Serious incident in Glasgow

[Hillonearth]

2 hours ago, keithgy said:

The local jakies are being housed in a hotel in Argyle St just along from there and it has been in the last few weeks a horrible place to walk

Yeah, I had to nip into my office about a month back to pick up some stuff and that whole area west of Central Station looked like a scene from 28 Days Later.

Numerically I don't think there were any more of the terminally refreshed around there than there would be normally, but the fact that no-one was there bar them seemed weird....like a battlefield the day after the battle when all that's left are the casualties.

[Jacksgranda]

12 hours ago, Hillonearth said:

Yeah, I had to nip into my office about a month back to pick up some stuff and that whole area west of Central Station looked like a scene from 28 Days Later.

Numerically I don't think there were any more of the terminally refreshed around there than there would be normally, but the fact that no-one was there bar them seemed weird....like a battlefield the day after the battle when all that's left are the casualties.

[Scary Bear]

20 hours ago, Sergeant Wilson said:

Just a minute, there's about half a mile between those incidents where no-one has been even a wee bit stabbed.

...this month.

[ICTChris]

Have town and city centres always been full of shambling alcoholics and drug addicts?

[D.A.F.C]

Have town and city centres always been full of shambling alcoholics and drug addicts?

Since late 1990s yes, unfortunately.

[Shandon Par]

Was in Dunfermline the other night around 6pm and was surpised at the amount of rough sleepers and general down and outs around the fire station/Carnegie Drive. What would it take off the Trident budget, 5%?, to end homelessness. 

[parsforlife]

It’s odd how much homelessness is generally accepted as just something that happens and is either deserved or something that can’t be changed when any look at more progressive countries shows that’s blatantly not the case.

[Ross.]

17 minutes ago, parsforlife said:

It’s odd how much homelessness is generally accepted as just something that happens and is either deserved or something that can’t be changed when any look at more progressive countries shows that’s blatantly not the case.

I think there is a very small element who will always want to live outside the confines of 4 walls in a modern society, so to that minute extent homelessness will always exist, but in 99.99% of the cases it's simply down to spending priorities by local and national governments. It would be easy enough to fund something for everyone who needs and wants  a home.

Edited June 29, 2020 by Ross.

[Jacksgranda]

9 minutes ago, Ross. said:

I think there is a very small element who will always want to live outside the confines of 4 walls in a modern society, so to that minute extent homelessness will always exist, but in 99.99% of the cases it's simply down to spending priorities by local and national governments. It would be easy enough to fund something for everyone who needs and wants  a home.

Are there not a lot of empty houses about?

Edited June 29, 2020 by Jacksgranda
sllepnig

[parsforlife]

2 minutes ago, Jacksgranda said:

Are there not a lot of empty houses about?

These are assets designed to grow and boost investment funds.

there not actually meant to be lived in ffs.

[The OP]

There are empty flats in various areas of Glasgow  which are not investments by any stretch of the imagination however most of the rough sleeping homeless will have been problem tenants and/or will be deemed intentionally homeless so there is no obligation for housing associations (or local authorities outwith Glasgow) to house them.

[NotThePars]

1 hour ago, parsforlife said:

It’s odd how much homelessness is generally accepted as just something that happens and is either deserved or something that can’t be changed when any look at more progressive countries shows that’s blatantly not the case.

The bong rip dorm response is that society has a vested interest in showing you what can happen if you don't knuckle down and stay in your shit job

[Dee Man]

52 minutes ago, ThatBoyRonaldo said:

In per capita terms there are more bedrooms in Britain than ever before, well over one per person, which when you consider how many people share with a partner or kids with siblings, adds up to an enormous amount of empty space. The fact that this abundance of supply exists at the same time as the housing crisis so many people are experiencing is 1) a disgrace and 2) a sign that distribution is the problem, not simply 'just build more houses!'.

Covid-19 has showed us that when it is suitably prioritised, housing the homeless is really not that difficult. File that one under 'things we should learn from 2020, but won't'. 

Perhaps we should evict people from their council houses that have more rooms than they require. Alternatively, we could tax them on these surplus rooms. I don't know why a government hasn't thought of that before. 

[Sergeant Wilson]

48 minutes ago, ThatBoyRonaldo said:

That's not what I was getting at but you can see why to a certain kind of well-educated idiot in Whitehall the policy would make sense.

Ultimately imo the only way you "solve" the housing crisis is with large scale good quality municipal housing stock which won't happen in this country until we get a government prepared to seriously f**k over private landlords and/or society at large stops viewing housing as a commodity rather than a right (spoiler - not anytime soon!). But the immediate problem of getting people off the streets was effectively solved overnight a few months ago and my point is that it highlights the problem is political will, not the supposed 'complexity' of the problem. 

...and address the mental health issue.

[Inanimate Carbon Rod]

Some people find themselves homeless not because of a lack of housing opportunities but a chaotic lifestyle through mental health crisis, drug addiction etc and being unable through their trauma or illness to keep a home or stable tenancy. Quite a lot of the homeless people who beg in and around Glasgow actually have homes, that doesnt mean they dont live in poverty or deserve help btw just mean that for some they feel trapped, with little actual help to address their problems etc. If we invested heavily in things like social care for children and young people, drug treatment, mental health provision etc then we could over a generation or two more or less eliminate this kind of homelessness.

 

 

[welshbairn]

There will always be a minority of homeless people who prefer their own company or like minded to dealing with council officials, banks, employers, landlords and the DWP, and if it means sleeping outside so be it. They should get authorised to beg cards, but they'd probably burn them. Heroes of the 21st Century imo.

[Shandon Par]

Can’t seem to find the story now but the BBC were getting a bit of flak for how they reported this story at the time. I hadn’t realised nobody had been killed (until the police turned up and shot the knifeman) yet the BBC had left the story online and on their Twitter for a month saying three people had been killed. Maybe if they’d emphasised that their initial story was all wrong people would have made more of the fact the guy was shot? 
 

 

 

[Central Belt Caley]

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/no-criminality-police-officers-who-29642821?int_source=amp_continue_reading&int_medium=amp&int_campaign=continue_reading_button#amp-readmore-target
 

Procurator Fiscal and the Crown Office have said that the Firearms Cops will face no action and their actions were justified. Nearly 3 years to come to that conclusion is madness