Posted on 06/05/2019 8:19:28 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
There is something wonderfully childlike in the inability of California liberals to figure out what to do about the frightening rise in homelessness. If the circumstances were different, you might refer to their naivete, ignorance, and stupidity as endearing, adorable, even cute.
But their utter disconnect from reality has real-world consequences for tens of thousands of people who are victims of their idiotic policies.
National correspondent for the Los Angeles Times Matt Pearce tweeted out the grim statistics:
Spikes in this years homeless counts across California:
-Los Angeles 🆙 16%
-San Francisco 🆙 17%
-Orange County (since 2017) 🆙 43%
-Ventura, San Bernardino and Kern Counties 🆙 20% or more https://t.co/SFAF8k6slW
Matt Pearce 🦅 (@mattdpearce) June 4, 2019
Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas appears to be perplexed about why there has been a spike in homelessness:
At this point of unprecedented wealth in the county of Los Angeles, we are equally confronted with unprecedented poverty manifesting itself in the form of homelessness, Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas told The Times.
Maybe it's because only the wealthy can afford to live there?
In a statement, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti called the increase in homelessness heartbreaking, but said he was he hopeful about the citys recent work to alleviate the crisis, including an investment of $42 million to respond to public health concerns and intensify street-based services.
This work has never been for the faint of heart, and we cannot let a set of difficult numbers discourage us, or weaken our resolve, Garcetti said in a statement to The Times.
The city has spent billions to try and address the homeless problem proving once again (if proof were needed for anyone but a liberal) that throwing taxpayer money at a problem doesn't solve anything. Also note Garcetti's response to the crisis is to shovel more money into services that benefit residents, but only after they become homeless.
Is that an exaggeration? Surely, you jest:
But among others in L.A. County, the point-in-time count crushed the optimism from last years tally, when a modest decrease in homelessness was recorded. The uptick left officials struggling to understand how the tide could have turned so badly in a year when millions of dollars had been spent rolling out new initiatives to move people into shelters and permanent housing.
Incredibly, there are thousands of Californians who are homeless despite being gainfully employed.
A 2017 survey of the homeless population in San Francisco found 13 percent of respondents reporting part or full-time employment. Thats in a city with an estimated 7,499 people experiencing homelessness.
This year, an estimated 10 percent of the 4,990 people living unsheltered in San Diego said they were currently working.
Los Angeles County has more than 50,000 residents who are homeless. Eight percent of adults surveyed in 2017 said they were working to some degree, mostly in part-time, seasonal or temporary work. Among homeless adults with children, 27 percent said they were working either part or full time.
If the radical lefties attended a community college course in Capitalism 101, they would be shocked to learn that the reason there are so many homeless people is because of government policies that stifle economic growth and prevent developers from building enough housing units at a reasonable cost.
The burgeoning population of homeless in California, now estimated at some 150,000 people, is a problem that could be solved in months if the appropriate political and judicial decisions were swiftly enacted and decisively applied. Instead, there is no indication it will ever be solved. The state has become a magnet for the welfare cases of America as well as the expatriates of the world, at the same time as the state has imposed crippling restrictions on the ability of the private sector to build new housing.
California is unaffordable because extreme environmentalists have imposed an agenda of engineered scarcity onto state policymakers that, unfortunately, dovetails perfectly with the agenda of special interestsin particular, public sector unions and bureaucrats, and large corporate land developers and construction contractors.
Virtually all of these special interests are aligned with the Democratic Partythe party of greed, lies, envy, and deception, controlled by leftist plutocrats and their willing accomplices. Until Californias voters wake up and break this immoral, self-serving coalition, there is little hope that housing prices in particular, or the cost-of-living in general, will ever come down in California.
Until the voters wake up and throw the bums out, there is little that can be done to alleviate the suffering.
How could a stoner states have so many homeless people when they make so much money of pot taxes.
Let them live in metal shipping containers and when the container gets disgusting . Burn the contents, spray it down and let another person move in.
Spin the wheel.
I think you are correct. I was in Seattle for 46 years and remember all of those middle class neighborhoods. It costs a fortune to live in any of them now.
Heck, the house I lived in before I moved to KY 8 years ago was valued by Zillow at around $300k. It’s now at $1,300,000. That’s ludicrous. I still have family there. Wages have not gone up much since I left.
Illegals are not the root cause of CA homelessness. They are an unintended consequence of it.
The article clearly outlines that leftist lawmakers are creating the housing shortage with environmental laws, NIMBYism, rent control, etc.
Thy more free stuff the more people come here. Basic Psych 101.
You too?!
My daughter moved to KY with her husband last summer. They love it. The only time she questioned the move was when one of my other daughters, still in Seattle, announced last month that she’s pregnant. It will be my first granddaughter. She’s calculating air fare costs to Seattle to visit now. :)
I visit there every year since we left. It is strictly for family now. We feel no need to visit downtown or my old hangouts. It’s dead to me.
Ummm... raise taxes?
Open the border to illegals?
Take away guns?
DRUMPF!!!
Whitey’s fault though. Totally racism.
Workcamps.
BUMP
You vote for Sanctuary cities and surprised when they show up?
Stop feeding the problem and allowing it to happen and guess what, they will pack up and move on.
I live near Youngstown, Cleveland, Akron... it’s exactly what happened around there
I’m old enough to remember when it was different
Shut down all the free stuff and they will leave.
Works everytime.
Absolutely no federal taxpayer monies to be involved!
The solution, according to Sacramento, is to provide billions of taxpayer dollars to illegal immigrants.
California is governed by criminals and inhabited by fools.
Yea, at times I miss Seattle, but I think what I miss is the memory of the old Seattle. Pre-apocalypse Seattle.
I hear from old colleges, across the lake Bellevue/Redmond is still pretty nice. (But of course, expensive.)
Yea, at times I miss Seattle, but I think what I miss is the memory of the old Seattle. Pre-apocalypse Seattle.
When I was in IT I bicycle commuted to my work location. I lived in Bellevue, Mercer Island, Renton and Kent during the last 20 years I was there and bicycled to Boeing in Renton, Nordstrom and Washington Mutual in downtown Seattle, B of A in Tukwilla, T-mobile in Bellevue and Safeco in the U District. It kept me in shape, but it became too dangerous, thanks to cell phones and, especially, texting.
When I visit the old areas now, they are all just way too congested and, well, not very friendly.
Lemme educate you on homelessness. These are addicts. Dope is their god. An addict will gladly live in a box, tent, abandoned car, whatever. They will gladly step over and around feces daily. They will eschew bathing facilities. They will gladly endure all of the above if it means they get to stay stoned.
Now, cities like LA, san fran, portland, seattle, et al, have all proclaimed addicts can live in those respective cities without harassment and without law enforcement. So, addicts swarm into those cities. Why? Because that's where they can worship their god without harassment.
This whole thing is a no brainer, folks.
Those homeless are probably from Evergreen. /South Park’s “Night of the Living Homeless”
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