[Newsbot]

Title: Downtown Vancouver Ambassadors discriminated against homeless
Category: Economics
Posted By: ShepherdsDog
Date: 2015-04-11 14:27:58
Canadian

[ShepherdsDog]

Great way to kill tourist dollars/business in the downtown.

[martin14]

ShepherdsDog ShepherdsDog:

Great way to kill tourist dollars/business in the downtown.

Tourists don't give money to the homeless.

They are smarter than that.

[Unsound]

If they're loitering they can be moved along, same as any domicile-priviledged person who loiters. SHould be grateful they don't get a fine.

[andyt]

Unsound Unsound:

If they're loitering they can be moved along,

$1:

The Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users' case alleged the ambassadors actively dissuaded homeless in the downtown core from occupying public spaces.

$1:

Loitering: wandering without purpose or standing idling.

This is an old offence - sister to the offence of vagrancy - which is rarely prosecuted anymore and is slowly being removed from public prosecutor manuals.

Unsound Unsound:

same as any domicile-priviledged person who loiters. SHould be grateful they don't get a fine.

$1:

In its majestic equality, the law forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, beg in the streets and steal loaves of bread.

Like that?

[Public_Domain]

[andyt]

prison would be a step up for some of them. If I had to choose between jail and the streets, I might just choose jail. In fact tried to do just that one time. Buddy of mine and I were in Prince Rupert looking for work, and found it. First pay check tho was too small, we blew it on a hotel room and booze. The hotel kicked us out for being too rowdy, so we tried to get the cops to arrest us to have a place to stay, but they wouldn't play along. Lucky there's some people who gave us a place to crash until we could get our next pay check.

[Public_Domain]

[andyt]

We're not talking about hard core prison here - just the local lockup. It's not a long term solution, but can keep you from freezing for a few nights.

Some of the homeless with severe mental issues should be locked up in a mental facility. The druggies that do crimes (beyond using drugs) should be locked up and given proper treatment. Maybe like the diversion courts we have, but with longer sentences. Takes time to get really clean from drugs - give them a year, with treatment and physical work. But we can't even keep our prisons drug free, some people come out with a worse habit than they went in with. Most of them should be offered the housing first program, which has been shown to save money in the end.

[Public_Domain]