Several residents in the past week have written emails or spoken to the Bend City Council with the plea to end homeless camp removal efforts along the Bend Parkway. “That motion disconnects them from the services that could help them get them out of their circumstances,” Mike Satcher, a Sisters resident who works in Bend, told the council in a virtual meeting Wednesday. “Until we can provide affordable housing…we have to have safe, healthy managed camps where people can experience some level of stability.”
DUH! Politicians never can understand this while every other rational human on planet earth gets it.
Opinion: There are better ways for Denver to spend money on homelessness than on sweeps
People experiencing homelessness face a multitude of dilemmas each day, whether it’s securing a place to sleep, food to eat, or, for families, managing children and education. People experiencing homelessness in Denver experience stigma and social isolation, as well as political isolation through “anti-homeless” architecture, such as benches with an armrest in the middle to prevent someone from sleeping or spikes on garden blocks. Under Denver Mayor Michael Hancock, homelessness has been further criminalized, and as a result, people experiencing homelessness have to fight for the right to exist in their community.
Mayor Darrell Steinberg wrote in a statement the city was closing the facilities “with great reluctance.” The city “will open additional warming centers with more beds, not fewer, with precautions to keep people safe,” Steinberg wrote. “My fight is to have somewhere safe and comfortable for people to get out of the elements every night, regardless of the weather.” City and county leaders have faced criticism over the time it has taken to open the warming centers. In November, as advocates pleaded for the city and county to open warming centers, Greg Tarola — a man who says he was newly experiencing homelessness — died while living on the streets north of downtown.
Homeless camp empties in uptown Charlotte under health order | Charlotte Observer
Shortly before 5 p.m. Friday, the homeless camp just outside uptown Charlotte mostly was left with deserted tents and debris. Nearly everyone was gone, either into one the county’s offered hotel rooms or having slipped away to another unsheltered area.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WAVE) – Following an issued apology by the Louisville Metro Police Department Friday night after a homeless camp at Market and Hancock Streets was cleared by officers, community advocates are questioning the response by police. LMPD Officer Beth Ruoff issued a statement Friday night, stating the camp was cleared due to a “miscommunication,”
Last week, Mercer Island passed a law banning people sleeping outside or in vehicles on public property — but included language effectively telling police to first offer to take people to shelter, the closest of which is 5 miles away in Bellevue.
At least six homeless people died during the winter storm in Texas | The Texas Tribune
As temperatures reached 20 degrees Feb. 15, Harris County sheriff deputies found a 60-year-old man dead in a van under an overpass east of Houston. According to the agency, members of their homeless outreach team had previously tried to convince him to seek shelter, but the man declined. Advocates for people experiencing homelessness suspect he froze to death.
Homeless people face relentless abuse in Lancaster, ACLU alleges – Los Angeles Times
A report released Monday by the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California alleges widespread abuse of homeless people in the Mojave Desert city of Lancaster.
Sheriff’s deputies contracted by the city routinely push homeless people into the inhospitable desert, where they often face additional pressure from county officials, the report contends.
The report, “Banished and Abandoned,” describes a “dragnet of criminalization” within the city limits in which deputies and city code enforcement officers “regularly bulldoze encampments of unhoused people and order them to move by threat of citation.”
The actions push them out of the city into remote areas where they have to walk long distances for water and food, the report said.
Denver wants police to be less involved in calls about city’s homeless encampments
Denver wants to see fewer cops and more social workers and behavioral health specialists showing up to calls about homeless encampments. Over the next few weeks, the city will begin redirecting non-emergency calls made to 911 about unsanctioned encampments in Denver to the city’s 311 helpline instead. “The goal is to not have a public safety response to something that is not a public safety issue,” said Mike Strott, a spokesman for Mayor Michael Hancock’s office. “This is the next step we are taking in a series of steps to create an alternative response.”
Do not expand policing and involuntary commitment – Coalition For The Homeless
Governor Cuomo has once again advanced the idea of involuntarily removing homeless people from the streets by force, and taking them to hospitals and other locations against their will