• Son_of_dad@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    My city’s transit is already being treated like a homeless shelter, so having free transit would be amazing but a disaster.

    • grue@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Transit should be free and the money spent implementing the fare-collection system should be spent on housing the homeless instead.

    • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      So, give them homes. Tiny homes are cheap and for most homeless people not having a house or address is the number one reason they can’t get a house or address. The others need to be in a care facility. It should take a true renegade to remain homeless. But we value profits over everything else.

      • Son_of_dad@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        The biggest homeless issue in my city isn’t with the homeless who want help, it’s with the mentally ill ones who don’t want help or are too sick to ask. There’s really no way to deal with that tier of homeless unless you do it by force, which most anti homelessness activists are against.

        • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          They’re against the old school mental institutions that abused people. They very much advocate for concentrating services and shelters so homeless people aren’t trying to get all over the city for that stuff. Psychologists and Pharmacies would absolutely be included in those services.

    • dumpsterlid@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      edit sorry I have feelings about this lol, I didn’t mean to send all this energy at you, more like I needed to howl into the void

      This is such an enraging narrative and I encounter it all the time. My city has lots of homeless because the climate is temperate (and for other reasons but not the point of this post). My city also has free bus transit (no fares no nothing).

      People ALL the time hem and haw to me about being concerned if we have free transit it will be “overrun” by homeless. Often it is people I am talking to about mass transit living in my own city who have zero clue we have even have free bus transit.

      At the end of the day if you are “concerned about the homeless” using the bus too much or something you know the best solution? Use the damn bus, not only will you actually see with your own eyes that homeless are just using the bus like everybody else, you help push the needle of what the average bus user looks towards you and away from whoever you are imagining as bad.

      Free mass transit is the foundation of the best cities in the past and future, hamstringing transit because of a fear of homeless “ruining” it is the definition of shooting ourselves in the foot for no reason.

      Yes I see homeless on the bus a lot, I see lots of people on the bus. There tends to be a lot of humans on the bus.

      • Son_of_dad@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        I use the bus daily. And mentally ill homeless walking around pointing their finger at your kid and saying “bang!” Or telling your wife “I wanna touch you!” Is not ok. Those are the ones I’m talking about. The ones that make their issues into everyone else’s. When you start threatening my family, my sympathy for your situation and mental health vanishes

        • dumpsterlid@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          I have rarely if ever encountered homeless like that. Sure it makes sense to get upset about that, but a lot of people’s perception is that every single homeless person is like that.