Realize that your tax dollars are spent on the homeless. Seattle/King County spent in the neighborhood of $300 million in 2023 for food, housing, and other amenities to accommodate the homeless. Other big cities spend a lot as well. Good chance you're already chipping in.
@BizSuitStacy Our city is overloaded now due to California busing them here. And other cities around here are doing it too. I have never seen homeless in nearby Moore. And yesterday while driving up to the medical center (a mile further away) in Oklahoma City I didn’t even see one person begging on the corners under the underpass etc. No trash piles either. They are cleaning up the area because right nearby is a Native American center being built next to the river that will become the next big tourist draw by the Canadian River. The hotel is almost finished and they are cleaning up the area to get ready. I am sure they are sending some of those here. They say there’s a new plan for dealing with it and this is probably just one. They can hype up all the benefits of living here. Meanwhile people are choosing not to relocate here and buy homes due to the litter and tents & shopping carts shoved in various places etc that is getting common. I have read accounts of that.
@cherokeepatti it's headlines like this one that drive me 🦇 💩 crazy. The jist..."we keep spending all this money on the homeless problem, but the problem keeps growing." And I'm like, "no 💩 Sherlock. You've made Seattle an attractive destination."
@BizSuitStacy California may be sending them there as well as here. I know they are even buying airplane tickets for some and sending them to Hawaii, probably so they cannot easily return.
@cherokeepatti I had a contractor do some work on my house. He told me about a homeless guy who works for him sometimes. He'll save enough for airfare to shuttle between Seattle and Hawaii depending on the weather, and knows exactly how to work the system well in both places.
@BizSuitStacy In the PNW, homelessness is, in some cases, a lifestyle choice. Between the relatively mild weather and outrageous cost of living, it's a logical option. I have seen some amazing structures built of pallet wood out here, but tents are pretty common. I can absolutely believe your contractor's lifestyle.
@BizSuitStacy A homeless woman told someone I spoke to that the government was paying for bus tickets to bus them here and other places. They didn’t have to buy those bus tickets. Free ride to better digs.
@cherokeepatti True. Denver has shipped a lot of their homeless to Portland. Who knows where else. I doubt this is purely to keep them out of the bitter cold winter.
@IronHamster They told the woman here that the medical care was better in Oklahoma. Oklahoma has had to change the way it manages it now probably as a result of that. They also went over the list of those enrolled and kicked some of them off this past year.
