I live in Washington, right across the border with Portland, Oregon. I work in Portland and we were talking at work about the homeless drug problem. One of my co-workers said Oregon should get rid of the .10 cent can and bottle refund because that is what fuels the homeless drug problem. The more I think about it, the more it makes sense. Oregon raised the refund years back from .5 to .10 cents. You even have the homeless across the border in Washington bringing bags of cans and bottles over to Portland to cash in. On the 8 lane bridge over the Columbia river every day I see homeless pushing shopping carts with bags, homeless on bikes with bags strapped to them, cars with 20 bags tied down to the roof. I lose count on the day I put out my blue recycling can, how many tweakers show up during the night and go through every can in the neighborhood.
A way to reduce homeless drug problem in my area?
- Thread starter Finklejag
- Start date
You do that and you will get more home robberies and other types of crime.
Portland should privatize the entire city. Once the city becomes private property the homeless problem becomes a trespassing problem.
Ah yes because making it illegal to be homeless suddenly makes people have homes. This is just moving the problem somewhere else, not solving anything.
I'm struggling to understand how it's expected this will solve the problem
1. Remove a way for homeless people to get some money
2. ?????
3. Homeless problem solved!
That didn't work out too well for Detroit.
People don't understand that there's a segment which is homeless by choice.
I used to be homeless and I never picked up a can or bottle.
Not the same. I'm suggesting that hypothetically converting Portland from a public corporation into a private corporation. Once property is private, trespassers can be removed.
The percentage of homeless people who are homeless by choice is vanishingly tiny.
Source: I'm involved with volunteering in my part of NC that is focused on that problem
Robocop? I thought it was a good movie
The Cub Scout Pack and Boy Scout Troop I am involved with are funded primarily by donated bottle and cans. We do have some trouble with theft from the donation bin, but it's minimal. Repealing the bottle act would certainly solve our minor theft problem. But then we would have bigger problems to deal with.
That's because you're in NC rather than sunny California.
Removed to where?
Unfortunately it won't work. Removing the refund is like trying to put out a raging wildfire with a water bottle. The amount of people bringing recyclables is minimal and at least these folks are trying to source money a different way.
All that does is move the problem to somewhere else instead of fixing the issue. It also starts a slippery slope; at that point we might as well privatize all land so the homeless are always trespassing so we shove them in prisons next to violent offenders. What if they're a family that hit a rough patch, lost their home, can't move away because their job or family is there, and now you put their mom and dad in jail for trespassing while homeless with their kids are orphans in this country's terrible child services. Now you've started a nearly unbreakable cycle of ostracizing your citizens just because they're homeless.
Can you imagine that conversation?
1: "What are you in jail for?"
2: "Being Homeless"
1: "How did that happen"
2: "I lost my job and I can't get a new job because now I'm a convict."
1: "Do you have any family"
2: "My kids are in foster homes, probably getting sexually assaulted and beat with no support."
Perpetual motion perfection.
All that does is move the problem to somewhere else instead of fixing the issue. It also starts a slippery slope; at that point we might as well privatize all land so the homeless are always trespassing so we shove them in prisons next to violent offenders. What if they're a family that hit a rough patch, lost their home, can't move away because their job or family is there, and now you put their mom and dad in jail for trespassing while homeless with their kids are orphans in this country's terrible child services. Now you've started a nearly unbreakable cycle of ostracizing your citizens just because they're homeless.
Can you imagine that conversation?
1: "What are you in jail for?"
2: "Being Homeless"
1: "How did that happen"
2: "I lost my job and I can't get a new job because now I'm a convict."
1: "Do you have any family"
2: "My kids are in foster homes, probably getting sexually assaulted and beat with no support."
Perpetual motion perfection.
I once got rid of rats in the barn by buying a metal trash can to keep my chicken feed in.
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