I was debating posting this picture in the stupid thread, but it’s worth bumping this thead over four years after I started it. In the time since then, my state of Maine has largely adopted west-coast policies on homelessness, including implementing a so-called “homelessness crisis protocol”, which de-facto legalizes public use of hard drugs in self-governed temporary shanty towns.
There’s an ongoing demonstration in Portland against today’s scheduled removal of the latest homeless encampment. Witness peak Maine Liberal on the right of this photo. Dude shows up to an outdoor protest with an N95 mask and a $1,500 Canada Goose designer parka to do his part so that mentally ill drug addicts can destroy themselves and cause havoc in the community, all in winter conditions.
There are 95 open shelter beds in Portland right now, and not a single one of these people want one of them. They’ve all been offered, but won’t agree to the conditions of staying there. Nearly every woman living in this encampment and others like it has been a recent sexual assault victim. Almost all are hard drug addicts and/or severely mentally ill. Nobody of sound mind and body would choose that over a shelter spot.
Peak liberal dude is literally protesting that these hell-on-earth conditions must persist while he shields himself from the elements with an expedition-quality designer coat that costs about ten times as much as a Carhartt. With a coat like that, I’m guessing he’s got someplace safe and warm to stay, and I’m guessing he hasn’t invited any of the encampment residents to crash with him.
Link your Outdoor Research and L.L. Bean gloves together, comrades.
Meanwhile, area activists are hard-at work to open up (and fund, of course) “low-barrier” shelters, where people like this might be more agreeable to staying at. Places where they can keep doing drugs, specifically. Or stay at even if they are, say, a rapist.
Rest assured, you have well-meaning liberals working hard to make sure that your town or maybe even your street is the next location for their low-barrier shelter, along with all of the other policy outcomes they’ve entrenched in the community.
This low-barrier shelter model and public tolerance of hell-on-earth is nothing more than the commoditization of the most troubled people in our population, with no regard for the easily-predicted outcomes that persist and grow worse.
Here’s a link to the state’s Homeless Crisis Protocol
https://legislature.maine.gov/statutes/17-a/title17-Asec18-1.html
From the below article:
L.D. 1478 became law in June 2021 without the governor’s signature and required the Office of the Maine Attorney General to develop the protocols that would divert those who are homeless to other available social services in lieu of entering the criminal justice system. As reported last week, some departments adopted it early on while others are still in process or haven’t yet done so.
While the intent to divert those who need additional services to appropriate resources is worthy – Sanford’s task force has done a great job in identifying individuals who need greater case management – the execution of it is what’s wrong here. Telling someone they can commit a crime and avoid a penalty is never OK.
Why? We learn from the youngest of ages that actions have consequences. Whether it’s taking a toy away from a sibling or fighting in the schoolyard, the immediate feedback we receive is formative to our future behavior as we grow. It’s called operant conditioning.
The question is whether taking away those consequences and providing diversionary services has worked in reducing homelessness. Considering MaineHousing counted 1,097 homeless individuals in Maine in 2021 and 3,455 in 2022, it seems to be getting worse. Moreover, the protocols may be leaving victims of crime in their wake.