Illegal Now For Homeless To Use Blankets?

reply to post by destination now


This varies from city to city in the US in how it works, but the general gist is typically similar.

Cities are run by the City Council, with the Mayor as the Executive overseeing day to day operations in a way similar to the national government.

If something really, really pisses me off, what I would do is contact the local media to notify them of my issue. Then notify them that I intend to take my issue to the city council. I would then gather up fellow concerned citizens to support and show a voting block at the council meeting.

It may take raising hell for a couple of months, but likely would result in immediate support from local charitable organizations to resolve the immediate problem and shut me up. From there, if i wish to further my actions I could make a run at organizing, or just adding my labors to the local charities.

I don't know if you guys have a city council type of city set up. If you do, use your power to air public grievance, and make it highly visible.

swanne
reply to post by tinner07

 

You make a good point.

I think people should build special little low-budget cabins to house these poor guys. That way they don't sleep in front of a business building and they have a roof over their head.

it has been tried and the area becomes a haven of crime and fear, so the people who are not criminals leave.
I could have homeless shelter in my backyard, but then some would as usual ruin it for the rest by stealing from. and scaring the neighbors and pooping all over the ground even if toilets are provided...how to win.

That was interesting because just Saturday I was kicked out of a Salvation Army for having a backpack. That lady made me cry. She told me to put it in my car. I just looked at her and said, but I don't drive. I was trying to hand it to her so I could shop. She told me that I had to figure something out so I said that i would just shop elsewhere. That makes me pretty angry. Hurt, too. I wish I could have screamed at her, don't you think I'd LIKE to drive? So I wrote a letter to their corporate office asking them to please send me a car since they seem to think I am sorely in need of one. I don't know why holding my bag was such a problem. Maybe my (clean) gym clothes or my feminine hygiene products were frightening to an old bat like herself. Or maybe she could see through the bag with x ray vision and noticed I had an overdue library book. Whatever her problem was, she forgot the mission statement of the Salvation Army is to serve without discrimination. She discriminated against my poverty. Or my healthy lifestyle. Take your pick. I don't expect a car in the mail any time soon. I've been ordering food storage supplies from the LDS Church, too. I'm not so sure I expect those, either. This is one deranged, backwards town. Although, when it's nicer out I take a blanket down to the park and crash out in the grass with a book and bare feet. No one has ever kicked me out for sleeping but it's day time so maybe that's why. People aren't nice to the poor. Especially in Michigan. Even with the ridiculous amounts of snow. They are self centered bigots that treat me like poo with my cerebral palsy. That pisses me off. Not because I am disabled because there are more disabled than myself and I can't even do anything about it. That makes me no end of angry. I have all sorts of ridiculous treatment no one cares about and they try and make it about something else but frankly, I refuse to let them. I'm just going to stick out my twisted right foot for them to trip over (figuratively). I KNOW homeless people are mistreated because I keep being mistaken for one. I've been grabbed in the face at work, underpaid, swore at, almost run over, forced into cars. Raped. Whatever. I hate this stupid place. It's "pure" Michigan. It's "pure" death headed up and funded by a nasty big brother federal government that ought to learn to put a bullet to it's own head instead of trying to make people put one to their own.

reply to post by timidlady

Maybe my (clean) gym clothes or my feminine hygiene products were frightening to an old bat like herself.

Or maybe you just have a really bad attitude problem...

Getting back to the original topic, refusing the homeless to be allowed to use blankets and making it a crime to do so has been so unpopular that it now going to try to be overturned per this article:

"A Florida town is attempting to repeal its ban on homeless people using blankets and other means of shelter and comfort.

The Pensacola City Council voted unanimously on Thursday to upend what became known as the “blanket ban,” and pending a second vote later this month the ban will be repealed, the Pensacola News-Journal reports. The 2013 law made it illegal to sleep “out-of-doors…adjacent to or inside a tent or sleeping bag, or atop and/or covered by materials such as a bedroll, cardboard, newspapers, or inside some form of temporary shelter.” The initiative referred to homelessness as “camping,” a benign term that minimizes the plight of people lacking reliable access to food and shelter.

Yet after a torrent of critical press coverage and a Change.org petition, Pensacola Mayor Ashton Hayward reversed his previous support for the ordinance and urged the council to amend it “after reflecting and praying on this issue.” Hayward tweeted a picture of himself and his wife supporting a blanket drive for the homeless earlier in the day and posted a photo to Facebook announcing the Council’s vote. Pensacola City Councilwoman Sherri Myers, an original opponent of the ordinance, brought forward the proposal to amend it.

The Council did not overturn other restrictions on the homeless in Pensacola. Homeless people are still forbidden from washing or shaving in public restrooms and relieving themselves or requesting money in public, according to the News-Journal. While it left those restrictions in place, the Council voted to establish a task force to identify and address issues of homelessness in Pensacola. The city is the largest in Escambia County, where the Florida Council on Homelessness’ 2013 report found that 830 people are homeless, a jump of nearly 300 from 2012. Many of those people are chronically homeless, veterans, suffering from mental illness, or victims of domestic violence, according to a report by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The “blanket ban” is just one example of how cities nationwide are choosing to criminalize homelessness rather than grapple with the systemic issues abetting it. Another county in Florida spent over five million dollars to jail homeless people. Osceola County, which is near Orlando, devoted more economic resources to arrests for “quality-of-life-offenses” than it would have required to provide housing. Columbia, South Carolina has threatened to arrest homeless people for congregating in public and wants to charge high fees to charities that feed the homeless. St. Louis, Los Angeles, Raleigh, and Harrisburg have all considered or passed measures that make it harder to help the homeless. Pensacola Councilman Charles Bare assessed the nature of such initiatives by lambasting his own city’s criminalization of homelessness.

“This ordinance is a cop-out,” Bare said. “What this says is that we don’t have another solution, so we’re just going to make [homelessness] illegal.”

thinkprogress.org...

As a Veteran of the USArmy I can see the plight of the average man/individual in this day and age. Most speak of the homeless as if he/she are a sub-caste of ourselves. We are "middle-class", and so the "homeless" are beneath us and it doesn't apply to us. We forget that we live in the US, not India where there are "castes" or level's of human culture. Unless I have forgotten we who are born on the soil of the United States are natural born citizens of this United States. There should be not caste system of "homeless" people or "homeless" person. The truth is very true in this very day and age...all of us are about 2 maybe 3 paychecks from being "one of those" living on the streets and wanting some type of shelter from weather. Most of us have several quilts and blankets in our closets that we are not using. Why not give them to these unfortunate souls? We all have much within our homes that we could provide to people who have not. Why are we withholding? Think about it...tomorrow it might me you or me.

reply to post by MysterX

MysterX
reply to post by Kmhotaru

 

I think if FL are going to outlaw the 'unsightly' homeless, they should really be thinking more about outlawing obese people instead.

Huge great sweating mounds of pulsating blubber, heaving and grunting along the sidewalk is more offensive to my sight than an old guy or gal wrapped in a blanket.

Priorities FL, priorities.

Ha. well no worries, that's next. Politicians want fatty food bans, medical personnel want authority if you're fat, the schools send letters home to fat kids, social workers can confiscate fat kids...they'll be banned soon

So you can't feed and clothe homeless...or yourself! Fat or not

destination now
reply to post by nosacrificenofreedom

 

it's a small price to pay just to hose
off a bit of stink! In denying our responsibility there is more to
us stinking then the smell!

Or if due to a total lack of her responsibility, she sets fire to the place and kills me and my daughter, then we, through no fault of our own, pay the ultimate price!

Other than that though, what a load of crock...me nor anyone else can be responsible for her bad choices. Yes, she should be in an institution where she can't get alcohol and gets help with her mental health issues, but she isn't and I'm sorry but there is nothing I can do about that and if you honestly think that by just accepting her presence and cleaning up after her is going to help her, then you are in cloud cuckoo land.

On another note, I don't know if you're using a phone to type your messages, but the formatting makes it really difficult to read.

I would like to know what your answer is to the homeless problem is?
Why do you assume that she made bad choices?
Could it not be her bad luck or does luck have nothing to do with
homelessness in your world?
I wonder if you should ever end up in a similar predicament would you
want to live as not to offend anyone like yourself?
Would you not ask anyone for help?
would you crawl away and end yourself as to not be a burden towards
any like minded individuals?
I wonder, do you not realize that we have succeeded because of our ability
to cooperate or do you believe that selfishness was the asset that enabled
us to dominate this world?

I hope to God you never have to be judged by someone like yourself
as empathy is not part of your vocabulary!
I never suggested that cleaning up after her would help her!
Oh and I would be fine being in cloud cuckoo land as long as there
are no selfish people there!

nosacrificenofreedom

destination now
reply to post by nosacrificenofreedom

 

it's a small price to pay just to hose
off a bit of stink! In denying our responsibility there is more to
us stinking then the smell!

Or if due to a total lack of her responsibility, she sets fire to the place and kills me and my daughter, then we, through no fault of our own, pay the ultimate price!

Other than that though, what a load of crock...me nor anyone else can be responsible for her bad choices. Yes, she should be in an institution where she can't get alcohol and gets help with her mental health issues, but she isn't and I'm sorry but there is nothing I can do about that and if you honestly think that by just accepting her presence and cleaning up after her is going to help her, then you are in cloud cuckoo land.

On another note, I don't know if you're using a phone to type your messages, but the formatting makes it really difficult to read.

I would like to know what your answer is to the homeless problem is?
Why do you assume that she made bad choices?
Could it not be her bad luck or does luck have nothing to do with
homelessness in your world?
I wonder if you should ever end up in a similar predicament would you
want to live as not to offend anyone like yourself?
Would you not ask anyone for help?
would you crawl away and end yourself as to not be a burden towards
any like minded individuals?
I wonder, do you not realize that we have succeeded because of our ability
to cooperate or do you believe that selfishness was the asset that enabled
us to dominate this world?

I hope to God you never have to be judged by someone like yourself
as empathy is not part of your vocabulary!
I never suggested that cleaning up after her would help her!
Oh and I would be fine being in cloud cuckoo land as long as there
are no selfish people there!

edit on 10-3-2014 by nosacrificenofreedom because: (no reason given)

Excuse me...you know nothing about me whatsoever and your incredibly rude and ignorant post demonstrates that! As well as having brought my daughter up on my own after leaving an abusive relationship when she was a baby, I worked hard, got an honours degree and paid my way. A couple of years ago I became very ill and have not been able to work, I am in constant pain and will be on medication that requires constant monitoring for the rest of my life.

I have volunteered with disabled adults to help them learn to use computers and the internet and also with older teenagers from dysfunctional families, to help them get their lives on track and obtain and sustain a tenancy as part of a voluntary befriending service, this was while I was working a full time job and looking after my daughter. I know only too well the challenges that face so many people and have always gone out of my way to help others and have never judged anyone because of who they are. However, in the case of the teenage befriending role, the vast majority of the kids were grateful for the help and advice I could give them and went on to get flats, even jobs and then look after the flats that they had, paying their rent etc, even the ones that couldn't find jobs would make sure that the housing benefit they received was always sent to the landlord, but there was a couple that just didn't care, their backgrounds were no worse than the others, but all they wanted to do was get drunk and stoned, have parties in their flats, causing huge amounts of damage, spending the housing benefit and not paying the rent, and they would eventually get evicted...one lad had 7 different flats, all paid for by the taxpayer, but he couldn't be arsed to take any responsibility himself and he trashed every single one of them and racked up huge rent arrears, which the landlords never got back!

As such, with the safety net of housing benefit and welfare payments we have in the UK, this woman has, like that teenager (only she is in her 40's) has had so many different flats and hostel accommodation, but every time she gets her giro, the whole lot is spent on drink and cigarettes, she then becomes violent and abusive, the police are then called and she ultimately gets evicted again...How many flats can she be given to trash? How much time and effort from the agencies does she have to have, before she makes a better choice and decides to stay sober, because if she did that then she wouldn't be homeless.

I am currently living on a very small amount of money and my daughter who is 19 now is a full time student and whilst my housing benefit covers the majority of my rent, I still have to pay extra out of my disability benefit. Not only that, but I obviously have to pay for gas, electricity, council tax, internet, food etc and between my benefit and my daughter's student loans, we just about get by and you know what....I'm so bloody angry with your arrogant, ignorant assumptions about me that I would dearly love to go out and buy some booze and have a few stiff drinks...And I do have £10 to last until the end of the week, so I could buy it, but then my daughter and I wouldn't have any food for the rest of the week, so there is no way that I would be so irresponsible but yet you demand that I should always be looking out for and helping this woman when she decided to dispense with all of her responsibilities...

There are plenty of solutions to the homeless problem in the UK as housing benefit is paid, so all you have to do is make sure that your rent check goes to the landlord and not the off-licence and that you live in your house, taking care of it and being respectful to those around you and you're pretty much sorted.

And as I have said repeatedly in this thread, I am well aware that some people have mental health issues and cannot live on their own and should be in secure, residential facilities, but sadly they are lacking in availability. However, that should not mean that my right to a peaceful and safe home is taken away from me to accommodate a drunken women, lying in her own urine on the stairs outside my door and it does not make me uncompassionate or judgmental in any way