Sweden's proposal to ban begging draws global criticism - "The Christian organization Stockholms Stadsmission, which cares for people in a crisis of homelessness, unequivocally condemned the idea of implementing a ban on begging. The organization's spokesperson, Fanny Siltberg, said in an interview with "The Guardian": "To ban begging, or to require permission to beg, is just shifting the problem in a futile attempt to outlaw poverty. Instead, we believe that this group’s vulnerability can be reduced through structural poverty reduction and work against discrimination – both in home countries and within the EU. It is long-term work. In the meantime, society needs to take responsibility, for example offering paths into the workplace and housing market and in that way reduce the social vulnerability of these people" Aida Samani, deputy legal director of the human rights organization Civil Rights Defenders, expressed a similar opinion. "It is remarkable that the government is prioritising this in a situation that they themselves describe as a crisis of organised and violent crime.Then there is the question of the lawfulness of a ban. As far as I can see a national ban on begging would most likely not be lawful," she emphasized in an interview with "The Guardian." According to Samani, the ban would violate the right to privacy and freedom of expression as outlined in the European Convention on Human Rights."
Weird. Usually left wingers say you can do more than one thing at once
Of course, the assumption is that everyone who begs needs the money and cannot be served by social services. Clearly everyone is honest and no one is harassed by begging and crime syndicates are never involved
If criminalising begging violates rights, how come Sweden can criminalise prostitution?
Meme - memetic_sisyphus @memeticsisyphus: "Homelessness is not about money."
Angela Lee @angelaljsutton: "Note to self: never let anyone stay in ur house no matter how sad the story is *ruined house*"
Thread by @wanyeburkett on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App - "The primary cause of homelessness is not a lack of money, it’s a lack of functioning relationships. You become homeless when you’ve burned through everybody in a position to have once cared about you.
Like a lot of poor people, when I was deep in poverty I survived because I had a mother I could move in with for a while, a friend with an air mattress who let me stay with them when I had overstayed my mom’s welcome. When my drug addicted uncle was on the verge of homelessness, he came and stayed with us. When my mother later was kicked out of her boyfriend’s house, she stayed with me for a couple of days, and then with a friend for a while until I could help her get set up with a place. These stories will be familiar to anybody who has ever had any experience with poverty. This is how people with resources actually survive. My other uncle, who had a bit of a checkered legal history, earlier issues with drugs, and lifelong struggles with mental illness lived his entire life with his parents, my grandparents. When they died he had multiple people who helped him stay in that home. When my mom had a stroke and was unable to care for herself, my brother and I made sure that she was looked after and ultimately I did the work to get her set up with long-term care.
Money can sure make things easier, but the final backstop, the thing that makes the difference between living on the street and not living on the street isn’t money, it’s relationships."
Meme - memetic_sisyphus @memeticsisyphus: "Say you had a spare bedroom and a family member just lost his job. He has no savings and no where else to go. You offer to let him into your house until he gets back on his feet. This dynamic can go on for quite some time, but there are some implicit agreements that must be met. The most important is that he try to disrupt your life as little as possible. The odd TV too loud or empty hot water tank is to be expected but as long as he’s trying to be considerate you can make things work. There’s also an expectation he attempt to get his life back on track. He needs to be looking for work. Now imagine this house guest ignored these tacit agreements. Imagine when asked to place his dirty dishes in the sink he protested by shattering them on the floor. When asked to seek employment he returned a volley of personal insults. In fact his social media post is filled with hateful comments about your life, your character, your home, bordering on violent obsessions. He’s actually started talking on podcasts about how terrible a person you are. At some point you’d say enough, I’m cutting you off."
francis kafka @pachabelcanon: "there is a growing proportion of the online Right which makes the argument, basically: "We're competent and civilized and actually matter, and there's a proportion of the population which is totally irredeemable, I can't take it anymore, they can go to hell""
Alex Nuttall: Municipalities need the power to clean up public parks - "Injections sites, “safe supply” of drugs, unregulated encampments, tolerance of broken laws, lack of prosecution, a revolving-door justice system and a liberal interpretation of drug laws by the courts have all led to where we are today, a society that is lawless and biased toward those who break the law. We’ve reached a very sad day in North American society when we are putting the priorities of traumatized adults over the innocence of children. Places designed for kids to play are being taken over by homeless encampments, with many being home to unruly behaviour, open drug use and, in some cases, violence. When did the focus shift from creating spaces that are safe for kids to play, to creating places that are dedicated and “safe” for using hard drugs?... our municipalities are shackled by court decisions, and we are lacking the power to enforce our own laws. Numerous court cases have undermined the ability of municipalities to maintain clean and safe environments. Threats of charges under human rights laws are being felt by municipal leaders. Inaction on encampments has resulted in the proliferation of encampments. Not just in Barrie, Ont., where I serve as mayor, or in Canada, but throughout North America... Police need the ability to police our neighbourhoods. Prosecutors need to be able to prosecute. Judges need to be given the proper direction and tools to enforce the laws... Governments cannot sit on the sidelines while the courts write legislation"
Ontario judge declares a right to build homeless camps on public land - "our guess is that Waterloo v. Persons Unknown is likely to be a beachhead for hobo charter rights, as the Adams case has been in B.C. Judge Valente, for example, noted that the availability of free shelter isn’t just a matter of counting: he accepted the argument from the unlawful nomads (represented by an appointed amicus curiae) that in order to be able to evict campers, the municipality has to show that “truly accessible” shelter space must be available locally. One expert witness estimated that 95 per cent of the Kitchener tent-dwellers are drug addicts — and stop us if this shocks you, but most shelters forbid drug use on the premises, and drug abusers are among the most likely persons to get kicked out or banned. As Judge Valente summarizes, one of the named respondents testified that, “As a drug user, (he) found it difficult to be around other people in the shelter who were very judgmental.” The duty that the Waterloo Region will have to meet is not just to find a few warm cubic feet, but to give its homeless shelter that suits their circumstances, lifestyle and, from the sound of it, their mood. The vibes will have to be just right. In the hearing, the municipality tried to play one last trump card: isn’t the judge really just giving the tent-dwellers a right to enclose a public property for their own use? Property rights were, notoriously, left clean out of the charter by its draughtsmen. Pshaw, says Justice Valente. Why would anyone think the homeless were claiming a property right? They’re just claiming a right … not to be ejected … from a particular space … that they have exclusively demarcated for themselves. If that sounds a lot like a property right, the error is entirely within your tormented imagination"
Adam Zivo: Canadians see what governments and activists won't admit — homeless crime is a real threat - "A new poll shows that many Canadians feel less safe because of homeless violence and believe that the government is not effectively addressing homelessness. For years, soft-on-crime activists and their allies have tried to bury this issue, but it is clear based on public sentiment that this needs to change. The poll, conducted by Leger in partnership with Postmedia, shows that: 58 per cent of Canadians believe that homelessness is an issue in their community; 46 per cent feel less safe in their community because of homelessness; and 39 per cent believe that homelessness has led to more violence in their community. These numbers strikingly rebuke the “everything is fine and crime at homeless encampments isn’t serious” propaganda that some activists, bureaucrats and media figures have spent years championing. As I’ve reported previously, pro-encampment activists have viciously harassed and physically threatened victims of homeless violence who dare speak up about their experiences. Meanwhile, bleeding-heart journalists have done all sorts of mental gymnastics to minimize crime. Politicians and government bureaucrats have been no better. Toronto hired an ombudsman to investigate the 2021 eviction of several violent homeless encampments where guns, drugs and assaults were constant issues. The ombudsman subsequently released an outrageous 41-page interim report that largely ignored the criminal activity at the sites. Similarly, in Vancouver, Mayor Kennedy Stewart told Chinatown residents that crime wasn’t an issue — despite Chinese seniors being terrified of leaving their homes due to frequent stabbings... Thirty-five per cent say that government actions are not making an impact, while 31 per cent are unaware that the government is doing anything about homelessness at all. Over twice as many people believe that the government is actually making things worse than better (16 per cent versus seven per cent). It’s clear, though, that Canadians want common-sense solutions. Overwhelming majorities support increased policing to address homeless violence (69 per cent), while also bolstering social supports to get vulnerable people back on their feet. Almost everyone wants more funding for mental health (88 per cent), shelters (85 per cent) and homeless-targeted employment programs (84 per cent). That makes sense. There’s nothing inconsistent about simultaneously addressing the root causes of homelessness (i.e. mental health and insufficient housing), while also protecting neighbourhoods from violence. Robust policing and social assistance can, and should, go hand in hand — which is why it’s frustrating when pro-encampment activists portray them as mutually exclusive in an effort to derail conversations about crime. As of now, all levels of government seem committed to doing the bare minimum. From the 1960s to the 2000s, Canada shut down most of its mental health institutions due to legitimate concerns about inhumane treatment. But the mentally ill were subsequently just dumped outside, where they could hurt themselves and others. More recently, there has been scarce leadership on addressing Canada’s housing shortage, especially regarding affordable housing... Only 25 per cent of Canadians believe that individuals have the right to set up tents in public spaces (i.e., empty lots, parks and ravines). However, if respondents had been asked that question twice and been forced to differentiate between encampments that respect their surroundings and those that don’t, I suspect we would’ve seen important variations based on encampment behaviour."
From 2022
Adam Zivo: Crime at homeless encampments is becoming a national problem - "the City of Toronto filed a 29-page court submission that cited numerous safety concerns at such encampments, including “frequent” violent incidents, problems with human trafficking, as well as threats of violence against city workers and park visitors. The city noted that visitors, particularly seniors and families, were afraid to enter some parks. As encampments tended to pop up in disadvantaged neighbourhoods, the burden of this crime was disproportionately felt by the poor, as well as by individuals who lack the ability to physically defend themselves, such as children, seniors and the disabled. A former encampment in Toronto’s Alexandra Park neighbourhood is an example of this. As I reported last summer, before being evicted, that encampment was a hotbed of fighting, sexual assaults, gun threats and drug dealing. Surrounding residents were primarily low-income and racialized, with a large refugee population. Encampment violence meant that refugee children had no access to safe green space or outdoor programming, while children in wealthier neighbourhoods could safely play outside. Low-income elderly and disabled residents were essentially confined to their apartments, oftentimes without air conditioning, despite the sweltering heat. In Vancouver, consequence-free homeless violence has also disproportionately impacted the poor. After a worker at a pizzeria was threatened with a knife because she refused to give a man an entire pizza for free, some Vancouverites astutely noted that harassment and threats disproportionately affect minimum wage service workers, who directly deal with the public while having little control over their own working conditions. But this crime doesn’t just impact the poor. In Victoria, encampment-related violence in Beacon Hill Park was so bad in 2020 that some city staff, whose offices were nearby, were quietly relocated for their safety. City staff were also advised to work in pairs or groups when in high risk areas, and it was later revealed that an encampment dweller was breaking and entering into nearby homes while armed with an axe. As all of this was happening, the City of Victoria claimed that there was no safety issue. These accounts of homeless violence align with my own experiences living next to an encampment in Toronto’s gay village. Personally, I got tired of hearing addicts screaming derogatory slurs, such as “fa–ot,” and threatening each other, as well as the general public, with violence. It wasn’t great when a local addict assaulted my ex, either, or when another addict threatened to smash the doorway to my lobby with a plantar as I held it shut to keep him out. Encampment crime is a serious issue, but there has been a concerted effort in some circles to pretend it isn’t happening. The CBC even re-branded an encampment chop shop as people “repairing bicycles.” Throughout my reporting on encampments, I frequently spoke with people who witnessed or experienced harassment, but were afraid to speak out because, when they did, they were condemned for “stigmatizing” encampment dwellers. From my experiences, those who shut down conversations about encampment violence were disproportionately well-off and insulated from crime. Hell hath no fury like indignant hipsters who shriek about “stigmatizing” criminals while living and working in safe neighbourhoods. Unfortunately, many political and bureaucratic elites tend to also fall into this camp — bleeding hearts who are comfortable with crime because it doesn’t affect them. Vancouver Mayor Kennedy Stewart, for example, continues to claim that his city is perfectly safe, despite constant issues with violent crime. How many more people need to get stabbed before he acknowledges what everyone else can see? In contrast, Toronto Mayor John Tory did the right thing last summer and supported the eviction of three particularly violent encampments... When the ombudsman’s report was mentioned in a recent city council meeting, Tory and his allies doubled down and commended city staff for following through with the evictions, despite being followed home by pro-encampment activists and spat on."
From 2022
Encampment resident blocks exit, closes rec centre - "The refusal of a man from an encampment to cease blocking an emergency exit at Central Memorial Recreation Centre intermittently over several days led to closing the building and suspending programs."
This won't stop the pro-homeless people virtue signalling
Two charged after Calgary encampment search leads to stolen goods - "Calgary police have charged two individuals after a search of an encampment uncovered stolen goods and a prohibited firearm. On Oct. 5, members of the Calgary Police Service’s Community Engagement Response Team (CERT) attended an encampment in the 5000 block of 24 Street S.E. There were multiple tents and structures set up in a fielded area. Upon arrival, officers discovered stolen items, including bicycles, tools and a gas generator... Approximately $40,000 worth of stolen property was seized from the encampment, of which an estimated $15,000 was returned to break-and-enter victims. One returned item was a high-value guitar. Officers received a hand-written note from the child of the victim expressing gratitude for returning the item."
Denver Spent $150 Million in Untracked Expenses for Homeless Shelters, Audit Reveals - "Denver’s Department of Housing Stability has been unable to provide a comprehensive breakdown of an estimated $149.6 million in taxpayer funds spent in the two-year time frame, according to a 51-page audit published Thursday by the Denver Auditor’s Office... The expenses were paid through 1,599 invoices. Of the 40 invoices that Denver auditor Timothy O’Brien reviewed, 55 percent were submitted late for expenses and 30 percent were submitted past the deadline for reimbursement requests."
Clearly the problem is they don't get enough money and if you don't think that, you're cruel and "the cruelty is the point"
Thorolf Butter on X - "NGOs for homelessness or addiction generally have little incentive to solve either. The presence of social services programs will also attract homeless people from outside the region. Most of the visible homeless have smartphones and will relocate for access to welfare programs"
Elon Musk on X - "The “save the homeless” NGOs are often paid according to how many homeless people are on the streets, thus creating a strong financial incentive for them to maximize the number of homeless people and never actually solve the problem! Incentives explain outcomes."
Tim Pool on X - "I worked at a shelter network. They lied to people saying they were full and needed more space. Truth was homeless hate being in shelters and they were empty"
Fancy on X - "A family member is an alcoholic. She would rather sleep in the streets than sleep in our family home where she can’t feel comfortable getting fall down drunk. They are all like this. They want to be free to live the way they want. It has nothing to do with no options."
Meme - Elon Musk @elonmusk: "This illustrates why the term “homeless” is misleading. The vast majority of those on the streets are there due to severe drug addiction and/or mental illness. The issue not that they got a little behind in their mortgage payments and would be back on their feet if someone just offered them a job."
Tiffany Caban: "Jordan Neely deserved better than the violence of being denied access to stable housing and health care, and then dehumanized for it. Jordan Neely deserved better than the systems that allow for, and justify, extrajudicial white supremacist violence against Black people."
Readers added context they thought people might want to know: "As part of a plea agreement with prosecutors after he punched a 67- year old woman in the street in 2021, Jordan Neely was given free access to stable housing and health care at a treatment facility in the Bronx. He abandoned the facility after 13 days."
Philadelphia is a nice city and you should visit🔔 on X - "So something I think needs to be addressed about the "homeless on the subway" situation is what do we do about people who are *NOT* physically disruptive but do things like take up entire corners of the train or smell so bad that entire cars empty out. I don't think we should kick people off trains for smelling bad but it is a real problem when during the winter basically every other car you get into smells like literal shit."
Dr Ally Louks on X - "This is likely to be one of my more controversial takes, but ultimately the smell produced by a homeless person taking shelter from the cold on public transport is *harmless*. It might be unpleasant, but it can be tolerated (or avoided) in the name of compassion."
TracingWoodgrains on X - "I don't want subways to turn into homeless shelters in the name of compassion, I want subways to turn into subways in the name of functionality. If you try to route a problem into a domain not designed for it in the name of compassion, you're left with two problems."
Left wingers want to destroy public transit by letting the homeless, drug users etc menace riders, but also want to force people to use public transport at the same time. The cruelty is the point
Hunter Ash on X - "I told you. The reason the smell PhD is not just silly but evil is because it leads directly to policy proposals that require us all to tolerate stink. “Your discomfort only counts if I decide it’s legitimate”"
Community washrooms a potential solution to Canada’s two-tiered system of toilet access - The Globe and Mail - "Toronto now has about 300 public toilets, aside from those in community centres, but most are open only in warmer months. They are often in parks and not necessarily convenient for people walking city streets. Many are also closed overnight. The Toronto Public Space Committee, an advocacy group, is pushing for the city to create a proper network of public toilets. In Calgary, bureaucrats say that stand-alone public toilets can make patrons feel uneasy – unsure whether the place will be empty and worried about what they might find inside. And they tend to get damaged. A new project in that city packages public toilets with a pickleball court in a bid to prevent vandalism. Vancouver added temporary toilet facilities in the Downtown Eastside with attendants to monitor and help patrons. However, the province did not renew funding, and the city had to find money internally to keep the program going past this month. In Winnipeg, the full-service offering comes with a higher continuing price than most toilets. Amoowigamig, which means public washroom in Ojibwe, costs about $36,000 a month to keep open 16 hours a day. But it meets people where they’re at. The toilets are in the heart of what’s known as the local skid row. Next door is a community centre that has been stripped of valuable materials, closed and fenced off. Homeless people cluster nearby and many Winnipeggers speak fearfully of the area... At those moments, it’s not the homeless-person toilet, it’s the community washroom. That same sense of local ownership is what Calgary is trying to achieve with its planned toilet and pickleball court project... The project began construction last month and is scheduled to open in October. It is pegged to cost a bit more than $1-million, for four universal washroom stalls, the pickleball court and spectator seating. It replaces a pair of self-cleaning automated toilets that ran into maintenance problems and allegations of improper use. Like many other North American cities, Calgary is generally short of public toilets. And Ms. LePan acknowledged that the money being spent on this facility could go a lot further if spent strictly on toilets. But she argued that could leave them open to the same deterioration as before... Citing the success but high cost of the Amoowigamig facility, Councillor Russ Wyatt argued that toilet access could be provided by opening up government buildings and those housing institutions funded by government. City staff also proposed incentives to encourage local businesses to open their bathrooms to non-patrons, an idea that has worked well in Germany. But Councillor Vivian Santos argued that publicly available toilets without social assistance were worse than none at all. She introduced a motion at a council committee in early March that led to the idea being nixed. “Yes, we need washrooms,” Ms. Santos said in a subsequent interview. “But without the appropriate wraparound supports to mitigate some of these mental-health issues and overdose issues, unfortunately, it would fail.”"
Besides huge sticker costs, pro-homeless policies also have hidden costs. Pro-crime policies have similar hidden costs
Good luck cleaning up government buildings and housing institutions, and too bad for the normal people in those places who will feel unsafe
Horwath calls on government to step up game on homelessness - "Mayor Andrea Horwath has renewed Hamilton’s call for more upper-level government funding to tackle homelessness in light of a new report that shows the crisis in Ontario will only worsen without substantial action. Horwath calls the roughly $75 million in additional funding that Premier Doug Ford’s Tory government announced in December “a start,” but not enough for municipalities across the province to respond to the crisis. “The funding is welcome. The new programs are welcome. But the scale of the problem far outweighs the amount of resources being made available,” she told The Spectator. But if Hamilton wants more funding from her government, the city should demonstrate how it’s spending $158 million it approved in 2024 to combat the crisis, local Tory MPP Donna Skelly argues... Between 2016 and 2024, funding for housing and homelessness programs in Ontario increased from $1.9 billion to $4.1 billion, with municipalities covering 51.5 per cent of that freight."
Of course, the left wingers were bashing her. Accountability is bad when it hurts the left wing agenda
