Colo Coalition for the Homeless hiding Denvers Homeless for DNC...

[Hussie]

I have a hard time understanding how folks can believe that ALL people choose to be homeless, in one way or another...
When I was facing my storm, I could not work, did not qualify for disability, had nobody to assist me and mine, and came within mere inches of being on the streets, or living in my car...I did not choose to injure my back, nor did I choose the consequences of it happening, but it did...

I hope that those who are judging homeless people never have to face that situation...Addiction is an illness that is rarely treated properly, just like any other mental illness...Those people are overlooked completely when it comes to providing assistance...Folks believe they've somehow asked for it, meaning they deserve it which is not fair...If your child becomes an addict, would you try to help them even if they chose to become a street person?...Have you given any thought to the bag lady who might be so afraid of men due to rape that she refuses to enter a shelter at night, or even be around them?...Or the people who've been so traumatized that the scars they bear eat away at their very core?...
Look at them from a different view, and imagine they were you...

[Mike Snyder]

I agree with you 100% there Hussie. I have looked at homelessness more than most people and done research projects on it, etc...

Certainly, there are also many who end up there because there is no other way at that point in their lives and as I said before, that is who we should be looking to help most.

Addicts do make their own beds and they are often compelled to lie in them. That doesn't mean I don't feel for them at all. I have never had a substance abuse problem and I used to be pretty ignorant, but working with a church program I learned an aweful lot.

And yes, there are women out there so traumatized by life and tragedy that they can't bring themselves to do more, but my point was... there will ALWAYS be those who end up like that. And no matter how many programs you offer, I am willing to bet you will still have all kinds of homeless both willing and unwilling. Its like poverty or disease or political corruption. You can minimize it, but you can't eradicate it.

I'm all for helping those who can be helped and I'm even for offering help to those who won't take it. But I also learned that if you try to solve unsolvable problems you will always fail. You can only do so much and then leave it up to the next generation to hopefully do more.

And just so you know, when I used to go to New York City, I would bring bagged lunches with me (several) to give to anyone hungry that I met and I always was able to give it out. But I also had a lot of "homeless" reject anything but cash. I understand that too... but still... you can only do what you can do.

[Denver anon]

Mike,
I used to travel often with my job and Portland was one of the first cities to try a new approach with the homeless and panhandlers. They had a program for citizens to give them "coupons" that could be exchanged for sandwiches,etc. and free bikes (kind of like the Bike Library Ft. Collins has) for transportation to get to a job. From what I saw, it did appear to cut down on the number of folks standing on street corners with the Will Work For Food signs and work better than Denver's ban on panhandling. Don't know how it worked in the long run.

Some things in life are choices, some are not. Most are consequences of choices we make. Both good and bad.

I doubt any productive, healthy (mentally & physically) member of society (job, home, bills all paid,etc.)ever woke up in their warm bed with a roof over their head and decided to become homeless. Stuff happens. That is just not the same guy that's been holding his sign on the same street corner for the last ten years.

[JonBerg]

I dont't understand why the Democrat City
Administration wants to hide all of these folks from the incoming compassionate and caring Democrats? Is it possible that "compassionate and caring" is just a big stretch for them, after all?

[Judge Roy Bean]

JonBerg wrote:

I dont't understand why the Democrat City
Administration wants to hide all of these folks from the incoming compassionate and caring Democrats? Is it possible that "compassionate and caring" is just a big stretch for them, after all?

Gee ya think??????????

[jasin]

So how then does government housing and welfare programs work?

i.e. why not just go into the "projects" and collect welfare & stamps etc etc versus being on the street?

[Dapper Dan]

Open offer to all homeless people. I'll give $100 to any homeless person providing me with a picture of them hugging a democrat delegate at the convention. Rent for a year for hugging our first affirmative action presidential canidate himself. Tell him you're looking for some of that change he's been talking about.

(Must be actually homeless, 16th street trustifarians need not apply)

[Hussie]

How about free lunch for a month if they're caught hugging, or shaking hands with Hickenlooper?...

[Mike Snyder]

Dapper Dan wrote:

Tell him you're looking for some of that change he's been talking about.

ROTFLMAO!!!!!!!!!!

[Mike Snyder]

Don't you guys know how this works???

The Democrats hide the homeless during primaries and conventions and offer them cigarettes to come out and vote in the general election. Its textbook political science tactics. Duh!

[Dapper Dan]

Hussie wrote:

How about free lunch for a month if they're caught hugging, or shaking hands with Hickenlooper?...

Yeah, wasn't Hickenlooper a real estate developer? I wonder how much he personally did for the homeless with his real estate. Oh, I forgot, you're somehow a better person if you join goverment and force other people to spend their money on a problem than it is to do it privately on your own?

Besides, can't he just pass a law banning homelessness? He seems to think that works with guns.

Idiot.

$1000 to any homeless person who rubs some damn hair gel on that moron's head.

[Hussie]

It would be great to be a fly on the wall at the Art Museum when a homeless person enters, and the uppity staff is forced to face the realities of their City...Kinda like that movie "Trading Places" with Dan Akroyd & Eddie Murphy...Someone has to video tape that, and put it on YouTube...

[Denver anon]

Here's one reason a guy might choose the street over a homeless shelter. The number of registered sex offenders that stay at the shelter.

www.thedenverchannel.com/news/16923259

[Hussie]

Denver anon wrote:

Here's one reason a guy might choose the street over a homeless shelter. The number of registered sex offenders that stay at the shelter.
www.thedenverchannel.com/news/16923259

That happens out here as well, and Law Enforcement immediately gets involved...It is against the law for registered sex offenders to be around children, and even other registered offenders...Shelter settings are no exception, and even more of a threat...
It's as simple as verifying their I.D., which most shelters require, against the Megan's Law web site and removing them from the location...If they don't have I.D. they shouldn't be allowed to stay at the shelter...Social Services indeed pays for I.D.'s for homeless people, and any Cop will tell you that it's a violation to not carry one as an adult...
It boils down to accepting responsibility for the people they're allowing into these shelters...If someone is a liability, they're out of luck...

[JonBerg]

To Hussie,

Never better said, my friend!

[JonBerg]

I heard Lickenpooper, on the Mike Rosen show recently, say that pan handling is down some 90% in Denver. Rest assured-PROBLEM SOLVED (not)!