Portland Has Come Up An Idea to Stop Spread of Coronavirus in the 'Houseless' Community

All right, this actually *is* a valid concern for the west coast cities in the US and for any other city in the US that openly allows for what is politically correctly called "urban camping" (which means allowing the homeless to build shanty towns wherever they wish). And in this day and age where I see an increasing call for quarantines and house arrests, how do you accomplish that in a place with populations that have no homes to self-quarantine in?

How do you reduce the risk of infectious spread when you allow people to poop where they wish and discard freely provided needles wherever they happen to be? Sure, some cities will pay workers over $100K/year to clean up the poop, but we are talking about a disease that has been isolated in fecal matter.

Portland sees the risk at least. I'm not sure their guidelines will help much though.

KGW-TV reports that city and county officials have requested that homeless shelters ask "houseless" people to stay six feet from each other in the shelters and if they won't do that, send them back on the streets and demand they separate themselves there.

The city of Portland wants their homeless shelters to ask their residents to stay 6ft away from each other all the time. That's assuming they will or can comply. It also will have the effect of possibly reducing the numbers those shelters can serve, meaning more people on the street where their health will be impacted by possibly poor conditions in addition to whatever challenges they may already face (like possible addiction). And if their residents refuse to comply, the shelters can kick them out ... but ask them to stay 6ft away from other people on the streets once they're out.

I'm not sure that's going to work out well, either. If they weren't going to stay 6ft away from people in a supervised space, what makes anyone think they'll do it in the freedom of an unsupervised world? But it also calls into question the larger picture --- What good does a quarantine do if you have a large, roaming population you cannot quarantine because they have nowhere to go?

a reply to: ketsuko

I've tried to author a couple of serious threads about this virus.

I've tried to calm fears, stay rational and help ease anxiety.

But if we allow progressive morons to determine our health, safety and security then we're all going to die.

Probably by next week.

a reply to: DBCowboy

We must remain calm but not complacent.

www.independent.co.uk...

a reply to: ketsuko

Wow...I do a ton of business in Portland, and where this makes a nice "sound bite" for the Mayor and Gov. Kate (I dont care what the voters want, Ill pass it with the emergency clause)Brown...

It's not even within the realm of reality. I dont know what numbers frequent their shelters, but if the streets, parks, overpasses etc..are any indicator, theyre going to need to get "boots on the ground" so to speak.

Many of these folks are totally "off the reservation" too. Violent, or just utterly mad, so...great sentiment, but ni way in hell it works.

a reply to: DBCowboy

Honestly, this is a much bigger problem than just COVID. We're letting misguided compassion get in the way of public health and safety standards on this one.

I thought people would wake up when medieval disease started making a comeback, but I was wrong. Sooner or later, one of these cities is going to get caught with a serious, serious plague of some sort and they'll learn too late that this brand of compassion can kill.

I'm not even sure I can call it compassion anymore. People just are afraid to be "mean" and upset other people. No one must make anyone else feel bad, so we allow things that are clearly bad just to avoid it.

a reply to: ketsuko

What's the math behind the 6 feet idea ?

It'll spread one way or another. Proposing placebo-ideas like this one just made me think how far from a vaccine we are.

a reply to: ketsuko

It almost sounds like Portland city officials are gearing up to blame the homeless for their community-spread outbreak.
Isn't that racist or fascist or something?

a reply to: ketsuko

Ive been thinking about all the homeless camps up and down the west coast - with skid row LA being the largest, most prominent community of homeless... could you imagine corona passing through a area like skid row? It could ultimately cause a sh*t load of problems for them... I could see the city council and city leaders low key wanting for this to happen, as a way to purge their homeless base without needing to look like a "bad guy" by moving them...

originally posted by: IAMTAT
a reply to: ketsuko

It almost sounds like Portland city officials are gearing up to blame the homeless for their community-spread outbreak.
Isn't that racist or fascist or something?

Someone floated the idea in another thread about people's attitudes getting medieval in panic and things/groups that got purged ... If things get bad out on the coast, maybe the homeless will end up being one of those groups. They've been looking for a "solution" for a while. That's dark, too dark, and I really hope I'm wrong.

a reply to: ketsuko

Could be the case.
West coast cities seem to be willing to put up with S#!t and needles...but draw the line at virus.
The first two they can ignore...the third won't ignore them.

My first thought was to come up with a sarcastic reply as a solution. And then thought, no I should be somewhat serious. And then I thought...why not both.

8 foot diameter human sized hamster balls for the homeless? Grants some shelter and provides a barrier to avoid overcrowding.

a reply to: Ahabstar

A large component of the solution has to do with a network of mental hospitals and, yes, forced care in said institutions for both addicts and mentally ill. I do consider addiction a form of mental illness in some senses as you've altered your normal brain chemistry to the point where you cannot function without chemical alteration.

The big problem is how to implement that kind of system without it becoming inhumane.

originally posted by: Ahabstar

8 foot diameter human sized hamster balls for the homeless? Grants some shelter and provides a barrier to avoid overcrowding.

These would have little doors...right?
Because crapping in your own hamster ball seems really messy.

originally posted by: IAMTAT

originally posted by: Ahabstar

8 foot diameter human sized hamster balls for the homeless? Grants some shelter and provides a barrier to avoid overcrowding.

These would have little doors...right?
Because crapping in your own hamster ball seems really messy.

Crapping on the streets is really messy too, but if they had to deal with it instead of just walking away, they might be less keen to do it again.

These are two independent problems. One is a homeless problem. One is a virus problem. There is no solution for either.

Hey! What’s the big worry?

This virus is just another “flu”, right?

So what if it spreads through the homeless communities, no big deal. We don’t really give a flying fig when any other type of flu spreads among the homeless, or the poor for that matter. What’s different here?

I mean, if we don’t care enough that the “regular” flu likely spreads through the homeless population of our cities, and from there, into the general population, why should we care about this”flu” doing the same thing?

What’s the big “panic”?

Somebody, somewhere, not long ago: hmmmm...houseless. YES, THAT'S IT!
Houseless! MUCH better! *pats self on back*

Well done, houseless guy, well done.
🙄

a reply to: Bhadhidar

Death is more likely in populations with weakened immune systems and in generally poor health.

Most of us in the US are healthy, so we have little to fear. The ones who have the most to fear are the elderly, those with underlying health conditions, those in poor health for whatever reason, those with compromised immune systems for whatever reason. The homeless check several of those boxes by themselves and they create poor conditions in their environment for themselves and everyone else around them.

It is a general public health concern that they live the way they do for themselves and everyone else.

But hey, if you think it's no big deal that we allow concentrated populations of people to poop and pee where they wish, when they wish, pick up free needles to discard whenever and wherever they choose, and to create encampments where they discard whatever debris they happen to accumulate attracting all manner of vermin to feed off it ... I guess you must also think random outbreaks of things like typhus are also not a big deal.

The cruise industry is sinking fast.
These west coast cities should just buy up the fleet at bargain prices...dock 'em in their harbor...and move the tent cities off-street and onboard.
There's 5000 lovely cabins with their own bathrooms on the Diamond Princess, alone.

a reply to: IAMTAT

Bugs, exciting and new
Come aboard. we're expecting you.
Bugs, life's sweetest reward.
Let it flow, it floats back to you.
The bug boat soon will be making another run
The bug boat promises something for everyone
Set a course for adventure,
Your mind on a new health stance.
Bugs won't hurt anymore
It's an open smile on a friendly shore.
*The bug boat soon will be making another run
The bug boat promises something for everyone
Set a course for adventure,
Your mind on a new health stance.
Welcome aboard it’s bugs.