jschubart

jschubart t1_iybroc9 wrote

Reply to comment by Rikey_Doodle in Antiwar Activists Who Flee Russia Find Detention, Not Freedom, in the U.S. by ThisIsNotCorn

The commenter implied that how many countries they went through first should have a bearing on whether they should be granted asylum. Many people are under the impression that if an asylum seeker travels through another safe country first, their asylum will be rejected. Looking at their comment history, they appear to be from the EU where that is the case but it is not in the US. My comment was to correct that thought. You are correct that they are going through the standard process which is no different than other asylum seekers.

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jschubart t1_iun2jpb wrote

Reply to comment by Zerole00 in Homeless People in Lancaster CA Are Being Forced to Live in the Desert by xCeladon

Housing (or lack of) can absolutely be a cause of drug use too. Sleeping on concrete every night and not getting any sleep because you are worried about being assaulted can leave many looking for anything to ease their pain or stress.

Housing should be the start of getting people back on track. That, at the very least, makes it easier to provide services to them because you know where you can contact them.

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jschubart t1_iun1zr7 wrote

Reply to comment by Helpful-Substance685 in Homeless People in Lancaster CA Are Being Forced to Live in the Desert by xCeladon

My county has bought up hotels to house homeless. They own seven or so which can host over 700 people. While great, it is still only a fairly small chunk of our roughly 40k homeless.

People are fairly sick of seeing so much homelessness and think a shelter bed fixes the problem and if a homeless person rejects that bed, they simply want to be homeless. A shelter bed is a very temporary solution. Shelters are often run by religious organizations that can have pretty strict requirements (be in line at a specific time to get a bed and be out at a certain time) and can be hostile to some group's lifestyles (can't be with your partner, hostility to the LGBTQ community, etc). They also are not super secure for your stuff and can be violent. It is not too surprising that only a little over half get a shelter bed after a sweep (although it is never stated whether the beds are rejected or there just is not capacity).

It sucks. Often one city will offer some small amount of services and then homeless sweeps by nearby cities drive the homeless to the city offering services. We also get people sent here from other states via one way bus tickets.

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