Florida requires counties to ban “camping” in areas that are not specifically designated for camping. Volusia has become the latest county to do so. The city of Orlando has arrested 25 people for this so far, which tells me that the law is going largely unenforced. I can drive through downtown Orlando and find 25 people violating this law in less than an hour.
The left hates it, complaining about how cruel it is:
While the ordinance cites the importance of protecting the “health, safety, welfare, quality of life, and aesthetics” of communities, per the state law, it makes no mention of any obligation to assist individuals or connect them to resources before applying enforcement measures.
Note that what the bleeding hearts fail to mention is that, while there is nothing in the law requiring that local governments assist these bums, there is also nothing in the law that prohibits helping them, either. It’s almost as if the left won’t do anything unless the law tells them to.
Still, I don’t care. I have a lot of experience dealing with the “unhoused” people that the left loves so much. They aren’t average people who fell on hard times. Overwhelmingly, these people have two problems:
- Mental health issues
- Drug addiction
We got rid of the mental hospitals, so now they live on the street. Bring back mental institutions and the problem is largely solved.
You will note that the homeless population DOESN’T include illegal immigrants. They are staying downtown at the Ritz.
17 Comments
Steve · February 17, 2025 at 7:35 am
I find the “no mention of any obligation to assist individuals or connect them to resources before applying enforcement measures” written as though it’s an absolute unquestionable fact nature, quite unbelievable. Do these bleeding hearts really think that the parasites don’t know how to get Gov’t resources, and that is the reason why they are in “camping” areas?
Grumpy51 · February 17, 2025 at 8:05 am
We’re seeing same issues in “medical detox centers”. VAST majority bounce between detox centers for 3 hots and a cot. They can leave whenever they want and return whenever they want.
Easily 90% have mental issues (schizophrenia and bipolar are the primaries). In the last 4 months, I can think of less than 5 patients who had a CIWA/COWS score >5.
Noway2 · February 17, 2025 at 8:13 am
“It’s almost as if the left won’t do anything unless the law tells them to.”
I believe you are on to something. I think there is some sort of mental health issue with them that makes them want govt. interference or some sort of “authority” telling them what they can and can’t do; and want the same for you. A few days ago, some idiot on Nextdoor was complaining about balloon litter and wanted everyone to sign a petition for them to be “banned”. Another left-tard favorite word.
As far as leftism / liberalism being a mental disease, if it weren’t they wouldn’t be so stinking touchy about the subject. Want to see outrage, go to one of their blog sites and call liberalism a mental disease. Your account will be terminated within minutes.
Steve S6 · February 17, 2025 at 9:27 am
And how many of the loud bleeding hearts have taken one into their home and provided any care?
Yes on the mental hospitals, which were closed on account of the same bleating bleeding hearts. Let the families take care of them they said ignoring that it was usually the family that had them committed to the mental ward in the first place because the family couldn’t care for them.
Tsgt Joe · February 17, 2025 at 10:32 am
Many bass pro’s, walmarts, cracker barrels and other stores allow folks to overnight in their campers and vehicles. I wonder if this will affect that. Every once in a while I’ve seen folks who were living in the walmart lot, not just passing through. I agree with you about the homeless, not that many are ok people down on their luck, many are really dysfunctional people who cant operate in normal society. A lot of that boozing and drugging are attempts to self medicate.
Cederq · February 17, 2025 at 10:59 am
My experiences as working as a psych nurse in Portland with “homeless” were the same, mental illness and drug/alcohol addiction and not willing or wanting to accept responsibility of providing a dwelling themselves and maintaining a job to pay the costs of living under a roof. They rather enjoy this concept of freedom they have, of sleeping bum camps, wandering around, partying and being around friends that share that miserable life. They are addicted to that.
Warren V. DeCee · February 17, 2025 at 11:39 am
Those who are arrested will most likely not be incarcerated, as that would be “temporary housing”. They will be issued citations, with fines which will go unpaid, and will be upgraded to arrest warrants. Once arrested, they will be released as quickly as possible so as to avoid the “temporary housing pitfall”.
@HomeInSC · February 17, 2025 at 12:18 pm
A friend who goes on church missions to help the homeless inside the US told me that 3-4% are actually decent people who fell on tough times and want help to get back to a normal life. The rest will take any handouts you give them but are unwilling to change their lifestyle. I say funds should go to that 3-4% first.
Modern Day Jeremiah · February 17, 2025 at 1:56 pm
To be fair, there were horrific abuses in the state-run mental institutions. Geraldo Rivera reported on the abuses at Willowbrook over 50 years ago. Did they need reform? Yes. Should they have all been shut down and severely mentally ill people put out on the street? No.
wojtek · February 17, 2025 at 2:21 pm
“Bring back mental institutions and the problem is largely solved.”
I dare to disagree. To be precise, I agree that mental issues are the root cause of homelessness and that the only way to solve the homelessness problem is to solve the mental issues.
But I disagree that just bringing up mental hospitals will solve this problem.
Wiki says (without any source) that there were over 560K “beds” in mental institutions in the US in 1955. Nowadays there are allegedly only 10% left, while the population is twice that of 1955. And that matters b/c homelessness is only one of major mental issues – e.g., transgenderism is another current problem. So to solve these mental problems one might need maybe even 1M beds.
How many regular hospital beds are in the US? 1M?
Would money for mental hospitals come from the same sources?
Perhaps I’m wrong but my perception is that Americans solve their problems in a specific way and it seems to me that homelessness is actually a solution to a mental health problem, or, more precisely, to the costs of running mental health institutions. In Europe these issues were solved by means of enhancing the “social security” institutions. E.g., people with such issues often will stay in some government owned group homes, and there will be a nurse or someone who will come and visit them regularly, someone will take them shopping, someone will take take them to a local community center, etc etc. But I don’t think Americans are ready for the costs associated with the European way of solving such problems?
PS. Using US as example only b/c is has most data publicly available. But the data I can find about Poland tells a similar story: in 1938 nearly 25% hospital beds in Poland were in mental institutions. That sort of matches the data point I found from 1970s, where there were circa 160K hospital beds and 40K of those were in mental institutions. And we are a country where “slow” people would never be sent to a mental hospital, b/c the communist social security network mostly kept them going (and those communist/socialist institutions to a certain degree continue today).
SoCoRuss · February 17, 2025 at 2:48 pm
There is a big difference between homeless and Psychotic junkies. But we never hear that.
Homelessness is nothing but a racket, a business to siphon off big money to make people FEEL better about themselves. If the left really cared about these folks so much why don’t they house a few in their McMansions.
Funny how the organizations that get all these dollars have real big salaries for staff and then those workers give very large campaign contributions to the Demo Commies. But hey nothing to see here….
it's just Boris · February 17, 2025 at 8:33 pm
Note that what the bleeding hearts fail to mention is that, while there is nothing in the law requiring that local governments assist these bums, there is also nothing in the law that prohibits helping them, either. It’s almost as if the left won’t do anything unless the law tells them to.
Leftists are always willing to spend other people’s money, so I’m a little surprised there aren’t pushes to enact laws that mandate aid. I seem to recall reading somewhere, that those on the left side of the political spectrum are generally less charitable, on a personal giving level, than those on the right. Just one of those things that makes me ponder.
Daniel K Day · February 19, 2025 at 12:08 pm
Boris, “Who Really Cares” by Arthur Brooks.
Skeptic · February 18, 2025 at 7:38 am
One of the greatest marketing campaigns ever has been the one that repositioned bums into “the homeless.”
SoCoRuss · February 18, 2025 at 10:49 am
Correction, the new required term is “Un-Housed”.
That’s versus my own “Fucking Psychotic Junkies”.
TRX · February 18, 2025 at 3:43 pm
> Wiki says (without any source) that there were over 560K “beds” in mental institutions in the US in 1955. Nowadays there are allegedly only 10% left
—-
“Oh, yes, and nasty Uncle Ronnie turned all those mental patients out into the street, many to die of exposure or malnutrition. Oh, woes!”
But… the Fed didn’t get involved in paying for mass storage of the mentally ill until a few decades before that. Previously, it was a state, county, or city matter. When the Fed stopped paying for it, it became a state, county, or city matter again. But once they’d suckled the Federal tit for a while, those polities decided they didn’t quite care enough about those people to pay for their care out of their own pockets again, so they turned them out, blamed it on Reagan, and walked away with clean hands.
Such a deal!
C · February 19, 2025 at 9:29 am
I’d prefer we follow Singapore’s lead. Caning and/or jail for petty crimes.