Crews clear encampment, relocate homeless living on Apple land
A homeless encampment on 55 acres of Apple's land is now being cleared, with an estimated 60 people relocated at the company's expense.
San Jose Encampment
The growing homeless community that had been living on a tract of Apple's land is being cleared. Crews are removing debris, closing the site, and relocating people.
It comes after Apple announced it would contribute millions of dollars from its $2.5 billion California housing project. In partnership with non-profit organization HomeFirst, the planned clearing is intended to see homeless people relocated, or rehoused.
According to CBS News, flyers were posted at the site saying that closure would begin at 7 a.m. local time on September 2. People living in the encampment were offered three different options for interim housing, each of which would be paid for by Apple for the next nine months.
Residents could choose from a motel room, a bed in an emergency shelter, or what CBS News describes as a safe parking space. Alongside the costs of each option, Apple is also covering the cost of case management for 12 months.
Not all residents have accepted the offers, however. Robert Carlson, who was living in a collection of large vehicles that included an RV, has reportedly elected to move away on his own.
"It's all part of life, ain't it? Trials and tribulations, man," Carlson told CBS News. "Well, we were all a big family here. We were a big family. I miss everybody already."
One person who has accepted a motel room says that Apple and HomeFirst may mean that her story "might have a happy ending."
"They're gonna help me get teeth. Because I don't have any, you know?" she said. "It's easier to get a job when you have teeth."
HomeFirst's CEO, Andrea Urton, said that Apple had been "generous," and that the intervention of corporations like this is now necessary.
"The city and county are doing everything they feasibly can right now, and have been for the past two years," she said. "They're under-resourced and they're tired, just like we all are."
"So by having large companies step in and provide the resources that nonprofits need to be part of the solution, we can actually effectively end homelessness together," said Urton.
The homeless community on Apple's land on the corner of North First Street and Component Drive in North San Jose, had grown because of other clearing efforts. San Jose had undertaken what it described as an "enhanced cleanup" of neighboring areas.
As the encampment population varied from 35 to 70 people, residents lived in a mixture of mobile homes and wooden structures. A recent fire on the encampment reportedly destroyed an RV, and burnt five acres of vegetation.
A new 7-foot black metal fence is being constructed around part of the property. It is guarded by an unknown number of Apple's private security staff.
Apple says that it intends to build low-cost housing on the land.
Read on AppleInsider
San Jose Encampment
The growing homeless community that had been living on a tract of Apple's land is being cleared. Crews are removing debris, closing the site, and relocating people.
It comes after Apple announced it would contribute millions of dollars from its $2.5 billion California housing project. In partnership with non-profit organization HomeFirst, the planned clearing is intended to see homeless people relocated, or rehoused.
According to CBS News, flyers were posted at the site saying that closure would begin at 7 a.m. local time on September 2. People living in the encampment were offered three different options for interim housing, each of which would be paid for by Apple for the next nine months.
Residents could choose from a motel room, a bed in an emergency shelter, or what CBS News describes as a safe parking space. Alongside the costs of each option, Apple is also covering the cost of case management for 12 months.
Not all residents have accepted the offers, however. Robert Carlson, who was living in a collection of large vehicles that included an RV, has reportedly elected to move away on his own.
"It's all part of life, ain't it? Trials and tribulations, man," Carlson told CBS News. "Well, we were all a big family here. We were a big family. I miss everybody already."
One person who has accepted a motel room says that Apple and HomeFirst may mean that her story "might have a happy ending."
"They're gonna help me get teeth. Because I don't have any, you know?" she said. "It's easier to get a job when you have teeth."
HomeFirst's CEO, Andrea Urton, said that Apple had been "generous," and that the intervention of corporations like this is now necessary.
"The city and county are doing everything they feasibly can right now, and have been for the past two years," she said. "They're under-resourced and they're tired, just like we all are."
"So by having large companies step in and provide the resources that nonprofits need to be part of the solution, we can actually effectively end homelessness together," said Urton.
The homeless community on Apple's land on the corner of North First Street and Component Drive in North San Jose, had grown because of other clearing efforts. San Jose had undertaken what it described as an "enhanced cleanup" of neighboring areas.
As the encampment population varied from 35 to 70 people, residents lived in a mixture of mobile homes and wooden structures. A recent fire on the encampment reportedly destroyed an RV, and burnt five acres of vegetation.
A new 7-foot black metal fence is being constructed around part of the property. It is guarded by an unknown number of Apple's private security staff.
Apple says that it intends to build low-cost housing on the land.
Read on AppleInsider
Comments
2) Insufficient public resourcing for healthcare, particularly behavioral healthcare. Everyone needs access to both physical and behavioral healthcare. Because most people value the lives of their loved ones and themselves at infinity, healthcare is one thing that does not and will not respond to supply-and-demand economics. Our patchwork system of private insurance and healthcare provision that pretends that it will respond to normal economics simply creates a system that is effective at siphoning off huge amounts of money (because the demand side always pushes toward infinity), but terrible at supplying the full panoply of healthcare to those who need it when they need it. Add to that the irrational stigma around needing and seeking mental health care, plus an opiate crisis generated by sociopathic opportunists, and you have a real problem with homelessness.
Imagine a smartphone company that saves money by slashing budgets for R&D and factory production lines, resulting in shoddy, defective products coming off the line. The executive suite pockets the "savings," while retail staff are issued screwdrivers and duct tape to respond to angry consumers coming back to the store with broken phones. Ordering extra duct tape isn't going to fix that problem.
I hope these people actually do good with the help Apple gives them. The lady getting her teeth seems to be legit but most homeless people are hardcore drug addicts. Everyone seems to think they’re these good people who can’t get jobs.
Why do people assume homeless people are these nice, humble people who just can’t get a break. Not true.
Homeless people get A TON of help in the U.S. most are homeless because hey choose to be. Right now they’re getting 400+ dollars a month (!!!)in food stamps and they sell them! I’ve seen a homeless man who pretends to be deaf for money, make $50 in 5 minutes pan handling and preying on the sympathy of others. I’m one of the only people in the neighborhood who knows he isn’t deaf and mute. He literally lives that way for money but he can hear and talk normally. He used to buy drugs from someone I know and boy did he talk and listen then with all the money he panhandled.
Cuba is certainly not "one of the poorest countries in the world", it's mid-table at worst, and absolute poverty is not-existent because of social programs. Of all the places to be poor in the world, Cuba is one of the best options.
And there is no dichotomy here. There is no enforced choice between California and Cuba. Cuba is not relevant to an interest in why California has such a big homelessness problem.
Others sought care for an injury and were prescribed a highly addictive drug created by unscrupulous companies that sold those drugs while affirmatively claiming that they were not addictive. Read up on the current Purdue Pharma case for reference. Not a reader? John Oliver offers a flippant but informative primer. Also, as a counter to your anecdote about a homeless (presumed; many panhandlers are not homeless, they're just grifters) guy who lies to get money, Mr. Oliver offers some great examples of rich pharmaceutical execs who do the same thing. I think the rich pharmaceutical execs told bigger lies, got a lot more money, and did infinitely more damage to the country than your crafty panhandler guy. Is he a jerk? Probably, but I think the Sackler family are infinitely bigger jerks.
Constructions pay a good wages, the trucking industry has been offer people starting wages of $55k a year (no experience required and they provide training) and this is for a driver job which is local and home every night. If you willing to drive cross country those drivers are making $80K to $100K, There has been a shortage of driver for the last 10 yrs so this is not a new thing.
Even as a kid when minimum was as $2.90 I never work a minimum wage job I always was able to find jobs which paid more. I think the lowest pay at got at the time was $7. Those were not easy jobs, work at a car dealership prepping new cars, work in a lumber yard loading contractors trucks, working on golf course taking care of greens and fairways. These kinds of jobs are still available today paying better then minimum wage. Every place where local governments increase minimum wage they lost jobs, companies found ways to do more with less labor. McDonald one of the largest employee of minimum wage employees, is finding ways to eliminate those jobs they are looking at ordering kiosks so they do not have to hire someone to take your order.
The reason you have people out on the street who have mental health issue is due to the fact they closed all the facilities who use to treat these people. The same group of people who said it was cruel to put these people in facility and demand they be closed and they should be allowed to be free to do what they want, they are the same group now complaining there are not enough resources. Look this up, back in the 60's and 70's the government closed the treatment facility an opted for out placement treatment because the so called experts said patients would seek out the treatment can come in as needed once they started to feel better. Well that experience failed.
As person who lived in the Silicon Valley and visited SF all the time, this problem is not new, back in the 80's you would go SF and see entire families huddled in doorways of businesses this was before they set up the tent cities in city parks in the 90's. This was a shock to see coming from the east coast which most homeless people you saw where single men and a few women. SF government promise to fix this, here we are 30 years later and the situation is far worse. Back then the idea was to move people to places where they could afford to live. Believe it or not people in government argue it was unfair and inhuman to move people to places where they could afford to live. Their solution was to provide people all kinds of freebees which is now causing people to moving from other states to be homeless in Calif. Most of the people on the streets in CA are not even originally from CA. In Calf if you are not making $100K and want to live in SF or Silicon Valley you could be homeless. There are people making $50K to $60K living in their cars.
I am curious how Apple is removing people since the court held that you can not remove homeless peoples property, this is specific to public land, however, it is being used on private land as well like people using parking lots to sleep in their cars.
Then you have this case. The government made mess of the situation and realized it got so bad they now want to try and fix it and the court are saying no you can't. Becuase you have lawyer arguing people and live anywhere they like if they do not have shelter.
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-12-16/homeless-boise-ruling-case-supreme-court
I’m glad to see that Apple has generously agreed to cover the costs of case management. I’m not sure what that involves. But I would hope mental health services, counseling and drug treatment plans are core to this effort.
If I was starting a business and my business plan required me to pay below cost for raw materials, a bank would never issue a loan to get me started. That's a stupid business plan. Yet, if I have a business plan that requires me to pay my front-line employees less than it costs them to live another day to come to work, that's considered brilliant. The bank will write a loan for that! Even better, I'm doing that and siphoning enough off the top to pay myself enough to get a nice vacation home with a boat. Not to worry. My front-line workers earn so little, they qualify for rent subsidies and food stamps! You as a taxpayer are, of course, going to be mad that you're paying taxes to subsidize those lazy workers who can't pay their own way. Here's the thing. You're not subsidizing them, you're subsidizing me! I have externalized my costs and internalized my profits! If you come out to the beach, I'll wave at you from my boat. No, wait. You don't have access to my beach.
As I wrote before, it would be economically more efficient if I paid my employees enough to pay their own rent and for their own food, and included that cost in the price of my product. That cuts out the government middleman running all those housing and food programs. Paying workers what it costs them to work won't drive up inflation. You're paying for the rest of their wages already, plus program admin costs. Henry Ford knew all this. He paid his workers enough to afford to buy what they were making. It's not rocket science.