As Homeless Find Refuge in Forests, ‘Anger Is Palpable’ in Nearby Towns

[rvwandering]

I would think that anyone with an alcohol or drug problem would stay closer to their source. They would be camping closer to towns and cities. Wouldn't the trick then be to set up a camp farther away from the town/city?

This does worry me a bit as I'll be with a small child and my challenged daughter. Their safety and comfort always comes first.

This is true and is the reason for many of the complaints in the news articles. People tend to seek out the places closest to services which puts them in close proximity to traditional communities and under scrutiny of those residents. The boondocking area near Nederland, CO which is mentioned in several articles is a short drive from Boulder. It's easy to access from a paved road and well known as a boondocking spot. We stayed there for several days in 2013 and even then there was a small problem with messy camps. It may be worse now because more people are becoming aware of public lands and free camping opportunities.

The largest homeless camp that we've encountered was in Reno along a bike trail as close as possible to sources of food, alcohol and drugs. We rarely see homeless camps when we're boondocking on public land. We usually do not travel far off of paved roads but we tend to boondock pretty far away from big cities so many times we're the only people camping in the area. I agree with Bob - there may be a problem is some areas but this is sensationalism pure and simple.

 

[AngryVanMan]

Agenda. when you see it reach the NYT, theres usually a good reason.

I'd watch for a pivot in federal law enforcement spending as the drug war begins to ramp down. lots of people are going to have their hand out, and im not talking about the homeless.

 

[rvpopeye]

The war against drugs is over ?

 

[AngryVanMan]

not even close to over rvpopeye, but funding is under threat as the most popular schedule 1 drug is losing its status as an effective budget padding tool. I don't want to get too far off topic, but i would really look out for leo fishing expeditions for the next 'big thing.'

 

[dragonflyinthesky]

Stevesway, I think when the artical said "deep in the woods". Their deep in the woods may be different than my deep in the woods. Many I'll people or addicts etc, don't have the means to go more than a few miles out of town.

Eoewan, i know single women who travel alone or with kids. Its not a terrible world out here. Put out the word here you want to travel with someone and where you are, there's usually people here that will take you under their wing for a while til you get confidence.

 

[SoulRaven]

I had remembered reading an article some time ago. When they legalized marijuana in the state, it attracts a number of people who really couldn't afford to live there. CO is not an inexpensive place to live and SO many people don't understand "cost of living". So, when you move somewhere and can't afford to be there, can't afford to live or just don't want to leave, homelessness could very well be the result. Here is the article: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/legal-marijuana-drawing-homeless-to-colorado/

I saw this same thing when we lived in AZ. People came for the weather without jobs and without the cash to carry them over and no money to go back where they came from.

Social services are overwhelmed, healthcare for mental illness has been reduced to almost nothing many places and finding a perfect lifestyle without any hinderances has never been possible that I know of.

 

[Headache]

Social services are overwhelmed, healthcare for mental illness has been reduced to almost nothing many places...

While I have many reasons for choosing to live in my van for awhile this is the catalyst.  It is next to impossible to get treatment and proper medication for my issues without at least selling body parts.  In town I'm vilified for having mental illness or it's "fake" and out of town I'm some kind of flake, loser or I didn't properly plan my life.

At some point I just had to shrug my shoulders and think "WTF".  I do my best to appear "stable" even when I'm not but otherwise I prefer keeping to myself unless I'm around other like minded people.

My answer to this particular issue with "townies" is to buy a piece of cheap anchor property which will be on my license and mail, then claim camping for a blog and discussion board which is/will be the truth.  I'll even show it to them if I have internet access.  This way I still get to live the way I want to, I'm not tied to some ridiculously expensive apartment lease and if I ever need some down time I have a home base to do it with.  I'm even going to bring art supplies as back up.  I used to do a lot of drawing and starting another sketch pad will be some decent back up.

TBH what the hell do these people expect?  Where will those disenfranchised and swept under the rug go?  These townies feel bad for others until it starts appearing in their neighborhoods then they turn into NAMBYs faster than you can take a breath!  At the same time there's the old saying about the government not liking competition.

 

[eoewan]

With such a downturn in the economy worldwide, it is surprising that the article seems bewildered why there is such an influx of what they deem as homeless.

I'm choosing to sell my home. I'm choosing to be nomadic. My home will be what I'm in where ever I make camp. I won't label myself as homeless.

I think the article maybe takes a more dooms day/scare tactic approach to what is out there. I don't know. It's just my thoughts.

Dragonflyinthesky - thank you. Once we are on the road I will definitely put a call up on the board to meet fellow tribe members. My inexperience will be telling and I would greatly benefit from the knowledge of others.

 

[rvpopeye]

Beware and prepare for the homeless invasion !!!!!!!!!!
They must be driven away to....errrr......well , somewhere else !

Coming soon to an uninhabited area near you .....

Buy this paper for the full story and like us on F-book.

 

[Yogidog]

The town I grew up in traverse city michigan overall has a very progressive, humanitarin policy towards "those experiencing homelessness" they don't label people homeless. 

The majority of the churches have joined together and provide, along with resources, and more importantly a sense of belonging. There are more "homeless" people going there because word is out. I asked the leaders of this if they were worried about it and they said no we serve anyone who needs it.

The connection between the individuals is what makes it work they know each other care about each other, and respect comes out this.

Because of this respect older members of the homeless community socialize the younger ones to pick up their cig butts, say thank u ect. Once a week a group of homeless people go out and clean up old camps, then yell at the people acting disrespectfully.

I believe this sense of belonging keeps crimes down which often come from a sense of resentment against those that "have". I believe along with keeping forests cleaner, mass shootings, rioting, poliice shootings could be reduced. Leaving people on the outside is not working.

If u need safe harbor go there!

People can call me whatever they want, it is a made up social category anyway I am who I am hehe

 

[Headache]

I'm choosing to sell my home. I'm choosing to be nomadic. My home will be what I'm in where ever I make camp. I won't label myself as homeless.

You know, despite our opposite circumstances(I'm losing my housing situation) we are ending up at the same place...as equals.  Were houseless not homeless.

 

[rvpopeye]

It would be nice if the news people would give programs like in Traverse City the headlines instead of the story above or at least equal space/time....

 

[AngryVanMan]

Those programs don't have lobbyists and PR departments.

 

[DannyB1954]

The town I grew up in traverse city michigan

If u need safe harbor go there!

Wait until spring, lol. (I grew up in the Detroit area). Michigan gets darned cold in the winter.

 

[TrainChaser]

The man who taught me to "Follow the Money" also taught me about the propensity of groups who want to "Fix the Blame".  Fixing the Blame is very popular.  You can fix it on anyone but those like yourself.

We  have a govt that doesn't want to solve problems.  They flat-out refuse.  Columnist Charley Reese, who wrote the famous "545 People" column, said that Congress could fix every single problem that America has ... if they wanted to.  The problem is that they don't want to.  It is more lucrative for them personally to pass the buck.

The Constitution says that Congress is supposed to handle the money:  "“All Bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with amendments as on other Bills.”   — U.S. Constitution, Article I, section 7, clause 1

Congress handed over the job to the bankers so they could create the Federal Reserve.  Perhaps you've heard the saying "setting the fox to guard the hen house"?  Have you noticed what kind of job the Fed has been doing for the last 100 years?  The Fed bankers rule our economy, like it or not.

In a natural economy, when prices go up for some reason, they go up all down the chain, ending with the lowest taxpayer.  Our govt decided that it was okay for that to happen... except they didn't want to include the lowest taxpayer.  They wanted the lowest tier to suffer the higher prices with stagnant wages, for some reason.

So, we have a national two-fold problem:  We keep the poor, poor.  We bleed everyone to give the junkies, drunks, criminals and multi-generational welfare recipients a monthly income, medical care, lost-cost housing, food stamps and cell phones.  We don't do much of anything for the honest poor.  But now the media wants to group them all together.  The media makes money off the people who have some money, and they make them feel better by fixing the blame on the poor (all of them, not just the ones causing trouble).  No one wants to solve the problem, they just want to shift the blame.

The percentage of recovery of cocaine addicts is about 4%.  The recovery of meth addicts is less than 1%.  Sorry, Bleeding Heart Folks, but dumping trillions of dollars into this problem is not cost-effective, or anywhere near it.  Sorry to be hard-nosed about it, but these people made their decisions.  It isn't really up to the rest of America to solve their problems.  Remember Ebenezer Scrooge's solution?  "If they would rather die, they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population."

It is not the working people's job to support every deadbeat in the country.  If you say that it's a mental health problem, it probably is.  But our country has created it.  Our govt has created it.  And the working people have funded it.

Think about it for a minute:  A hundred years ago, a politician came up with the idea of a public school system.  Once it was in full swing, they started using a teaching method that has been PROVEN not to work.  By 1955, there had been more than 100 studies on the see/say method of teaching reading that said it absolutely DOES NOT WORK.  The backers of this method (Follow the Money) say ALL of the studies were "flawed".  So they continued it to this day.  The three most illiterate industrialized countries in the world are the U.S., Canada, and Ireland.  These three countries use the See/Say method.  There are many Third World countries who have a higher literacy rate than ours!

The rest of the world teaches with phonics/phonetics.  You could put any adult book in the hands of a 6-year-old from virtually any other country, and he could read it.  He may not know what many of the words mean, but he could read it.  That is not the rule in the U.S., it is the EXCEPTION.

Studies have indicated that 75% of U.S. prison inmates are functinally illiterate.  19% are completely illiterate.  When teens drop out of school, do you think it's because they can read so well, or barely/not at all?  How many of these drink and/or use drugs, and get into a life of crime?  How much of this could have been prevented?

Yes, we have some serious problems, but as Mr. Reese pointed out, our govt is NOT interested in solving them.  They appear to have some kind of perverted interest in having the dumbest, most ignorant, most drug-addicted, criminal and poorest people on the planet.  And before you get on your high horse of righteousness, ask yourself this question:

DO YOU THINK IT IS EASIER TO CONTROL THE POPULATION OF A COUNTRY THAT IS POOR AND IGNORANT, OR ONE THAT HAS AN ADEQUATE INCOME AND IS EDUCATED?

No, I do not think that education (or lack of it) or a decent income totally determines drug use.  Yes, I know that mental health issues are heavily involved.  But if we have a govt that can't be bothered to deal with the first two problems -- which could be solved -- why would we expect it to deal with the second?

 

[TrainChaser]

p.s. Regarding a couple of questions/comments above:

First, you’re not going to cut the cord from society. That is not the point of what we do, or plan to do. The survival of the human race is interlinked with all of us. Anyone who thinks they stand alone are deluding themselves. I've actually heard of people getting to the top and saying "they did it all themselves". That's BS, pure and simple. They were more likely helped by a lot of other people (who they quickly forgot), and they probably stood on top of a lot of others.

John Donne probably said it best in the 1600s, and nothing has changed:

"No man is an island,
Entire of itself,
Every man is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manor of thy friend's
Or of thine own were:
Any man's death diminishes me,
Because I am involved in mankind,
And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;
It tolls for thee."


“I have often wondered how many have tried the carefree life and come up short for one reason or another and found themselves in trouble with no money or place to stay?”

The truly chronically homeless people have no one to help them because they’ve screwed, bilked, bled, burned, conned, deceived, defrauded, diddled, double-crossed, duped, fast-talked, finagled, fleeced, flimflammed, gouged, gypped, hoodwinked, jerked around, milked, misled, ripped off, scammed, shafted, shorted, stiffed, swindled, tricked and victimized every friend, relative, acquaintance, and everyone who tried to help them. The problem was never everyone else, it was them.

 

[Yogidog]

Wait until spring, lol. (I grew up in the Detroit area). Michigan gets darned cold in the winter.

No wonder we get along I went to Eastern in ypsilanti for a bit. U are so right though the winter is what keeps the numbers down.

 

[akrvbob]

It's just more nonsense! Some thoughts:

1) Homeless camps in the woods have one problem--winter! It's too cold to try to live in most NFs in the country, and all of them in Colorado. If you don't have money, you're not buying propane. Come winter you are moving into town
2) Snow. The majority of roads in NFs aren't plowed in winter and are impassable. If they are occasionally passable, you never know when a storm will hit and they will become impassable, locking you in for who knows how long.
3) It's already illegal to reside in the Forest and no new laws are required. The simple fact is the FS doesn't have the budget to enforce the laws in existence. In 2015 they spent 3/4 of their budget on fighting Forest fires and so there was an obvious downturn in enforcement.

People can cry all they want and Congress can pass more laws, but they won't give them the budget to enforce it so nothing is going to change.

Once you get away from larger population centers, the problem just stops entirely. They can't afford to get out there and back to get supplies. I'd guess in 99% or more of NF there is ZERO homeless problem!! But, the Media is going to create a firestorm about the teeny, tiny percentage where there is a problem.

PURE SENSATIONALISM TO SELL ADVERTISING AND CREATE A CLIMATE OF FEAR.

Don't fall for it!!!
Bob

 

[jimindenver]

Here at least it isn't anything new. I met people living in the hills when we started camping in the 80's. Now the population explosion and $1500 a month rent on a one bedroom isn't helping matters. The NF areas that butt right up to populated areas have always been hammered for their proximity be it by the homeless or recreational user. Luckily we intentionally go deeper and rougher than most like so we rarely see anyone.

Seems like we had a member staying in the Boulder area this past year.