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Comment by s17n | Hacker News Reader

"She told me she knows that her belongings are an “eyesore,” so she tries to keep them out of the way."

If only all homeless people were like this. As someone who lives in an epicenter of this stuff, I don't think that encampments / people living in tents on the street are inherently a problem - its the small number of homeless people who aggressively spread trash and human waste everywhere that are making the neighborhood unlivable for everyone. Probably these people are dealing with mental health crises, maybe they are just dicks, but either way we have to get them off the street and I'm pretty sure the only way for that to happen is through oppressive policies.

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That's true in every neighborhood - everyone has that one neighbor who doesn't take care of trash, has problems with rats, etc.

We keep trying to signal out people without housing as different, but it's never true. It's just the house that's missing.

> we have to get them off the street and I'm pretty sure the only way for that to happen is through oppressive policies.

Who cares if you think something is an eyesore? Maybe you're an eyesore to me; can I arrest you? Your words are much more obnoxious and dangerous than the unhoused person you describe; can we jail you? Only oppressive policies will work.

You'd better start standing up for human rights and freedom before it's too late. Oppression is a crime against the rule of law and human rights, not a policy.

Calling trash and human waste on the streets an eyesore trivializes the discussion and gets us nowhere. Human feces in the streets is a public health issue, as is trash that invites rats which - lest we forget - are partially responsible for spreading one of the deadliest pandemics in human history.

Call it whatever you want, but my point is the same.

Suggested solutions: Suitably positioned and serviced trash cans and public toilets.

If you give the person blasted out of their mind on drugs smearing feces everywhere a house, it’s just gonna be a feces smeared house. There’s a lot more investment required for someone like that.

I think that's a strawperson. I've never seen such people. Even the feces thing seems like a trope - an emotional trigger, but I've never seen it. I'm not saying such things never happen, but not enough to be an issue.

They happen literally every day where I live.

I live in an urban neighborhood where the housing is all apartments. I'm sure that some of my housed neighbors have trouble handling their trash and do destructive things to their own spaces, but it essentially doesn't affect me at all because its happening inside a closed concrete box. Homeless people doing the same thing, on the other hand, mean that I have to pick through the piles of trash and shit every time I leave my home, which in my opinion is just not reasonable.

I'm not saying that the homeless people are worse people or something, but the massive negative externalities they are causing are a result of them being homeless. Giving them housing would obviously be one solution! I'm not very optimistic about that happening in the USA, though, unless you consider prison to be housing.

You really have no external problems with neighbors? People leaving trash outside the dumpster? All the other externalities of life near other people?

Where is this wonderful neighborhood? :)

> pick through the piles of trash and shit every time I leave my home

There are piles of trash and shit? Wow. Why don't you use your freedom and move?

> massive negative externalities they are causing are a result of them being homeless.

Words like "piles" and "massive" don't increase the evidence or reason; they aren't an argument.

Your argument is that you can't think of a solution, so you'll just abuse these people. Then your preferences are creating a massive externality. The people without homes aren't causing you to be arrested.

> People leaving trash outside the dumpster?

Have you ever actually lived in a city?

> There are piles of trash and shit? Wow. Why don't you use your freedom and move?

I'm doing just that, moving to another neighborhood on Feb 1.

> Your argument is that you can't think of a solution, so you'll just abuse these people.

Like I said elsewhere in this thread: I think the need of the thousands of residents of the neighborhood to have livable streets outweigh whatever concern you might have about the well being of a few destructive individuals.

I've lived in many cities. I don't think I've ever lived someplace without a few troublesome, housed, neighbors - including those who left their trash outside the dumpster!

> the need of the thousands of residents of the neighborhood to have livable streets outweigh whatever concern you might have about the well being of a few destructive individuals.

It's their rights and freedom, and that applies to everyone. Other people can't outweigh them - rights are not subject to majority rules, that is the point of having rights.

'Liveable' is too loose a standard. Actual harm would be meaningful.

There is a group in Chicago that sets up right on the bike path blocking it under a bridge. But I complained about it and the people on reddit made excuses.

Yes, if only the homeless were more considerate of MY needs.

Yes, I think that the needs of the other few thousand others who live here are more important than the needs of a few destructive people.

You don't see the homeless people who keep themselves and their belongings out of your sight.

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