The “Water Cooler” is a feature on Claycord.com where we ask you a question or provide a topic, and you talk about it.
The “Water Cooler” will be up Monday-Friday in the noon hour.
QUESTION: Do you think Contra Costa County needs another homeless shelter? If so, where should it be located?
Talk about it….
38 comments
Hows ’bout stepping up efforts to get mentally ill some help.
From man in antioch taking football stanch and charging cars, to one around carwash on delta fair screaming and swinging on an invisible opponent.
Its called meth addiction – and unless we have inpatient locked beds for them nothing is going to change
It’s called jail
Definitely! The naval weapon station is a good place to build a shelter. Let build a homeless city at that place and put all the homeless there.
There are other plans for Naval Weapons Station. I forget what is planned for the former military housing across from Pixie Playland. I wonder if that is an option. Yes, they need access to mental health resources, jobs, etcetera
They need access to rehab services that is all
My understanding (and I have not researched it) is that those structures are replete with asbestos.
ROLLO TOMASI,
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Development of the CNWS requires the construction of an 80 unit apartment building to be used as transitional housing for the homeless.
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The former Coast Guard housing would only be good enough to house those in the military and their families, but not the homeless or others.
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Since the former Coast Guard housing is no longer owned by the federal government it now has to meet California’s building code standards to be used for civilian housing. For a decade or more we’ve been told it’s not financially feasible to bring the two housing villages up to code, because of the way the federal government had the housing built. We’ve actually been repeatedly told that it’s cheaper to tear down the existing housing and build new housing than it is to bring the existing housing up to current code. Victory Village, built in the 1989, shouldn’t have asbestos, but Quinalt Village built in the 1965 should.
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I’ve spoken with several retired sailors that lived in Victory Village, while it was used as naval housing, and they’ve all said it was the best naval housing they ever lived in.
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There was more naval housing north of SR4 on what is still considered the decommissioned inland portion of the CNWS accessible from Port Chicago Highway, but I’ve been told that housing was torn down in recent years, although I haven’t yet verified if it has actually been torn down.
CONCORDREZ,
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The former Coast Guard housing property on East Olivera Road has been sold and now belongs to developers out of Las Vegas.
@CONCORDREZ,
The County tried to buy it several years ago for homeless family housing, and they were rejected and were told it was because the buildings were uninhabitable at that time. It was a shame- there were housing grants to build or rehabilitate housing we could have tapped into.
MOMBEARTO4,
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For years we’ve been told it’s cheaper to build new housing than trying to rehabilitate this housing and bringing it up to code. In its current state it’s only good enough for those in the military and their families, but not the homeless.
Meth causes mental illness. Meth affects the brain and damages it to the point of no return. Many will not be able to function properly in society even when they clean up. The same can be said for fentanyl and other drugs because the chemicals have been altered and are so powerful that it overloads the brain tissue. No amount of treatment or rehab will heal the damage done. The Chinese understand this and encourage it.
How many shelters do they have now and how many are they sheltering? What kind of shelters do they have now? So many problems with the homeless from drugs, physical, and mental problems to people who are just down and out. Each group should be handled differently. I remember when we just had hobos. How did we get to this point? Maybe it was drugs.
Yes its the hard drugs and our tolerance of the behavior
Drugs certainly have a lot to do with it but so does mental health…..often times both. Unfortunately just opening shelters isn’t going to solve the issue. That may help those that are down on their luck but it’ll do next to nothing for those that are drug addicted and/or mentally ill.
Our laws have changed. Problem was under control compared to what’s happening now.
“Hard Drugs” are an extension of problems that originated with smoking too much weed! Weed is Bad News for just about everyone! 😝
Every homeless shelter in any city should be opened up or built next to or as close as possibly to city hall of that city, I don’t have the answer on how to solve this enormous problem but no neighborhood should be subjected to a camp, shelter, or drug rehab center on their block or neighborhood. I’m sure if your were shopping for a new home and saw a homeless shelter or drug rehab a block away you would take a pass on that home. Take them all to city hall!
No, unless it’s built next door to city hall
I agree with Paul, the naval weapons station is big enough to house every homeless person in the area, staffed with counselors, and therapists to help the ones who are addicted get off the drugs and booze. If and when they are sober, provide vocational training, and help them find employment. I’ve said this before, in a shelter, they don’t want to follow the rules set up for them, so let them govern, and police themselves. It will build self-confidence, and a sense of responsibility. They can set up their own rules, and have the counselors and therapists oversee them, and provide guidance.
The homeless we see in the streets shouting at nobody, and swinging into the air at nobody, are not mentally ill, they are usually coming down off of methamphetamine. Staying up on meth for several days, then crashing, can cause psychosis and hallucinations. They will see and hear things that aren’t there, and things that are there, they may not see at all. They can become paranoid, have trouble thinking logically, and come up with strange, unusual ideas. Back in the day, I was at a party when one guy decided to leave early, and go home. I had been drinking and didn’t want to drive, so I decided to sleep over. In the morning, when I left to go home, the guy that left early was at a bus stop waiting for the bus and watching the chariot races. It turns out he was coming down off of meth, buses passed by all night, and he didn’t see them, but he did see the chariot races, racing up and down Mission St. in San Francisco. That’s what meth does.
We can send billions to Ukraine, spend endlessly on illegals, but we can’t take care of our own. There is something terribly wrong with our federal, state, and local governments. Protecting, and taking care of American citizens should always have top priority, especially when they are US military veterans. We cannot keep cleaning up their camps thinking they will go away because they don’t have anywhere to go, they will just move somewhere else, and the problem will never be solved.
So… Instead of many homeless encampments, you propose to create a giant one. Self-governing (as if the existing ones aren’t).
What if the homeless self-govern to create a rule that all and any drugs are allowed? Plus any amount of trash (er – personal belongings), dogs, a chop shop for cars and bikes, a meth lab and a marijuana grow? Because these are the rules that they seem to follow in each and every self-governing homeless encampment out there.
As for therapists’ and counselors guidance – well, if they try to guide that drugs aren’t ok, they can go… you know where.
See, the problem with drug addicts is that they can’t self-govern. Because drugs do all the governing for them.
@TASHAJ—I am a medical professional and have worked with drug addicts for 15 years, they are human beings, and most of them want to get off the drugs and better themselves. Responsibility and self-confidence will do wonders in building their self-respect, which they are certainly lacking, and it will help guide them to recovery. Self-governing can have a tremendous on a person, and I explained that they should be overseen by counselors and therapists, which means they will need to approve the rules, and regulations.
The big issue with your plan for more housing and services for the free range crazies is
that they don’t want the services and want to remain feral. It hasn’t worked to any real
success anywhere that it’s been tried.
No. We need fewer… zero.
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We have compassion fatigue.
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Bus them all to Oregon and Washington state.
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Great idea, especially Portland as it’s already a snot mold.
However, after a couple of bus loads, just like Chicago, they’ll snivel like crazy that they are at capacity and please don’t send any more etc.
NIMBY: Sanctuary city enthusiasts are the most disingenuous people on earth. They’ll ask Joe for federal funds and he’ll ignore them. The Biden administration touts core values. They have none. These sanctuary city enthusiasts are slow learners.
Stop with the benefits for the homeless.
Help those who need help, help those that want help, otherwise no benefits at all.
If they don’t want to pay the cost of freedom, then they don’t deserve freedom.
They can find their own way.
As a 25 year hard drug addict with 8 years of sobriety – inpatient rehab and criminalization of squatting on public land is the only solution – ive been incarcerated and homeless – i feel for anyone with addiction issues – but being co dependent is not the solution
Well said, DB. It seems our government is the biggest co-dependent there is.
And congratulations on 8 years of sobriety! That’s a huge achievement!
Round them all up. Give them each a bag of dope and a knife. Take them out into the desert in death Valley and leave them there.
That is a very compassionate approach.
CONCORDREZ,
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If the Coast Guard property was still owned by the federal government it still couldn’t be used to house the homeless, because the housing isn’t up to code. It’s good enough for the military and their families, but not the homeless.
Build it and they will come. As long as they get free hand outs with out any requirements are time lines to get themselves in order, the problem will only get worse and grow as it has. They should be shipped back to the city of known last address instead of all of us flipping the bill for there housing
Option 1. Buy a house next to the Homeless advocates house and use it as a meth house. 2. Boarding house with lockable rooms and an Inn keeper to make dinner. Access will be granted with a paystub and a drug test. 3. Move them to the valley to work outside doing agriculture and live in cheap housing normally used by illegals. 4. Keep giving them all the handouts as cash, move them to Mexico (exchange program) where they can live on $2/day and closer to the drug supplies
Build it and they will come, just like SF.
How about a Sanitarium for the mental cases. A rehab facility for the dope addicts. (If they don’t get clean they get run out of town.) Also for those who just want to live on the streets, which are correctly called “bums”, run them out of town too.
AD
HELL NO!!!!
Sure. We need affordable housing, and I agree with others saying more services.
It’s time for Jeopardy!
What has: Free room & board, free healthcare, free church services, free counseling, free education programs, no taxes, a commissary for sundries, an unending supply of pen pals, plus gender identity choices?
What is a penitentiary.
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