The “Water Cooler” is a feature on Claycord.com where we ask you a question or provide a topic, and you talk about it.
The “Water Cooler” will be up Monday-Friday at noon.
Today’s question:
QUESTION: Do you think Contra Costa County is doing enough to solve the homeless problem in our area?
Talk about it….
NO
They are making it worse; intentionally
Ultimately government wants everyone homeless. Then they will have complete control.
Yes! too much imho – there is little self help evident from my experience with the homeless, they have gotten so many hand out freebies that’s the expectation now…… and… many of them want to remain homeless and not have any responsibility or accountability to anybody
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More than enough.
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People who are involuntarily homeless that want or need help will seek or express the desire for assistance.
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Others are so drug-addicted or mentally disturbed that they are feral. No amount of “services” will help them because of their free will. Sometimes they need to hit rock bottom (or worse) before needing help. At that point, their civil rights should be suspended because they cannot manage themselves and should be designated as a “ward of the state” and taken into custody.
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CA should face the fact that not all of them can be “saved”. Historically, there has and there will always be a homeless population. For that small number, move them on.
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No.
If we were doing enough there wouldn’t be a homeless problem.
Yes. In North Korea the government takes care of everybody. Why don’t you go there and let me know how that works out.
Actually, they only “take care” of the Military, the rest are in modern purgatory.
But I won’t stop you from going there. Bring a flashlight, lights off at 9 PM.
Yes, there would, unless you mean to revoke the civil rights of those who wish to remain homeless. We (County health dept) tried to get them under a roof for Covid, but county staff had the hardest time keeping them living in their units, because a lot of them said that it felt like jail for them to be between four walls and under a roof, and they would just bail.
The mentality of our homeless, is that of children. They need adults to take charge. The adults in charge are into gentle parenting.
No, but I’m not entirely sure the issue is completely solvable. The communities that don’t have a lot of homeless people are inhospitable weather wise or have made life difficult for those who are homeless which causes them to move to other areas. Moving the issue to another community doesn’t really seem like a solution. Even when housing and life necessities are provided, many choose not to partake because there are rules involved and a large percentage of the homeless prefer to live without rules. I defy anyone to solve the issue. A good start however would be to knock off the open border and sanctuary city policies in place and actually cut back on illegal immigration. Provide services and assistance to those who want to get back on their feet and are willing to follow the rules and get clean if addiction is the issue. Lastly do arrest and prosecute illegal activity. Unfortunately, current politicians are either incapable of doing anything helpful or they want the issue to remain so they can claim they are working on solutions. Until that changes, the homeless problem will rage on.
Does anyone ever ask, why didn’t we have such a huge homeless problem 50 years ago, even in our large cities?
1. Permissive politicians, elected officials, and bleeding heart voters.
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2. Soft on crime policies by liberal elected officials, district attorneys, and judges.
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3. Further legalization and tolerance of illicit drug use (like Wiener’s psychadelic mushroom bill on Newsom’s desk).
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4. A porous border.
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5. Illegal immigration.
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6. Coddling of feral people with free free food, free facilities (like safe injection sites), and a lack of law enforcement.
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7. Tolerance/acceptance of uncivilized behavior like urinating and defecating in public.
What about our hyper-capitalism, sending our factories to other countries, destroying our unions that once provided good paying jobs, and the loss of decent wages and the buying value of our dollar, gone since Reagan! The 1% now control America. We live in a fascist plutocracy…
Difference between the past and now is government involvement.
Before was civic organizations, individuals and religious organizations.
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“Government does not solve problems; it subsidizes them”
–Ronald Reagan
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DEMs don’t seem to have much luck reducing homelessness,
but they ARE able to get them registered to vote, then find a way to get their ballots counted.
In 1973, deinstitutionalization (a Regan policy at that point) was in full swing. Sending patients from mental institutions out to the streets. A recession was also setting in and the inflation rate was 9%. Currently it is at 3.1%
Every city will get a federal grant to build a 500-to-1000-unit complex. Each complex will have showers, a small cafeteria to serve 2 meals a day and a laundry. Each unit will have a closet for their belongings. The rest of their junk will be tossed. IF there is a room available in a nearby city they will be transported there. Homeless will not be allowed to sleep or live on city streets or any public property. When a homeless person parks a broken-down R V or sets up a tent, they will be given three choices, A ride to the homeless shelter, go to jail or get out of town. It’s almost evil to keep supporting and making it easy for human beings to live on the streets like animals.
Let me get the straight. if someone parks a broken RV , they go to jail?
Right.
Come on, you know what I mean.
At the rate the stock market is going, cost of living and Biden/Newsom stupidity, we will all be homeless soon.
It will be the new way of life…roaming the earth in loin cloth like Primitive man.
No. California had one chance to nip this in the bud 30 years ago and they didn’t. Those in power turned a blind eye to the growing problem and, at this point, the problem is nearly unsolvable. It will take some tough and unpopular decisions by the politicians to even make a dent in the problem but such decisions will cost votes so they just throw money at it and boast about how it’s helping.
What’s the answer?
I don’t have one but I help elect people into office who claim to have answers.
Ever heard of the term “DO NOT FEED THE BEARS”?
They get used to handouts and can’t fend for themselves.
Or “won’t”
They have done to much already by throwing money at it making it worse. People come here from other areas for the free handouts. They have allowed them to roam with free wheel by timing officers hands when they show up in areas that they should not be in or around. There is no detergent for there actions or behavior for not trying to better themselves and to get off of the streets. If they do that they lose there free ride and the drug and alcohol party comes to a end
I use Arm and Hammer detergent. My laundry still doesn’t behave.
The county is not doing enough. Does anyone know how many homeless were in the county and bay area during the Great Depression? Maybe someone has some seniors in their family with that info.
It’s not bad yet, but give it time. SF is a great example, Former Mayor Frank Jordan said that SF spent over 1.8 Billion in the last 2 years on Homeless Programs. It would have been cheaper to give each of them a check for $60,000 each.
The problem with homelessness I am addressing/referring to is in regard to the camping/displaying their trash collections wherever they please, and this is a problem not being addressed. I suspect with gov nuisance/gruesome getting ready to run for Prez, pretty soon the streets will be clean.
Being housed needs to look more attractive than being homeless.
It’s my understanding that banks require a physical address in order to open an account, this requirement makes it difficult for homeless people to save whatever little money they get from doing odd jobs and to eventually get back on their feet. Sure, it is not something CCC has control of but homeless is not something that only happens here. Making saving accounts accessible to the homeless could be a start.
That’s a thing. I deal with a lot of undocumented workers who suffer from the same problems. If a savings…not checking…savings account could be had by all with a deposit without ID or address, we’d have at least a start. Banks don’t want them around though. Hurts business. That’s the crux of it right there.
I think, well I know thats what WF did and got in trouble. Many of the fake accounts were actually un-documented immigrants.
And I know this without a doubt.
I think it should be mentioned … they stripped away all these Bay Area military installations … mistake, me thinks
In case anyone is interested, CA has spent 30 B, yes thats with a B (Billion) since 2020 on homeless.
Comes to about 250k per person. You can verify this quickly on Google.
Somehow we went from 150k to 173k homeless during the same period.
The amount of taxpayer money being spent to “torture” the homeless of Concord and the surrounding areas is baffling. Let me be clear that I’m staunchly against the homeless setting up camp here because they routinely come and burglarize my neighborhood and all of the surrounding stores… BUT I continue to see police officers and county workers, along with what look like contracted “Junk-Haul” companies come out week after week, of course being paid for by our hard earned tax dollars, only to have them move back immediately to set-up shop again. They take bulldozers and destroy everything and trash all of the belongings, causing disdain for the street-walkers and perpetuating the cycle of theft as they steal supplies from the surrounding homes and Lowes/Home Depot only to go back and build ever-increasingly ingenious structures with solar panels, locking doors, and windows… all with stolen supplies I will reiterate to drive that point home. They homeless have continued to cut through sections of chain-link fence and set up shop right on the other side like traveling gypsies, so I must ask why have we not simply cut down the trees lining the freeways, or the roundabout off-ramps like the one near (Concord or Contra Costa?) boulevard across from the tire-shop and near the Chili’s…. Wouldn’t it make the most financial sense to simply remove the shelter’s that they continue to flock to, simultaneously fill the open space with medium sized blue-rock (the stuff with the sharp, jagged edges and not round-river rock), and then install steel, spiked fences like they did off of the monument x 242 Highway offramp by the crescent theater??? THIS WOULD IMMEDIATELY FORCE THEM TO RELOCATE, taking their fire hazards, trash, violence, and other dangerous symptoms somewhere else. Multiple people have been found dead in the area, and there has been an absolute increase in crime, but hey they continue to build “Luxury apartments” right around the corner that will of course tax at an extremely high rate…. It seems to me that this is more about using tax-payer dollars to fund the salaries of the committee members, police force, clean-up crews, and county workers versus actually solving the problem…. Hell, put some of those large, and staggered in size anti-homeless boulders down there so it is impossible for them to continually set up shelter IN THE MIDDLE OF THE FREEWAY AND ROADWAY….\
Just a simple thought based on common-sense, but what the hell do I know?