Homeless, Trash, Drugs and Transient Issues

In Police Magazine I read a great article about transient problems and how they were solved for the betterment of all in Ft Collins, Colorado. This program was called (COP) Community Oriented Policing. In one area downtown there were three homeless shelters 53 liquor stores and a nearby river where the homeless were. As they cleaned up Shanty Town they actually picked up trash and had a special task force. They filled Dump Trucks full of trash and junk; piles of 40 ounce beers bottles. The police enforced the litter laws and open container laws and saw to it that the homeless people were signed in at the Homeless shelters, which was good due to the soon approaching winter weather of that season.

Many times homeless people would clean up the trash and helped fix up the area. After a little while they stopped throwing out the trash and kept the areas nice. So many of the homeless who were not in the shelters had terrible drug problems and were remitted to detox, emergency rooms, shelters and given to social security services. They talked about each homeless person as a Client. Many of you know my position on these matters having visited so many shantytowns in LA, Memphis, Las Vegas, PHX, Tucson, and other areas or degradation. I probably visit one every month. Today I visited briefly with a homeless person who had taken plywood and made a small house near a railroad track and large casino in Nevada. Many homeless people want to be in jail when the weather is cold and hate to be in jail when the weather is warm. So they will purposely break the law in someway to get caught. The article was in the October 1999 edition of Police Magazine starting on page 32. !

For a picture of one of my tours of homeless areas see the website; LanceWinslow.org .

We need to have a plan to help the homeless who want off the street and figure out a way to get help to those who no longer care about anything except liquor and drugs and staying out of the weather. Think on it.

By Lance Winslow