Comment on Community solves homelessness... By paying cops over 3 million dollars

• exanime@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Did you?

  They spent almost $3 million in helping 37 people in 2 years (that’s $81,000 a pop) with very vague “getting them help”. Very much looks like most of what they do is ship them to out of county

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  • DeceasedPassenger@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    I think you’re being intentionally obtuse. The article is anything but vague. Are they supposed to name the exact agencies and businesses involved, or can we reasonably assume that Laydon is referring to state funded assistance? Here’s some select bits of the article since you don’t want to read.

    Douglas County had created a team of experts, known as the “Homeless Engagement, Assistance and Resource Team," to help tackle the issue.  The HEART team, as county officials call it, is made up of experts in behavioral health and who are deployed in branded vehicles to help people living on the streets.

    Here’s how the county handles it. When a report is made about a panhandler or a homeless person, a  HEART vehicle is deployed to the area and make an assessment.

    Laydon called Douglas County’s approach “housing plus,” which, he said, is a balanced approach to “trauma-informed practices.”

    “For us,” Laydon added, “‘housing plus’ means wraparound. So, it is housing, but it is also food, shelter, job counseling, mental health counseling. It’s treating those substance abuse issues that we know often come hand in hand with a lot of the issues that the unhoused face.”

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    • exanime@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Are they supposed to name the exact agencies and businesses involved

      Yes, it’s called transparency. Maybe they didn’t have to mention them all but a single concrete example would have definitely helped.

      But you know what they did repeat in the article? the fact that they are pushing for people not to give money to the homeless directly

      Douglas County had created a team of experts, known as the “Homeless Engagement, Assistance and Resource Team," to help tackle the issue. The HEART team, as county officials call it, is made up of experts in behavioral health and who are deployed in branded vehicles to help people living on the streets.

      Ok, that sounds like a great start… let’s see what they actually do… <insert crickets here, not a single follow up>

      Here’s how the county handles it. When a report is made about a panhandler or a homeless person, a HEART vehicle is deployed to the area and make an assessment.

      Yes, they are basically making panhandling illegal… they are very quick to dispatch police (yes the “HEART” team is also the police) as soon as homeless are reported

      Laydon called Douglas County’s approach “housing plus,” which, he said, is a balanced approach to “trauma-informed practices.”

      Cool, what does that mean? how it is balanced? how is it different?. Zero details = Vague

      “For us,” Laydon added, “‘housing plus’ means wraparound. So, it is housing, but it is also food, shelter, job counseling, mental health counseling. It’s treating those substance abuse issues that we know often come hand in hand with a lot of the issues that the unhoused face.”

      This one is actually the first sentence from the article that addresses the real question… yet no mention as to where any of these services are done. They are just shipping people off county The entire $3+ million budget was spent on the “HEART” team to basically find and ship homeless out of county… out of sight out of mind!

      Edit: Additionally, I fail to see the relevance of money spent if it actually results in less people unhoused. Denver spent way more money and ended up with a higher unhoused population than before.

      So if a county spends $3 million to move 37 homeless people out of county or $10 million to move 1 it’s all the same to you? A basic definition of the effectiveness of a social program is to measure that #1 it accomplishes the goal it set out to do and #2 at what cost…

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• jonne@infosec.pub ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Since HEART has launched, the county has engaged with roughly 215 people on the street, according to the commissioner.

  So in 2 years they spent $3 million dollars to “help” 215 people. And the article is very vague and full of euphemisms that make me suspect they’re just pushing them out to Denver.

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  • exanime@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    engaged with roughly 215 people on the street

    Key word being “engaged”, later the slip in there that 80% end up not getting “helped”

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    • jonne@infosec.pub ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Yep, handing out a flyer, or even just talking is an engagement. This means nothing.

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