Homeless Tent Communities

I'm curious - how many homeless tent communities does it take before our own Nation starts doing something about our own problems... Helping other nations is great but at some point we need to start setting up food lines and making sure these families eat, have medical care and the kids attend school, at the very freaking least.

Right now there are roughly 40 families.. men, women, children, seniors... living in a makeshift tent community not too far from my local Wal-Mart... I can't imagine this is just my area but yet it gets zero air time with the news, zero. Now, this isn't some old tent community that has been there forever, it's only been up for a matter of months.

I reside in the central valley of California right now.. Are other places having the same issues?

Between professional panhandlers and bums that are unwilling to work, I have to say I'm not surprised people don't do a shitton. Also learned a nice bit of advice, "If they ask for money for anything, never give them cash. Instead, offer to take them out to lunch."


On the flipside, I've seen countless fundraisers, canned food drives, and the like that help the homeless community. I can say that, personally, I've never seen anything to the extreme you've described. This also ties into the fact that I don't go into the city very often, and most beggers are fat men who want to "Put a loan down on a cheeseburger."



inb4 "It's the Government's job":

"Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country."

Yeah, I agree. Normally when panhandled I'll try and buy someone food. In this instance though, I'm driving by with my mouth open as new tents are being setup every day. Entire families and not just pro's out to take advantage of the dumb *** filling their beer glasses.

I lived near Portland before making my move back to CA and thought the homeless problem there was substantial (and it is) but this problem seems to be spreading, at least in the area's I've been to.

Yeah, there really is only so much you can do. Some people will gladly accept money, but might take personal offense if you offer them something else such as food or supplies. On Thanksgiving My uncle, little cousins and I went down to Skid Row for an event called Gobble Gobble Give where everyone donates blankets, clothes, hygiene kits (composed of a new toothbrush, tooth paste, deodorant, etc.) and fresh boxes of El Pollo Loco, and then you do a pick up, and go looking for people to distribute it to. While most people were graciously accepting,some were like "Is that money? Nahh then I don't need that".

Reminds me of a time my friend's mom gave an apple to this homeless guy who had a sign saying something like "Please help. Hungry." and she gave him an apple only to have it thrown back at her because the *** wanted money.

So yeah, always help these kinda folks with exactly what they need instead of the freedom to completely waste it on some vice.

Tent City is growing, that is for sure. i too am in CA, Sacramento.
the fact that jobs are harder to come by has a lot of families struggling.
i see store after store shut down putting people out of work.
Regional Transit (public transportation) has made cuts for the worse.
not only have they cut a severe amount of bus routes,
they have also stopped transfers and raised bus fare.
taking that into consideration, it is an uphill battle for anyone without job security.
getting to work or even just a job interview has gone from $2.75 to $6.00...
of course there are "bums" who are where they are because they just want to drink/drugs
but in terms of Tent City,
there are a lot of families who have no other option.
so yeah,
i would love to see California or America in general find a way to stand up and help our own.

Me and my parents lived in a homeless veterans center (we are all veterans) for many years... surrounded by drug users, criminals and prostitutes... but it kept us from sleeping in the cold.

But the "non-profit" organization that was helping us, well the founder skipped the country with millions of dollars in funding and the workers where always browbeating us for money...

It is sad to think about but a fraction of aid collected in the name of groups makes it to the people and there is little accountability when creative accountants can cover everything.

Lol