In this blog/articlethe writer states his opposition to a homeless veteran’s shelter in his neighborhood. Normally you see nothing but outward shows of support for US veterans but when it comes to them being homeless and next door the mask slips. The hero then becomes a drug abusing, mentally unstable menacing bum who will destroy your property values.
Would you be OK with a homeless veterans shelter next door to your house or not? Are homeless veterans shelters better or worse than regular homeless shelters? Better than drug rehab group homes? Are there even any data on the impact of homeless shelters or similar shelters in neighborhoods?
I would not be a fan of any homeless shelter being established next door to me. Of course, the opposing view would be, if not next door to me, then where? Tough question.
The fact that the proposed residents of this shelter had had one certain employer at some point in the past would make no difference to me.
I thought the shelter being talked about was one of those big mission dealies, where throngs of people queue up every evening just to get a cot. But we’re talking about a place sheltering five homeless people that are hand-picked by the VA Administration. That’s not the kind of “shelter” I was envisioning at all. That is more like a group home.
I wouldn’t have a problem with a group home in my neighborhood.
When I was in college, I lived several houses down from the local domestic violence shelter. I’ll be the first to admit that some of those women were probably as scary as the men who abused them, but overall, they minded their own business. A well-run home will enforce rules, too.
I would rather see supportive living or veteran’s apartments than a shelter, but in the end I would support any of them.
I work in a lot of low income apartments, and the veteran’s ones are no worse than any others. Lots of hookers near the beginning of the month when everyone gets their check, same as anywhere else. They’re harmless. Lots of drama and petty conflict within the walls, but not anything you really see outside the building, same as anywhere else.
I’m not as happy with shelters in residential areas, because they tend to attract disorderly conduct calls - NOT because of the residents being disorderly, but because homeless and/or mentally ill people tend to be disproportionately high victims of crime. So it becomes something of a target. But with enough increased police presence and community support, that affect can be minimized.
It’s probably worth noting that I live on a city block already, just half a block from a nursing home and a block away from a residential youth home for kids with behavioral and developmental problems and a block and a half away from a high school. Of all of them, the high school is the most disruptive in terms of car traffic, and the nursing home the worst in terms of frequent ambulance calls. Almost no one on the block even knows the residential youth home is a residential youth home; they’re just another building. The park district swimming pool across the street wrecks havoc with parking in the summer, and I’d trade it in for a Veteran’s Home in a heartbeat.
I would not want to live next to a big mission shelter. I would not want to live next to one of those large board-and-care homes either, because residents at those places tend to mill about outside all day long, bumming passersby for cigarettes and pocket change.
But a regular detached house housing five residents? That’s not any different than living next door to an apartment building or a rental house full of college kids. Which is my current situation. A homeless shelter like the one being proposed in the article could move in next door to me right now and I probably wouldn’t even know the difference.
A bit of clarification - I was unaware that the OP was specifying any specific sort of shelter.
In my old town, our neighborhood had a group home for developmentally challenged adults. Small number in a single family home. I had no problem with that, as I would have no problem with any neighbors who were reasonably quiet and maintained their property.
Some churches in town also sponsored homeless shelters a couple of nights a week. The gathering and dispersal of large numbers of homeless folk on shelter days did not thrill me.
The place for troubled kids near me hasn’t been any bother so I don’t see the vets being much of an issue for me. Now there are one or two “normal” neighbors ------ can I swap them off and have the vets instead?
Accommodations for the disadvantaged in general, in one’s close proximity, are apt to be a difficult matter. The position of “to hell with the worthless bastards – gas them” is not considered, in the main, an acceptable one to hold; but… I rather like the acronym NIMBY, applied to the many who take the middle ground on the issue: “Not in my back yard”. Hard to tell, in the abstract, how one would act about such a situation if it applied to oneself.
This guy’s so patriotic that he flies the flag of the Confederate rebellion against the United States.
So of course he’s against a veterans’ shelter next door.
At any rate, I’d be OK with a veterans’ shelter next door, as long as the number of people staying there at any one time was appropriate for a neighborhood of single-family housing (e.g. max of 4 veterans + 1 live-in counselor), that they screened out any persons with any child molesting in their records, that they had enough garage space so that the driveway didn’t look like a used-car lot, and they agreed that any vehicles used by the residents wouldn’t be inappropriately loud for such a neighborhood.
If they’re OK with those conditions, then they’re welcome next door.
I would be proud to have a veteran’s facility next to my house. I am ashamed of my country for the way it treats the men and women who sacrificed so much for us.
Literally next door? I would be opposed because I moved into a small residential neighborhood. I wouldn’t want a church next door or a boutique clothing shop or whatever else next door besides a house either. I guess if it was three or four people in the existing home, I wouldn’t mind.
My neighborhood is already sufficiently déclassé that four homeless guys living in a group home won’t even be noticed. For me, personally, their status as veterans is unimportant. It is a volunteer military and one that has a long and well-known history of not giving too much of a shit about its vets. They joined for whatever reasons and it went badly for them. Oh well. It would matter equally to me if you told me it was a shelter for homeless Alaskan crab fishermen.
I wouldn’t mind, but then again we live in the country and our home is on sufficient acreage such that an unpleasant neighbor never need be seen or interacted with if need be.
I’m confused as to whether there is any real difference between the homeless vets and any other homeless person. Is the person in this scenario saying they feel obligated to help the vets? Because homeless vets deserve help, but regular homeless do not? Examining each individual case to judge whether the person does or does not deserve help sounds like a good idea, but in reality it is a road you probably don’t want to go down. (eg, if every “regular” homeless is just a lazy slob, and surely no veteran ever did drugs or robbed a liquor store…)
An additional point: It’s easy to slap a yellow sticker on your car and say you support the troops, but when it comes time to put your money where your mouth is, then we’ll really see who means it. (Remember, freedom costs a $1.05)
Not okay. I’m a veteran so I’m pretty firm on my like of veterans, but my dislike of homeless people trumps that handily. I wouldn’t live next to a shelter, veteran or otherwise.
If that’s where they’re looking to put the home, it’s probably because the homeless people are already in the vicinity. I’d far rather see the disadvantaged people in my neighborhood living in a shelter than see them living on the street. Kicking them out of the shelter isn’t going to make them go away.
