Tina Casalvera became homeless in 2019 after she lost her job at Walmart and was unable to pay her rent on time. She was evicted.
Casalvera, 49, has been unable to find a new place to live with an eviction on her record, so she joined Tucson’s growing ranks of homeless people. She sets up camps, but on more than one occasion, city officials have given her 72 hours to pack up her belongings and move along.
“I can see the looks that you get from people, and it makes you just feel so worthless sometimes,” said Casalvera. “Even though you know what you do every day and what you try to accomplish. You have to do certain things to live. If you can’t get a job, you have to go in a dumpster to get an article of clothing—maybe to go to that interview—because you don’t have the money to buy something to wear. And then people will see you doing that, and automatically, you’re no good because you’re doing it.”
Casalvera is just one of a growing number of people who can’t find a place to live. Since 2019, the homeless population in Tucson has steadily grown, and the demand for social services has increased along with it. Meanwhile, the municipal costs associated with homeless camps in the city have also increased. In the last three years alone, different departments within the city of Tucson, Pima County and the state of Arizona have spent more than a million dollars cleaning up the remnants of homeless encampments in the Tucson area.
While various government entities and nonprofit organizations are working to help get people off the streets, the problem continues to persist raising questions about what is actually needed to build lasting solutions to homelessness in Tucson.
From 2019 to 2020, the number of unsheltered homeless individuals in Tucson—people sleeping in their cars or on the streets—increased by 60 percent, according to the data collected during an annual Point in Time count. The PIT count, which is facilitated by the Tucson Pima Collaboration to End Homelessness—a local coalition that serves as the Continuum of Care for Tucson and Pima County—is an attempted count of the number of sheltered and unsheltered people experiencing homelessness in the community. It typically takes place on one night during the last 10 days in January.
This data is collected in communities throughout the county and compiled in the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Annual Homeless Assessment report, which seeks to capture an estimate of the total number of homeless Americans in the United States. While it has been widely recognized that PIT counts tend to undercount the number of people experiencing homelessness in a given community, they still offer important insights into the humanitarian crisis unfolding right in our own backyard.
Last year, TPCH was unable to do a PIT count for the unsheltered homeless population in the Tucson area due to safety concerns associated with the pandemic, but city officials say the number of people experiencing homelessness in the community has continued to increase in 2021. (This year’s survey was scheduled for this week, but with the Omicron variant driving COVID cases to new highs, it was
canceled.)
There are many reasons homelessness is becoming more prevalent in Tucson and throughout the country. Even before the pandemic, the homeless population in the U.S. has grown for four consecutive years, according to HUD’s 2020 Annual Homeless Assessment Report.
Experts say it will take years to fully understand how the pandemic has impacted homelessness, but there is a consensus that the pandemic has exacerbated the problem through higher unemployment rates, housing crises and more generally, forced economic disruption.
In addition to the hardships caused by the pandemic, other factors influencing rates of homelessness across the nation include a lack of affordable housing and increasing costs of living coupled with largely stagnant wages and a growing number of people struggling with addiction and mental health problems.
“I think if there are increases right now, they have a lot to do with reaping the consequences of a long, long time of not investing in community,” said Daniela Figueroa, the chairperson for the TPCH Continuum of Care board and the director of programs for Youth on Their Own, a local nonprofit dedicated to supporting youth in Tucson who are experiencing homelessness. “Until we start really giving folks economic supports and autonomy and a chance to thrive, until we start really investing in social services, until we start really investing in mental health services and increasing access, we’re going to continually see this cycle.”
The perfect storm
In Tucson, lack of affordable housing is a serious problem contributing to homelessness. The values of homes across the city increased by 29.5 percent in the last year, with the typical home value at just under $300,000, according to Zillow’s Tucson Market Overview. This means people have become more reliant on rental units, but the cost of rent in Tucson has also been increasing for years. The average monthly rent for an apartment in Tucson is now $1,115, according to a report from RentCafe.
Since the pandemic hit, there has also been a reduced number of shelter beds available throughout the city. “Our shelters are full on any given night,” said Brandi Champion, the recently hired Housing First program director for the city of Tucson. “It’s rare to have even 10 beds available at any given time in the community that’s not restrictive.”
When shelters do have openings, there are sometimes restrictions in place that make the services unappealing to those who are unhoused. People may be hesitant to accept shelter services when they limit their autonomy or separate them from their belongings, pets, significant others or support systems.
“We’re trying to make shelter more user friendly so that we can get these people that are hesitant to come off the street to come off the street,” Champion said. “We can get these people into housing, get them going towards a better living, and then wrap services around them—maybe to get them directed toward a better way of thinking. They don’t have to be stuck in this cycle of drug abuse and homelessness and drug abuse and homelessness.”
The city’s effort to reduce the red tape that stops the unhoused from accessing services is part of its “Housing First” strategy. The model, which prioritizes getting individuals experiencing homelessness into housing before providing them with additional support and services, was officially implemented in 2020. In addition to making shelters more user friendly, the model also seeks to overcome other barriers that commonly keep people from accessing housing including a lack of employment, substance abuse problems, mental health diagnoses and previous criminal or eviction records.
Both the city of Tucson and Pima County are now using the Housing First model to address homelessness in the community. The Pima County Housing First Program was first implemented in April 2019 with the goal of reducing chronic homelessness and limiting interactions between homeless individuals and the criminal justice system.
Despite the local government’s shift towards a Housing First model, there is currently still a lack of low-demand shelter beds and affordable permanent housing units in the community. In fact, Tucson’s rental vacancy rate has hovered around 3% for most of 2021—a historically low rate indicative of a highly competitive market. With limited housing and shelter inventories, the number of people sleeping on the street has increased significantly, leading to increased visibility of homelessness throughout the city.
“Homelessness is getting worse, undoubtedly,” said Sergeant Jack Julsing, head of the Tucson Police Department’s Homeless Outreach Team. The separate unit within TPD was created in January of 2020 in response to an increasing number of complaints about homelessness. The team consists of three TPD officers—Julsing, Officer Jacob Valenzuela and Officer Josh Parrish—who work in conjunction with outreach workers to respond to nonemergency reports related to the unhoused community in Tucson and connect people experiencing homelessness with social services. Since the creation of the Homeless Outreach Team, at least 100 to 150 calls for service are diverted away from TPD’s patrol officers every month.
“I don’t really want patrol officers taking the homeless calls because I don’t think that’s something that patrol should be doing,” Julsing said. “They’re there for you when you need us in an emergency. Not for, ‘Oh, can you kick this homeless guy out of the wash because I’m tired of looking at him?’ That’s not your what your tax dollars are paying for.”
Julsing and his team have been more lenient towards people setting up camps outside since the start of the pandemic, but TPD is still tasked with the duty of posting 72-hour notices for the unhoused to vacate when there is illegal activity, when a camp grows to be too messy or when someone persistently complains about the presence of homeless people as a part of the “homeless protocol” for both the city and the county.
“We’re beating a dead horse”
When an encampment “poses a threat to public safety” or someone files a complaint to the city of Tucson, Pima County or the police department, homeless protocol is implemented. Through the protocol, the area is inspected, law enforcement officials and outreach service providers meet with the people at the camp and eventually, a 72-hour notice to vacate is posted at the site.
Forcing people experiencing homelessness to leave their camps may reduce visibility of the problem and satisfy those who have complained, but it doesn’t serve as a long-term solution. Often times this only uproots the unhoused and forces them to sleep outside in different location.
Not only does this make it more difficult for outreach workers to find the people they’ve been working with and connect them with housing and services, it also puts people experiencing homelessness in a position where they have to move all of their belongings to a new place—sometimes without transportation or outside help.
In this process, they are frequently forced to leave things behind and start from scratch.
Once the people experiencing homeless have cleared out, the camps are cleaned up by either a local government entity or a contracted company, and this task can vary in intensity. Some cleanups are simple, but others can be time consuming and expensive depending on how much and what gets left behind. There might be a need to bring in a contracted company when a cleanup involves larger items or human waste and needles. Abandoned camp sites sometimes also contain large quantities of trash, clothing, pieces of furniture or other personal items that need to be removed.
“We throw so much stuff away when we go to these camp cleanups,” said Cliff Wade, an outreach specialist and veterans advocate who works closely with the unhoused population in Tucson, during a city homeless protocol focus group that took place on Oct. 28, 2021. “That is what the campers were using to survive.”
As far as the trash goes, people experiencing homelessness do not have access to their own trash cans, which can make it hard for them to dispose of their garbage—especially when there are no public trash cans close to their camps. The same thing goes for human waste. Without public restrooms, people experiencing homelessness may have no choice but to go to the bathroom outside near their camp sites. These areas can grow to be a safety hazard when trash and human waste start to accumulate.
If the camps were set up on public property, depending on who owns the land, a county or city government entity is usually largely responsible for facilitating a cleanup of the area.
This duty can fall upon different county departments including the Pima County Regional Flood Control District, Pima County Natural Resources Parks and Recreation and the Pima County Department of Transportation. From the city of Tucson, people from the Department of Transportation, the Environmental and General Services Department and the Parks and Recreation Department frequently facilitate cleanups. Additionally, at a state level, the Arizona Department of Transportation also coordinates various cleanups in the Tucson area.
Public records obtained from the city, county and state departments that handle homeless encampment cleanups in the Tucson area reveal that, since 2019, these agencies have collectively spent more than $1 million cleaning up what gets left behind at abandoned camps. In addition to the monetary cost, government and contracted company employees have spent thousands of hours of their time at these cleanups. From 2019 to 2021, the city of Tucson Parks and Recreation Department alone recorded that employees spent 755 hours cleaning up the remnants of homeless camps in Tucson.
“We’re beating a dead horse here,” Champion said. “These guys are utilizing resources like crazy on the same camp sites, and we’re not solving anything. They feel the morale is going down in the other departments because they keep having to go and clean these sites over and over and over again.”
Champion hosts a “homeless protocol focus group” with different actors from the city, the county and various nonprofit organizations to discuss the state of the homeless situation in Tucson and potential solutions at least once a month. At the Oct. 28 meeting, which was hosted on Zoom, several city officials compared the process of homeless encampment removal to playing a game of “Whack-A-Mole” due to the continuous cycle of camps being established, the homeless being removed and the city coming in to clean things up.
This raises the question: Is the current protocol’s strategy for addressing homeless encampments in the community an effective use of resources?
While the current cycle may seem futile, people throughout city continue to express concern about the presence of homeless encampments in their neighborhoods and near parks and other amenities frequently used by the public. Some people genuinely fear for their safety and others just don’t like seeing the camps and what they entail in their vicinity.
“There is such a spectrum,” said Ann Charles, the chief of staff for the city’s Ward 6 office, at the Oct. 28 meeting. “We go from people who get upset if they see police talking to a homeless person, to people who…go on a bicycle, see a homeless camp—even if it’s 50 yards away—and call in and say you’ve got to get rid of it.”
There is an immense amount of pressure placed on our local government bodies to both address citizen complaints about encampments and to help the homeless. But the two tasks sometimes seem to be at odds with each other, which puts government officials in the difficult position of deciding whether to force campers to leave or to continue to receive angry complaints.
“It’s a very difficult balance,” said Julsing, who expressed that police action surrounding certain encampments is frequently impacted by whatever public opinion is at the time. “Whoever’s the loudest gets their way—whether it’s right or wrong.”
Despite how people may feel about the issue of homelessness, one thing is certain: It’s not going away anytime soon. It is going to take a monumental effort to address this problem not only by our local and federal governments and nonprofit organizations, but also by members of our community.
People experiencing homelessness—who are already dealing with a tremendous amount of trauma trying to survive—face a seemingly constant barrage of blame and ridicule for ending up in a horrible situation. They are often all painted as addicts and criminals who are lazy and choose to be homeless, but the reality is, they are human beings who are doing the best they can to get by.
A costly cycle
The long list of stereotypes about people experiencing homelessness not only grossly over-simplifies a massive humanitarian crisis, it also contributes to a growing tension between the housed and the unhoused and, in many cases, an unwillingness among the housed to help people who are homeless.
It may be true that a high percentage of the unhoused community does struggle with substance abuse, but addiction is a widespread problem impacting millions of people all over the world. In the United States in 2020, an estimated 40.3 million people over the age of 11 were struggling with a substance use disorder, according to a report from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. And these numbers only seem to be growing as the opioid epidemic continues to wreak havoc in communities across the nation.
“The truth is: People who are experiencing substance use—it could be you, it could be me, it could be anybody,” said Bryanda Acuña, a former peer support specialist at CODAC, a nonprofit organization that seeks to address mental health, addiction and trauma in Arizona. “Substance use is a coping skill. It’s not the best one, but it is a coping skill. We’re just told that people who use that coping skill are bad people, and they’re not. They’re just like anybody else struggling out there.”
When it comes to mental health, research estimates that at least 20 to 25 percent of the homeless population in the United States has some form of a severe mental illness.
In the latter half of the 20th century, when the U.S. government initiated an effort to deinstitutionalize and reform mental health practices, thousands of people who had been diagnosed with some form of mental illness were removed from psychiatric facilities where they were often receiving substandard care. This effort sought to improve the standard of care for people experiencing mental illness, but it largely failed to provide alternative services which put a vulnerable population at risk of becoming homeless and led to an incredible number of people who were experiencing mental illness moving through the criminal justice system.
Today, we are still dealing with the repercussions of these “well-intentioned” policy shifts and funneling people with mental health problems through emergency departments, jails and prisons. This comes at great cost to our society in a variety of ways.
For one, it places financial stress on our communities with researchers estimating that the monetary cost associated with a chronically homeless individual—including medical expenses, time spent in jails and prisons, and other costs related to shelters and treatment centers—to be between $30,000 to $50,000 a year. This cost can be reduced dramatically—by close to 50 percent—if the person is placed in supportive housing.
Tina Casalvera, who was evicted after losing her job at Walmart, discovered that once you’re on the street, it’s hard to turn things around.
“Even if I do have a mental illness, it’s not why I’m homeless,” Casalvera said. “It’s not what keeps me homeless. What keeps me homeless is nobody wanting to give me a chance.”
This article appears in Jan 27 – Feb 2, 2022.
I saw this after 30 years of living in Seattle. Now that Arizona is a “blue state” the liberal disease is just beginning to spread. High cost of living, exorbitant housing costs, and A LOT more homelessness and not just innocuous homelessness but “get-in-your-face” stabbing-gunshot-and-rape homelessness. I saw that yesterday as some half naked homeless guy was throwing rocks at cars during morning rush hour on Speedway and Rosemont. Oh- and Just wait until they start moving into the foothills and catch entire neighborhoods on fire with their food and meth cooking. That happened in Seattle. That was a blast! Liberal leadership will tell you that they will fix it -but they wont and then they’ll Jack up taxes to address it -but it wont – like the sorry state of our neighborhood roads, the money will end up in Phoenix. Way to go liberals! You invited the West Coast in now you have West Coast problems! I think I’ll move to Kansas where dodging tornadoes still has better odds in quality of life than living in any “blue state”. Now lets all chant that ageless Obama Narrative: “Hope and Change” “Hope and Change”, “Hope and Change”…..
My friend was part of a program (not in Arizona) that was responsible for an outreach program that would go out, interview, and offer assistance to the current people that were on the street.
This woman’s story is unique and not at all a common reason for the problem. There are some that do fall under the true meaning of “homeless”. But in general the majority are substance abusers and mental health issues. Out of the 380 total people that were in our smaller town 21 accepted the offer of assistance to get off the street.
The balance basically told the outreach team to (not safe for a family site). The real problem is that currently people cannot be forced to rehab or into a mental facility. That step is what is needed to start treating and getting people off the street. The majority numbers out there have nothing to do with home prices and other nonsense the media continues to lament on.
Affordable housing may be part of the issue, but it’s not the primary factor; mental illness and addiction are. Until government officials and misguided “advocates” admit this the problem will only get worse. And turning the homeless into a protected class that isn’t held accountable for crimes they commit doesn’t help anyone, including the homeless themselves.
There is no simple one-size-fits-all solution to the current homelessness crisis in America. We should stop looking for the miracle cure and start considering a case-by-case approach. Yes, some people just prefer living rough. For them, the best solution may be establishing opportunities for day employment if they want to avail themselves of it, providing some public facilities for relieving and washing themselves and for them to dump refuse while making it clear that relieving oneself in the community and other objectionable acts will lead to jail.
For those with drug problems, the biggest solution is probably legalization of drugs and a willingness on the part of society to allow those poor people to simply kill themselves off with overdoses. Again, the best way to do this may be to establish free housing facilities in which drug use is legalized.
However, my guess is that there are lots of people who really don’t want to slip down the hole into oblivion, who want to escape homelessness. For them, we need a gradated system of assistance. Some people need to be in group homes, some in supervised independent living situations, and some perhaps just getting financial subsidies. Many cannot hold normal jobs but that doesn’t mean they don’t want to work. We could have community-based employment in which, again, people are assigned by their ability.
The key thing for us all to understand is that homelessness affects the quality of the community’s life and ends up costing a great deal, for example by spending on cleaning up those encampments. Addressing the problem may well be better for all of us.
One more thing, if we were to establish a system of secure lockers, postal addresses, and basic care (clinical, washing, laundry, and the like), those centers may cost us far less to maintain than the cost of having so many people who feel totally rootless in our community.
With the plague of locusts moving here from the left coast we can kiss our lifestyle goodbye. Although there are individuals who are fine people, collectively they are simply disgusting. It’s hard to describe them without resorting to swear words. They’ve ruined their home states to the point they want to flee, but they bring their attitudes with them and contaminate the next place.
As a 75-year resident who loves and cherishes the desert what I see is simply heartbreaking.
“Substance use is a coping skill.”
I never thought of getting high as a skill. But then, I’ve never tried it, so maybe I’m mistaken.
This quote is part of the problem. People who are addicted and/or mentally ill aren’t capable of making decisions that are in their best interest — similar to elderly people with dementia. In general homelessness doesn’t make people mentally ill; mental illness makes people homeless.
“Even if I do have a mental illness, it’s not why I’m homeless,” Casalvera said. “It’s not what keeps me homeless. What keeps me homeless is nobody wanting to give me a chance.”
I propose using state and federal land to establish camps for the homeless.
NOTHING has worked so far and it’s insane to think that the majority of homeless would suddenly adopt middle class values and work ethic if they were handed a home. Some will, but they are the exception.
Services can be more efficiently centralized by both city, county, state, federal government, along with various charities. Those who want help will be assigned an individual, group, of family tent. Daily meals will be offered, but before the meal, all must attend talks education on self-care, safety, and personal responsibility.
Mental health and drug treatment will be available, plus an area where MJ can be used in accordance with state and local laws, but hard drugs and weapons would be prohibited.
Connecting folks with their family of origin, whenever possible, and/or good work and living options would be a very high priority, along with providing help for mental illness and/or substance abuse disorders. Voluntary individuals who demonstrate the ability and desire to integrate positively into their community can leave after three weeks, but will be returned for a longer period, if they choose to be homeless again, i.e., vagrant.
Camp security will be provided to ensure safety and no guns, or large knives will be allowed. Those who volunteer to help with cooking, cleaning, and peer councils will be paid a stipend. There can be a separate area for those who are belligerent and/or violently oppose assistance and placement.
Our military can assist with preparing a tent and support facilities, as they have great experience in that area. No plan is perfect, and this plan is meant to be flexible, but again, it’s better than folks being out on the streets where crime, victimization, and environmental degradation are commonplace and where self-care and stability is all but impossible.
PS: I was sent to a similar camp, only more strictly managed, regimented, and regulated. My collogues and I HAD to attend the above suggested classes. We HAD to receive immunizations, training, and work assignments. We were required to demonstrate appropriate personal responsibility with peer leaders being assigned to facilitate the process. It was called, “the draft.” I didn’t love it, but my experience made me and virtually all there want to work hard to better our situation.
My friend just got a notice on his door from the landlord. His rent is increasing by $372 in 2 months. The place he rents was just bought by some investment firm. If over 5 years ago the “norm” was that the average american does not have $600 in savings for an emergency, and that’s when everything was affordable. People getting hit with surprise we’re taking 50% of that emergency money you already don’t have is absolutely a contributing factor to homelessness. You can’t even get a decent price in a bad neighborhood in Tucson now. Why do blue states turn into this shit, and why do idiots keep voting for this?
A lot of this is just garbage. Almost every single persons who’s out on the streets is a junkie. The people who aren’t are the ones using the resources available to them and there are so many available you’d have to be high not to know about them anyway.
I know this because I was on the streets for two months. I went from camp to camp and realized those places weren’t safe at all unless you wanted to become a junkie or die as one.
It’s becoming even more of a safety issue as everyone decides to walk in the streets like it’s nobodies business and they’re now beginning to get hit. Just recently one of them was killed on Kolb and Speedway. Personally, I have almost hit 10 of them on any given night driving around first and ft Lowell and grant and alvernon. At this point it would be very hard for me to say I’d even feel bad if I did anymore as they’re doing it to themselves and they’re putting me at risk as well.
They’re also burglarizing so many businesses it it’s baffling that the police aren’t on that more. So many shop windows busted out by homeless junkies looking for things to snatch and sell. Businesses are having brazen people walk in and walk out with bags full of goods, if it were some huge business it would still piss me off but it isn’t always. Hell, the Walgreens on Grant and Swan he empty shelves because of it, and that’s according to the security there and police I’ve talked to on site.
I just don’t have any more empathy left to give. It truly used to be there but as a person who’s been through it and got myself out through the help of the resources that are still readily available, I just have nothing left. I wish I did and I’d spread it as much as this homeless problem but I don’t because I know how this ends. It ends in violence and it will just like it always has.
The people who think this is some Good Samaritan love all be kind yada yada type scenario are fooling themselves and you’re going to get yourselves hurt thinking that way.
This city needs a massive clean up. We just now are starting to get over a pandemic while an epidemic has been flourishing right under out noses.
First you should not allow camps to just spring up everywhere. There should be a “designated area” that is the only place you can set up. You can’t just camp anywhere you like in the city!! With dumpsters and bathrooms fresh water. But you have to clean up your site. NO PLACE ELSE!! Driving property values because the city just looking the other way is a joke. Making out town look like trash is also a joke, who would want to build in a area that looks like a dump. Getting the panhandlers off every street corner is also a must for a City to be looked at respectfully. I am ashamed of the looks of this community in some areas. We need to help!! But not allow homeless to walk on everyone else! You owe the working tax paying class that much!
..One Human Family !!! …. We must have mercy and compassion..In CHRISTS cause to love the lost….. all souls matter………GOD bless us all…..
@Tucsonmtlemin so I don’t know where you got your information, but I would appreciate it if you stop hyping the stereotype. I don’t know if you have ever been homeless, and to be frank I don’t think you have based on how you speak. I have! 29 years I was homeless. I know how they are treated, I also know that the city of Tucson and pima county rake in millions of dollars to house the houseless people and yet there is no housing available. All I can say is know your facts before you speak.
A huge part of this problem is how unbelievably hard it is to maneuver through the system and none of the agencies communicate with each other and some of them are literally right next door to each other. These people need a liaison, specifically assigned to them, to help them navigate their way out. The paperwork that different agencies hand out to them is insane. Nobody is going to sit and read all this crap when they are freezing and wondering where their next meal is coming from. It is so difficult to get medication for withdrawal that it’s not worth it. They have to show up everyday to get it. Really? With no transportation or phone people will just give up. It’s actually easier to get withdrawal medication like Suboxone on the street. Other states and countries like Canada have a once a month medication. It has to be made easier to get clean. They want to be able to smoke cigarettes in rehab which is a huge reason why people won’t go. They have lost everything, family, friends, jobs, homes, possessions and the last thing they are going to hand over is control of their life. This city doesn’t care about these people as human beings. I called 911 for a homeless addict and they refused to go pick him up because he had no contact phone. I know this because that homeless addict is my son. A man who had his own business, a family, a home, a truck and a life. Lost it all in a matter of months because he had no insurance and got some pills from a friend for back pain.
Hello. Homelessness has been around since the beginning of time having been recorded.
Jesus was homeless. Freedom of choice is a natural and guaranteed right. People are willing to help illegal immigrants in their criminal endeavors, calling it compassion rather than treason. DHS documents state – assure they can be self supporting – through commingled US tax dollars actually used to find treason. See US vs Arizona.(2012) where the United States Supreme Court determined that Congress was the only authority over immigration. Therefore, sanctuary cities are aiding & bedding, conspiring to a bridge, US law or treason. I never forget it. Illegal immigration is a civil offense, but Americans camping on. Public lands is a criminal offense how absurd.
Liberty guaranteed to the United States. Constitution protects individual rights for freedom of choice. “Public nuisance” laws require property be maintained adequately. Therefore, littering is a crime illegal drug use is a crime prostitution. Is it a crime attempting to address every homeless individual as a group is also a crime of prejudice through discrimination; and potentially cruel and unusual punishment exerted by authorities, C Martin, vs Boise, (2018) If Jesus were in these homeless camps, would you tell him to move? Would you throw him in jail? Yes, you would. Stop pretending to have compassion. We are American citizens acting as one nation and one community. Not criminals, supporting illegal activities in our nation hidden under the guise of compassion. Stop greed and America can overcome the lies advertised as truth. American law does not require any individual or family to live in a house. We are not a communist nation; yet. Why would a person pay $1400 a month or more to live in an apartment and be forced to listen to the neighbors television or stereo or family arguments? Thats insane. Spending every minute of every day trying to earn enough money to pay for rent clothing food transportation is a form of slavery and indebted servitude. Let’s look at the truth of the cause in relation to the conditions now distasteful to some,
As additional information. Yes, the great majority of homeless people are drug attic’s alcoholics or suffer from mental health issues.
At times, these people give up on life and try to be hit by a car to end their life or they break a law so they can go to jail and have a shower and a meal.
There are people that are minimalists, unhappy with the condition of the world, and do not want to be comfortable in a world that they are distraught over.
Insurrection is a Potentially legal avenue toward change. This nation was created through an insurrection against England and its dogmatic rule over its citizens. sound familiar? Judge not least you be judged in same. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. If you do not forgive, you will not be forgiven …
For any, and all who wants to fence off public lands; let’s finish fencing, America’s borders, then expelling and deporting all illegal immigrants because they have an openly criminal intent, to ignore American laws for personal gain, and at times conspire to do so.
Start enforcing laws about illegal immigration and hiring illegal immigrants before you start hunting down American citizens for camping on public lands!