Homeless - a new problem?

I suppose that the pot issue could be regarded as settled. Back in the 60s, CO was a hippy heaven from the ski slopes to the flatlands to the east. That said, there are other drugs easily found in Aurora, Denver, Boulder and C-spings since the 70s that I am sure of; a classmate kept me up to date until about 3 years ago when he pulled the pin and headed south. I'll take a faintly different tack, and say there's more than one issue leading to people living in their cars, and stupidly high rent is but one. For sure, rent and groceries will take a hunk of income, but an addict will give one or another of them up. So Denver is gentrifying? That will be where the libs (ex hippys) will want to move, and if it means pushing the homeless out of the way, that will be fine with them. They will just raise the taxes to provide more soup. (With a minimum wage of 9.30 an hour, rent really is problematic. Would be here in pennsyltucky, too.)

As with most progressive cities, this will not end well.

 

More like using a Sieve to empty a Big Lake... @DKR

 

Todays homeless usually have more money coming in, than I did when living in a Commune, during my Hippy Phase... I lived on $300US a month and that included my food... We had what we called a ” Corporate Stomach” where we each put $100US into the Pot, and that was used to purchase the Raw Basics, for the month.... One of the Girls worked at an “Orange Julious” joint and we got leftovers, from there, after her shifts.. We bartered Design Work for Produce with another Commune, that had a large Produce Garden going, out by Duval, Wa... Many of our folks were Very Talented in BlueGrass Music, and they played Fiddle Music for SquareDances most Friday and Saturday Nights.. Me, I worked the Sound System, as i can’t carry a Tune in a Bucket.... We traded work at MorningTown Pizza owned by Miss Patty & Bob the Duck, for Pizza Suppers a few days a week... We rented rooms in a three Story House with finishd Basement, just north of Greek Row, in the Seattle University District, that was owned by two of the Members... Had between 16 and 18 members all contributing to pay the Mortgage, Utilities, and Taxes, each month... When we sold it for a nice Profit 10 Years later, it finaced a nice place up on the peak of Capital Hill, in Seattle, free and clear. I cooked a deal to lease out the Roof and some space in the Basement to a couple of Radio Services as the location had a GREAT VIEW both East, to the Cascades, and West to the Olympics, North to Mt Baker, and south to Mt Rainer... It was a half a block south of the AT&T LongLines Microwave Building, that brought in all the Long Distace Calls from the east, west, north, and South... Now it is 1/2 Blocks south of the KUOW Tv& Fm Tower on Capital Hill... Those leases paid for the Property Taxes on the place and a good chunk of the Electrical Utilities, for another decade, when we finally sold it...
All this to say, if one has some smarts, and knows how to work, scrounge, and live cheap, there really is no reason to be Homeless, or hungry... AlaskaChick knows the Capital Hill House Folks and the Duval/Faye Road Folks, as I intriduced her to my Partners very early in our relationship... We all kind of split up into individuals and married couples, as the Capital Hill House was winding down... but the friendships have lasted ever since.. even as we ALL are hitting Senior Citizen Status...