Tag Archives: Homeless

U-Turn: San Francisco increases budget for police and seeks recruitment from Texas

San-Francisco-closures

Important Takeaways:

  • San Francisco tries to recruit cops from TEXAS as it faces shortage of hundreds of officers – and business leaders like Salesforce’s Marc Benioff slam the city’s widespread homelessness and drug use
  • San Francisco is trying to recruit cops from Texas as it faces a shortage of officers, after businessman Marc Benioff slammed the city’s homeless and drug problems.
  • The San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) is visiting four Texas university campuses throughout the month as part of a new recruitment drive.
  • Candidates from outside of the state of California will take a written test, a physical ability test and an interview to see if they make the cut.
  • Mayor London Breed was one of the first to openly speak out in support of defunding the police.
  • During a July 2020 press conference, Breed said: ‘We chose to change how this city and how this country treats our young Black men.’
  • Breed announced $120 million would be cut from the police and sheriff’s departments to reinvest in programs that help black and brown communities.
  • The following year, Breed u-turned on the decision and increased the police budget as the city faced a rampant rise in property crime and looting.
  • Latest figures up until Sunday show that there have been more homicides so far this year than the whole of last year.
  • Likewise, the number of robberies in the city is also higher now than for the whole of last year, with 1,989 reported incidents this year, compared to just 1,704 last year.
  • The number of total crimes this year is also closely catching up with last year’s full total, with 36,573 crimes committed this year, compared to 37,674 in 2022.

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Johannesburg building fire leaves at least 73 dead

Johannesburg-Fire

Important Takeaways:

  • As many as 200 people may have been living in the building, witnesses said
  • A nighttime fire ripped through a rundown five-story building in Johannesburg that was occupied by homeless people and squatters, leaving at least 73 people dead early Thursday, emergency services in South Africa’s biggest city said.
  • A witness said he saw people throwing babies out of the burning building in an attempt to save them and that at least one man died when he jumped from a window on the third floor and hit the concrete sidewalk “head first.”
  • Seven of the victims were children, the youngest a 1-year-old, according to an emergency services spokesperson.
  • Mulaudzi, the emergency services spokesperson, said the death toll was likely to increase and more bodies were probably trapped inside the building.
  • The fire took three hours to contain, he said, and firefighters needed time to work through all five floors.

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Homelessness on the rise, half of ALL Americans living on the streets live in California

Revelations 13:16-18 “Also it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead, so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name. This calls for wisdom: let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is 666.”

Important Takeaways:

  • California has spent billions to fight homelessness. The problem has gotten worse
  • California has spent a stunning $17.5 billion trying to combat homelessness over just four years. But, in the same time frame, from 2018 to 2022, the state’s homeless population actually grew. Half of all Americans living outside on the streets, federal data shows, live in California.
  • Across the country, homelessness is on the rise. But California is adding more homeless people every year than any other state. More than 170,000 unhoused people now live here.
  • “The problem would be so much worse, absent these interventions,” Jason Elliott, senior adviser on homelessness to Gov. Gavin Newsom, told CNN. “And that’s not what people want to hear. I get it, we get it.”
  • But with $17.5 billion, the state could, theoretically, have just paid the rent for every unhoused person in California for those four years, even at the state’s high home costs.

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L.A. seeing increase in Homelessness since last year

Revelations 13:16-18 “Also it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead, so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name. This calls for wisdom: let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is 666.”

Important Takeaways:

  • Disaster: Homelessness Skyrockets in Los Angeles; Over 75,000 on Streets in L.A. County
  • The Los Angeles Times reported Thursday:
  • Homelessness continued to rise dramatically, increasing by 9% in Los Angeles County and 10% in the city of Los Angeles last year, in a stark illustration of the challenges faced by officials trying to reduce the number of people living on the streets.
  • The count, conducted by thousands of volunteers during a three-day period in January, projected that 75,518 people were living in interim housing or a tent, car, van, RV, tent or makeshift shelter in Los Angeles County, compared with 69,144 the previous year.
  • Almost all the growth came from the Westside and Harbor areas of Los Angeles, with each seeing increases of just over 2,000 people, or about 45%.

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Biden and mainstream media keep telling us everything is fine but homeless rates keep increasing; a report by Michael Snyder

Revelations 13:16-18 “Also it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead, so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name. This calls for wisdom: let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is 666.”

Important Takeaways:

  • The Number Of Americans Living On The Streets “Has Broadly Risen This Year”
  • Joe Biden and the mainstream media keep telling us that the economy is in good shape, but we continue to get more evidence that directly contradicts that assertion.
  • According to a comprehensive analysis that was just conducted by the Wall Street Journal, the number of homeless people in the United States “has broadly risen this year”
  • The Journal reviewed data from 150 entities that count homeless people in areas ranging from cities to entire states. More than 100 places reported increases in early 2023 counts compared with 2022, and collectively, their numbers indicate the U.S. might see a sharper climb than in recent years. Most major urban areas reporting data so far have seen increases, including Chicago, Miami, Boston and Phoenix.
  • The Journal received data from 67 of the 100 locales with the highest homeless counts last year, along with many others. Preliminary data show 48 of those 67 reported an increase this year, with combined counts up 9% from the numbers HUD published for those places in 2022 and 13% since 2020.
  • In San Diego, the homelessness crisis is worse than it has ever been before. In just the last seven months, 580 tons of trash has been collected from homeless encampments in the city

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Portland lawmakers push to decriminalize homeless camps; Residents tired of tents on their lawns, drug deals on every corner

Portland Homeless

Mathew 24:12 And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold.

Important Takeaways:

  • Broken Portland: New images of city’s homeless show encampments taking over – as fed-up residents wake up to tents on their lawns, drug dealers on every corner – and woke lawmakers pushing to DECRIMINALIZE the camps
  • Shocking new images show Portland’s mounting homeless crisis as encampments take over streets and sidewalks – and fed-up residents want the city to take action.
  • Local authorities in Oregon are also considering calling in the National Guard to help with Portland’s homeless issue – while residents reveal they now no longer walk in certain areas because of the drug and encampment problem.
  • This follows news that Democrat lawmakers in Oregon want to decriminalize homeless camps with a law that would allow the people who live in them to sue for $1,000 if they’re harassed or told to leave.
  • Portland also made headlines recently after numbers that showed in 2022 there were more than 5,000 homeless people throughout the city.
  • Residents of one Portland neighborhood say they are fed up with the growing homeless crisis after their area was cleared just to see encampments pop back up hours later.

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Oregon Democrats pushing to Decriminalize homeless encampments; Residents tired of lawlessness

Mathew 24:12 And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold.

Important Takeaways:

  • Just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse… Now Oregon looks to DECRIMINALIZE encampments and let homeless SUE for $1,000 if they’re harassed or told to leave: Furious Portland residents say they’re being terrorized in their own neighborhoods
  • Democrat lawmakers in Oregon want to decriminalize homeless camps with a law that would allow the people who live in them to sue for $1,000 if they’re harassed or told to leave.
  • The hugely-controversial bill claims ‘decriminalization of rest’ would allow city leaders to ‘redirect’ cash from law enforcement into measures that ‘address the root causes of homelessness and poverty’.
  • But the proposal has been met with thousands of complaints – and comes as some in the embattled city of Portland plan to move because of the number of homeless camps.
  • The bill, HB 3501, was sponsored by Democrat representative Farrah Chaichi and her colleague, representative Khanh Pham. It will be discussed at a hearing of the state’s House Committee On Housing and Homelessness on May 4.
  • …essentially stating they can reside in parks and on other public land indefinitely without
  • In March, DailyMail.com reported how some Portland residents think the city has become lawless and ‘post-apocalyptic’ because of rising rates of homelessness and drug abuse.
  • Earlier this month, Walmart announced that they were leaving the city.

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An atmosphere of hostility toward the homeless population

Mark 13:12 “Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child. Children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death.”

Important Takeaways:

  • Serial murders, beatings and beheadings: violence against the homeless is increasing, advocates say
  • According to experts and advocates, the last year has seen a spike in violence against people experiencing homelessness. There was a beheading in Colorado. A sleeping man lit on fire in the stairwell of a New York City apartment complex. An attack by four juveniles on a sleeping woman in Spokane, Wash.
  • Beyond these lurid headlines, however, are dozens of daily acts of violence occasioned by increasing collisions between the housed and unhoused populations in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, experts say.
  • The increased levels of unhoused individuals have also triggered a public backlash against homelessness.
  • Advocates argue these public displacements pit the homeless against law enforcement, while also creating an atmosphere of official hostility toward this vulnerable population.

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Rio’s homeless brave unprecedented cold

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) -As an unusual cold snap stuns residents of Rio de Janeiro, a Brazilian city famous for its sun, sand and sea, the city’s homeless have been struggling to sleep through the chill.

“It’s very cold. Even with two blankets and a quilt, I still felt horrible last night,” Flávio, who is homeless, said.

A polar air mass has been traveling toward the country’s center-south regions this week, bringing fast winds and rare snowfall to communities unfamiliar with low temperatures — and to street residents ill-equipped to handle them.

In Rio, Jeniffer Faria da Silva and Marlon Lemos Mollulo have been distributing warm food, blankets, clothes, shoes and bread to the city’s street residents as part of a project they began a year and a half ago. Traveling through the city at night, they’ve been placing thermal liners on concrete, where dozens of the city’s homeless sleep side by side to stay warm.

“There’s a lot of suffering, especially in Rio where we aren’t used to having these kinds of temperatures. We don’t have the right infrastructure to cope with the cold, and some of these people also have pets,” Silva said.

The polar air mass is slated to bring freezing temperatures to São Paulo and Minas Gerais, major producers of key commodities like sugar, citrus and coffee.

Temperatures in Rio are expected to drop to an unusual low of 9°C on Friday before gradually starting to warm up in August.

(Reporting by Sergio Queiroz, writing by Jimin Kang, Editing by Nick Zieminski)

Cyclone leaves more than 150,000 people homeless in eastern India

By Subrata Nagchoudhury and Jatindra Dash

KOLKATA, India (Reuters) – More than 150,000 people were left homeless in the aftermath of a cyclone that unleashed storm surges in eastern India and Bangladesh, officials said on Thursday, with heavy rains hampering relief work in some low-lying coastal areas.

At least five people were killed in the two countries after Cyclone Yaas moved inland from the Bay of Bengal on Wednesday, packing gusts of up to 140 kph (87 mph) and whipping up tidal surges in India’s West Bengal state and neighboring Bangladesh.

Indian officials said the storm had weakened into a depression after hitting the coast but heavy rain poured down in parts of West Bengal, where there was fresh inundation of sea water along some coastal villages on Thursday.

“Restoration work will be difficult unless the weather improves,” West Bengal state minister Bankim Hazra told Reuters.

In West Bengal’s Sundarbans delta, which stretches into Bangladesh, at least 25,000 homes, many of them traditional mud houses, had been destroyed, leaving 150,000 people homeless, Hazra said, citing preliminary estimates.

The storm, the second to hit India in a week, arrived as the country grapples with a deadly second wave of coronavirus infections that has stretched the healthcare system to breaking point.

Some 500,000 people were sheltered in relief camps in West Bengal and officials said they had taken steps to reduce the risk of a potential spread of the virus.

“Flood shelters have quarantine rooms for those showing symptoms of COVID-19 like fever, sore throat, body ache,” Dr. Indranil Bargi, a medical officer in Gosaba area, told Reuters.

People are being tested for coronavirus using the rapid antigen test and anyone who tests positive would be shifted to safe homes set up in government offices and schools, he said.

Authorities in Bangladesh reported flooding of villages due to torrential rains and tidal surges. Three people were dead, two by drowning and a third who was hit by a tree, an official at the Disaster Management Agency said.

“I have never seen a tidal surge rising to this level. It flooded many villages and washed away houses. Many people are marooned,” said Humayum Kabir, an official in the coastal district of Khulna.

Elsewhere on the sub-continent, Nepal was bracing for floods in its plains and landslides in the hills as heavy rains have lashed the Himalayan country since Wednesday and were forecast to last till Saturday.

(Reporting by Jatindra Dash in Bhubaneshwar, Subrata Nagchoudhury in Kolkata, Ruma Paul in Dhaka and Gopal Sharma in Kathmandu; Writing by Sanjeev Miglani and Devjyot Ghoshal; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore/Mark Heinrich)