cazalea[Seiko Moderator]
17085
Our walking routes have to be carefully chosen
Aug 29, 2022,16:17 PM
as the population of homeless around us exceeds 8000 and many are sleeping in the morning on sidewalks, lawns and in bushes. Not so bad perhaps as Los Angeles and San Francisco, but still a big problem. We have lived in the same area for a long time, and it has become progressively harder to deal with the people who mostly chose to live in a way that isolates them from civic responsibility or family connections. They communicate with their compatriots, their dogs, and some social services, but avoid entanglements with government, restrictive offers (live here free but no drugs or booze) and so forth. My wife is on the board of a large low-income housing facility so has several hundred "clients" to deal with regularly.
We have done as you did several times, and some rapport was established with a couple people. But as you say, they might not appear, or there could be episodes like we had where one person called us repeatedly on the phone late at night crying and making threats of suicide. By fortunate coincidence, we learned that this was just an act and persona she adopted, while living safely with her parents, and preying on the feelings of generous people. After that, and dealing with one guy I hired to help work in our yard who wanted to move in and live in our back garden, we have backed off direct contacts.
Your own security can be at risk, depending on the circumstances.
It wish it weren't the case that so many mentally ill are roaming the streets and canyons -- this is not common in other countries where poverty exists but not the drugs and mental illness (and decent weather).