"Both police and city outreach workers had spoken with Macdonald “several times” prior, PPB said, and he refused to accept shelter or any other services.
On Friday, Macdonald was given a last chance to seek shelter, including access to a tiny home, police said.
“Macdonald was told his options would be to accept services or he’d be arrested,” PPB said. “Macdonald stated he would rather be arrested than go to the tiny home.”"
Start the clock on when he gets arrested for a major crime and the discussion turns to “You had him in custody! Why wasn’t he in jail?”
Thank you for immediately and so willingly proving my point lmao. Sounds like this guy’s only “crime” (thanks, SCOTUS! You must have been over the moon with that one) is being homeless. Even the sheriff said he wasn’t a danger and his only crime is homelessness. You read “homeless” though, and that was enough for you to say “lock him up!” Then, based on nothing at all, you assume he must be a murderer and inherently dangerous or something. Yet another indication of your feelings towards the homeless in general for no reason. It truly speaks volumes. You’re complaining the homeless aren’t being thrown in jail just because they didn’t want to be forced to stay in some shitty, privatized adult daycare. That’s positively ghoulish.
Once again you make the misleading argument about empty beds/shelters when there isn’t enough of either for all the homeless people in Portland and the vast majority are filled each night anyway, so even with 100% acceptance of help, Portland would still have lots of homeless people. What then? Portland only has like 250 of these tiny homes in total and much fewer actively available at any given time. Should all the homeless people be thrown in jail when the villages fill up? This all-too-common stance of “you will accept my help or you will be punished, because only I can decide what’s best for you,” is just shameful. Ironically, the widespread moralism of homelessness is maybe one of the biggest barriers to getting homeless people real, meaningful help. In short, your justifications are lacking in number and relevance, you blame the homeless themselves at every opportunity while ignoring any outside factors, you allow yourself to be swept up by media cherry-picking such as this, and you also treat the homeless as a monolith. So, yeah… I think I stand by what I said.
Did you know between 40-60% of homeless people have jobs? Did you know that only about 25% of homeless people are addicts? Did you know only about 30% of them have severe mental health issues? Homeless people are just like you and me, it’s just they simply can’t afford rent. Considering how high rents are in most places, it’s really not that hard to imagine. And when you consider that most people live paycheck to paycheck, all it takes is one unexpected medical expense, one lost job, one setback to fail to make rent and end up in the streets. Even when they don’t have jobs, or are addicts, or are severely mentally ill, that doesn’t mean they deserve to be thrown in prison and are no less deserving of care and compassion.
Here’s the guy the county turned away:
https://www.kgw.com/article/news/local/homeless/portland-homeless-camping-arrest-no-jail-cite-release-ordinance/283-c4740190-38de-4aff-9b5a-20bca0928b3c
"Both police and city outreach workers had spoken with Macdonald “several times” prior, PPB said, and he refused to accept shelter or any other services.
On Friday, Macdonald was given a last chance to seek shelter, including access to a tiny home, police said.
“Macdonald was told his options would be to accept services or he’d be arrested,” PPB said. “Macdonald stated he would rather be arrested than go to the tiny home.”"
Start the clock on when he gets arrested for a major crime and the discussion turns to “You had him in custody! Why wasn’t he in jail?”
Thank you for immediately and so willingly proving my point lmao. Sounds like this guy’s only “crime” (thanks, SCOTUS! You must have been over the moon with that one) is being homeless. Even the sheriff said he wasn’t a danger and his only crime is homelessness. You read “homeless” though, and that was enough for you to say “lock him up!” Then, based on nothing at all, you assume he must be a murderer and inherently dangerous or something. Yet another indication of your feelings towards the homeless in general for no reason. It truly speaks volumes. You’re complaining the homeless aren’t being thrown in jail just because they didn’t want to be forced to stay in some shitty, privatized adult daycare. That’s positively ghoulish.
Once again you make the misleading argument about empty beds/shelters when there isn’t enough of either for all the homeless people in Portland and the vast majority are filled each night anyway, so even with 100% acceptance of help, Portland would still have lots of homeless people. What then? Portland only has like 250 of these tiny homes in total and much fewer actively available at any given time. Should all the homeless people be thrown in jail when the villages fill up? This all-too-common stance of “you will accept my help or you will be punished, because only I can decide what’s best for you,” is just shameful. Ironically, the widespread moralism of homelessness is maybe one of the biggest barriers to getting homeless people real, meaningful help. In short, your justifications are lacking in number and relevance, you blame the homeless themselves at every opportunity while ignoring any outside factors, you allow yourself to be swept up by media cherry-picking such as this, and you also treat the homeless as a monolith. So, yeah… I think I stand by what I said.
Did you know between 40-60% of homeless people have jobs? Did you know that only about 25% of homeless people are addicts? Did you know only about 30% of them have severe mental health issues? Homeless people are just like you and me, it’s just they simply can’t afford rent. Considering how high rents are in most places, it’s really not that hard to imagine. And when you consider that most people live paycheck to paycheck, all it takes is one unexpected medical expense, one lost job, one setback to fail to make rent and end up in the streets. Even when they don’t have jobs, or are addicts, or are severely mentally ill, that doesn’t mean they deserve to be thrown in prison and are no less deserving of care and compassion.
Being homeless and refusing assistance that’s been offered multiple times.