No. The methadone clinic is in the area.
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While homelessness surges in Disneyland's shadow, Anaheim removes bus benches.
- Thread starter KSweeley
- Start date
This was absolutely true a decade ago but over the last 5 years I have been seeing a lot more mothers with kids.
I generally avoid the area now. That MacDonald's and that Wendy's.
As long as the middle class doesn't go underwater on their loans, fuck everyone else.
DizzyCaffeine
Member
Why not? There are no public bathrooms outside, so they go in stairwells and nooks. You have to understand - hundreds of people have been camped outside the courthouse for years now. It's kind of their defacto home, and at night when all public facilities shut down, you run into this problem.
Let's say someone manages to get a minimum wage job. Where are they going to find an apartment with that wage in OC?
Mothers can also be junkies. It is sad but true. Surely they aren't all but some probably are.
chromatic9
Member
Not sure how each country is calculated, the figure is really about 40k for the UK and not 250k. The recent 250k has been generated from people living in hostels and other accommodation.
Sleeping rough there's around 3-4k in the whole England (pop 55 mill) and LA County (pop 10 mill) has 40k unsheltered. Perhaps someone can get better figures for LA county that tally with UK's sleeping rough term. Unsheltered sounds like sleeping rough to me.
Depends on what hotel and where really. I live about a mile away and my walk to Disney has almost no homeless. Also I imagine you will be walking at a time when there are a lot of others walking as well. I think you'll be fine.
Relentless 757
Member
Solving the homelessness is not feasible by merely raising taxes. In particular, CA state government does not need more money, the budget is large enough. The issue is what the money is spent, which is absolutely squat.
Truth is, government institutions in particular are pretty poor at allocating funds efficiently. Look at the Federal budget and just how large military spending is. We could cut the budget massively, and still have the largest military budget in the world and plenty of cash to use towards funding affordable housing and then some. Don't tax poor households more, otherwise the vicious cycle continues. Taxes in SoCal are already appropriately high, use what money you have now with more financial responsibility.
What we need is smarter leaders and public officials.
EDIT: I'll provide an example. I have a friend who works as a lifeguard at a public pool. He makes between $13-15 per hour. Perhaps an unpopular opinion, but one he and myself share, he is ridiculously overpaid. First off, the cost of living in my area is lower than the US average (though I'm aware of flaws in those statistics). He usually has plenty of free time on the job, as the pool is rarely used during any period that isn't summer, and works even during the Winter! Even in the Summer, the pool is rarely if ever full. Now, I'm not saying that minimum wage is appropriate in this case, that's too damn low. But little justification for making so much.
Now an argument I expect is that this creates job, people should be paid more, etc etc. I agree, but in a world riddled with scarcity, you have to budget.
Of course, you could just raise taxes and be done with it. This doesn't solve the inefficiency issue, though.
This appears to be a solid plan, since gentrification is certainly one of the driving forces in rising housing prices. I see it in my home town and it depresses me greatly.
Truth is, government institutions in particular are pretty poor at allocating funds efficiently. Look at the Federal budget and just how large military spending is. We could cut the budget massively, and still have the largest military budget in the world and plenty of cash to use towards funding affordable housing and then some. Don't tax poor households more, otherwise the vicious cycle continues. Taxes in SoCal are already appropriately high, use what money you have now with more financial responsibility.
What we need is smarter leaders and public officials.
EDIT: I'll provide an example. I have a friend who works as a lifeguard at a public pool. He makes between $13-15 per hour. Perhaps an unpopular opinion, but one he and myself share, he is ridiculously overpaid. First off, the cost of living in my area is lower than the US average (though I'm aware of flaws in those statistics). He usually has plenty of free time on the job, as the pool is rarely used during any period that isn't summer, and works even during the Winter! Even in the Summer, the pool is rarely if ever full. Now, I'm not saying that minimum wage is appropriate in this case, that's too damn low. But little justification for making so much.
Now an argument I expect is that this creates job, people should be paid more, etc etc. I agree, but in a world riddled with scarcity, you have to budget.
Of course, you could just raise taxes and be done with it. This doesn't solve the inefficiency issue, though.
This appears to be a solid plan, since gentrification is certainly one of the driving forces in rising housing prices. I see it in my home town and it depresses me greatly.
State Rep Weiner wants to severely limit the ability of local municipalities to limit new housing construction. It would be a massive step towards reducing the wealth of upper middle class homeowners and redistribute it to poor renters. When housing prices go down, more people can afford houses.
Yep... It's a strange thing that not a lot of people acknowledge. A lot of people who are homeless have options of shelter available to them. They just don't use them.
Better assistance for mental illness would go a loooong way towards culling the homeless population.
A lot of people are saying the Disney isn't at fault but it's not like they exist in a vacuum. Having Disney anything next to any area is going to make the price of property and rent go up. That in turn is going to contribute to homelessness. It may not be their intention but their presence alone does have a consequence. Maybe they can use their political power in order to specify that any sort of taxes or money that they paid to the government a portion of that has to be used in order to help the homeless. I don't think it's wrong for the community to ask them for more help either. Build more homes not benches to hurt the homeless.
Disney was there way, way, way before the area actually had housing.
And once again hard to produce housing when the voting citizenry does not want not housing to devalue their own housing. Homelessness is a political problem of the local level.
True.
Since I became a dad I have become a total softie. Seeing kids suffer or potentially be hungry is heartbreaking. It is probably why I started noticing the mothers more. The one thing about the tri-state area is that you become numb to homeless people. It is a necessary coping mechanism.
Another money funnel for Anaheim is their convention center, hosts a lot of fandom events and fandom events are reported to be known for their strong economic impact for their host cities: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anaheim_Convention_Center
So where is all the money coming from events such as D23 Expo, VidCon, BlizzCon, Anime Expo, WonderCon is going towards? That should be enough to try to assist with the homeless.
You can have all the money in the world, but if the law prevents you from building housing, you cannot build housing.
Although I am sure the locals would love the "fund housing in someone else's backyard option." They can keep their liberal cards while not actually dealing with it.
NYCmetsfan
Banned
Homelessness is largely concentrated in major cities in the US. Its not a very big problem in other areas because of cheap land prices.
But why do the homeless stay in these largely concentrated major cities? If it's because of land prices, can't they go somewhere where it's cheaper?
Zoe
Member
Because of the services available, and in the case of the coast, the climate.
DaveTheSnake
Member
That might be changing too.
http://www.ocregister.com/2017/07/1...nter-to-move-from-flood-control-channel-area/
Fenderputty
Banned
Disney Land charges about $175 a day for a park hopper pass. They intentionally set the prices high to discourage lower class elements from entering their park and maybe upsetting the flow. They used to have local California deal for the less fortunate kids, but those are all shitty three day long passes now as well. It's a middle to upper middle plus experience now unfortunate.
I'm not shocked nor am I that upset by this bench thing either. We need to do a better job of dealing with the homeless population and we need to to it humanely. That being said, it doesn't need to be a free for all. Anaheim is basically funded by Disneyland. A quick look at the City of Anaheim's city page and you can see that a majority of their tax revenue comes from hotel taxes. The City should be able to make sure their businesses that surround the area are clean and perceptibly safe.
That being said ... removing benches and not adding more benches in other locations isn't cool.
I'm not shocked nor am I that upset by this bench thing either. We need to do a better job of dealing with the homeless population and we need to to it humanely. That being said, it doesn't need to be a free for all. Anaheim is basically funded by Disneyland. A quick look at the City of Anaheim's city page and you can see that a majority of their tax revenue comes from hotel taxes. The City should be able to make sure their businesses that surround the area are clean and perceptibly safe.
That being said ... removing benches and not adding more benches in other locations isn't cool.
Man Called Aerodynamics
Member
Yeah, the article even specifically says that this action was not requested by Disney.
Zeuanimals
Member
All they need is a magic lamp.
It is the only place they know. Also, big cities are better equipped to deal with this issue.
DreadfulOmen
Member
My friend Dan worked at the courthouse there a few years ago.
LinkAndEpona
Banned
Indeed, it's so bizarre that housing affordability somehow becomes the primary reason for homelessness over addictions and poor spending habits.
In my city we have plenty of homeless shelters but they aren't as full as you'd expect compared to the amount of homeless because they aren't anywhere near tourist attractions or near wealthier areas.
DizzyCaffeine
Member
You used to be able to walk around outside during breaks, or just eat a lunch outside near the fountain. Now, management actively tells us not to go outside alone. Things have changed.
You are listing bullshit people tell themselves so they can maintain a dissociation with the "others."
https://www.nlchp.org/documents/Homeless_Stats_Fact_Sheet