Welcome to Obama World,or was it Bush?

I have seen a similar increase in my city in the midwest.

Be kind,buy them a meal.

It's not just California, I have seen a huge growth in the number of people homeless in my area....or so poor they might as well be.

I'm not saying this to be a fear monger, but things are getting bad out there!

People can blame politics or whatever, but the best thing to do is to give them a few bucks or feed them. They are our brothers and sisters and we could only dream for generosity if we were in that predicament.

Good luck to you all. We are not far off from begging and stealing ourselves.

Well, you were in Stockton. I've never liked Stockton. It's been a pit as long as I can remember. I'd place the blame on a prison being there. Inmates are released and they become homeless for whatever reason. And with AB 109 last year (I think it was last year), more and more inmates were released to relieve the overpopulated prisons.

EDIT: Oh, yeah, here in San Diego, we get "bums" who have houses and families but choose to panhandle anyhow.

Suburbs of Atlanta here and the same story. The city I live in has a wooded area, off of a freeway off ramp that has, for at least ten years, been "home" to a few homeless people. They pan handle the cars waiting for the light at the end of the exit ramp.

Even a few years ago, it was easy to count the woods "residents" by becoming familiar with how many faces you'd see on that off ramp over the course of a working week.

For the past 3 years, however, those woods, and a large area around them, have become a tent city. Several businesses which bordered the property went under and the tent city has swelled into the parking lots of those defunct businesses.

If I had to guess I would say that 500 to 600 people currently reside there now. To provide context here, this is roughly 15 miles outside of the borders of Atlanta - a city infamous for its homeless population. The closer one gets to the city, the more homeless one encounters.

The contrasting reality that becomes woefully apparent to locals? Off hand I would say that 30 to 40% of the houses in my town sit empty, with for sale signs on them. One of our common "big" local news stories is rashes of people trying to squat in these empty homes - or of people gutting them simply to steal the copper from within the homes.

It's tragic.

~Heff

I think we should export these surplus people to Ben Bernankes neighborhood... give the problem back to who caused it. maybe we can get truckers to drop them off, or something.... I mean if you had to wade through 30,000 homeless, workless humans - just to get to work, go to lunch, go anywhere ... I think they would have more impact than distributed all over the place - plus Washington DC is just swimming with doe.....

Here is the good news. At some point in the future, all of the central valley area will be under water. All of those homeless parasites will be washed away by the deluge.

The bad news is, so will you.

Don't believe me? It's happened before. It was caused by an event that the US Geological Survey now refers to as an Ark Storm. And the last time we had one was in 1862. In November, 1861, a massive storm front rolled in across the pacific and dumped rain on the coast for 4 weeks. It then mixed with another storm front and continued to rain and snow intermittently until January, 1862.
The result was the Great Flood of 1862.

Around here, in my area, we only have a handful of homeless folks. But ever since they moved the local Walmart across the river to Washington, we don't see them anymore. They all hang out around the parking lot and there are not many walmart shoppers in my family.

The homeless here have been hanging around, looking for food at my back door. I have gone through a bushel of potatoes and ten lbs of carrots feeding those deer in the last three weeks.....I never even get a thank you.

Stockton is, frankly, a terrible place. That's what it's know for. There are worse places in California, but i'm not sure if any are so negatively grand as Stockton.

Heart of the housing crisis(countrywide even?!), more empty homes then anywhere I know of, serious, serious meth issues, low job opportunities. bad neighborhoods, gangs, etc etc.

It's sad. Stockton was the heart of the west coast WWII navy post Pearl Harbor. That port revitalized the loss. It was thriving industry for the greater good(all supposed of course, this is a conspiracy forum ), but now it is filth.

I posted much of the following in another thread but because this is so closely related I felt it was pertinent: Homelessness is a complicated issue. There are a lot of stakeholders involved. Where do we house them when they lose their jobs and then their homes. Cities and municipalities pass laws, codes and ordinances that exclude individuals, single mothers and families from the community context. If you don't have a home or a job you are seen as a vagrant. Someone who should be sent packing. Often to get a job you have to have a real address (not a P.O. box) and a contact phone number at minimum. Many communities utilize a bus intervention therapy. They buy you a ticket or take you to the outskirts of town and send you on your way. In many communities there are people and non-profits that want to provide shelter and services like job training. But because of strict laws, codes and ordinances they are unable to meet those requirements.
The homeless try to build shanty towns under bridges or in the woods and law enforcement tears them down and burns them. In some countries the homeless are allowed to build shanty towns and they self regulate and govern their community.
If I were to attempt to build concrete apartments (fire resistant) with enough room for someone to have a bed and to get out of the weather I would never be allowed to build them because of the laws, codes and ordinances. And let's face it, people who have a job and a home don't want the homeless living anywhere near them, neither do businesses, nor communities.
When state mental hospitals closed and the patients were put out on the streets mental health centers were supposed to provide the necessary support for those people to have access to shelter and services. Unfortunately, it was an unfunded mandate and they were left to wander. Veterans are another large percentage of the homeless. Suffering from PTSD and physical disabilities. Unable to work just like others with disabilities they find themselves on the street. I am afraid that criminals as well because of their rap sheets and inability to get hired are going to resort to what they did that got them into prison in the past. I think people are going to become more and more desperate.
Many of the homeless prefer to not seek shelters. The reason they don't is because many shelters battle bedbugs, lice and crabs. How many of us would want to sleep in a shelter under those conditions? So when you see a person sleeping out in a car or under a boat they may have a very good reason for it.
Communities are going to have to work together and be creative. It might require modifying some laws, codes and ordinances to be more flexible to find solutions. Sometimes the homeless will break the law just to get a warm bed and food. Can you blame them if there is no alternative. Should we arrest them for being poor? Shall we drive them out of town like lepers? Out of sight, out of mind! Really?

Stockton always was horrible - people are drawn to it because it's so cheap.

Interestingly, one of the richest people in the US lives there - AG Spanos. He was one of the largest contributors to Bush's campaign.

It's like a third world country with super rich and super poor. This is how we all are going to be.

Originally posted by Hefficide
Suburbs of Atlanta here and the same story. The city I live in has a wooded area, off of a freeway off ramp that has, for at least ten years, been "home" to a few homeless people. They pan handle the cars waiting for the light at the end of the exit ramp.

Even a few years ago, it was easy to count the woods "residents" by becoming familiar with how many faces you'd see on that off ramp over the course of a working week.

For the past 3 years, however, those woods, and a large area around them, have become a tent city. Several businesses which bordered the property went under and the tent city has swelled into the parking lots of those defunct businesses.

If I had to guess I would say that 500 to 600 people currently reside there now. To provide context here, this is roughly 15 miles outside of the borders of Atlanta - a city infamous for its homeless population. The closer one gets to the city, the more homeless one encounters.

The contrasting reality that becomes woefully apparent to locals? Off hand I would say that 30 to 40% of the houses in my town sit empty, with for sale signs on them. One of our common "big" local news stories is rashes of people trying to squat in these empty homes - or of people gutting them simply to steal the copper from within the homes.

It's tragic.

~Heff

edit on 11/17/12 by Hefficide because: (no reason given)

Heff I live in Atlanta the homeless shelter on Peachtree has been there over twenty years. Back in 96 when the Olympics came to town. all the other shelters ( which is where Centennial Park is) were closed. So the homeless migrated to the only walk -in shelter in the city. The reason they stand out is the area where they are at was ignored by the city for years. The city decided to build luxury condos one block from a homeless shelter.
So now you have upper middle class living one block from a shelter. Hey what suburbs do you live near that has parking lots full of homeless people? Fulton county (Atlanta) is the only place I've seen this.

You ain't seen nothin yet! Wait till the dollar crashes and tens of millions lose everything... Mad max here we come...

When I first moved to S California, I realized there seemed to be a lot of homeless people. Then it dawned on me that the reason there were more homeless there was because of the weather. S. California has the perfect weather for the homeless. It seldom rains, mild year around temperatures; it's the ideal climate really.