While we could always use MORE bednights, for the most part, people sleeping on the street are chronically homeless and are probably on the street for a reason...

There are so many shelters, food programs, detox programs... There is so much MONEY out there for transitional housing, work training, etc... If people are sleeping on the street they've either decided NOT to take advantage of those programs or they've been banned from them for some reason.

I agree with the sweeps-- there are places that people can go if they are sleeping on the streets. Places like Tent City and night shelters. It is a health and safety issue to have people sleeping under bridges, in doorways, and in parks.

The woman who just got pregnant? Absolutely unacceptable. She could walk into any Planned Parenthood and get an IUD inserted for FREE.

And the Food Not Bombs people who keep disributing food in Occidental Park? Total twats. The city has designated a place for food distribution and it's only a few blocks away. The city is right in wanting to reclaim Occidental Park, which has the potential to be a bright spot in the middle of the concrete jungle, but is instead a giant piss filled "park."

The city isn't trying to hide or displace the homeless population, they're trying to manage and control it.

They need to get the proper permits, that is all. If they are denied those permits, then you've got a story.

As backwards (in this case) as it seems, an organization can't you can't just show up and give away food to the public any more than I can tow a hot dog cart down there and set up a business on a whim.

I mean, if a homeless person is camping in a greenbelt, you've got one of two things going on: either a mentally ill person has been left out in the cold, and we need to support politicians who direct funds to address that person's needs, or some lazy fuck-up is building on public land and illegally dumping both garbage and human waste there. If some big corporation did that, the Stranger would be first in line to write an expose about it. But if it's poor people doing it, the Stranger backs them up.

Well fuck that.

Homeless people aren't spotted owls and they're not children and, unless they're mentally ill or developmentally disabled, they can and should be held responsible for their actions.

Also disheartening is that the Stranger sent a news intern to cover this story, and still hasn't covered this morning's direct action. The Strangers is getting scooped by the dailies on this issue.

I've spent years of my life in camps like this, mostly between the Ballard locks and Golden Gardens, and they're disgusting dangerous places. The homeless people who build them just abandon them when the time comes. New people coming into the camp area don't want to use the abandoned gear because it's full of infectious human waste; you can get everything from lice to hepatitis off used mattresses and tarps, and if you pick up a needle stick it can be a death sentence. So the new people use the same areas, but they build new camps. Unless the city or the railroad comes through to clear the garbage out from time to time, the pile of old clothes, human shit, newspapers, blood, vomit and food waste will just grow indefinitely. And yes, clearing a camp like that is disgusting and difficult work.

But let's pretend for a second that we live in Erica's magic kingdom: suppose we let the homeless people leave their stuff in the greenbelts.

How long before the structures become more permanent? How long before someone applies for squatter's rights and the greenbelt disappears? How do we deal with waste disposal in the camps? How do we pay for it? And how do we police the camps? If we do police the camps, how are the greenbelt camps different than the high-barrier shelters that people don't use? If we don't police the camps, how long before something politically untenable happens? Failure to enforce federal drug laws can result in the suspension of federal block grants for roads, schools, and so on.

At the end of the day, the nationwide homeless problem is a result of the de-institutionalization that took place under Ronald Reagan, and nothing short of recreating the mental health infrastructure that Reagan destroyed and that Clinton was too much of a Republican to repair will address the problem in any meaningful way. The city is just attempting to deal with a problem that needs to be dealt with. Don't like their solution? Fine. What's your alternative? I imagine it's about as viable and well thought out as letting a population suffering from mental illness, substance abuse and epidemic levels of infectious disease built permanent camps in our public spaces, but I'm willing to give you the benefit of the doubt.

Let's hear it.

Oh, wait, nevermind: Erica's a journalist her job is just to bitch about problems, not fix them.

i'd like to see FNB get the street schizophrenics to organize a rally. that would be impressive.

seriously, how the fuck can we feel bad for homeless people that go off and get preggers?

No pissing in the streets.
No shitting in the streets.
No littering in the streets.
No smoking crack.
No panhandling.

There are lots of places to build camps in Washington. The best places that I can think of are in forests...

However, I'm against crapping in parks.

As for pitching a tent in the park, I make sure I have a newspaper on my lap.

Although I, too, am against people crapping randomly in parks.

As for pitching a tent in the park, I at least try to cover my lap with a newspaper.

how bout this; free apartment to any homeless woman that gets her baby makers destroyed.

How about we implement this little piece of Nazi (and no invoking of Godwin's Law, here - you are advocating eugenics, after all) policy after we start a mandatory sterilization program for callow would-be yuppies?

It's amazing how many self-styled progressives here sound a lot like supporters of Herbert Hoover circa 1931.

If/when the economic shit really hits the fan, more than a few of you will likely find yourselves homeless, so you might want to be careful what you wish for.

And I'll take every measure to preventing a pregnancy from happening if I or my GF are homeless.