Suburbs dumping mentally ill and homeless into cities

[thoth]

How the homeless, mentally ill land in Atlantic City

...dressed in crocs and plaid pajama pants, Keith Stell, 57, was happy to tell how he got to Atlantic City two months ago, a paranoid schizophrenic off his meds, a long rap sheet of drug and other arrests, just out of a Gloucester County jail.

"A cop car," he said, sitting on a bench in the yard of the Atlantic City Rescue Mission with several other men who all attend the Atlantic Behavioral Health program. He said he was now on Seroquel. "They dropped me off. I didn't have a place to go."

...

William Southrey, president of the Atlantic City Rescue Mission, the largest shelter in the state, said nine counties in South Jersey regularly "dump" people in Atlantic City without referrals or treatment plans, or county reimbursements.

"They're using the term Greyhound therapy," Southrey said, of social service agencies elsewhere who see the seaside resort town's shelters, soup kitchens, and recovery programs as answers to their needs and often send off their clients on buses. "In the dark of the night, some of them just roll out of jail, they send them to us."

This isn't exactly a secret, but this is one of the first times I've seen this topic broached by a major daily. I know from experience this happens all the time in Philly and Camden. Probably more than half the homeless and addicts I've met here weren't from Phila. I know part of this is a byproduct of siting social services in urban centers, but it is surely not helped by suburbs cramming all their unwanted into a handful of struggling cities. Thoughts?

[thetalkingmule]

Rudy Giuliani is a hero! He "solved" the homeless problem in Times Square!

[ShoshTrvls]

How the homeless, mentally ill land in Atlantic City



This isn't exactly a secret, but this is one of the first times I've seen this topic broached by a major daily. I know from experience this happens all the time in Philly and Camden. Probably more than half the homeless and addicts I've met here weren't from Phila. I know part of this is a byproduct of siting social services in urban centers, but it is surely not helped by suburbs cramming all their unwanted into a handful of struggling cities. Thoughts?

It happens on LA's skid row all the time. Cop cars, ambulances, handicapped transports -- they all just drop people off on skid row.

Paraplegic allegedly `dumped' on skid row - Los Angeles Times

"A paraplegic man wearing a soiled hospital gown and a broken colostomy bag was found crawling in a gutter in skid row in Los Angeles on Thursday after allegedly being dumped in the street by a Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center van, police said.

The incident, witnessed by more than two dozen people, was described by police as a particularly outrageous case of "homeless dumping" that has plagued the downtown area."



Skid Row Drop-Off Detailed - Los Angeles Times

"The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department report, obtained by The Times with the deputies' names redacted, comes amid a furor over claims by the Los Angeles Police Department that other law enforcement agencies are dumping the homeless, criminals and mentally ill people on downtown streets. The issue emerged a week ago when Smith said he saw deputies drop off Harris in skid row.

Since then, Smith and others have said it was one of numerous incidents that he and his officers have seen over the years of dumping downtown. Smith said four suburban police departments -- Burbank, El Monte, El Segundo and Pasadena -- have engaged in the practice, though all the agencies denied that their officers dropped off people downtown."

[Sailaway]

Aren't cities supposed to be melting pots of various races, religions, creeds, classes and ethnic backgrounds?

[3rd&Brown]

This reminds me of that story a year or two ago about the church in Glenside that came under fire by neighborhood residents for feeding a handful of local homeless/extremely low income families. I was shocked by the ease with which these people got on camera and shouted "not in my neighborhood". Well guess what? Those poor/low income/close to homeless families were their neighbors.

I thought the entire episode was disgusting, and I remember thinking I couldn't believe nobody called the townies out on it for their ignorance. I remember being especially bothered by it because I always thought of Glenside/Jenkintown as a relatively progressive place, and that what the church was doing was harmless and invisible. It was obvious that the locals thought their neighbors should just be trucked to Love Park for their weekly feedings.

Disgusting.

Here's what I could find...can't get the original article to load.

Church challenges Abington's order regarding homeless - Topix

[thoth]

Aren't cities supposed to be melting pots of various races, religions, creeds, classes and ethnic backgrounds?

Yeah, so where do violent criminals and the mentally insane fit into that?

[seand]

Yeah, so where do violent criminals and the mentally insane fit into that?

Well, I guess because it includes the self-described natives of Saturn and Venus.

BTW - I thought Greyhound therapy was something involving vodka and grapefruit juice till I read this article.

[Eames]

Do you think we can send ours over to Camden????

[thoth]

Do you think we can send ours over to Camden????

They'll just send them back.

[randomuser]

This is how it's supposed to be. Cities have the resources and infrastructure to better treat people with problems. The bigger crime was what happened to mental hospitals in the first place. They closed so many of them instead of just improving their methods.

This reminds me of that story a year or two ago about the church in Glenside that came under fire by neighborhood residents for feeding a handful of local homeless/extremely low income families. I was shocked by the ease with which these people got on camera and shouted "not in my neighborhood". Well guess what? Those poor/low income/close to homeless families were their neighbors.

I thought the entire episode was disgusting, and I remember thinking I couldn't believe nobody called the townies out on it for their ignorance. I remember being especially bothered by it because I always thought of Glenside/Jenkintown as a relatively progressive place, and that what the church was doing was harmless and invisible. It was obvious that the locals thought their neighbors should just be trucked to Love Park for their weekly feedings.

Disgusting.

Here's what I could find...can't get the original article to load.

Church challenges Abington's order regarding homeless - Topix

The above however.. that's disgusting. These are their neighbors, as you stated. They are a part of their community. Not everybody can be on firm footing in every place.

[thoth]

This is how it's supposed to be. Cities have the resources and infrastructure to better treat people with problems.

Yeah, unless they don't, like Phila's shelters that are over 100% capacity. Then you're just trying to dump your problem onto someone else.

[randomuser]

Yeah, unless they don't, like Phila's shelters that are over 100% capacity. Then you're just trying to dump your problem onto someone else.

They still have better infrastructure and resources than the places that are dumping their mentally ill and homeless there.

[mixiboi]

They still have better infrastructure and resources than the places that are dumping their mentally ill and homeless there.

Which is sad because most those places exist because they didn't want to pay for the "Better infrastructure and resources" to deal with problems.




Out of sight, out of mind.

[OldMama]

Perhaps, then, the burbs should invest in some "better infrastructure and resources." We're full.

[FKD19124]

This reminds me of that story a year or two ago about the church in Glenside that came under fire by neighborhood residents for feeding a handful of local homeless/extremely low income families. I was shocked by the ease with which these people got on camer

Gee and I wonder if it would have went over well in Chestnut Hill and society hill too!

[FKD19124]

How about Chestnut Hill?

Do you think we can send ours over to Camden????

[mixiboi]

Or the Northeast Philly. They almost had an aneurysm because a meth clinic wanted to open up...

It happens, The difference tho is that at LEASE they are paying for places to exist within their community(city). Can't say the same for these places that don't even HAVE a services anywhere in town:

Abington Homeless services | Homeless services in Abington, PA - YP.com

OR tell people they know better throgh blogs:

That Homeless Man Doesn't Want Your Hot Dog! - Abington, PA Patch





at lease some are willing to donate stuff to a shelters no where near their location:

Penndale staff makes donation to homeless shelter - North Penn Life - Montgomery News


Bleeding hearts guilt got them I guess.

[ArcticSplash]

They'll just send them back.

Turn the old Barnes house into a homeless shelter.

Plenty of parking there, now.

[Cya]

This is how it's supposed to be. Cities have the resources and infrastructure to better treat people with problems.
.

The cities have better infrastructure and resources to deal with these problems? Ok, maybe. But does that mean that the cities should be the dumping ground for the suburbs?
It would be interesting to take 100 of these mentally ill, drug addicted homeless people and find out their actual home town.
Where did they come from?
I know they move around a lot, but they have to have a home town, right?
Same thing with the meth clinics and drug halfway houses. Where did they come from?
Just because you landed in Philly or Atlantic City somehow, now those cities have to provide services for you? How is that fair to the taxpayers of those cities?

[Cya]

This reminds me of that story a year or two ago about the church in Glenside that came under fire by neighborhood residents for feeding a handful of local homeless/extremely low income families. I was shocked by the ease with which these people got on camera and shouted "not in my neighborhood". Well guess what? Those poor/low income/close to homeless families were their neighbors.I thought the entire episode was disgusting, and I remember thinking I couldn't believe nobody called the townies out on it for their ignorance.Here's what I could find...can't get the original article to load.

Church challenges Abington's order regarding homeless - Topix

I couldn't get the article to load either, so I couldn't read where it said that the "local homeless/extremely low income families" were actually residents of Glenside.