Louisiana Advances One of the Country's 'Cruelest' Anti-Homeless Bills

MMiguelX413 about 6 hours ago 36 commentsRead Article on commondreams.org

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Discussion (36 Comments)Read Original on HackerNews

Gabriel54•about 3 hours ago

There is homelessness, and then there is drug and/or alcohol addiction.

> Those who are convicted of sleeping outdoors could be given the option to avoid jail time by instead entering into a mandatory treatment program for at least 12 months.

What happens if someone is homeless and not addicted to drugs or alcohol? Why assume everyone who is homeless is also an addict? It seems entirely reasonable that someone homeless AND addicted to drugs/alcohol should be required to enter into a treatment program.

FireBeyond•5 minutes ago

Yeah, this is punishing people for being homeless, just like Boise (though their city rules were eventually overturned)...

They had a law that it was illegal to sleep outdoors as long as a designated shelter said they had a bed available. One of the more heavily Christian shelters said their policy was to always say they had a bed available, i.e. turn nobody away.

But to stay at their shelter meant mandatory church attendance, mandatory prayer and other religious observances.

So it became de facto enforced that the homeless could face religious indoctrination or jail as their options. Was eventually turned over by threats of or actual moves to challenge constitutionality.

sapphicsnail•about 2 hours ago

Because this isn't about helping people. This is about punishing the homeless.

Gabriel54•about 1 hour ago

Or to be more generous, they are tired of seeing drug addicted people sleeping in the street.

adampunk•about 1 hour ago

My heart bleeds for the person who sees someone sleeping in the street and assumes the sight of it is the tiresome thing.

archagon•about 3 hours ago

The American mindset: “if they’re homeless, they clearly did something wrong and/or deserve it.”

xrd•about 3 hours ago

Right, despite the biggest cause of homelessness: medical debt.

nslsm•about 3 hours ago

Citation needed.

Gabriel54•about 3 hours ago

I certainly do not agree with that. My point is that this article itself conflates homelessness and addiction, which I think is a serious error.

Schiendelman•about 3 hours ago

What specific information makes you think that?

archagon•about 3 hours ago

I know. I mean this is the mindset that causes this conflation in the first place.

syoleene•about 4 hours ago

> Those who are convicted of sleeping outdoors could be given the option to avoid jail time by instead entering into a mandatory treatment program for at least 12 months. The bill authorizes local governments to set up semi-permanent camps in remote areas, where defendants would be required to stay and receive treatment.

So basically state funded mandatory rehab for everyone ?

xrd•about 4 hours ago

Doesn't the article say they have to pay for it themselves?

silverquiet•about 3 hours ago

arbeit macht frei

sidewndr46•about 2 hours ago

While your quote is meant to be snarky, my understanding is that sign isn't at Dachau any longer

bibimsz•44 minutes ago

henceforth know as The Big Difficult

metalman•about 2 hours ago

many places have resorted to giving homeless people money and or casual labour for there city/town, a very large percentage then unfortunately get stabilised and re oriented into productive roles and are no longer able to be monitised by the legal/beurocratic industrial complex

SilverElfin•about 5 hours ago

I don’t think this is cruel at all. This is badly needed to fix broken incentives. A lot of the west coast cities (SF, Portland, Seattle, Vancouver) have serious issues with homeless drug addicts taking over public spaces, causing blight, committing property crimes, acting out in public, etc.

All the taxpayer money spent on nonprofits and random government programs have had little impact since far and mostly look like corrupt grift. There need to be new consequences and deterrents.

Ar-Curunir•about 4 hours ago

How does this actually stop homelessness?

Most homeless people, if you fine them money, won't exactly be able to find housing more easily. Similarly, if you imprison them, they aren't suddenly able to find a job more easily.

Schiendelman•about 3 hours ago

Most people experiencing homelessness are approached repeatedly by workers hoping to get them into programs that will provide them work, housing, mental healthcare.

There's a lot of complexity, like people who appear homeless but do have a place to sleep, but appear mentally ill.

For the most part, people in these situations are not looking for work or housing.

soraminazuki•about 2 hours ago

So what, if you lose your job, you can just sleep on the street and employers will line up to hire you? That sounds ridiculous.

bombcar•about 3 hours ago

At least if they’re imprisoned they’re no longer homeless

2OEH8eoCRo0•about 4 hours ago

Agreed. My town has a homeless problem. They say they need beds so the town adds beds and now we get homeless from all the other towns coming in.

Comparatively few of our homeless are from here.

Schiendelman•about 3 hours ago

Do be careful. Everyone claims that, but it's almost always something like 80% local in every place that measures.

SilverElfin•24 minutes ago

The measurements are always wrong. Volunteers tell people to lie on the point in time surveys so programs supporting them (or claiming to support them) keep getting funding. In the west coast cities the majority are from elsewhere and it’s easy to confirm if you actually talk to some of them and learn more about the backgrounds of people at the camp. They are there because not only are they tolerated and can break the law without consequences, but they also get free needles to help their habit.

archagon•about 4 hours ago

So an unhoused person has to either go to prison (accomplishing what?) or go to some “treatment” camp in the woods and pay for it (using what money?!) Excuse me, but what the fuck? Which part of this helps them get out of their shitty situation instead of basically sticking them in a concentration camp indefinitely? And what if they don’t have a drug problem? What will they be “treated” for at this remote location?

I think the only thing that can be earnestly said to this is “fuck this inhuman shit.” Anyone who supports this program has willingly torn chunks from their soul and thrown them in the gutter.

bdangubic•about 2 hours ago

all of the money we spend of department of “defense” and we get a President begging at 2:00am on social media for some canal to be opened, maybe we start there are reduce that budget by like 95% first