ProPublica spoke to about 150 people who had lived in homeless encampments when cities cleared them out in “sweeps.” We distributed notecards so people could tell us about the toll in their own words. ➡️ This is what they wrote: projects.propublica.org/impact-of-ho...
Kluge Frage,traurige Antwort!
Heartbreaking
These ICE bounty hunters must have grown up from evil little boys who spent their time laughing while torturing cute little animals. Not like us.
💔
Dump picks on the most vulnerable, just like Hitler did.
I’d love to send this person to get new dentures 🙁
Contact a shelter near you. Chances are very good there is a person who needs them there, too.
“Sweeps” by LEA arent a solution, nor are they intended to be. Sad.😢 V Sad. Programs, rooms and long term secure sleeping arrangements along with appropriate services for individual needs should Always be implemented before a sweep.
It is such a disgrace when nations will not do the things necessary to resolve homelessness. Eat the rich
💔💔
Richest country in the world my ass
Very sad...these folks have so little to begin with, and what they do have is treated like trash in these sweeps. Who are the homeless? Adolescents who left or were forced out of abusive homes, veterans with PTSD, people with untreated mental health issues. Where is our Christian compassion?
Heartbreaking.
I live in a city that sweeps camps. They literally use a bulldozer
Here, too.
Around here, the same people come right back to the same spot. They just have to start over with earthly possessions every few months. What's even the point of the dehumanization
They want them to go leave and "annoy" another community. Everyone wants them out of "their" backyard.
Don’t they warn them?
They post signs and give them a few days' notice
Would love to see the deeper story on those folks whose cards you highlighted.
$$Trump is essentially trying to outlaw homelessness and put all these folks in institutions. I was involved in the deinstitutionalization movement in the 80's. What was supposed to happen was the money from the closing was supposed to follow these needy folks into the community. It didn't.
Yet Another Reagan legacy
Ah, so no trickling down of those funds, eh?
They let them get started, then yanked the funds. They promised closing institutions would save money, then said there was no money.
It was the greatest land grab in the history of urban settings. land banking needs to be illegal.
Of course it didn’t, this is America. Lying & greed is the corner stone of unabridged capitalism. Once that money was freed, it’s like blood in the ocean. A shark feasting phenomenal instantly. Every greedy politician was after it like white on rice There is an answer, it’s expense. Time to chose
I cannot stress enough how much I fucking hate Gavin Newsom and every politician who does shit like this just to score cheap political points.
This is all sooooo DISGUSTINGLY WRONG & ABHORRENT! 😢... Someone needs to throw away Dump's Dentures and see how he likes it!... Also, remove/throw away his stupid, fake hair extensions!... Nothing makes him an attractive man!... NOTHING!!
Sobbing. 😭
Just an unimaginable number of unintended devastating consequences to the most vulnerable in our communities. I needed this reminder.
God the responses from the city's after reading all that just makes me sick A society that cracks down on homelessness is a cruel, evil dystopian place. Just being awful to the most venerable members of society hecause people don't like looking at them. It's shameful
Our nation is fundamentally broken
At least you're good enough to pay for Israeli free healthcare and university though!
…and abortions. Israeli’s get abortions funded by the USA!
That pissed me off and always has.
😞🙏
Sad.
Heartbreaking indeed😥
This is despicable. Get your damn country under control America. Being aware of these actions makes me feel like I’m part of what is making this possible. It’s abhorrent and I know most of you do not support this.
This country has hit bottom on moral depravity and intellectual decline. President Biden couldn't save the soul of America because large swaths of this country have no soul. Only heathens, savages, and barbarians do this kind of heartless, cruel shit. This brutality deserves the wrath of G-d.
What about…Nuke Them, and let God Sort Them…?! And incidentally, not only this Country, but the world in general…
Really? Because I'm a heathen and this looks like the kind of thing Christians do.
Right? I keep seeing people say “and you call yourself a Christian!” And it’s like, maybe that’s, at its core, what a Christian really is these days. A piece of shit
If you think (1) that justice will be meted out after death, and that (2) you can escape all responsibility for your actions in that supposed next world by saying sorry at the right time, this is the kind of thing that's going to happen. The only world is this one, and the time for justice is now.
Maybe it's how they've always been. Maybe all of the countries that kicked them out (sorry, 'that they fled persecution from') had it right.
EXACTLY!!! This is why I refuse to participate in religion.
Exactly Right!!
I've seen people try to justify this shit by saying they're being sent to rehab. First of all, not all homeless people are addicts. Also, this attitude presumes that people become homeless because they are addicts instead of homeless people turning to drugs because they can't get work and lose hope.
I guess some people have totally forgotten the entire premise of Breaking Bad...there's no way in hell a science teacher could ever afford cancer treatment in this country.
I have worked with many that lost housing to cancer & other major illnesses because they couldn’t work anymore. Places to live cost too much, SSA takes too long to get & is often not enough. Shelters feel less safe and difficult than streets to some as counterintuitive that may be 1/
A sick person has to get sufficient proof to get hotel placement (also has to be available) or shelters want u out during the day- ur on the streets anyway, coming back to no privacy, maybe worrying about theft. Then either place requires return trips to DSS, which can be hard to get to
Also around here shelters won’t let pets in their facilities 😔for some people it’s their only family and they don’t want to be separated 🤬so many empty office buildings that could be retrofitted as studio apartments, etc but it’s not something local government wants to spend money on 😔😔😔
Yeah, it's not that we don't have enough space to house people or feed people, or give everyone healthcare--they just don't wanna do it. They would rather see people suffer and die before losing a potential profit. It's sickening and I hate it here.
How we treat our poor and vulnerable people is an indicator of the internal rot of our society 😔😔we think the rich matter more because we’ve been taught that our whole lives , wrongly believing a person’s value is directly proportional to their $$$$$. This is why we are pitted against each other 😡🤷♀️
It’s a dehumanizing experience to apply for assistance. The application is confusing, workers can be judgmental, cold, hard to reach, Documents can be hard to get w/ limited time & no $ & can make or break your case. Shelters aren’t free if u have any $- they take most of ur monthly to pay
Unhoused people caught up in these sweeps lose so much; photos, birth certificates, DLs/IDs, medication, and like in the above example, even their dentures. It’s a shame the way we treat the unhoused. It breaks my heart.
When I say “we” I’m speaking about this country.
Absolutely devastating. These fascists just want to live in a simple world where only bad people end up on the streets and stay there. Because their own sense of innocence is more important to them than other people's actual lives.
Heartbreaking 💔
This is absolutely heartbreaking. Thanks for the much needed lesson in humanity. We have to tune out the inhumanity (it hardens us) we see daily and restore empathy for those who are experiencing hardship. The current dehumanization of “the other” extends all too broadly today.
Oh my heart… 💔 😖
Why can’t they confiscate things and leave them in an area for pickup instead of throwing belongings away?
homeless people are still people.
The purpose of this cruelty is to dehumanize. When you dehumanize, you take away a person's worth to themselves and society, and it's easier to commit an atrocity against this person. Be warned: If you think that you are immune to someone doing this to you, know that you are not.
The lowest lifeforms who "sweep" these people away enjoy the cruelty of destroying the little humanity left to these victims. Hell is not prepared for the depravity of this sickness in the minds of these cruel people.
People experiencing homelessness deserve humane treatment. Trump's way of helping them: Out of sight, Out of mind.
"What's your fucking problem?" "My problem? You wanna know what my problem is? You're fucking turning humans into glue!"
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I decluttered about 21 months ago and donated household goods and furniture to a local women's shelter. I don't miss any of it. They are doing these sweeps here in modesto ca too
That is just wrong
Feeling hopeless
The sweeps often deprive them of Real ID, SNAP cards, meds, glasses, clothing, ... it can take months for caseworkers to help them replace these things. Everything requires Real ID now.
Seen folks trying to say, well don't be poor then. Pull yourself up by your boot straps. Dude you're a fecking legacy, who went to Columbia now, it just sounds more sadistic and psychopathic. That's one of the examples I've seen and surprise, surprise it's a MAGAt.
Saw a report that Trump is ordering sweeps of the encampments along with a lot of money to have the unhoused sent to drug rehab. I don't think he gets that a lot is mental illness, and even bad luck like losing a job. The Reps insist the condition is self-induced.
I would love to have seen how many governors, senators, congressmen/women that have "pulled their lazy asses up by their bootstraps" worthless shitheads!
I tried to Google this, but I can only find who the poorest senators are and not their relative prosperity as they grew up. I think most were affluent. I attended a class for people wo might want to run. Abt 6 yrs ago, a senators had to have $2M in sponsorships to even talk about it.
I think a change in election finding might provide more diversity of all kinds. We are over-represented by lawyers, followed by business and then public servants/teachers. The cost of running is so high that it seems to preclude folks in lower paying occupations from all but the most local office.
Met a man once living in an RV on someone's property. He had a PhD from Stanford. Brilliant. At one time, he was of the usual world, had the regular life. Even sailed around with an SO. But he clearly had a mental illness. And was dependent on the kindness of others for a place to live.
“The moral test of government is how that government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; and those who are in shadows of life, the sick, the needy, and the handicapped.” Hubert H. Humphrey. We are failing as a society here!
Heartbreaking 💔 🥺
bsky.app/profile/trib...
It’s the right wing script. It’s who they are, hateful, bigoted, violent, greedy, supposedly Christian & of course heartless Trillions of dollars spend on military & prison industrial complexes, profits to be made by politicians buddies, but imprisonment for being poor because it’s the easy money
Here's Trump's solution for you to compare it to. Project 2025 rejects the housing first solution.
There must be solutions better than sleeping on the street or prison. Criminalizing homelessness just makes it even harder to find work or housing. The amount of funding awarded to ICE at the expense of human services is disgusting. It shows exactly what this administration thinks of its citizens.
They've rejected better solutions and gone for the ones that satisfies their prejudices, their desire for simple punitive solutions with the bonus of whisking taxpayer money out of the government and into hidden bank accounts with some help from their "friends" through no bid contracts
Indeed. It has been proven over and over that Housing First saves lives and millions of $$ over incarceration. Their plans are cruel and ineffective. The majority of us are one accident or illness away from being destitute. They'll come for us all eventually.
Thanks for the helpful comments.
Give them a home obviously
Tragic ….wish there was an extra $450 million dollars around where we could put up tiny houses for them all to live and provide the services they need to help them become a better part of any community…
Wow. This is America. Stop saying it isn't and own your meanness and cruelty America. Disgusting.
Then They Came For Me trumps latest eo outlaws homelessness. www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...
“Civil Commitments” Jesus. Once detained for a 72 hour hold—(homelessness, wrong skin color, you name it) life is out of a person’s hands …
One single billionaire being liquidated could stop this problem for hundreds of thousands in its tracks. End it. Forever. They could even keep an absurd amount of that money and still live like kings while alleviating these nights of pain from sooooo many people. It's insane we can make that happen.
But we don't. Yet.
This has been the exact problem. The minimum wage should be $27.00 an hour, and if it's a legit small business, give them a tax break for payroll. If you are a business that has a stock worth of over 650,000, the minimum wage should be $35.00 per hr and a tax % assessed byevery asset person/corp has
And those billionaires work very hard with their lobbying super-pacts to convincing poor but “housed” people that your idea is socialism and socialism is the devil. I am always flabbergasted when I come across some 9-5 schmoe railing against “socialism”.
Not even needed. Fed gov't down to counties have alternatives. Abandoned property can be rehabbed, taken for unpaid taxes. Sweat equity or local investments, it would help millions. Look LOCALLY for solutions first.
All I'm saying is there's a giant piñata of money... and space from your suggestion. Especially if a councilmember uses their elbows a little.
Where council member need to act isn't getting money, it's on showing naysayers the solution is better than the static condition we now have. All the money in the world won't change that unless we work at it.
You'd be surprised how much money (and all it does) helps.
You are speaking to a 20 year activist who houses homeless people in our yard. Money is freely available. It's squandered by the "Homeless Industrial Complex" and stifled by NIMBY. Please take note of my and many other people's experiences. Money does NOT change many things; feeds on status quo.
I'm not waiting for billionaires. We have stuff to do we CAN do now but for NIMBY and a million other pettifogging reasons that all the money won't buy. Why wait?
Yes. Repurpose every empty building. I’ve seen buildings entire encampments can turn into indoor villages. And get rid of airbnb
I think Airbnb actually can help travelers of lesser means if it's not absentee ownership. Just need some rules to prevent using vacant property that way alone.
I think residences should be residences and travelers should go to hotels. The average airbnb in North America is $208 night. The average Motel 6 is $65. Also it’s easier for a homeless person to go to a hotel, most airbnbs won’t take us even when we’re working.
Older motels are WAY more convertible for couples and singles than ABB. We really need those to be adaptively reused not torn down.
I live in what used to be a motel. On a freeway offramp. In a tidal flood zone. In a Very Rich Town. And no ADA compliance for invisibly disabled people. My last home was on a former resort. Which has a HUGE back field that could hold a couple dozen more tiny houses. But. Historic landmark.
Cannot repair or restore any part of historic landmarks other than the residences that are in use. And the tiny town of Fairfax decided it needs a highrise in the middle of town that nobody voted for.
Talk about botching the entire viewscape of the TOWN...
Fairfax used to be Mayberry on Acid. It’s turned into the rest of Marin County and trying to fit the hippie aesthetic at 5 times the price. Not a clue who approved that project. It’s nowhere near a transit hub, either
Well, I have lower income family who do Airbnb because it's way more affordable. They are careful what they pick. Motel 6 is OK but not for more than a night or two. ABB sure is not for homeless people but DOES take apartments out of housing options. That's my concern.
Why do people still think homelessness is some evil only corrupt politicians and greedy corporations allow to exist. It's the local neighborhoods and communities that protest any up-zoning and increasing housing density and homeless shelters. Homelessness exists because of your neighbors.
I would agree that much of it is NIMBY. The well to do who DO NOT HAVE homeless folks in their area will protest any solution they have to SEE even 2-4 miles away from them. It's disgusting.
Can’t find the video of the lovely yard in Oakland of all places, covered with signs like this and a gate covered with DO NOT ENTER signs.
Ah, purveyors of the old saw, "I love humanity. It's people I can't stand." Yeah. That's some of my neighbors.
When I was homeless I wanted to knock on doors and ask many questions. Now I’m not homeless snd I still have many questions.
I feel the same about YIMBYs. Even worse. They just wanna build more big empty apartment buildings. That somehow stay empty.
That's not such a thing here. More repurposing, adaptive reuse is the view. Low rise for new build. We don't want Cabrini Green, thanks. See "Oakland and the World Enterprises" and the Black Panther housing. Answers lots of needs, not an eyesore.
Agreed! I happen to know a LOT of attendees at one angry town meeting on homeless folks were Bernie supporters from the affluent areas who opposed an overnight parking area in MY neighborhood. Make that make sense?
you're making this up lol
No. I know them. Why would you assume otherwise? That's pretty arrogant.
There's roughly 771 thousand total in the USA. We just need a couple billionaires. US Vets has a great step up program model.
It's obviously 771 thousand too many, but in the greater scheme of the US population, it's a drop in the bucket. It's beatable if we get it together now.
A damned shame. We really have no idea.
When you're homeless everyone is working against you. Even those organizations that proclaim to care or help are mostly just exploiting the homeless for grants to pay themselves and provide less than human care. Gov't lies to the public, then betrays those they say they're helping.
The cruelty is horrendous. I hate the sweeps but show some fucking humanity & let these citizens gather their belongings. FFS. They’re homeless, already barely hanging on. Stop calling our country a Christian country. We’re a Country of thugs led by a self-dealing felon rapist conman who can’t read.
Government officials have had decades to build government funded housing, but they would rather spend taxpayer $ to build stadiums, data centers, factories, warehouses, and corp headquarters for million and billionaires. This country is so fucked up!
All I’ll say is there by the grace of God goes I.
Same here. Grateful to be giving out water and socks, and not receiving them.
We have become a mean & ugly country. Kick 'em when they're down is our motto now.
The homeless need homes first...
$Billions for detention facilities but nothing for shelters. What a great country.
I wish people would see the practical side of solving homelessness. It's cheaper and more pleasant to solve the problem in the long run rather than moving the problem around a city in the short term. Of course there are multiple deep systematic issues to solve
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That note is heartbreaking to read. Shame on our society. 😢😥😓
That's a 5000 dollar expense. These fucking pigs are really gonna see some shit when this kicks off.
I hate this greedy country so fucking much. It’s all about money. Profit over people 100 percent of the time. It’s depraved. We are fucking living in depravity as if it’s normal. We are all depraved for ignoring this fact.
Meanness seems to be an end in and of itself with this administration. It's not sufficient to meet a policy goal, but it has to be met in the most inhuman way. Everyone in the administration should be ashamed of themselves and should be shunned by society.
OMG. More cruelty.
How you gonna get rid of a persons teeth???!!!!
it's a sweep. they take the possessions of the homeless and throw it away.
Dang, that’s low down dirty. I couldn’t do that job😭
it's been going on a long time, but with Trump's new executive order from yesterday, it's about to get a lot worse.
No lies detected, no human decency whatsoever!
They do much much worse than that.
How did this country get here? There is No regard for human life or dignity. It's no wonder there is an immoral president, he's a reflection of the people. 😭
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Heartbreaking!
Heartbreaking.
😣
This is enormously powerful - and profoundly humanizing. Thank you, #ProPublica, for your extraordinary work. 🙏🏾
😢
Absolutely heartbreaking.
Reminds me of the stories told by mental health patients of Minneapolis police tossing ID cards into the freezing cold Mississippi River—leaving patients without resources. Pure cruelty. Pure. Cruelty.
😭😭😭😭
How sympathetic, emphatic, disturbed, heartbroken, feel some kind of way regarding this epidemic that is eroding our society willing to have an increase in taxes…federal,state, city to fund ways to combat this disease & DISMANTLE institutions that police, marginalize, profit? It can be done!
He could sign an executive order that funded abandoned hotels or malls as housing instead not that these EO policies get implemented instantly w a signature from the orange rapist- it’s a show. But it’s usually such an ugly oppressive show - billionaires openly hate the less fortunate now
these are just heartbreaking
Thank you ProPublica for this brilliant and compassionate project. Also need to plug VoteRiders here: they help people get ID. It’s often not a simple process.
If they throw out all your ID, you can’t even prove who you are to get “free” ID to vote. 💔
Nobody deserves to sleep on streets. My heart breaks as I wonder why the hell we can’t just help people enough to put a roof on their head, supply them with a shower and toilet. Please use my taxes for this instead of deporting immigrants and stuffing donOLD’s pockets every time he sues everybody
It's purity tests. They want to pick and choose the deserving poor, to only help the pure hearted. They want a feather in thier cap, so they can say 'look, now so-and-so was homeless and addicted, now they have a career, a house, a spouse, children, a yard with a picket fence, goes to church.' 😁👍
Most people are never going to have that kind of comeback. There's no cure for a lot of conditions. There's only management and management comes packaged with relapses. You have people who aren't going to be able to work or hold jobs, who don't have the necessary social skills, etc.
TANF, SNAP, SSI, HUD, MEDICAID, etc. have a bunch of rules written by conservatives who would rather have thousands suffer than have one or two small time hustlers get a freebie.
So right. The phrase "deserving poor" sort of says it all.
can we even call ourselves a western democracy at this point? half the country wants to live in civilization and the other half wants to live in some ethnostate frontier town where billionaires and psychopaths treat everyone else as chattel
This country continues to make me sick. Meanwhile there are warehouse sized buildings that are completely empty. How hard would it be to staff a couple of security guards per night and open these buildings to the homeless providing bathrooms and, dare I say it, even showers.
This is tragic and unseen by most, especially by those who can effect change. I'm going to write about the power of a key for the homeless.
This is voice that needs to be heard if change is to happen. This is media rediscovering its power. Power to PtoPublica.
Taking everything away from people who have so little, what a barbaric and dehumanizing practice!
This is so heartbreaking
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This is soul crushing and my heart is heavy with sorrow for them.
Thank you for humanizing our unhoused. This new EO will bring new and/or fresh trauma to so very many. Dystopian. Disgusting. www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...
Those folks will be doing all the things migrant workers are no longer available to do. So sayeth 👑💩!
Ugh! Hadn’t thought of that.
Humans are despicable.
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💔💔💔💔💔💔💔 Should not be so!!!
Trans women are homeless now that we had to close our shelter due to lack of funding. You go to jail in Texas if you are caught sleeping. It is illegal to be homeless in Texas. It is basically illegal to be trans here in Texas.
There are seven trans women that had to leave the shelter. They need away to pay to leave state for safety.
So sad, so tragic
God damn it
The wealthy and privileged don't want to understand how devastating something like loss of dentures are to someone who is poor.
By the way: DO NOT EVEN CONSIDER LETTING GAVIN NEWSOM HOLD ANY KIND OF FEDERAL OFFICE. You want Camps & Dehumanization? Cus that’s how you get camps & dehumanization.
He's trying very hard to gaslight people, but he and so many other Democrats are part of the problem with all of the Republicans. We need regular working class americans in all federal and state government offices. Nobody with wealth should be anywhere near our government
I spent my 60s homeless. I was also extremely fortunate to have a series of couches to surf between dogsitting gigs. I started collecting umbrellas to give away because we get hot sun & cold rain. I hate where I live but am playing the system. I’d like to live someplace quiet & not on an offramp
Send them ALL to Martha’s Vineyard
Noooo 😭
@gavinnewsom.bsky.social @governor.ca.gov stop allowing the CA houseless population from having their tents, cars and RVs removed without making sure they have important belongings and housing to replace the structures they’ve been living in.
Because the homeless don't have much doesn't mean they have nothing. Or are nothing. The right wing in govt treats them as if they are and have nothing of value.
Tell me what to do. Please.
I made friends with a man who lost his place due to rent increases and medical expenses for his disabled brother he was caring for. Him, his wife, and brother were all unhoused. I remember his excitement when he finally got a job interview and a charity gave him a suit for it.
His interveiw was on the following Monday, on Friday I went to get my daughter from school and drove by to see the police and garbage truck and watched as they threw everything out as he begged for them just to give him the suit, that job interview was all he cared about, they wouldn't allow it.
Thankfully I was able to track him down and took him out to buy essentials for his family and clothes for him to wear to his interview. Didn't see him for a few weeks after that but when I did I was overjoyed to hear he got the job and another org helped him secure a small apartment.
I have been in his shoes before, I know how hard it is to escape, especially when everytime you turn around you're once again having everything you own thrown away like you and everything you own is trash. The endless kicks while you're down is soul crushing.
These handwritten notecards are so moving. Do read them all
💔💔💔😭😭😭
And dentures are also a health issue. Can't properly extract nutrients from their food if they can't chew properly.
We understand material possessions, at least install lockers where things are not to be touched. Why we can’t solve this is an indictment of our greed and uncaring spirit.
Can we find this person and help them?
And we will throw them in camps and people will cheer at their death
Including the ones who are 2 paychecks away from being homeless.
Keep in mind that unless you are on a lease or own your home, on paper you are homeless. Couch surfing, traveling, van life, renting a room, rv park, live in nannies or caretakers, and any student living in dorm. All homeless legally. All of them. And more.
the nazis are back....
Yes. I've been feeling a wreck to be honest. You??
Managing. I speak it out ... I won't internalize this. .. too much of my life already locked away. Meditation, walks, being a light. I do what I can but we all feel the weight
And Trump wants to criminalize these unhoused folks. Aren’t they suffering enough?!?! We need true solutions. Not this Nazi crap.
Why god why?
This is a cruel country.
Since 1492
This happens all the time in Louisville, especially around derby time. Gotta look nice for the rich folk coming in.
😔
Heartbreaking!
Heartbreaking...
Why would a country do this? Unless the end goal was to have a group that scared the masses into jobs that working 24/7 for scraps while having no rights regarding safety from chemicals, violence, temperature, accidents etc., «healthcare» dependent on work. Creating desperation.
Prison for housing the homeless and work release to the corporations sponsoring the for profit prisons seems like a natural evolution of the situation. We will all be indentured servants to the billionaire class before long.
I agree.
All while the billionaires who pay your politicians gets tax cuts and even easier ways to get use their employees as something they squeeze everything out of and toss aside, to be used as a warning to the next generation employees. Great system. At least it’s not socialism. It’s Christian.
Or, the companies, I.e. Corecivic, that are running detention centers, with $600 million more going to states that will build them, will be running out of immigrants and they get paid by the head…project 2025, née Nazism, nee …
Dehumanizing.
Come to Minnesota, we'll help those in need.
They clear the homeless encampments in the Cities, too.
They sure do and they should because there are services and places specifically designed to help people in need. I know because my wife works for one such place. Your reply isn't the gotcha you want it to be, sorry.
😔💔
As we all know, Alligator Alcatraz was only the beginning. On Thursday, Trump signed an order to involuntarily commit people with mental illness in a supposed effort to house the homeless. Under Trump and Vance, the homeless will be housed but not compassionately. More concentration camps will come.
Exactly. There's money for rapid construction of tent buildings, cots, staff/security, & a kitchen when it's a priority. So just cut all the imprisonment/death camp expenses to buy better food & then turn that can-do attitude to permanent structure residential solutions.
The camps are for funneling money to contractors who hire lobbyists who pay politicians. Cruelty is the point, but so is profit.
"They can but they don't want to" my ass. They did this by violating the Constitution, defying court orders, & stealing the money to pay for it.
They used FEMA money for DeSantis' concentration camp. They don't want to house the homeless because they're fascists & it's not on their BINGO card. Cruelty is a feature & not a bug.
The purpose of this meme is to suggest that the Democrats don’t do those things because they just don’t want to, rather than because Republicans vote against them & destroy whatever they built when they get back in power
Heartbreaking and soon to get worse given that homeless people with mental health issues will be sent to concentration camps by trump.
Cool. Now talk about how cities like Seattle have an entire aspect of not helping. Low barrier housing doesn’t tackle the addiction or the mental health issues. We need a pathway to self sufficiency. And if you think the camps are safe try again. Health, personal safety issues, disease
stolen human dignity, heartbreaking
We spend so much more money effort and thought making the lives of the poor and homeless harder than simply helping them would take, in every sphere. It is an American cultural obsession not the workings of any rational ideas
This is heartbreaking.
😢😢😢
What a country we are. Jesus.
WRTV’s first story on this encampment focused on a white woman threatening to move out of the county; their continued reporting has resulted in the planned destruction of the encampment. Folks needed assistance long ago, not this.
😞💔 This is no goddamn way to treat anyone.
Call 5calls.org
Recall vaguely that Reagan, responding to out-cry about 'snake pit' institutions worked with states to close the institutions. President pledged to send money to communities so they could care for & treat the ill. If any funds arrived it was drastically inadequate. Hard to treat paranoid people.
@gavinnewsom.bsky.social
The cruelty…the Regime is made up of psychopaths. It’s shameful & enraging. We, the People have to stop this…
These people deserve better.
This is so Evil for the so called richest country in the world as The Republican Party just gave another huge tax cut to the Rich
This is journalism. ProPublica is a national treasure.
But capitalism solves this problem! We've been waiting for 150 years, it's just a little while longer.
🥺
You wonder how we got to the point where ICE, a faceless, nameless army, just steals people off the street. This country doesn’t see people as individuals, each valuable in their own way. We push those struggling with life issues onto the street like rubbish and then we sweep them away.
This country was always this way. Germany used the Jim Crow playbook, they didn’t invent that level of cruelty.
Rachel Maddow talked about the south putting up Civil War statues. That just blew me away. I live in MN where we have our own issues for sure but making Blacks walk past the statues of Confederate generals every day to get to work took planning.
Disgraceful inhumanity. Shame on our broken society
"What you have done to the least of these, you have done to me"
Unaffordable housing is an American tragedy.
This cruelty fuckin never ends……. gets worse every day.
On the up side - I will never have to "declutter" my home. All my extras are spread liberally around Sacramento already. I own nothing superfluous anymore. s/
What the city fails to get is that every time they bust camps, those of us who care go out of pocket helping them restore basics. I technically "own" 35 tents, many lanterns, sleeping bags. I do NOT appreciate being taxed AND this outlay. Yes, it's voluntary, but I do have humanity.
I’m so glad to know you. You restore my faith in humanity 💙💙💙
Thank you. We didn't set out to do this, just fell into it. Never regretted it. They are seriously part of my community, and they are so much wiser than anyone knows. They are kind, take care of us, too. It's quite mutual. That moves it from "charity" to "community" which is MUCH better for us all!
Honestly. How many hats and scarves have I knitted? The countless gloves and socks purchased. All the blankets and pants I have washed and mended. All to distribute. It's ridiculous how little compassion is afforded a very vulnerable group.
Bought two of the men new clothes for job interviews. Heartbreak was that one outfit became funeral wear for the man's son. Life is so damned hard, and we've lost a good number of them. I miss them all. All they want is stability and respect. That's not asking too much. Thank you for your care.
Oh, I SO admire that! I can't knit for anything. Yup. Clothes, food, food coupons, sandwiches and soup out the front door, whatever is needed. Friends have sent socks and food for me to distribute, and their names are legendary 3000 miles away! It means the world to them. So does a smile.
We have housed 16 fairly longterm houseless people and others use our address, get mail here. These stories are very familiar to me. Six of our folks got rousted yesterday-I got them a storage unit so they could stash valuables this time. It's despicable. No housing, shelters are gross. Horrid.
I lived in a shelter in Miami for a short time. The worst part about shelters is the rigidity. Because they have to serve such a wide variety of people with a wide variety of issues, they lack ANY flexibility. That causes many people to forgo a shelter except in the most dire circumstances.
I can’t understand why we don’t arrange to help people keep their valuables safe. Seems like a very basic function that wouldn’t be that hard to do. Coat check, anyone?
We don't do ANYTHING to make lives easier.
While I agree, I once saw a family with about 6 carts - looked like wagon train! I've housed stuff for a couple of people who never came back for it. Only guy I evicted, whom I loved, tried to make 10x12 space into a 2 br apt. w dining room. 😂There are quirks we can't handle. Basics? Yes.
Yes, I suppose there’d have to be some limits on it. But, if I were homeless, I’d want a secure location for my passport, for instance.
I keep such things in a drawer for people. I am also their "banker" keeping cash in envelopes for them. Even working people now have no credit unions locally, banks too expensive. I'm their court of last resort. Trying to get churches to give them cubbies as at least mail drops, an "address".
People don't stop to realize this, but people without teeth of some kind are considered "less than."
Oh wow and they knew that They know really well how without documents they can’t receive anything and without anything there is no getting out and off streets But medical devices Come on and that likely just touches the surface
You know who else swept up homeless and sent them to state run camps? libapp.shadygrove.umd.edu/omeka/exhibi...
Watch the movie Baraka, by Ron Fricke 1993.
Teeth are large part of self-esteem and how others judge us. They're also very important for health, getting proper nutrition. If they can't chew they're not chosing nutritious food or eating regularly.
*Teeth are a... (Yes, I'm being pedantic)
It's the little things.
Dentures have to be made CUSTOM to the person, btw, and the process takes several appointments and probably a couple months. Even if they somehow found the money to get a new set, this is an enormous burden to put on someone struggling, all on its own.
I has ONE tooth that needed an implant - it was a pain in the a$$ with appointments & costs $2000! This is just so f’in cruel I cannot stand the cruelty anymore I can’t
Dentures themselves don’t cost much. The prep work, the appointments and such for a homeless person is as impossible for him as $20k is for me to get all MY prep work and such done
A repair to my existing denture cost about $500. Dental care is almost completely unaffordable and inaccessible for the poor.
And now medical care is next on the list. For decades, this country has sucked!
Yes! After menopause my teeth went to hell! Broken, some crack because of old metal fillings. Ugh. Now in the process of repairing them. Lots of crown and a bridge. It's going to take almost all my savings. But I can smile and open my mouth without feeling ugly.
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I am finally getting my teeth fixed at almost age 50. It’s expensive as hell. One day I’ll be able to smile and be confident about it.
It's how homelessness causes people to fall deeper and deeper into a hole that becomes impossible to get out of without actual help
These days, I cry daily. If it’s not ICE, it’s Gaza. If not Gaza, it’s loss of life from gun violence in our neighborhoods. If not loss of life from gun violence in our neighborhoods, it’s poverty. If not poverty, it’s the homeless & drug addicted. If not any of the above, it’s the death of America
Thank you for still having a heart 💔 You are most definitely not alone
Not sure if it's worse to be so numb to not cry. Our humanity has been stolen. Maybe we never had it to begin with. Maybe this is just what humanity is.
Well, this just made me cry. I feel helpless, disgusted, angry. And it’s only been 7 months in to the term. If Nov ‘26 fails to put Democrats in a place of power, I truly fear for our country.
We are living during a time of endless heartbreak. Where is the kindness? Break the cycle! Immigrants, Homeless, inmates, Medicare, Elderly, Food Insecurity, Ukraine, Gaza,...
Heart wrenching.
How sad
Now Republicans are making Homelessness a Crime.
Two sketchbooks full of graphite portraits I had drawn. Would have been nice to have in a portfolio or look back at. At the time, those paper sketchpads were my only way of showing people my talent so I could earn a little money.
Many people don’t realize how corrupt the homeless industry is. Homeless groups buy thousands of items for homeless from companies who profit off homelessness - wool blankets, mini products, payment processors, medication, hand sanitizer, phone power cords. More profitable to keep people homeless
Infuriating.
It's so much worse than people think. When I was homeless I had 3 different social workers try to convince me to legally put on paper that I was so mental ill I was a danger to society just so I can get into a homeless shelter for up to 90 days. That's it. Not housing they're just a homeless shelter
Absolutely true. Shelters make a bundle from gov't and donations, but "residents" are forced to give up what they have including pets. Thus, when they leave, they have LESS and few ways to restart. All supplies get picked over by shelter staff FIRST who take them. Total exploitation.
So they get something from staying at the homeless shelter New trauma, suicidal tendencies, high cholesterol, upgraded survival mode & genuine hatred for homeless shelters
Yup. One of our former residents was in line for VA housing. Stayed in a shelter that got $320 A NIGHT for HIM from the VA, and they wanted to throw HER out because she put HIM ahead of their rules, but they couldn't lose their gravy sauce: him. Horrid place. Salvation Army just as bad. Nasty people
This is heartbreaking and inhumane
I know someone rosted in the winter. Cops took some possessions and put others in a dumpster. 1 boot went to jail for an hour. Other boot got thrown away. In the fucking winter!
Frigin lack of human respect and no humanity
😢😢😢
This is the part I don’t understand. People are constantly ranting about “protecting my property” - why so callous to those who have so little of it? Why can’t you extend that same right to someone who has everything they own in a tent? Or backpack? They knock the legs out from under them instead.
Because they believe throwing people into a deeper and deeper hole will motivate them quit their lifestyle and rise like a phoenix to turn their life around. "Tough love"
How did certain people in what is supposed to be the greatest nation in the world get to be so mean so cruel so unkind so uncaring so ungrateful and so un Christ like while calling themselves Christians is so far beyond what I can wrap my head around. No one knows when their “bad” day is coming.
They keep doing these horrific sweeps. Where do they expect the homeless to go exactly????
This kind of thing is so true. A person can unexpectedly suffer losses that are difficult to recover from. There are a lot of different types of people that suffer homelessness. It's not always about mental illness. Sometimes it's just losing a job and being broke or...whatever. Life is hard!
Seeing their own words is very powerful. These sweeps are inhumane. Humanity must find its way back to caring and imagine new ways to solve problems.
Except by the grace of God, too many of us are too close to finding ourselves in their situation so don’t turn away.
Richest country in human history my ass. Richest for who? A very tiny group of people who with every dollar gained have lost a part of their empathy. Heartbreaking . Homelessness is a real threat on the horizon for many Americans. Most live paycheck to paycheck. What happens when that check stops?
This is devastating. Trump went on an incoherent rant Friday about homeless people outside the White House, and said they would be "handled". Thursday he issued an Executive Order for civil commitment (read: jail) of all homeless, calling them druggies & criminals. He is clawing back NFP grant $$.
Source?
Looks like a conspiracy theory with no real backing. But it is telling that we find it so believable. www.snopes.com/fact-check/t...
I really sucks that it is so hard to tell nowadays
It sucks that it's even believable that the elected president of the US is being accused if pedophilia. President used to carry respect. Now it's comes with a rap sheet. I am not even doubting his guilt. I just wonder if he'll ever answer for it.
This is a systematic process of dehumanization. It will be easier to kill them if they have no evidence of their existence.
The same things housed people would be devastated at losing. Mementos connected to family that are irreplaceable , legal documents, items needed to work, supplies for living dad to day. We’re all the same. Human beings.
🥺 the cruelty.
