• ArbiterXero@lemmy.world
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    17 days ago

    The problem is that the homeless folk that are sleeping on them are also causing security and safety issues.

    There aren’t many good answers.

    I’m not suggesting we should inconvenience the homeless, I just don’t know what the right answer is.

    • coyootje@lemmy.world
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      17 days ago

      If you create shelters where the homeless can stay for the night they don’t have to sleep rough in a park or station like that. Of course this won’t work for all of them, sometimes people like sleeping rough. But on average it should help, especially in the colder months. They do this where I live and I rarely see homeless in the streets when it gets dark, they’re only there during the day to scavenge for cans and bottles with deposits on them or to beg for money.

      • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world
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        17 days ago

        Or, you know, actual homes.

        Shelters are often much more dangerous to the unhoused people than even sleeping on the street. Even when they aren’t, they’re usually extremely underfunded, overbooked, or both.

        It’s not that “some people like sleeping rough”, it’s that oftentimes that’s simply the least bad option.

        • coyootje@lemmy.world
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          17 days ago

          I agree but in many places they have housing shortages so I don’t think it’s likely they’ll give homes to the homeless. I’m not saying they shouldn’t (it would be really nice if the government could do something like this) but it’s not very likely to happen.

    • Feathercrown@lemmy.world
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      17 days ago

      Yup. People forget that while homeless people should be helped, they’re also fairly likely to be dangerous. This is ignored every time this screenshot is inevitably reposted every week.

      • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world
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        17 days ago

        Contrary to popular belief, homeless people are several times more likely to be VICTIMS of crime than perpetrators.

        The narrative about homeless people being dangerous is the same kind of scaremongering that has been done to all other marginalized groups.

        • Feathercrown@lemmy.world
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          17 days ago

          How is it evil to wish for their situation to get better while protecting myself? Many homeless people are harmless, but the higher rates of drug use make it dangerous to assume that’s the case.