Comments on: Big Worry: District Homeless Shelters Are Already At Capacity

By: E.C.D.C.

E.C.D.C. — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 00:28:22 +0000

wow this is sad .... this shows a big needs for freakin' employment.

By: Comrade Al Gonzales

Comrade Al Gonzales — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 21:30:32 +0000

In a communist system, being homeless or unemployed is illegal. You go to the government & it places you in a job & an apartment.

Yes, there is no "freedom" to die on the streets & no "freedom" to be a bum, but there is freedom from dying of no health insurance, freedom from starving, freedom from ignorance, freedom from superstitions like religions, freedom from racism, sexism, & other plagues of capitalism, etc.

By: Amber

Amber — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 17:33:17 +0000

Does it make people feel better to blame people without homes for their lack of a home? Does that take away our obligation to help those who need some assistance or to pressure our government to provide adequate shelter space?
I don't think anyone thinks that shelters are the ideal place for people to work on getting jobs or an education or successfully treating mental and physical health conditions, but I would think we could all agree that shelters are a better environment than the street. Housing is even better than shelter, but DC isn't providing enough of that either.
People are lining up every night to try to get a roof over their heads-- people like you and me and people not as obviously like you and me. DC is failing to provide the most basic human right of shelter and housing to thousands of its residents, many of them whose families have been in this city for generations. We shouldn't be lashing out at our neighbors who have fallen on hard times, we should be figuring out how to lift them up-- or at the very least how to prevent them from suffering on the street.

By: Psycho

Psycho — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 22:52:39 +0000

DT Rez, yes, I agree with your last post.

By: Downtown rez

Downtown rez — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 22:36:23 +0000

Perhaps.
It very much depends on the person.
Can we agree emergency shelters do little for non-functioning schizophrenics?
Frankly, I favor institutionalization for their own sake. i understand the legal and practical difficulties with that. For example, and using your example, what's to stop a "5" from oscillating between a "1" and a "9".
Still, low barrier emergency shelters are not the answer. And they are over-run by the demand pose by such chronic problems.

By: Psycho

Psycho — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 22:24:21 +0000

Downtown rez, on a scale of 1-10, where 1 is normal and 10 is non-functional schizophrenic, medication might bring a person at a 10 down to an 8. With that "improvement" comes a host of side effects for which most people say "it's just not worth it".

By: Psycho

Psycho — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 22:17:47 +0000

Proballdc, yup, some people can't accept the idea that terrible, uncurable things can happen to someone through no fault of their own. Maybe it's a way to deal with the fear of that terrible thing happening to themselves.

By: Downtown rez

Downtown rez — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 22:13:32 +0000

And yeah, sometimes medication can help.
Not saying it makes things perfect- sometimes nothing can.
But it's better than what amounts to slow suicide.

By: Downtown rez

Downtown rez — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 22:10:02 +0000

Hanging out on the street all day and "sleeping" in emergency shelters at night? Is anyone saying that's treatment?
I've met people on the street (and tried to help them!) with visual, auditory, hallucinations. Not from drugs, but from how they're wired. That's aside from the folks who are 100% sure that president so and so knows who they are and will rescue them, or public official this or that is actively trying to kill them.
Low barrier shelters do nothing for these people. If you want to really learn something, kids, try taking a tour on the night shift with DMH outreach.

By: proballdc

proballdc — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 21:55:57 +0000

Psycho, don't even waste your breath with this crowd. They would tell you that if you were not alive you wouldn't get cancer. I have known the best among us to get dementia. Or, how about this, many of those homeless among us are veterans of foreign wars that were used up and forgotten when they returned. This crowd would say, if they hadn't enlisted in the military they wouldn't have had to worry about going to war.

Really, that is the crowd that you are talking to.

By: Psycho

Psycho — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 21:42:30 +0000

You all talk about mental illness as if it were something that CAN be treated, like diabetes or something. This is a fantasy.

Look at treatment outcomes (whatever type of treatment, it doesn't much matter) for, say, schizophrenia. It's real depressing (no pun intended).

By: Downtown rez

Downtown rez — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 19:53:10 +0000

Reopening Franklin is a horrible idea. I'm glad that ship has sailed. Far more preferable would be some way to compel treatment of afore-said mental and substance abuse issues, before the homeless with them reach that "imminent danger to themselves or others" stage. Even at that stage, they usually only get ER care or, maybe, a few days in St E's before they are back on the street and the cycle starts again. IMO there are a lot of people who want money, a place to sleep, food now and again... But far fewer who want real help, and who demonstrate they want real help by following through on their end of any bargain. This next part is anecdotal. I know two people who basically travel from city to city making sure their place on the wait for affordable housing in those cities doesn't lapse. The funny thing is that DC's wait list (now that it's been culled) is something like 20 years. And wait lists are similarly long at those other cities that still maintain them in the first place. It's odd to me that people would put their hope into that system.

By: J

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 18:10:21 +0000

Im glad some folks are pointing out that most have mental issues. It would be a start to have better mental health counseling/facilities in the Dc metro area for people with low incomes or no incomes. I always said if I became a philanthropist some day, I would focus on helping the mentally ill in DC- thus in turn helping get folks off the streets.

By: R.

R. — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 16:28:12 +0000

Reopening the Franklin shelter would be a good start.

By: 1967dc

1967dc — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 13:03:43 +0000

MCH....you are a complete tool! Well at least you've made DRs day..he's no longer the biggest idiot!...Peace brother