they can without intent to better themselves. Turns out those people take more from our current systems. And people are also more successful at escaping poverty when they are given more resources for free.

I unequivocally expect efforts to restrict benefits from those who are not pursuing employment to both cost the state more money and worsen the outcomes for the poor. And I think pursuit of these things represents either conscious or unconscious awareness and aggression rather than any honest expectation of goodness.
 

blackangst1

Lifer
Feb 23, 2005
22,902
2,359
126
This issue, like many that we are currently facing isn't a Republican vs Democrat issue. It's a class issue where it is the rich vs the poor and unfortunately, whether you are a Republican or Democrat, the rich have all the power and the poor just get stepped on. We need a reallocation of wealth to provide the poor better opportunities to better themselves and their lives. It's funny how the rich or misinformed always claim that people need to pull themselves up by the bootstraps but when the hardworking poor try to do so, the rich come with scissors and cut those same bootstraps with a giant fuck you.

Your post ignores that a large percentage of people either refuse help or dont want it. Im from Seattle, and homelessness has reach critical levels in the last few years. It really is terrible. Here in one article that show 30-44% of those asked refuse help. What to do with them?


The interchange between I90 and I5 for example has been overtaken by homeless.

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64b0397a-bea1-46e8-b73d-7f28c317623a-large16x9_PKGSTATEOFHOMELESSNESS_frame_6085.jpg


9b25fe20-9fad-49d9-8b6f-be951191c61f-large16x9_seattle_homeless_camp.jpg
 

K1052

Elite Member
Aug 21, 2003
52,095
45,078
136
it's not always like that
was listening to this yesterday

Generational change over is bringing younger people more into the foreground on things like YIMBY-ism and challenging the old guard now that housing costs have reached insane levels. This is good and we need more of it. California actually is making some progress lately in the legislature by removing obstacles to development and legalizing things like ADUs (granny flats) statewide. There is much more work to be done however.
 

K1052

Elite Member
Aug 21, 2003
52,095
45,078
136
Your post ignores that a large percentage of people either refuse help or dont want it. Im from Seattle, and homelessness has reach critical levels in the last few years. It really is terrible. Here in one article that show 30-44% of those asked refuse help. What to do with them?


Part of the question is the help being offered actually a solution for those people. A lot of shelters push people outside during the day, don't allow their animals, or secure their belongings. This is a significant factor in some people rejecting the aid on offer. More research is being done about why people are rejecting aid and what could change their minds. My suspicion is that the number of people who actually wish to live outside is probably less than 10% and some amount of the entire group probably people who's needs are better served though mental services and residential facilities equipped to aid them in that regard.
 

balloonshark

Diamond Member
Jun 5, 2008
7,056
3,539
136
If only a certain major religious group would put its money where its tax free mouth is and turn those mega-churches which cost millions of dollars into homeless shelters.

We now have 2 trillion dollars companies in the US. Homelessness shouldn't exist.
 
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