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/whatugonnadowhenthey 10d ago edited 10d ago

Since no one is answering the question in good faith, I’ll give it a shot. Honestly, most cities don’t give a shit if a homeless guy is sleeping on a stoop or in a alley or something, it’s been part of living in a city for thousands of years. They care when dozens of them set up tent cities in public areas and start trashing them. That’s when it becomes a real problem because once a tent city is established, less regular folk go to the area, which leads to more homeless, which leads to less regular folk, which leads to businesses leaving, etc. etc.

So the answer to your question is out of open air drug dens and into more individual spaces that are less of an eye sore and quite frankly a danger to the community. Literally “disperse”.

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u/BeardedDisc 10d ago

Part of the answer here is that those “encampments” make it more “comfortable” (I get that’s it’s still a shit hole). Many people feel this removes much of the incentive to pull oneself out of this situation one way or another.

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u/bannedbooks123 10d ago

Shit on the street is a public health hazard, though.

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u/Curious-Author-3140 9d ago

Yes! So why do we tolerate a system that has increasing numbers of homelessness and ever smaller resources for the well being of its citizens. Public services that were designed and created to prevent our communities from being reduced to this? Somehow we managed to fund the services to not just sustain, but improve the conditions and opportunities in communities across this nation for a damn near a hundred years. Business thrived, markets grew, innovation and productivity increased year after year in lock step with the improved economic circumstances across populations.

Weren’t deregulation and tax cuts supposed to help our country be more successful? Seems more like a campaign to grab as much loot as they are able while we’re still reeling from the sustained and escalating attacks.