I'm in agreement with most of what you say in this post, but I'd be wary of waving the Superdome around as a scarecrow...most of the wild stories in the press about what supposedly went on there turned out to be urban legend.

That said, in the same situation the cops would find it difficult to confiscate my legally owned weapons, as the NO cops seemed to think they were entitled to. Fortunately we now have some state laws explicitly forbidding that, with federal laws perhaps to follow.

As we all know, homeless folks cook their own food from healthy ingredients in spacious, sanitary kitchens.

My point was that a massive increase in the minimum wage would price some goods that use unskilled labor in their production out of reach of the very people most likely to need them. Or cause minimum wage jobs to dry up.

I think that's why Sexxvet is dodging the question as to how much he thinks the minimum wage should be to solve all these problems.

You mean like the WPA?

Squatting someplace doesn't make it your home. Having the homeless consider the parks to be their home is what this law is intended to avoid.

I am not evil, no one is.
I am not mean-spirited, like your post, and did work in them, while I still could and still support them. I have also fed the homeless in my home, several times.
Criticize away... those in pain always want to share it.

Actually, it does.

I deal with a lot of homeless people. From Robert the homeless, crazy guy who sometimes sleeps on the porch, to a variety of folks in bad circumstances, folks who have lost everything to crack use (and continue to use), and people who have alienated their families.

There need to be limits set, otherwise they do keep coming and coming and coming, from all over.

Las Vegas is a sort of mecca for the homeless in the Western US. I have a friend who lives there (actual native Las Vegan, former emergency dispatcher, husband was a cop, her children are cops, so she's speaking from real experience, rather than just NIMBY type bitching) who tells me that it's worse than it ever has been.

Nice modest proposal. I'm for it.

Soylent Green is people!!

Does what?
I don't know what you are referring to in my post, specifically.
But, if you are saying, it will bring them to the park, feeding those who are already there... so?
Good, then we know where they are so we can help them and then they will not be homeless any longer, right? Problem solved.

Is it just me or is it sick to anyone else that someone would think it is a bad thing to feed a hungry person in any circumstance, ever?

My old boss, before he went nuts and stopped coming to work, used to talk about the shelter system in Britain.

They had a lot of strict rules, including one that I found very interesting. You were only permitted to spend one night at a shelter within a specified period of time. Shelters were placed about one day's walk apart. You got a bed, a meal, and were sent out.

There are some shelter programs that just house and feed people. I don't think that these are of much value, beyond making people dependent on their services. The successful programs are the ones that focus on transition to permanent residence, Ready-for-Work programs, and so forth ... but those beds are going empty, because people refuse to sign up for them.

Philadelphia has several programs, like Horizon House, that I believe I've discussed before, specifically designed to assist the seriously mentally ill homeless. They have psychiatrists, social workers, nurses, and case managers, provide apartments, life skills training, etc.

Only about 15% of homeless people are identified as mentally ill. Off the top of my head, I think the rate for the rest of the population is about 10%. Based on my own personal experience, that five percent difference is probably attributable to two things ... classifying substance abuse as mental illness (which it isn't) and getting a psych diagnosis by manipulating the system into calling you crazy for three hots and a cot and some nice cozy medications.

Trust me, I know a lot of homeless crazy people, but I also know a lot of homeless manipulators. Talked to one tonight, in fact. By a careful combination of talking about suicide interspersed with requests to go to rehab, this person has been hospitalized since early May. Not all at the same place, but the individual has gone from facility to facility this way. The most recent place was too demanding. They actually wanted the patient to participate in treatment, and so, on cue, the suicide card is played, including a refusal to contract for safety, and a threat to "flip out" and throw a computer off a shrink's desk to add flavoring. Even managed to sob on the phone, blaming the facility before last's changing of medication, for today's "instability."

Yeah. Sure.

My hospital is closer to the client's significant other, and unlike a rehab, we allow visiting.

But you know what? The insurance company agrees to pay, and the person will be brought in.

Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

This is your tax dollars at work, people. Aren't you proud?

Causes the homeless to propagate.

If you feed them, they will come.

We can't have them fed then. That is the reason for the law. Back to square one.

I wonder how many taking part in this discussion know what it is to be truly hungry?

Man, I havent had anthing to eat in fifteen minutes! Of COURSE I know!

In America there is hunger, but not one single sign of starvation.

http://cellar.org/showpost.php?p=243852&postcount=14

One-on-one charity, while it might be thought admirable by some, doesn't count in this case.

I said "opening a food kitchen"...making a public announcement that food is available to the hungry for the taking at (or very near is good enough) your home. Otherwise you're not demonstrating a willingness to bear the burden of a convergence of large numbers of "the needy" on your home.

You can fling accusations of "mean-spiritedness" or "sickness" around if you like...but then that's awfully hard to distinguish from criticism, isn't it? As for sharing pain...well...I'm sure my pain is not in the same league as yours; you've certainly shared a lot of it here.

Hypocrisy is a different animal from mean-spiritedness though...

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By the way, perhaps I should mention that the mental hospital where Wolf works is on the same property as the Farm Park...in fact the farm itself used to be worked by inmates of the hospital to raise some of their own food.

In most grocery stores you can get a dozen eggs for $1. Good luck with the project rk