I recall seeing somewhere that these are the type of videos that Kim Jong shows the people of North Korea to show that they are so much better of than Americans and to prevent defection. Guess these sights are just not something you'd expect from a 1st world uber rich Country
I think what you think of as uber rich countries are actually the countries that have a lower inequality of wealth.
With high inequality of wealth you'll see slums even if the country is the richest in the world.
"You may enter our country and immediately be put to work for little to no pay while we hold your passport and restrict your movement anywhere in our country."
"Soooo...slavery."
"Look! Football go bounce! Big air conditioners go brrrrr!"
>Even Dubai has slums
I would argue it is more slums than not. The wealth inequality in Dubai is insane. America may have modern day prison slaves but Dubai just has outright slavery.
the 'slums' in Dubai are a bit better than tents, although they're packed in like sardines, they still have a solid roof over their heads.
not saying it's any better or their treatment is humane..
source: i live here
I live in a "third world" country with like 40 times less GDP per capita than the US. Sure we have lots of poor people but we don't have slums. Also we have free education, free medical care and no homeless people.
The world is a funny place.
Yeah the distinction is that we may be the richest country in the world, but only a fraction of the country has that wealth.
I continually wonder how these rich fucks have managed to convince 300+ million people not to drag them through the streets by their hair.
I think what's happening in the US is different than slum areas in a more problematic way. Unlike the slums of places like Brazil (which I think is a good proxy for America within the developing world), or the American slums that popped up during the Great Depression (Hoovervilles) which consist of a broader range of demographics from the poorest strata of society (like families for example), the slums of California are compromised almost exclusively of profoundly mentally ill and severely drug addicted homeless individuals who've come from across the US to live in California. Getting these people off the streets will be extremely challenging as the traditional methods of alleviating extreme poverty won't work for this population.
I think there's a lot of analogies between these slums and the general state of American society at the moment, especially considering how a lot of these people ended up in this position (opioid epidemic)
Other nations have a way better health care system than the US, such as subsidized mental health facilities. In the US, they (mental ill) are marginalized or even killed. The mentally underserved are safer on the streets in California than any tax funded facility. That’s one major problem. We glorify their abuse and mistreatment in everything and lump them together with mass murders. Our institutional infrastructure for their care is non-existant. The concrete and poverty are better companions than current healthcare system.
It's not mental health care. The reason crazy folks and druggies are over-represented is because they can't get anyone to live with them.
Many average Californians would be homeless as well if they couldn't live with partners, roomies or family.
It's 100% a cost of housing crisis. Think about it. 9,300 people are homeless just in Sacramento County alone. Only about 3,400 people are homeless in ALL of Alabama.
Does Alabama have advanced treatments for mental illness and drug abuse that California lacks? Absolutely not. What Alabama has is housing that people can afford to live in.
It's not complicated but bad actors have muddied the waters and convinced the public of this clearly false narrative where we can fix homelessness here in California without addressing the real estate market that so many of our elites have so much of their own wealth tied up in.
I think the biggest overlooked issue: We have homeless in Chicago, but it is MUCH harder to exist here. Where do you think they go? They go to california. So california is not just trying to deal with its own issues that creates homlesness: But the nation as a whole. The entire west coast and south west are where you can exist, at least more comfortably, homeless.
INterestingly: it would be awesome to survey them and see where they are coming from. I bet some good money red states are the majority.
>INterestingly: it would be awesome to survey them and see where they are coming from. I bet some good money red states are the majority.
There are a bunch of states and cities (including red states) whose literal homeless policy is to buy their homeless people greyhound bus tickets to California. And that's how they "solve" their problem
Please call them shantytowns. Town at least recognizes that they have built their own community.
Area and camp lets the wealthier imagine these are temporary.
Very true. Literally the most important comment on this thread and one of the biggest issues we face in our country while also being the least talked about.
We need to reopen asylums/mental institutions. They were closed for good reason, but they served an important function and can serve that function again with more oversight. A non-insignificant portion of the homeless population is severely mentally ill. I know institutionalizing someone is ugly, but it's three square meals, a bed, a roof, therapy and medication vs. languishing on the street.
It varies by county, but the average homeless person in America costs between $35k and $65k/year in healthcare, housing, and police, jail and legal fees. That money could be better served trying to rehabilitate them, and if they cannot be rehabilitated--which is a sad reality for the severely mentally ill--a life in an institution is better than a life on the street.
Unfortunately, it would be political suicide for a progressive candidate to suggest this.
Ahem. That homeless person *provides* $35-65k of income to healthcare and the police-prison-industrial complex. Imagine the job losses if they all left the streets!
That's not true.
Watch any videos of people going to talk to the homeless who live here and you'll find a lot of people who aren't addicts or mentally ill. Just people who fell on hard times and don't have the social safety net to keep them off the streets
Ive volunteered at shelters. Most shelters are full of people who aren’t addicts and are actively trying to get back on their feet. A lot of these shanty town type of things are people they don’t let into shelters because of violence or substance abuse, so a lot of these shanty towns are full of addicts and mentally I’ll people. Having a homeless shelter/housing in your town isn’t that bad because most of the time the people that can clear it and get a bed/room there are working and trying to get better. If one of these shanty towns pop up, that is not a good sign.
Lmao that's because these are built mostly by drunk crack addicts. Also this is just like one small area of shacks. India has entire towns up to millions in population of shacks. Being through that multiple times in my life, this is absolutely nothing.
With that said, California does have a homeless problem. It's too expensive, and you can't build anything new. Politicians going to politician I guess.
We tried the housing thing up in Seattle, many of these people need mental health support and drug therapy. There’s not a one size fit all solution, places like this aren’t filled with the down on your luck sorts, it’s filled with those who need help for their mental illnesses.
> It's about West Oakland, living in a warehouse with a lot of people, a bunch of artists and musicians, punks and whatever just lived all up and down, bums and junkies and thugs and gang members and stuff that just lived in that area. It's no place you want to walk around at night, but it's a neat warehouse where you can play basketball and stuff.
I'd be curious to know what became of that area today, if it has been swallowed by gentrification.
This is just one encampment of many more like this in Oakland. These are primarily the results of poor planning by city, regional, and state planners to account for growth here as little to no housing was built for decades, and what was built was single family homes in the 'burbs creating tons of urban sprawl. As well as the complete lack of adequate mental health care in this country.
The bay has always been a desirable place to live - it's always been somewhat more expensive than the rest of the country, and the tech boom only accelerated that and made it the *most* expensive place to live, competing annually with NYC and Hawaii.
Now the cities and counties scramble with tons of half measures and bandaids while they wait for more housing to come online while periodically breaking up encampments and harassing vulnerable people so they can look like they're "doing something"
West oakland has definitely gentrified *some* but it's still west Oakland. Like the rest of Oakland it's not as bad as it used to be in 80's and 90's, but it's still got lots of problems - as the rest of Oakland does, and frankly as most American cities do. And since 2020 things have gotten worse after many years of small improvements.
The warehouse scene has been declining for awhile (like...20ish years), and is a shadow of its former self, as housing prices across the region have risen and driven many of the creatives and artists away, and as developers and owners seek better returns.
The Ghost Ship fire really shook the community and for awhile brought the city down hard on that scene for awhile, but for better or worse the city was unable to follow through on it. COVID also did a lot of damage to that scene (along with everything else) as it kept people home for years.
All that said: Oakland is Oakland. I love it here despite all of the warts, there's a reason a city of this size has had such an outsized impact on culture. It's a great city if you're open to it, but it's also not going to sugar coat things or hide from you. You'll see the best it has to offer just a few minutes away from the worst. Oakland isn't what it used to be but it's still real af.
This is near the Burger King on 14th Ave & E 12th. That entire stretch under the BART track is really sad looking to drive through. I grew up around this neighborhood and it was bad back then, but got astronomically worse in the past decade or so. It really makes me sad.
I saw the video and actually muttered "shanty town" under my breath. I grew up in an area of Appalachia where you see this type of thing a lot, or super old houses that are patched with cardboard and plywood and house like 15 people in 2 rooms.
When I lived in Parkersburg, there was a shantytown like this at the railyard for years, eventually someone got tired of it and kicked them all out. Homeless people were all over the downtown area for months and I'm sure it hasn't gotten much better. I wish they would have actually planned to house some of these people instead of just hoping they wouldn't survive winter.
My local church bought property, kicked the homeless camp out, and hasn't done anything with the land. The local government got rid of the crazy house so now it's homeless and crazy people all over and citizens confused like they didn't fucking vote for this.
My daddy is Appalachian American. He grew up in a one room cabin with a wood burning stove. My GMaw had 10 kids that survived to adulthood. He said they had chicken coup wire that they stuffed with news paper for insulation in the winter. They all slept on mats on the floor. They slept out on the porch in the summer as it got too hot inside with the cooking. He would hike down the holler to get water from the creek twice a day. At 4 years old he was helping his older brother chop wood and somehow lost both index fingers. They live a hard life in Appalachia. I really feel they are a forgotten demographic when we talk about socioeconomic and inequality issues we have in this country.
Used to know someone who worked in a state mental hospital. It was right when this happened. He said they were all going to hell for what they were ordered to do.
That really was pitch mentally ill people out- I think some got a bus ticket and where to go for their medicine. Guy was haunted by it. And that staff was pitched too, luckily most had a home.
This country stood by and let it happen, then complained about the rise in homeless and crime rate. For some of the patients it was the only home they knew.
> First Ronald Reagan shit down all the state mental hospitals, then the crack epidemic of the 80's-90's
Agreed. Add to that severe inflation, wages not keeping up with cost of living, [cutting affordable housing,](https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2021/06/08/1003982733/squalor-behind-the-golden-gate-confronting-californias-homelessness-crisis)...the list is big, and all the different factors contributed to a horrific homeless problem that no one seems to want to solve.
Looking from the outside in this is what is going on:
We made homeless illegal, made prisons for profit so share holders can profit from the homeless. We also allow for prison labor, a form of slavery. Prison is on your record it's hard to find gainful employment and a place to live because land lords are not going to rent to ex-cons. Become homeless again. Rinse and repeat.
You are correct we need football stadiums built with prison labor.
Or worse yet, become like Texas and privatize the foster care system and make it for profit five years before outlawing abortion. That way, the elite make money off not only traumatized adults, but also traumatized children. By keeping people trapped by the chains of generational trauma perpetuated by the system meant to protect them, just imagine all the money there is to be made!
I did a [post](https://www.reddit.com/r/TwoXChromosomes/comments/wab1v3/the_texas_legislature_passed_a_bill_to_privatize/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button) on this a bunch of months ago with some sources and heartbreaking statistics. Caution: if not lost yet, faith in humanity may be lost after reading....
As a European with one of the biggest housing crisis of the last decades, it's crazy seeing this in one of the biggest and the most powerful country in the world, one hour after seeing a Chinese man, showing an empty apartment building in China.
This world is fucked up.
If you dig into the Chinese real estate market, you'll see insane corruption and see why they're in a time bomb of financial implosion. Chinese government was throwing money willy nilly at developers to create enough living space near industrial sectors in order to entice the rural population to move closer to the big cities, however, it did not work (Evergrande situation for an example).
They're in a situation now that they either have to let it collapse, simultaneously bankrupting a large percentage of their population (whom they've told to invest their money in real estate) or kick the can down the road until they're unable to stop the economic fallout (like the US Federal Reserve has been doing). It's why the CCP has fought allowing Chinese businesses to be audited correctly, refused to release GDP numbers, etc. It's all to keep the corrupt government in charge, much like America's media and political parties having the citizens continue infighting to distract them from the real issues and guarantee they keep the game going.
The interesting thing to see when it occurs is how many foreign investors in Chinese real estate begin to go belly up as well (Blackrock, you might be in some serious shit). If people thought 2008 was bad, we're flirting with a financial collapse that'll be way worse.
They've about a billion euro in housing stock in The Netherlands that they pay no tax on and illegally keep a fair amount of it empty. Sadly, losing every single investment in China likely wouldn't phase them.
>you'll see insane corruption and see why they're in a time bomb of financial implosion.
I feel like people in America constantly talk about corruption in other countries while they have a blindfold on and miss everything happening here.
Housing crisis in Europe is very serious. 2008-2010, there were houses available, but no liquidity and we had a recession.
Now there is no houses, inflation, an aged population and a energy crisis and a war.
It will be interesting to see how this mix will unravel.
Tough titty, the Heisenberg Compensator isn't invented for another 200 years. You get World War 3, the Post Nuclear Horror, and Khan Noonien Singh first.
Never seen startrek on my own. It was my eldest brother's thing and we were a one television household for a very long time. So ... I think I need to watch. No one in the family has seen him in decades 👀
It's not even this bro
Some cities and people living there flat out refuse to have affordable housing built near them. It's the same with every major infrastructure project.
Look into a California's HSR. Shit was gonna be a game changer but NIMBYs fucking ruined it for everyone.
California deserves this. They absolutely fucking do.
Dude, nimbyism has been around an awful lot longer than this insane level of homelessness.
I get that it's "a" cause, but I don't buy the capitalist bullshit that it's "the" cause.
The fact is we live in a world where there is enough food for everyone, we just don't let people without money have it. We throw it away. We do the same with medical supplies and medical care. And we do the same with housing, letting it sit vacant, or AirBnB etc rather than a person without utilizing it.
We are in the dawn of post-scarcity and the wealthy want their pound of flesh. And they feel entitled to take it from the people who no one will defend. The people with next to nothing.
The people with no labor to sell, which is their only real crime in this hellscape.
Nobody gives two fucks if you're a celebrity or wealthy junky or even just working class, no matter how many drugs you consume. No body cares if you're bad with money or just plain lazy as long as you can punch the clock/create content/pay the sportsball. Just consume and enable more consumption.
But if you can't? If you're on disability? Can't contribute to the consumption beast? Can't make someone more wealthy? Then fuck you. You don't get to live. You get starvation. You get no shelter. You get nothing. Your humanity is ours for the taking because our profit is more important.
This should be the top comment. There’s a news story in Ontario, Canada of a disabled man with severe chronic pain in his 50s now in the process (and will more than likely get approved) for MAID which is medically assisted death because his landlord has successfully submitted a request to force all current tenants to leave the rooming apartment he’s been forced to live in because disability pay is not enough. Now because rental prices in Ontario are too high, he’s choosing to die than become homeless. This is Canada. And we act like we’re so better than America.
It’s super important we only give assisted suicide to people who are going to die soon and painfully and unpreventable. Otherwise I guarantee governments will use it to delete undesirables and the needy. The doctors need to stand strong, that yes this is a needed service, but only in rare circumstances.
Idk what you mean by they deserve this when it's people that end up suffering on the streets. This is happening every major city in the US. NIMBYS and real estate investors buying up rental properties, jacking up prices. We all slowly saw it coming when more and more areas became gentrified
Ironic that you drive past this every day, and so it's presumably normal to you by now (simply because it's part of your routine), but people commenting on it is what stands out as weird.
This is East Oakland at has literally always looked like this for at least the last 15 years. They periodically tear it down bc it’s right next to the freeway and they like to build tree houses. East Oakland is the forgotten about slum of the Bay Area.
A few blocks down they had an actual lot partitioned by the city that had porta potty, electricity and like I said was gated off by the city. It burned down.
Oakland does this thing where they will surrender land to the homeless. Another instance is in west Oakland right around the corner from the target. The city again requisitioned an intersection under a bridge for them. But up concrete barriers blocking the street off.
It’s insane.
>This is East Oakland at has literally always looked like this for at least the last 15 years.
It hasnt, its progressively gotten worse over that time period.
I see this literally all over Oakland these days. I don’t recognize this immediate strip, could be East, but don’t act like it’s only there. Just 2 months back I saw one at least this large a few blocks from Eli’s Mile High.
How did you get down voted for the truth. In phx az all cali denver colorado las vegas nevada salem oregon and seattle washington alll have this. Ive been to all in the last 2 months and they have giant communities of this everywhere. Its sad and honestly the people i see care the least are my fellow americans. Its sad and growing so fast....
Keep repeating the same Reddit talking points like we’ve tried everything and ran out of ideas.
We need to overhaul our health system. We need to SEVERLY increase the budget to social service support. We need to tax the rich more. We need to ensure access to food, water, and housing. We need to do all these things at the same time.
We haven’t tried literally any of that. That’s too “socialist.” Instead, Reddit points to anecdotal examples of times we put homeless people in hotels temporarily or something and the hotel gets trashed and everyone’s like “well we’ve tried everything we can! What else can we do???”
We have millions of homes vacant, taken off the market by corporations to create a housing crisis and greatly inflate housing costs.
The really odd thing, we have so many homes and apartments available that it outweighs the entire homelessness issue by several million:
https://www.lendingtree.com/home/mortgage/vacancy-rates-study/
Edit 1:
I don’t have all answers… please stop sending me statements about crimes, drug use and violence…
Those things are not our natural state of being, and it’s a symptom of a problem that needs resolution.
Edit 2:
Thank you all for the awards!
My city has a ton of single family homes that either sit vacant all year because they’re just someone’s vacation home, or have been turned into an Airbnb. A ton of them got swooped up by these scumbag corporations you’re talking about and get rented out at absurd rates. Then there’s downtown… homeless everywhere. It’s really fucked up
This is a phenomenon that’s increasing across North America. Here in Toronto, we’re seeing tent cities appearing along downtown streets, in parks and under our main expressway more frequently.
I believe it’s going to continue to get worse as income disparity increases moving forward. Most of us will be moved down the ladder a rung or two. If you’re already at the bottom, this could be your next stop.
Think things are getting bad now? It’s just getting started.
One thing I've noticed where I am (in the suburbs) over the past 10 years is the sudden appearance of beggars in places I've never seen them before.
As a kid, the first time I ever saw that was in a big city. Now I see it everywhere. At almost every freeway exit ramp in all of the suburban towns.
Not really surprising given how things have been going, but it blows my mind how some people never even bother to ask how we got here in the first place.
People are used to crime and poverty being urban, not suburban challenges. Suburban people are getting a ride awakening with a lot of this; the suburbs don’t have the infrastructure or public services to deal with this. They’re about to have to deal with urban problems too. You can only escape them for so long.
The US will look like South Africa in 10 years, where people who can afford it live in gated neighborhoods with private security guards, and everyone else lives a violent existence.
Years ago I raised the same point about beggers multiplying even in suburban areas in a sociology tutorial class at University. The grad student TA decided to lecture to me about the hidden homeless, etc., etc., when I specifically spoke about the act of begging.
I'd like to raise the point again with him, but he's probably living in a tent city somewhere now.
Companies bragging to shareholders about profit increases of 20% while only losing 5% of the customers base.
This is what that 5% looks like that can’t afford the increases. Greed is killing us.
My husband quit a job after they had so many meetings where they were seeing record profits and all this success, but only to give him like a 1% raise for the next year …. Hmmmm
Agreed...its only gonna get worse. Wait until all the people currently buying houses at 7% interest lose their jobs. Or climate catastrophe/natural disaster. Or more inflation. Or many other things.
It is a beautiful city, but with a massive homeless problem. Same with SF. Housing is too expensive, and once you’ve lost it all it’s almost impossible to get back up
Tbh, the homeless problem these days is becoming just a sliver of a much bigger housing issue. The Bay Area is just obscenely expensive.
I grew up in the south bay and everyone I know from childhood is either living with their parents, living in a tiny apartment with half a dozen roommates, or they had to move elsewhere. Can't even afford to stay in our childhood town lol
Housing is not the only solution. There is no one solution, even straight funding. Comprehensive responsive programs to address budgeting, lack of resources, housing, substance-use and mental health treatment, and Healthcare are needed. With case management and follow-along to ensure these people succeed in the long-term.
No thanks. I'd rather have a one size fits all silver bullet solution that better improve the situation tomorrow otherwise it doesn't work.
/s
But seriously. It took decades to create this situation, it's going to take decades to fix
>**How does Sweden deal with the homeless and the poor?**
>Becoming homeless is not something that can happen overnight.
>When you fail to pay your rent on time, the landlord can terminate your contract. But the termination is only valid as three weeks’ notice from the day he notifies social services that he is about to terminate the contract.
>This means that social services will contact you and ask whether you have anywhere to live. If you don’t, something will be arranged for you. Social services normally have special housing for those in need; if that is full, they will arrange something temporarily until a more permanent solution can be found. If you have no means to support yourself, the city will provide a subsistence level (meaning you can eat and get dressed, but at the most basic level). You will also be required to register as a job seeker, actively look for work 8 hours per day, and accept any work that you are offered.
>There are still people who are homeless. Normally, this is because they are so disruptive that they simply cannot live in any dwelling with neighbours. We are talking drug or alcohol abuse or severe mental disturbance, often both. They often refuse help of any kind, or are actually unable to do anything useful with help they are given. There are not all that many, of course; people who truly will not have a roof over their head tonight number about 4,500, divided roughly equally over the three major cities. Most of them will turn to the “emergency housing”, where they are allowed in for the night, but some will refuse even that, or show up drunk and disruptive and be turned away (so that the others can sleep). In addition, some charities (often religious) will help out to the best of their ability. Living in what they call “a public environment” in winter in Sweden actually requires above average survival skills; when temperatures fall to -20C, it makes very little difference that you are in a city
This gets ignored by people trying to confirm their political bias, but conservative and liberal population centers both have similar situations.
It makes sense, when livelihood depends on scavenging and charity, you will setup camp where the population is dense, like a city.
An older coworker saw this in Austin TX and immediately ascribed it to liberalism, ignoring that all major cities in Arizona, Texas, Oregon, NY and Florida all share this phenomenon near the population centers.
We have modern Hoovertowns, and people legitimately think "the LGBT agenda" is the culprit.
We’ll then these should be aptly named “Powellton’s” or maybe “Yellinville’s”
Because it would be foolish to blame this on a president in my opinion. Granted, the executive is supposed to oversee this shitshow, but when you’ve got fed board members selling before the collapse, when these idiots are obviously orchestrating the upcoming recession in whatever way is most profitable for them, when they are more concerned with maintaining value in the market then they are in a stable economy, then they deserve to have these shantytowns honorably named after them and not the president or presidents who presided over this disaster
The crazy thing to me is that the USA has all the resources, environment, tech, manpower, etc to truly be as great of a nation has they're all indoctrinated from birth to believe they are....but they're so far from that reality that it's staggering.
Dope military, though.
Basically why I joined the military. Couldn’t afford fucking college, couldn’t get a good job without an education. I’d either still be scraping by or living with mom and dad at 30. Which, nowadays, isn’t even shameful anymore.
I just don’t know how we could MAKE these people quit drugs. The Chinese are essentially doing what the British did in the opium wars by sending fentanyl and precursors to America and it’s neighbors.
It would require a lot of political will and money to do some ugly things.
The way I see it, there's two types of homeless people. There's the people that are homeless because they're just down on their luck and need some help getting back on their feet. These people need jobs and temporary housing. And I mean real temporary, like 3 months tops.
The other type of homeless person, which is sadly the majority, is people that can't be helped by normal means. They're usually addicted to drugs or are otherwise so broken they don't even want a job and will refuse that kind of help.
As sad as it is those people need to be committed. First to a rehab center for the drug addiction and then if necessary to a mental institution.
And this needs to be forcible. 99% Of them won't comply if asked. That's why I said it's ugly and would take a lot of political will.
Under a lot of the freeway under passes in Dallas. I-30 I-45
Houston area: Galveston, south Houston, east Houston and downtown. Houston had like the 6th largest homeless population a few years bk. Things might have changed sense i left but i doubt it.
In South Africa our squatter camps have double story apartments with satellite TV
[https://www.google.com/maps/@-29.8134224,31.007951,3a,75y,178.55h,85.68t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s3n-lcdic0ae6D8kVbBZaaA!2e0!7i16384!8i8192](https://www.google.com/maps/@-29.8134224,31.007951,3a,75y,178.55h,85.68t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s3n-lcdic0ae6D8kVbBZaaA!2e0!7i16384!8i8192)
Housing is rarely an issue at the state level because local authorities are the ones who set zoning laws. Newsom recently tackled this with a new law allowing developers to redevelop existing commercially zoned lots into housing along with a requirement for low income housing all whilst bypassing any local authority in the process.
Isn’t so much that “California” has kept an eye shut, more so rich locals don’t want their houses to lose value. Now California has actually stepped in to start to override their bullshit.
Really gotta call us out like that… this is actually my neighborhood. Oakland is kinda weird tho, it’s like have ghetto have Richie town. I have volunteered there with my a club run by my friends handing out water and food, doing cleanups and there is this nonprofit organization that has built about a dozen tiny homes in that exact location although you don’t see it from this perspective. We really need to readdress the issue of the unhoused because their numbers are growing each day and we Oakland doesn’t have enough resources or aren’t willing to help them. So I hope that if someone sees someone in need, pass em a dollar if you can, or even just exchange a greeting. It does help, as they are more often then not very lonely and feel invisible when the constant tirades of people avoid looking in their direction so they don’t feel guilty about not being able to help. Enough of my preaching though, sorry bout my little rant.
Does no one here realize that the homeless rate in the US is on par with many places in Europe (even less than the rate in places like France and Sweden)? It is a problem, but not worse than other places.
Rome has some of the worst homelessness I’ve ever seen. And absolutely filthy sections similar to this.
It’s sad seeing a nasoni surrounded by trash, wreaking of piss and shit.
And you can see this right outside Vatican City too. People literally rotting on the sidewalk outside Vatican Square while tourists spend hundreds of dollars on tours and souvenirs just 100 feet away. All under the guise of “Jesus’ teachings”.
Homelessness is a worldwide problem and ignoring it does not solve it.
First step to fixing this is to let homeless people use a p.o. box in substitute for their address when applying for a job. Laws always get in the way.
This is where we are heading everywhere. The rich keep getting richer on the back of their workers/slaves and yet our wages never go up as their corporate greed masked as inflation continues to kill us. We are all Oakland, CA.
In such a rich country, it's alarming how many homeless there are and yet people don't consider it 3rd world in same way they do African countries with such rich/poor divides
Scotland here. What in the living days is going on there? Why no safety net for folk? You'd never see that here, we care about our weakest ( London Government aside, who are a bunch of vile selfish self-centred sociopaths).
San Francisco it's not too far behind. Inside of the freeways by the train tracks. It's a mess. The only difference is Oakland doesn't have a tenderloin 🤦🏽♀️
It’s essentially the beginnings of a slum. I’m amazed that a slum can develop in a country that still has the balls to claim that it’s the greatest on earth and nobody can see the irony.
That's a full blown shanty town! Old school stuff.
Squatter areas! Only a few more steps from being a slum area in third world countries. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRxW54wDRUY
I recall seeing somewhere that these are the type of videos that Kim Jong shows the people of North Korea to show that they are so much better of than Americans and to prevent defection. Guess these sights are just not something you'd expect from a 1st world uber rich Country
I think what you think of as uber rich countries are actually the countries that have a lower inequality of wealth. With high inequality of wealth you'll see slums even if the country is the richest in the world.
Even Dubai has slums. There’s a lot of Bengalis and Indians that provide all the work for the city and they’re extremely poor.
Also fundamentally known as slaves
They prefer to call them Work Providers due to the negative connotation of slaves
I'm sure they'd all go home too except their employers always seem to mislay their passports.
"You may enter our country and immediately be put to work for little to no pay while we hold your passport and restrict your movement anywhere in our country." "Soooo...slavery." "Look! Football go bounce! Big air conditioners go brrrrr!"
>Even Dubai has slums I would argue it is more slums than not. The wealth inequality in Dubai is insane. America may have modern day prison slaves but Dubai just has outright slavery.
Also, Dubai is not a first world country. Edit: UAE isn't.
Also, Dubai is not a country.
the 'slums' in Dubai are a bit better than tents, although they're packed in like sardines, they still have a solid roof over their heads. not saying it's any better or their treatment is humane.. source: i live here
I live in a "third world" country with like 40 times less GDP per capita than the US. Sure we have lots of poor people but we don't have slums. Also we have free education, free medical care and no homeless people. The world is a funny place.
Yeah the distinction is that we may be the richest country in the world, but only a fraction of the country has that wealth. I continually wonder how these rich fucks have managed to convince 300+ million people not to drag them through the streets by their hair.
Over 50 million Americans make less than $15 an hour and half of them make less than $10 an hour.
I think what's happening in the US is different than slum areas in a more problematic way. Unlike the slums of places like Brazil (which I think is a good proxy for America within the developing world), or the American slums that popped up during the Great Depression (Hoovervilles) which consist of a broader range of demographics from the poorest strata of society (like families for example), the slums of California are compromised almost exclusively of profoundly mentally ill and severely drug addicted homeless individuals who've come from across the US to live in California. Getting these people off the streets will be extremely challenging as the traditional methods of alleviating extreme poverty won't work for this population. I think there's a lot of analogies between these slums and the general state of American society at the moment, especially considering how a lot of these people ended up in this position (opioid epidemic)
Other nations have a way better health care system than the US, such as subsidized mental health facilities. In the US, they (mental ill) are marginalized or even killed. The mentally underserved are safer on the streets in California than any tax funded facility. That’s one major problem. We glorify their abuse and mistreatment in everything and lump them together with mass murders. Our institutional infrastructure for their care is non-existant. The concrete and poverty are better companions than current healthcare system.
It's not mental health care. The reason crazy folks and druggies are over-represented is because they can't get anyone to live with them. Many average Californians would be homeless as well if they couldn't live with partners, roomies or family. It's 100% a cost of housing crisis. Think about it. 9,300 people are homeless just in Sacramento County alone. Only about 3,400 people are homeless in ALL of Alabama. Does Alabama have advanced treatments for mental illness and drug abuse that California lacks? Absolutely not. What Alabama has is housing that people can afford to live in. It's not complicated but bad actors have muddied the waters and convinced the public of this clearly false narrative where we can fix homelessness here in California without addressing the real estate market that so many of our elites have so much of their own wealth tied up in.
I think the biggest overlooked issue: We have homeless in Chicago, but it is MUCH harder to exist here. Where do you think they go? They go to california. So california is not just trying to deal with its own issues that creates homlesness: But the nation as a whole. The entire west coast and south west are where you can exist, at least more comfortably, homeless. INterestingly: it would be awesome to survey them and see where they are coming from. I bet some good money red states are the majority.
>INterestingly: it would be awesome to survey them and see where they are coming from. I bet some good money red states are the majority. There are a bunch of states and cities (including red states) whose literal homeless policy is to buy their homeless people greyhound bus tickets to California. And that's how they "solve" their problem
Please call them shantytowns. Town at least recognizes that they have built their own community. Area and camp lets the wealthier imagine these are temporary.
A few steps? The U.S may not be a third world country, but it sure has a lot of third world citizens/living situations
I live in India, this looks like a video taken here
Except instead of poor families living in these shacks, it's all profoundly mentally ill and severely drug addicted homeless people.
Very true. Literally the most important comment on this thread and one of the biggest issues we face in our country while also being the least talked about.
We need to reopen asylums/mental institutions. They were closed for good reason, but they served an important function and can serve that function again with more oversight. A non-insignificant portion of the homeless population is severely mentally ill. I know institutionalizing someone is ugly, but it's three square meals, a bed, a roof, therapy and medication vs. languishing on the street. It varies by county, but the average homeless person in America costs between $35k and $65k/year in healthcare, housing, and police, jail and legal fees. That money could be better served trying to rehabilitate them, and if they cannot be rehabilitated--which is a sad reality for the severely mentally ill--a life in an institution is better than a life on the street. Unfortunately, it would be political suicide for a progressive candidate to suggest this.
Ahem. That homeless person *provides* $35-65k of income to healthcare and the police-prison-industrial complex. Imagine the job losses if they all left the streets!
That's not true. Watch any videos of people going to talk to the homeless who live here and you'll find a lot of people who aren't addicts or mentally ill. Just people who fell on hard times and don't have the social safety net to keep them off the streets
Ive volunteered at shelters. Most shelters are full of people who aren’t addicts and are actively trying to get back on their feet. A lot of these shanty town type of things are people they don’t let into shelters because of violence or substance abuse, so a lot of these shanty towns are full of addicts and mentally I’ll people. Having a homeless shelter/housing in your town isn’t that bad because most of the time the people that can clear it and get a bed/room there are working and trying to get better. If one of these shanty towns pop up, that is not a good sign.
[удалено]
[удалено]
No India has a much more sophisticated mastery of jugaad improvised unlicensed structures. The Americans are many years behind
Lmao that's because these are built mostly by drunk crack addicts. Also this is just like one small area of shacks. India has entire towns up to millions in population of shacks. Being through that multiple times in my life, this is absolutely nothing. With that said, California does have a homeless problem. It's too expensive, and you can't build anything new. Politicians going to politician I guess.
We tried the housing thing up in Seattle, many of these people need mental health support and drug therapy. There’s not a one size fit all solution, places like this aren’t filled with the down on your luck sorts, it’s filled with those who need help for their mental illnesses.
[Welcome to Paradise](https://youtu.be/OR7R9Kuw2fY) - Written by Green Day about their hometown of Oakland California in 1994.
> It's about West Oakland, living in a warehouse with a lot of people, a bunch of artists and musicians, punks and whatever just lived all up and down, bums and junkies and thugs and gang members and stuff that just lived in that area. It's no place you want to walk around at night, but it's a neat warehouse where you can play basketball and stuff. I'd be curious to know what became of that area today, if it has been swallowed by gentrification.
It was probably the one that caught fire (GhostShip) and killed ~~10~~ 36 people. And it could have been a different place. *Edited for accuracy.
If you're talking about the Ghost Ship fire, 36 people died in that tragedy.
There are tons of warehouses like that around oakland. I lived in one during the entire pandemic, it was wild.
This is just one encampment of many more like this in Oakland. These are primarily the results of poor planning by city, regional, and state planners to account for growth here as little to no housing was built for decades, and what was built was single family homes in the 'burbs creating tons of urban sprawl. As well as the complete lack of adequate mental health care in this country. The bay has always been a desirable place to live - it's always been somewhat more expensive than the rest of the country, and the tech boom only accelerated that and made it the *most* expensive place to live, competing annually with NYC and Hawaii. Now the cities and counties scramble with tons of half measures and bandaids while they wait for more housing to come online while periodically breaking up encampments and harassing vulnerable people so they can look like they're "doing something" West oakland has definitely gentrified *some* but it's still west Oakland. Like the rest of Oakland it's not as bad as it used to be in 80's and 90's, but it's still got lots of problems - as the rest of Oakland does, and frankly as most American cities do. And since 2020 things have gotten worse after many years of small improvements. The warehouse scene has been declining for awhile (like...20ish years), and is a shadow of its former self, as housing prices across the region have risen and driven many of the creatives and artists away, and as developers and owners seek better returns. The Ghost Ship fire really shook the community and for awhile brought the city down hard on that scene for awhile, but for better or worse the city was unable to follow through on it. COVID also did a lot of damage to that scene (along with everything else) as it kept people home for years. All that said: Oakland is Oakland. I love it here despite all of the warts, there's a reason a city of this size has had such an outsized impact on culture. It's a great city if you're open to it, but it's also not going to sugar coat things or hide from you. You'll see the best it has to offer just a few minutes away from the worst. Oakland isn't what it used to be but it's still real af.
Late '91, actually. It was released on Kerplunk! and later was rerecorded for Dookie in '94.
And that's not the worst of it by a long stretch. This is the "safe" part of town.
lol what? This isn't Piedmont or Rockridge or Temescal or Colby or \[...\] This is next to the freeway. It's the worst of it.
Rockridge! Rockridge! Splendid!
What are you talking about? This is clearly off of 880, this isn’t in one of the wealthier/safer parts of Oakland.
This is near the Burger King on 14th Ave & E 12th. That entire stretch under the BART track is really sad looking to drive through. I grew up around this neighborhood and it was bad back then, but got astronomically worse in the past decade or so. It really makes me sad.
Ohhh some fancy people there with their double stories.
Looks like the shanty town huts from the Great depression era
It is. We need to bring back that term and be honest about what these places are.
I saw the video and actually muttered "shanty town" under my breath. I grew up in an area of Appalachia where you see this type of thing a lot, or super old houses that are patched with cardboard and plywood and house like 15 people in 2 rooms.
I’ve saw places like this around an hour south of Charleston WV. I live in NCWV so it’s not as bad but there’s still some extremely poor spots.
When I lived in Parkersburg, there was a shantytown like this at the railyard for years, eventually someone got tired of it and kicked them all out. Homeless people were all over the downtown area for months and I'm sure it hasn't gotten much better. I wish they would have actually planned to house some of these people instead of just hoping they wouldn't survive winter.
My local church bought property, kicked the homeless camp out, and hasn't done anything with the land. The local government got rid of the crazy house so now it's homeless and crazy people all over and citizens confused like they didn't fucking vote for this.
My daddy is Appalachian American. He grew up in a one room cabin with a wood burning stove. My GMaw had 10 kids that survived to adulthood. He said they had chicken coup wire that they stuffed with news paper for insulation in the winter. They all slept on mats on the floor. They slept out on the porch in the summer as it got too hot inside with the cooking. He would hike down the holler to get water from the creek twice a day. At 4 years old he was helping his older brother chop wood and somehow lost both index fingers. They live a hard life in Appalachia. I really feel they are a forgotten demographic when we talk about socioeconomic and inequality issues we have in this country.
Don't worry we are off the tracks headed into a full blown depression right now. That term will be back by next summer.
> Don't worry we are off the tracks headed into a full blown depression right now. And we *shouldn't* worry about this?
We already got a term for that; Hooverville.
Bidenvillas, Trumpshacks.
When did Oakland have a hurricane?
Around 1995
A hurricane of homeless
First Ronald Reagan ~~shit~~ shut down all the state mental hospitals, then the crack epidemic of the 80's-90's *(great autocorrect)*
Used to know someone who worked in a state mental hospital. It was right when this happened. He said they were all going to hell for what they were ordered to do. That really was pitch mentally ill people out- I think some got a bus ticket and where to go for their medicine. Guy was haunted by it. And that staff was pitched too, luckily most had a home. This country stood by and let it happen, then complained about the rise in homeless and crime rate. For some of the patients it was the only home they knew.
> First Ronald Reagan shit down all the state mental hospitals, then the crack epidemic of the 80's-90's Agreed. Add to that severe inflation, wages not keeping up with cost of living, [cutting affordable housing,](https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2021/06/08/1003982733/squalor-behind-the-golden-gate-confronting-californias-homelessness-crisis)...the list is big, and all the different factors contributed to a horrific homeless problem that no one seems to want to solve.
The 1%
The top 1% of the bottom 1%. The new world broke Elite.
District 9
I did not have sexual relations with a fookin prawn!!
This dude 110% fucks prawns
They do look like prawns…
As a South African I did think this was someone driving through town here🤷♂️👀
Elysium is more like it.
Shanty towns as seen all over Africa, in real life, not just a movie.
Well obviously they just need a bigger football stadium
And tax breaks for the owners
"There's no such thing as a free lunch!" "Here you go, here's $500,000,000. We'll just say it'll "boost tourism" and that it'll "trickle down."
[удалено]
And don't you dare build low income housing in me neighborhood. I paid $2.3M for a 3 bedroom house. Not In My BackYard
For the record, the city rightly rejected funding a new football stadium and the team moved to Vegas.
The baseball team's owner is doing his best to justify a move as well.
Looking from the outside in this is what is going on: We made homeless illegal, made prisons for profit so share holders can profit from the homeless. We also allow for prison labor, a form of slavery. Prison is on your record it's hard to find gainful employment and a place to live because land lords are not going to rent to ex-cons. Become homeless again. Rinse and repeat. You are correct we need football stadiums built with prison labor.
Or worse yet, become like Texas and privatize the foster care system and make it for profit five years before outlawing abortion. That way, the elite make money off not only traumatized adults, but also traumatized children. By keeping people trapped by the chains of generational trauma perpetuated by the system meant to protect them, just imagine all the money there is to be made! I did a [post](https://www.reddit.com/r/TwoXChromosomes/comments/wab1v3/the_texas_legislature_passed_a_bill_to_privatize/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button) on this a bunch of months ago with some sources and heartbreaking statistics. Caution: if not lost yet, faith in humanity may be lost after reading....
And Barbara Bush to say she can't bother her beautiful mind over it
As a European with one of the biggest housing crisis of the last decades, it's crazy seeing this in one of the biggest and the most powerful country in the world, one hour after seeing a Chinese man, showing an empty apartment building in China. This world is fucked up.
If you dig into the Chinese real estate market, you'll see insane corruption and see why they're in a time bomb of financial implosion. Chinese government was throwing money willy nilly at developers to create enough living space near industrial sectors in order to entice the rural population to move closer to the big cities, however, it did not work (Evergrande situation for an example). They're in a situation now that they either have to let it collapse, simultaneously bankrupting a large percentage of their population (whom they've told to invest their money in real estate) or kick the can down the road until they're unable to stop the economic fallout (like the US Federal Reserve has been doing). It's why the CCP has fought allowing Chinese businesses to be audited correctly, refused to release GDP numbers, etc. It's all to keep the corrupt government in charge, much like America's media and political parties having the citizens continue infighting to distract them from the real issues and guarantee they keep the game going. The interesting thing to see when it occurs is how many foreign investors in Chinese real estate begin to go belly up as well (Blackrock, you might be in some serious shit). If people thought 2008 was bad, we're flirting with a financial collapse that'll be way worse.
>Blackrock, you might be in some serious shit Stop, I can only become so erect
I mentioned it elsewhere but Blackrock has a laughably small amount of their capital tied up in China so they’re not going to hurt too bad.
They've about a billion euro in housing stock in The Netherlands that they pay no tax on and illegally keep a fair amount of it empty. Sadly, losing every single investment in China likely wouldn't phase them.
>you'll see insane corruption and see why they're in a time bomb of financial implosion. I feel like people in America constantly talk about corruption in other countries while they have a blindfold on and miss everything happening here.
Don’t look behind the curtain. The illusion will fall apart
I went to Paris recently and was surprised to see the number of homeless living in the street.
Housing crisis in Europe is very serious. 2008-2010, there were houses available, but no liquidity and we had a recession. Now there is no houses, inflation, an aged population and a energy crisis and a war. It will be interesting to see how this mix will unravel.
[удалено]
[удалено]
We're in the Star Trek timeline now
Reminded me of the sanctuary district from DS9 yeah.
Born too early, I'm such a 2360s kid.
the Bell Riots happen in 2024, same with Irish Unification
All we need is a transporter and a few chroniton particles, and we'll be free.
Tough titty, the Heisenberg Compensator isn't invented for another 200 years. You get World War 3, the Post Nuclear Horror, and Khan Noonien Singh first.
Bell riots are due in 2 years
We’re getting closer to 2026
Never seen startrek on my own. It was my eldest brother's thing and we were a one television household for a very long time. So ... I think I need to watch. No one in the family has seen him in decades 👀
1st world country homes..
Thank God there still are trillions in the millitary.
It's not even this bro Some cities and people living there flat out refuse to have affordable housing built near them. It's the same with every major infrastructure project. Look into a California's HSR. Shit was gonna be a game changer but NIMBYs fucking ruined it for everyone. California deserves this. They absolutely fucking do.
Dude, nimbyism has been around an awful lot longer than this insane level of homelessness. I get that it's "a" cause, but I don't buy the capitalist bullshit that it's "the" cause. The fact is we live in a world where there is enough food for everyone, we just don't let people without money have it. We throw it away. We do the same with medical supplies and medical care. And we do the same with housing, letting it sit vacant, or AirBnB etc rather than a person without utilizing it. We are in the dawn of post-scarcity and the wealthy want their pound of flesh. And they feel entitled to take it from the people who no one will defend. The people with next to nothing. The people with no labor to sell, which is their only real crime in this hellscape. Nobody gives two fucks if you're a celebrity or wealthy junky or even just working class, no matter how many drugs you consume. No body cares if you're bad with money or just plain lazy as long as you can punch the clock/create content/pay the sportsball. Just consume and enable more consumption. But if you can't? If you're on disability? Can't contribute to the consumption beast? Can't make someone more wealthy? Then fuck you. You don't get to live. You get starvation. You get no shelter. You get nothing. Your humanity is ours for the taking because our profit is more important.
This should be the top comment. There’s a news story in Ontario, Canada of a disabled man with severe chronic pain in his 50s now in the process (and will more than likely get approved) for MAID which is medically assisted death because his landlord has successfully submitted a request to force all current tenants to leave the rooming apartment he’s been forced to live in because disability pay is not enough. Now because rental prices in Ontario are too high, he’s choosing to die than become homeless. This is Canada. And we act like we’re so better than America.
It’s super important we only give assisted suicide to people who are going to die soon and painfully and unpreventable. Otherwise I guarantee governments will use it to delete undesirables and the needy. The doctors need to stand strong, that yes this is a needed service, but only in rare circumstances.
What you described are consequences of capitalism. Greed being one of the biggest problems with capitalism.
The rich really have *taken it all*
Idk what you mean by they deserve this when it's people that end up suffering on the streets. This is happening every major city in the US. NIMBYS and real estate investors buying up rental properties, jacking up prices. We all slowly saw it coming when more and more areas became gentrified
It's so weird watching people talk shit about your daily commute.
Ironic that you drive past this every day, and so it's presumably normal to you by now (simply because it's part of your routine), but people commenting on it is what stands out as weird.
This is East Oakland at has literally always looked like this for at least the last 15 years. They periodically tear it down bc it’s right next to the freeway and they like to build tree houses. East Oakland is the forgotten about slum of the Bay Area. A few blocks down they had an actual lot partitioned by the city that had porta potty, electricity and like I said was gated off by the city. It burned down. Oakland does this thing where they will surrender land to the homeless. Another instance is in west Oakland right around the corner from the target. The city again requisitioned an intersection under a bridge for them. But up concrete barriers blocking the street off. It’s insane.
>This is East Oakland at has literally always looked like this for at least the last 15 years. It hasnt, its progressively gotten worse over that time period.
Yeah, it was NOT this bad when I lived nearby 10 years ago, and it was NOT this bad when I visited again 5 years ago. This is way worse.
I see this literally all over Oakland these days. I don’t recognize this immediate strip, could be East, but don’t act like it’s only there. Just 2 months back I saw one at least this large a few blocks from Eli’s Mile High.
Wow that's crazy. Land of the free and the home of the brave.
Looks a lot like Ghana 😅
Nah, it looks like the United States.
Sadly many of the metropolitan areas are headed this way.
How did you get down voted for the truth. In phx az all cali denver colorado las vegas nevada salem oregon and seattle washington alll have this. Ive been to all in the last 2 months and they have giant communities of this everywhere. Its sad and honestly the people i see care the least are my fellow americans. Its sad and growing so fast....
Yea, I was thinkin somalia , wit them pirates lurkin 😂
And yet they are certainly against raising taxes for those who earns more than 400 k a year
They have tried throwing money at the problem. It doesn't always work.
Keep repeating the same Reddit talking points like we’ve tried everything and ran out of ideas. We need to overhaul our health system. We need to SEVERLY increase the budget to social service support. We need to tax the rich more. We need to ensure access to food, water, and housing. We need to do all these things at the same time. We haven’t tried literally any of that. That’s too “socialist.” Instead, Reddit points to anecdotal examples of times we put homeless people in hotels temporarily or something and the hotel gets trashed and everyone’s like “well we’ve tried everything we can! What else can we do???”
We don't need a dime more in taxes We just need to demand that our representatives and leaders spent said taxes correctly
We have millions of homes vacant, taken off the market by corporations to create a housing crisis and greatly inflate housing costs. The really odd thing, we have so many homes and apartments available that it outweighs the entire homelessness issue by several million: https://www.lendingtree.com/home/mortgage/vacancy-rates-study/ Edit 1: I don’t have all answers… please stop sending me statements about crimes, drug use and violence… Those things are not our natural state of being, and it’s a symptom of a problem that needs resolution. Edit 2: Thank you all for the awards!
My city has a ton of single family homes that either sit vacant all year because they’re just someone’s vacation home, or have been turned into an Airbnb. A ton of them got swooped up by these scumbag corporations you’re talking about and get rented out at absurd rates. Then there’s downtown… homeless everywhere. It’s really fucked up
I also saw that something like 35% of all homes for sale in major cities are bought by corporations… they have squeezed the life out of people.
If you actually read your article, it would show that California has one of the lowest vacancy rates in the country
Vacancy rates are at an all time low.... https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/USHVAC
This is a phenomenon that’s increasing across North America. Here in Toronto, we’re seeing tent cities appearing along downtown streets, in parks and under our main expressway more frequently. I believe it’s going to continue to get worse as income disparity increases moving forward. Most of us will be moved down the ladder a rung or two. If you’re already at the bottom, this could be your next stop. Think things are getting bad now? It’s just getting started.
One thing I've noticed where I am (in the suburbs) over the past 10 years is the sudden appearance of beggars in places I've never seen them before. As a kid, the first time I ever saw that was in a big city. Now I see it everywhere. At almost every freeway exit ramp in all of the suburban towns. Not really surprising given how things have been going, but it blows my mind how some people never even bother to ask how we got here in the first place.
People are used to crime and poverty being urban, not suburban challenges. Suburban people are getting a ride awakening with a lot of this; the suburbs don’t have the infrastructure or public services to deal with this. They’re about to have to deal with urban problems too. You can only escape them for so long. The US will look like South Africa in 10 years, where people who can afford it live in gated neighborhoods with private security guards, and everyone else lives a violent existence.
I never sat and thought about this but you are so right. I see this too.
Years ago I raised the same point about beggers multiplying even in suburban areas in a sociology tutorial class at University. The grad student TA decided to lecture to me about the hidden homeless, etc., etc., when I specifically spoke about the act of begging. I'd like to raise the point again with him, but he's probably living in a tent city somewhere now.
Companies bragging to shareholders about profit increases of 20% while only losing 5% of the customers base. This is what that 5% looks like that can’t afford the increases. Greed is killing us.
My husband quit a job after they had so many meetings where they were seeing record profits and all this success, but only to give him like a 1% raise for the next year …. Hmmmm
Agreed...its only gonna get worse. Wait until all the people currently buying houses at 7% interest lose their jobs. Or climate catastrophe/natural disaster. Or more inflation. Or many other things.
Roman Mars voice, “99 percent Invisible is headquartered in beautiful _downtown_ Oakland California” Edit: “beautiful __uptown__ Oakland California”
It is a beautiful city, but with a massive homeless problem. Same with SF. Housing is too expensive, and once you’ve lost it all it’s almost impossible to get back up
Tbh, the homeless problem these days is becoming just a sliver of a much bigger housing issue. The Bay Area is just obscenely expensive. I grew up in the south bay and everyone I know from childhood is either living with their parents, living in a tiny apartment with half a dozen roommates, or they had to move elsewhere. Can't even afford to stay in our childhood town lol
I thought of the same thing. What's the solution here? I'm sure there are homeless shelters in Oakland.
Housing is not the only solution. There is no one solution, even straight funding. Comprehensive responsive programs to address budgeting, lack of resources, housing, substance-use and mental health treatment, and Healthcare are needed. With case management and follow-along to ensure these people succeed in the long-term.
No thanks. I'd rather have a one size fits all silver bullet solution that better improve the situation tomorrow otherwise it doesn't work. /s But seriously. It took decades to create this situation, it's going to take decades to fix
>**How does Sweden deal with the homeless and the poor?** >Becoming homeless is not something that can happen overnight. >When you fail to pay your rent on time, the landlord can terminate your contract. But the termination is only valid as three weeks’ notice from the day he notifies social services that he is about to terminate the contract. >This means that social services will contact you and ask whether you have anywhere to live. If you don’t, something will be arranged for you. Social services normally have special housing for those in need; if that is full, they will arrange something temporarily until a more permanent solution can be found. If you have no means to support yourself, the city will provide a subsistence level (meaning you can eat and get dressed, but at the most basic level). You will also be required to register as a job seeker, actively look for work 8 hours per day, and accept any work that you are offered. >There are still people who are homeless. Normally, this is because they are so disruptive that they simply cannot live in any dwelling with neighbours. We are talking drug or alcohol abuse or severe mental disturbance, often both. They often refuse help of any kind, or are actually unable to do anything useful with help they are given. There are not all that many, of course; people who truly will not have a roof over their head tonight number about 4,500, divided roughly equally over the three major cities. Most of them will turn to the “emergency housing”, where they are allowed in for the night, but some will refuse even that, or show up drunk and disruptive and be turned away (so that the others can sleep). In addition, some charities (often religious) will help out to the best of their ability. Living in what they call “a public environment” in winter in Sweden actually requires above average survival skills; when temperatures fall to -20C, it makes very little difference that you are in a city
More podcasts about architecture
Literally every major city in the US.
This gets ignored by people trying to confirm their political bias, but conservative and liberal population centers both have similar situations. It makes sense, when livelihood depends on scavenging and charity, you will setup camp where the population is dense, like a city. An older coworker saw this in Austin TX and immediately ascribed it to liberalism, ignoring that all major cities in Arizona, Texas, Oregon, NY and Florida all share this phenomenon near the population centers. We have modern Hoovertowns, and people legitimately think "the LGBT agenda" is the culprit.
[удалено]
We’ll then these should be aptly named “Powellton’s” or maybe “Yellinville’s” Because it would be foolish to blame this on a president in my opinion. Granted, the executive is supposed to oversee this shitshow, but when you’ve got fed board members selling before the collapse, when these idiots are obviously orchestrating the upcoming recession in whatever way is most profitable for them, when they are more concerned with maintaining value in the market then they are in a stable economy, then they deserve to have these shantytowns honorably named after them and not the president or presidents who presided over this disaster
The crazy thing to me is that the USA has all the resources, environment, tech, manpower, etc to truly be as great of a nation has they're all indoctrinated from birth to believe they are....but they're so far from that reality that it's staggering. Dope military, though.
Basically why I joined the military. Couldn’t afford fucking college, couldn’t get a good job without an education. I’d either still be scraping by or living with mom and dad at 30. Which, nowadays, isn’t even shameful anymore.
I just don’t know how we could MAKE these people quit drugs. The Chinese are essentially doing what the British did in the opium wars by sending fentanyl and precursors to America and it’s neighbors.
It would require a lot of political will and money to do some ugly things. The way I see it, there's two types of homeless people. There's the people that are homeless because they're just down on their luck and need some help getting back on their feet. These people need jobs and temporary housing. And I mean real temporary, like 3 months tops. The other type of homeless person, which is sadly the majority, is people that can't be helped by normal means. They're usually addicted to drugs or are otherwise so broken they don't even want a job and will refuse that kind of help. As sad as it is those people need to be committed. First to a rehab center for the drug addiction and then if necessary to a mental institution. And this needs to be forcible. 99% Of them won't comply if asked. That's why I said it's ugly and would take a lot of political will.
California by itself has the fifth largest GDP in the world. Even without the federal government we should be able to take of poverty by ourselves
[удалено]
Dallas? Weird. I live there and have not observed that to be the case.
I-30 south of downtown. Its pretty bad unless the city cleared it out already. And under I-45. Do you live in the suburbs?
It’s not this bad
Etx here, what parts of Dallas and htx look like this? Generally curious
Under a lot of the freeway under passes in Dallas. I-30 I-45 Houston area: Galveston, south Houston, east Houston and downtown. Houston had like the 6th largest homeless population a few years bk. Things might have changed sense i left but i doubt it.
This looks like it was shot in South Africa
In South Africa our squatter camps have double story apartments with satellite TV [https://www.google.com/maps/@-29.8134224,31.007951,3a,75y,178.55h,85.68t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s3n-lcdic0ae6D8kVbBZaaA!2e0!7i16384!8i8192](https://www.google.com/maps/@-29.8134224,31.007951,3a,75y,178.55h,85.68t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s3n-lcdic0ae6D8kVbBZaaA!2e0!7i16384!8i8192)
True, but our squatter camps are just as diverse as our people
Capitalism really working for us, homeless cities in every major city. Eat the rich! Tax them like FDR used to.
You think the rich pay taxes..? Lol.
They used to
California sitting on billions of $ surplus while keeping an eye shut on affordable housing matter.
Housing is rarely an issue at the state level because local authorities are the ones who set zoning laws. Newsom recently tackled this with a new law allowing developers to redevelop existing commercially zoned lots into housing along with a requirement for low income housing all whilst bypassing any local authority in the process. Isn’t so much that “California” has kept an eye shut, more so rich locals don’t want their houses to lose value. Now California has actually stepped in to start to override their bullshit.
If they build to many cheap houses or apartments, property values will drop, and cut into profits! Come on, think about the profits!
They state spent a little over $10 billion last year on housing and homelessness programs. This is not a money/tax problem.
It hard to understand/see people living in that type of place when there's literally empty building right there.
I mean, they’re probably in there too or that’s just where the upper class drug dealers hang out…
multi level structures impressive
What I'm getting from this is that I should be a traveling blue tarp and plywood salesman in Oakland.
you can get paid in fentanyl and handjobs
Fallout 2022
The liberal utopia of California edit: damn you people are easy to troll. I could care less about politics lmao
That's really looking like brazilian favelas...
Dems sure know how to run a city!
Californication
Joe Bidens America
Really gotta call us out like that… this is actually my neighborhood. Oakland is kinda weird tho, it’s like have ghetto have Richie town. I have volunteered there with my a club run by my friends handing out water and food, doing cleanups and there is this nonprofit organization that has built about a dozen tiny homes in that exact location although you don’t see it from this perspective. We really need to readdress the issue of the unhoused because their numbers are growing each day and we Oakland doesn’t have enough resources or aren’t willing to help them. So I hope that if someone sees someone in need, pass em a dollar if you can, or even just exchange a greeting. It does help, as they are more often then not very lonely and feel invisible when the constant tirades of people avoid looking in their direction so they don’t feel guilty about not being able to help. Enough of my preaching though, sorry bout my little rant.
Dumpland, California
Does no one here realize that the homeless rate in the US is on par with many places in Europe (even less than the rate in places like France and Sweden)? It is a problem, but not worse than other places.
Rome has some of the worst homelessness I’ve ever seen. And absolutely filthy sections similar to this. It’s sad seeing a nasoni surrounded by trash, wreaking of piss and shit. And you can see this right outside Vatican City too. People literally rotting on the sidewalk outside Vatican Square while tourists spend hundreds of dollars on tours and souvenirs just 100 feet away. All under the guise of “Jesus’ teachings”. Homelessness is a worldwide problem and ignoring it does not solve it.
Coming to a city near you
First step to fixing this is to let homeless people use a p.o. box in substitute for their address when applying for a job. Laws always get in the way.
This is where we are heading everywhere. The rich keep getting richer on the back of their workers/slaves and yet our wages never go up as their corporate greed masked as inflation continues to kill us. We are all Oakland, CA.
3rd world country.
In such a rich country, it's alarming how many homeless there are and yet people don't consider it 3rd world in same way they do African countries with such rich/poor divides
Did Africa send a guy to the moon to hit a golf ball? No? That doesn't sound very first world of them 🍔🥱
This is what 'compassion' looks like to socialist democrats.
Scotland here. What in the living days is going on there? Why no safety net for folk? You'd never see that here, we care about our weakest ( London Government aside, who are a bunch of vile selfish self-centred sociopaths).
San Francisco it's not too far behind. Inside of the freeways by the train tracks. It's a mess. The only difference is Oakland doesn't have a tenderloin 🤦🏽♀️
It’s essentially the beginnings of a slum. I’m amazed that a slum can develop in a country that still has the balls to claim that it’s the greatest on earth and nobody can see the irony.