As someone who has had to confront homeless people with questionable mental health and/or sobriety; it's fucking hard. You want a safe space for them but then quickly that space becomes unsafe for everyone around. But also... it isn't hard just fucking talk to them. I have many times
Don't stop being smart but stop being afraid. Fear of the other breeds so much hate and misery
Oh if it isn't obvious I support benches in public spaces and heavily condemn anti-houseless architecture/city planning
Just for transparency's sake before I go into this, my wife is second from the top at the library.
The library here really did have to remove benches outside in a couple of places (in part) because of homeless people. Not because they were sleeping on them, there are other places outside the library where the homeless can sleep and the library does what it can to help the local homeless community.
Unfortunately, some (far, far from most) of the local homeless around the library were either very publicly using drugs or getting so fucked up on those drugs (or possibly just having a really bad mental illness episode) that they were harassing people and scaring kids. So when it came time to replace all of the benches since they got too old, they decided that they would not replace some of them.
There was definitely a big outcry about how the library was being anti-homeless, but it was nuts because there were people on the other side still complaining about how the library always stinks because they let the homeless people in there. I may be biased because of my wife, but I'm also a regular patron and I'm pretty much on their side on this one. It was becoming a huge issue and they really didn't want to keep getting the cops involved because they rightfully don't trust what the cops might do with the homeless and only end up calling them as a last resort.
Society has absolutely failed those people though. There is no question about that. But at some point, the library had to draw a line at how accommodating they could be.
Right, because homeless people won't just sleep on the floor. Bitch they'll sleep anywhere with a roof where they won't be bothered, let alone a place with walls and basic heating/AC. Filthy liars! Why the fuck is America so hostile towards its citizens and why do they just take it?
The really wild thing about homelessness and cost of living in general is that the government is sitting on well over 1 billion acres of land for agricultural use and they could quite literally hand out a quarter acre to anyone who really just needs it and it wouldn't put a dent in anything.
I know, I know, there's quite a bit more to it than that, but holy shit, there is quite a misconception about the value of land and if you're rifling through a dumpster in order to not starve things probably look quite different
It’s not a train station platform’s job to solve all of society’s problems. During rush hour a train station platform is extremely overcrowded. It’s a serious issue and one of the top reasons people choose to avoid transit, which makes climate change dramatically worse.
Hostile architecture in parks and other open spaces and actual fucking housing is where you should be spending your lobbying effort.
My local Fred Meyer starting doing some hostile shit recently. For one, they have AI in the self checkout cameras that watches you to make sure you don’t place anything from the cart to the bagging area without scanning. Which includes bags that I brought from home… My wife turned around and bumped her butt on it, and it gave an alarm that it wasn’t scanned.
They recently added railing from the checkouts to the exit, which would be fine if the liquor section didn’t have a fast checkout in the middle of the store. I just slip through the bars with my receipt, and the guy at the door says nothing and just quickly marks your receipt without reading anything.
It’s such an inconvenience for saving a few dollars of stollen food. It’s ridiculous.
Isn't this some sort of violation of the ADA? I imagine some people need to be able to sit down for disability reasons. Someone should file suit against the MTA and the city.
If I were an evil engineer I’d make retractable benches built into the walls that cost money to pull out. If I were a public official I’d have a subscription package for $60/yr that lets you use all the benches in the city. Must have a valid drivers license to purchase.
I gotta say, and maybe it's just me, but the reaction to this stuff is so much better on Lemmy than it was on Reddit. Redditors seem to hate the homeless.
I saw a homeless guy verbally harass a woman on the subway until she cried. Then the guy started a fight with a black guy.
Most people are just fed up with crazies on public transportation. We don't give a shit about the reasons, we want a solution that doesn't take decades to solve.
Where I live I'm barely seeing homeless, and when I'm seeing homeless then it's due to their own choice of preffering alcohol over shelter, so I don't care that much (still getting them food if they ask and I have the means).
Does america not have shelters for homeless? Or do more homeless prefer deugs of any kind over shelter?
Damn, if I were the social media person of what's presumably the responsible subway org, I'd also say it like it is. It's not your decision anyways. But actually reading it put so bluntly, is still wild to me.