r/NoStupidQuestions • u/Garey_Coleman • 10d ago

Where are the homeless supposed to go?

Cities have been cracking down on homeless people so they can’t have encampments or stay on sidewalks. At the same time usually the shelters are full. So those who are unable to get into a shelter, where are they supposed to go?

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u/bannedbooks123 9d ago

As long as people aren't shooting up heroine in them and leaving their dirty needles around that you couldn't pay someone enough to clean up. Speaking of, heroine needles are another health hazard

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u/jimthesquirrelking 9d ago

There are sharps boxes that are mass produced and easy to leave in these restrooms. You can throw as many "but what about this dirty thing or that gross thing!" As you like but at a certain point its cheaper to accommodate these needs than criminalize them and incarcerate  them. Unless of course you make money off slave, I mean prisoner labor... (Edit) also you're very uninformed if you think no one can be hired to clean up needles, people often clean worse, you just need proper ppe 

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u/bannedbooks123 9d ago edited 9d ago

I also want to add that I knew someone who was a drug abuse counselor who had once been addicted to meth and living on the streets. He said getting arrested saved his life because it forced him to get sober. While he was in prison, his gf who was also homeless and addicted to drugs died of an overdose.

I went to his 4 year sobriety party where his mother broke down and cried, saying that she was relieved when he got arrested because she lost so many nights of sleep thinking of him on the streets and what might happen. She also couldn't do anything about it because he was an adult. She was so proud of who he became after. At least while he was in prison, he was alive and she knew where he was.

So, prison may not be the worst thing to happen to someone.

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u/jimthesquirrelking 9d ago

Survivorship bias, our prison system is not healthy or healing. People like that are exceptions not the general rule 

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u/bannedbooks123 9d ago edited 9d ago

I'd rather be alive in prison than dead on the street. But, my friend doing so well prob had a lot to do with the fact that he had a nice family who loved him. Families are important.