According to a 2022 USAFacts report, Los Angeles had the largest homeless population in the United States. In 2022, 30% of the nation's homeless population lived in California, including half of all unsheltered people
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) — A shocking amount of feces, urine, needles and other hazardous waste was collected at Echo Park, where the clearing of a homeless encampment sparked protests.
Yeah, there’s a lot of homeless people in LA. The rents here are high, and the climate is mild. Fortunately our mayor is leasing a major push to find housing for them so they’re not living on the street.
What do you believe should be done about the homeless problem in LA?
You do exactly what conservative states have done... You stop making it easier to be homeless. You don't make welfare easy to get. You make it so that if you're going to get welfare you have to go looking for a job actively. You make it so that welfare is a limited resource. You stop providing methadone clinics and places where people can get their drugs for free. You stop doing needle exchanges. You actually expect people to act like decent people. And you actually arrest people who are actually violating the law.
Oh, and you stop making your city and your state a sanctuary state and a sanctuary City for illegal immigrants who are here and that are finding themselves at times in those homeless situations And making the problem even worse.
Then you lower your taxes if not eliminate them all together out of state level, You get rid of the ridiculous social experiment programs. You start making it just like Wisconsin did easy for businesses to move in and not over tax them. Don't put a bunch of environmental taxes and all these other taxes on businesses that are chasing them out. And you leave people alone. Let them live without government interference on whether or not they can go to church or whether or not they can gather or whether or not or when they can be together and live their lives and express themselves and be American. You don't have your district attorney attempt to arrest a pastor and put him in jail simply because he defies ridiculous mandates over covid. You let people live free... Free to do what is best to make their community good again. That's how you fix the problem. Jobs come back. Cost of living drops.. housing cost drop. People have more job options which means they can make more money which means they can get into a home. Criminals get off the street and people feel safe. Life becomes sane again.
People become homeless because they can’t keep a job that pays enough to pay rent. Once they start living on the street it gets harder and harder to get out. Giving them shelter and counseling gives them a little breathing room to maybe get their shit together. Making life harder for them just grinds them down more.
So I want to ask you a question now... Have you ever been homeless because I have
Do you know how I ended up not being homeless for too long? I chose to live in a way that I didn't act homeless. I kept my clothes clean and pressed By using shelters and resources. I worked hard to get a job and find a job. I busted my ass at that job while I was homeless... And I ended up not being homeless anymore. Because I chose not to be. Because I worked hard
I haven’t been. How did you become homeless?
Who paid for those shelters you stayed in?
The ones who pay for those shelters I was in were private sector Christian ministries. The government didn't pay a dime of it
And I became homeless because I was living like a dumbass... I was living reckless I was behaving badly and I was not able to function in a normal living situation because of it. And that is the truth of many of the homeless situations. It's more complicated than that, but that is the strip down basic version.
If churches aren’t providing enough shelters to get people off the street, then why shouldn’t the government step in? I’ll gladly pay a little more tax not to walk past tents on the sidewalk.
The churches are trying. The problem is the government is taxing so many people so highly especially in States like California that the wealthy who would donate to those causes who want to donate to those causes are having the government take so much of their money that they're not willing now to give The crumbs that are left comparatively to what they had initially to a charity over here where if the government had stayed out of it, the private sector that's far better equipped to handle it would handle it well and be well funded because the government isn't taking the money. Again, this is not theory. All you have to do is talk to places like Samaritan's purse and other organizations that do charity work like this. This is one of their problems that they run into. Taxes go up. Donations go down.
I live in the other LA, Lower Alabama and we have a homeless problem as well and we are the reddest state in the nation.
I'm not saying you won't have a homeless problem... Even the Bible says that the poor will always be with you. What I'm saying is that it's not as pronounced and as horrible and chronic in areas like lower Alabama or in Wisconsin where I'm at as it is in Los Angeles California... You didn't see, I don't think the articles I posted here from a couple sources talking about how they were literally sweeping up tons of human fecal matter... Solid human fecal matter... And used drug needles in a public area where private citizens used to walk freely and not have to worry about that kind of stuff... 30% of the nation's homeless population is in California. That's what I'm saying.
Charitable donations are deductible and churches are exempt from paying tax. It’s not the tax code that’s preventing the nation’s churches from caring for the homeless.
Charitable deductions are only tax deductible to a certain point. Not everything that's given is going to be coming back. It's only going to be a percentage. And the idea that funds are fungible that applies here. If I have $100 and the government takes 40 of those dollars even if the remaining 60 is there and I can donate whatever and at the end of the year get that back all of it... I'm still less likely to donate $20 to charity because I still have other bills to pay. If the government only takes $10 of those $100 now I have $90 to play with and now I can give $30 to charity and still have the $60.
