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Sorry but tripped over this footage and I knew there was a problem in US but I had no idea just how bad it was
This is truly heart breaking and raises so many questions about governance over the years....and what can be done going forward..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j73cjA1IcJw
There was a Simon Reeve Americas series which touched on Homelessness in LA. People
Who were say 37 who had been homeless was 34 years. Really is awful.
I really enjoy Simon Reeve's work and I remember the episode in which he visited LA. A stand-out comment on that programme: '45,000 homeless on the streets, 4 medical workers to look after them'.Quote:
Originally Posted by Chinese_Alan
R
Yep - astounding. Have you see the Cornwall two parter filmed over the summer? Very good.Quote:
Originally Posted by ralphy
We made an early visit to the walk of fame when we were in LA, but by early I mean about 08:30 not 06:30! The overspill from skid row was in every doorway and a complete eye opener for us, in fact my partner felt quite uncomfortable as she can be quite a nervous type in these situations. Inevitably we were tapped up for cash for this or that and we ended up talking with one woman who I'd guess was in her late thirties, she had no shoes on and the blackest feet I'd ever seen. Lynne asked how long she'd been living like this and she said she arrived in LA 13 years ago and had been on the streets for 10. I asked why she originally moved to LA, expecting the usual "I wanted to make it in acting" or something along those lines but she simply said weed was outlawed in her home state and she'd been jailed for dealing so when she got out she came to California where it's legal.
It's truly heartbreaking to see so many dispossessed on the streets and I would think a good proportion of them have serious drugs issues, there was open crystal meth use at that time in the morning with people getting their first hit of the day. It's a massive problem for the authorities who seem to have no coherent system to even begin to tackle the problem. The closer it got to 9am the more people were packing their blankets and cardboard away and moving on, we saw the reason why a few minutes later as it seemed that at 9am the street washers came out and soaked the streets and doorways down with a powerful blast of water to wash them clean. If you hadn't moved before the cleaner arrived you and your worldly possessions were wet for the rest of the day. The police moved everyone on in the direction of skid row, nobody was allowed to head uptown.
Later that day we were chatting to a local who worked for a "stars homes" tour bus company selling tickets, he'd moved to LA from Birmingham in the UK about 20 year previously. He said it's not worth visiting downtown LA before 11am because of the homeless problem, after that time everything is clean and tidy and the homeless have been moved on and the city can be presented the way the authorities would like you to see it. He said it's been that way for the 20 years he's lived in LA but the problem has definitely been increasing considerably over the last 5 or 6 years. He had no idea how these people could be effectively helped simply due to the volume of them, he said charities try to help to feed and clothe them but anything other help is akin to "pissing against the wind".
LA is a cess-pit, even by US standards. Anyone who has visited the US before realises the USA does homelessness and cracked out bums like no other nation. I've never seen more drugged up, out-of-their mind homeless zombies in all my global travels. NY, Miami, Vegas...walk down the wrong street behind the tourist facade and you can very unsafe, very quickly. The difference in LA is that it overspills onto the tourist parts.
The one thing that sticks in my mind more than anything when I think about my visit to LA is the combined smell of weed and urine...particularly around the Hollywood Walk of Fame and Venice Beach.
When all the celebrities like Beckham/Cordon/Ramsay etc go to live in LA, I assume they only ever leave their Hollywood hills compounds to go to Rodeo Drive.
Yes and in New York you can be in a lovely clean wealthy area one minute and keep walking a few blocks and your in a filthy slum with beggars and theives everywhere who will murder you for you shoes.
I don't think is different from many other global cities, just that the US does things more extreme than everywhere else...particularly when it comes to drugs and weapons. Just makes it more dangerous than somewhere like London because of the availability of guns and crack.
And by no means do I mean to make light of the plight of the homeless on skid row...I realise I've kind of mixed the dangerous nature of US cities with a homeless problem which are separate issues. I don't see an easy solution when the country is as extreme as the US and the problem is so ingrained. I haven't seen skid row with my own eyes, but I saw the Vegas equivalent. Mostly Mexicans living in tented rows away from the strip.
I actually found the US situation more shocking than when I went for a walk around Kolkatta. Even though I saw child beggars, beggars with limbs missing rolling around on the pavement...I was kind of expecting it in India...my first visit to LA really shocked me.
Back in 1996 the Olympic Games were held in Atlanta and the mayor offered the homeless community one way tickets to wherever in the US. A lot went to California. But really if you have health or employment issues, the US is a cold place.
The UK is going the same way, but on a smaller scale.
I worked in Birmingham between 2014 and 2019, the growth of homelessness just across those 5 years was scary to see.Quote:
Originally Posted by Templogin
It's bad in Glasgow and Aberdeen, the only two UK mainland cities I tend to visit. I always have a pocketful of pound coins to hand out to the homeless when I am there. My partner and I were talking about this yesterday, and whether it was actually doing any good. Perhaps we should give it straight to the charities, but then you are paying the CEO inflated wages. There is a former church that is run as a cafe where you can buy the homeless a coffee or a meal on Buchanan Street in Glasgow. It's difficult to know what to do for the best, but we all need to remember that without these people suffering we couldn't have so many Rolexes in our safes.
I guess it’s useful to work out what is the cause of homelessness. In Vegas, from what I saw it was 90% Mexican immigrants who flocked there to hand out escort cards along the strip and lived homeless in tents by the freeway. Back in England, go to Hyde Park and it seems to be mostly Albanian(?). I’m guessing both these groups of people would be in a similar dire situation in their home country and choose to be homeless where they might find more opportunity.
I've had the same unstartling experience a few years ago. I was on a business trip, had an extra day and went to check different places in the LA and was on walk of fame before lunchtime. The whole walk of fame was an uncomfortable experience, and like you say, just one block from the walk you have streets full of homeless camps. It was really unnerving to me too even though I've travelled all over.Quote:
Originally Posted by Thewatchbloke
It was a bit similar in SF too, where I used to visit regularly for business. I stayed in a nice hotel downtown, but later in the night the five star hotel would be surrounded by tents of the homeless people - giving you a completely bizarre feeling. The streets would be cleared in the morning, people getting their belongings before the street cleaners came.
Was in LA last year and I have never been anywhere as bad for homelessness. People living in cars at side of the road, druggies everywhere and the $120m homes just a mile down the road
Top class man. He never disappoints in presenting issues generally ignored or touched upon.Quote:
Originally Posted by Chinese_Alan
This is true and no doubt the situation is accelerating.Quote:
Originally Posted by Templogin
I never give homeless money but usually stop and talk and buy them food and coffee when I have time.
One of my mates bumped into a couple of homeless on the way home from the pub, he was hammered. Decided to invite them back and let them kip in his spare room. Gave them food, drink and clothes and went to bed.
Woke up at about 11 with a massive hangover... remembered what he’d done and gingerly went downstairs expecting the worse ... found the washing up done and a thank you note.
Most homeless are not bad people. Just people who’s lives have gone wrong.
Really all very sad. I still remember reading and seeing the pictures of the Ambani multistorey home, with multiple helipads, which was once the most expensive residence in the world. What was very sad was that it overlooked the slums. They were overlooked by that monstrosity, rubbing the wealth in the eyes of the poor.
Its interesting you see it like that. Lots on Indians I have spoken to see it differently. They see as a poor boy from the slums, doing well and is proof that anything is possible. A Mumbai Statue of Liberty so to speak. I tend to agree with them because at an estimated build cost of about $250m, plus the $250m it cost to buy the land and reallocate the Catholic Mission who owned it, it would have been considerable cheaper moving to another part of the country (or the world). Yet he decided to stay local.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ventura
I went to visit my cousin in la in 1999 and Hollywood was a shithole back then I went to Miami in 2005 and stayed on southbeach you only had to go 2 streets back and it was like a 3rd world country I can’t believe it has improved any since then
This thread lead me to watch this documentary from around 4 years ago...
https://youtu.be/WUsJcPc8g0A
Such an eye opener and so many different stories of how people came to be on the streets/living in cars etc. It’s not always addiction and bad life choices that put people there. So sad.
Yeah, Miami hasn't got any better. Remember having to dodge sidewalks near the old Versace mansion to avoid proper cracked out tramps. Beach is pretty unsafe at night.Quote:
Originally Posted by Michael 38
I have indeed. Far more realistic to what Cornwall is about than the usual 'Padstein' fluff.Quote:
Originally Posted by Chinese_Alan
R
Agree Ralphy....my wife and I are next year planning to tour SW coast as a road trip with aeging but not passed it Labrador,as believe it or not we’ve never been and were 50> And we watched the Simon Reeves 2 part expecting a guide to the sunshine coast, part of it was and what a beautiful place but the focus on villages left behind and the ‘out of season’ struggles highlight a harder side...a real eye opener..Quote:
Originally Posted by ralphy
I choked up watching the bit were the guy was giving a tour of the food bank he set up with his wife, only to tell Simon it was his wifes funeral later that day...but he was still in sorting food parcels as that would make her happy....
I posted the Skid Row thing as I could not believe the sheer scale of the issue and I find it staggering and well incredulous that global players like USA...are on the world stage often preaching to other countries on how to best conduct themselves and promoting regime change whilst they have such huge humanitarian issues in their own back yard....”Physician heal thyself”...i hope they can put a dent in it going forward..
Even the 8 years of Democrat power with Obama who I believe had a decent moral compass didn't make a difference.Quote:
Originally Posted by TKH
To even start to change things will take a huge shift in attitudes and priorities from congress and I don't hold out much hope of that happening I'm afraid!
The homelessness in some areas of America is genuinely shocking. I've been to San Francisco a number of times and it is quite staggering.. some neighbourhoods very close to popular tourist areas are extremely deprived and arguably unsafe. I remember my first visit being genuinely terrified in some places and all it took was to stray just one or two blocks away from the areas you were based in.
Honestly the older you get, the more you realise just how f@cked up that country really is. I know we could do more to help vulnerable people in this country but we look like absolute paragons of kindness compared to the USA.
It is sad that a nation with the wealth of the US has such a dire homeless problem and it does seem to have got worse over time.
Sadly, 'the land of opportunity' is also the 'land of the gamble', where there's little or no safety net if things go wrong.
Even sadder is that this seems to be seen as the 'right' way to run a country, hence we see it proferred as the 'best thing for Britain' by many and in other countries too.
M
Unfortunately, in many countries of the world this is and has not been solved for years. Only Japan seems to have started to solve it. It's not easy there either, though. By the way, as far as the problem of homelessness is concerned, it has long been considered by the scientific community. Here I found https://edubirdie.com/examples/homelessness/ basically the whole collection of scientific essays on this topic, so if you are interested you can read to understand something more about it and maybe you will see here the ways to solve the problem. I even took this material for my term paper on homelessness and ways to eliminate it. But it is still a long way off, unfortunately.Quote:
Originally Posted by TKH
Kind of at odds with the old Randy Newman hit.........................:disillusionment:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcADqxnQA_4&ab_channel=RandyNewman
He interviewed Donovan Gardner who runs the food bank where my mum volunteers. Don Gardner is an amazing guy, he's done a great deal for the disadvantaged in that area. T'ain't all ice cream & pasties...Quote:
Originally Posted by Chinnock
- - - Updated - - -
He interviewed Donovan Gardner who runs the food bank where my mum volunteers. Don Gardner is an amazing guy, he's done a great deal for the disadvantaged in that area. T'ain't all ice cream & pasties...Quote:
Originally Posted by Chinnock
Ten Dollar Death Trip on Netflix shows similar scenes and is an absolute eye opener. It's about the North American fentanyl crisis. Well worth watching.
This is my strategy as well. Start a conversation and offer food and soft drink, make it clear I can't offer cash or alcohol. I'm quite friendly with one regular. He's a very nice guy, just struggling with alcohol dependency. A trap we could all fall into.Quote:
Originally Posted by Montello
Whilst it is a nice thing to do, I have often seen people like yourself do this and once you walk away the food/drinks are often passed on or thrown in the bin. That are (sadly) driven by other things.Quote:
Originally Posted by A440
I'm sure this does happen sometimes, however I'm also sure that the food and drink is sometimes welcome. That's enough for me.Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris_in_the_UK
This. I was sat on a bench in Sauciehall Street in Glasgow and was watching a woman being given food and drink. She sat in a empty shop doorway and had an ankle length flowing dress on, and soon as the donor has left the offering went under the dress. When I passed I just gave her a couple of quid. I often give to the homeless, but I wonder how many make a good living at it.Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris_in_the_UK
In France you can go to most "café" and buy a "café suspendu", usually on top of the one you're having, a coffee that whoever wants one and cannot pay for it can claim. Café owners usually know the local homeless and will let them know when they pass by, especially on cold days.Quote:
Originally Posted by Templogin
A few times locally, I've seen these 'flowing dress beggars' being dropped off from Mercedes Vito minibuses & directed to their spot by their handlers.Quote:
Originally Posted by Templogin
Should I give them money to support (possibly/likely) organised crime/people-trafficking/sex-trafficking?
Short answer, yes, and not because im being smart but because the details of their lives are abhorrent and a couple of quid in the pocket goes toward avoiding the kind of things that happen to them if they dont meet quota.Quote:
Originally Posted by jwg663