News In Desert Hot Springs/Independent News DHS June 22, 2019
A Desert Hot Springs Journalist roved into a neighboring city’s homeless encampment to further understand the complicated situation that is homelessness in the Coachella Valley.
The camp is located along the freeway near adjacent sources of food and water
The whole experience was documented and a video of it is shown here.
What was found was people sleeping in makeshift tents and tarp covered structures that are not fit to live in by any means. If living like this was attempted out front of any residential property in Desert Hot Springs the city would shut it down almost immediately.
So why does the city of Rancho Mirage or the county of Riverside or the owners of the rail property or the Agua Caliente Casino allow homeless to live in shanty shacks within sight of the entire public? Junk huts that are built from just about anything large that can be carried up the sand hills and propped up are what surround their in some places paper thin compounds?
The inside of one of the structures had a nice looking full sized mattress in it. That was obviously hauled up and into the camp presumably by night. So why does the city allow this type of living situation to perpetuate on property not owned by the occupants in this case?
I have no idea. Do you?
Something became evident to me as I documented these activities starting late morning this past Friday was that there is a system of order developed by these homeless people who are living in these makeshift residences.
I see them living out a daily routine that they have evolved to live off of and here’s what I think it entails.
- Later in the morning as In and Out Burger is opening up the first member of the encampment walks down to In and Out and sits at the exit to beg for money from the first customers of the day at the burger place. Now it’s important to recognize that before the burger place opens there’s no reason for the homeless to go sit and ask for money because the hungry travelers that day who are crossing the Coachella Valley on their way East or West won’t arrive til the restaurant opens. There is an ideal start time to garner the most cash possible and it is after business hours begin and In and Out.
- As the later part of the morning develops more and more camp members arrive and each time someone arrives they advance the first person at the exit of the In and Out to the next parking lot over which is another more common fast food restaurant. And the advancing repeated til there were 3 people parked at 3 different exits that hungry out of town travelers would use when leaving the restaurant.
- Whenever the homeless beggars are hungry all they have to do is get up and go inside and buy that mornings meal with the free money they just received from bleeding heart travelers who just received a palm of change from the window at the In and Out. But not before they make sure their seat or spot at the corner is secured upon their return. I don’t think that they would give up that prime begging real estate if there was another homeless person there to take it away.
- The clothing that was chosen to be worn and the wording on the signs show a clear understanding of how to manipulate the minds of the drivers as much as possible because this is after all a business to some of them. They see their endeavors into the land of free money as needing to be exploited to the highest degree and anything that can be done to get the most money for the least amount of effort will and is being used. That’s why they live near truck stops and busy freeway exits. It’s a maximizing of the return on the investment of time and energy. That’s why they wear clothing that hints at military service (extra points for sympathy). That’s why they bring their dogs with them, bonus sympathy points. I don’t bring my pets to work to try to get my boss to give me more money for the day.
I’m just being honest here and relaying what I see going on. Believe me I’ve worked in mental health facilities where the homeless have come in for treatment. Not all of them are manipulators but a lot of them are. Many are sharp people who can navigate a complicated arrangement being surrounded by predators just like them who want to steal from them what they just got for free.
They also know how to hand out gifts to other homeless as a form of social credit plan to get a desired outcome from the fellow homeless person in the future.
It’s such a complicated world of meeting their own personal needs such as food, shelter, clothing, etc. And also balancing the responsibilities they have to others in the camp who may be hooked on drugs or pregnant by looking out for them and checking in on them because a lot of the time a functioning homeless encampment needs something from all the individual members in order to continue functioning well.
And the police fit in this equation in some sort of sweet zone where they don’t go looking for trouble unless the homeless bring trouble to them. Or if the orders are handed down from the top that the police are going to intervene on the camp they do so obediently. Otherwise the public and the law enforcement mostly just look the other way.
Politicians on the other hand are always looking to pimp the homeless problem out for their own benefit. Those players can’t be trusted because they will always offer solutions that will line their own pockets and make the situation worse if not stay just as bad as it was before they got involved. Some people will be helped but the cost benefit analysis showing the numbers saved versus the money spent is never worth the money spent. And they are not taking into account how likely the people who the politicians did save were to get back on their feet without their help.
I want help for the homeless but I’m also not naive enough to think that homelessness can be brought to as the media says an “end.” That’s just absurd to think that all homeless people will willfully go into a controlled living environment and stay and return to structured every day life. It’s never going to happen.
That’s why it takes smart approaches on an individual by individual case study to start building macro solutions for the homeless problem by dividing the homeless into major categories and then into sub categories. Because the ones who have hope to be saved may be living among others who will never be pulled out of homelessness. The first thing to do is to offer environments that will suit these two major categories first and then work from there.
But as long as politicians are involved by using the media as a lever pivoting on a fulcrum to move the agenda in the favor of the politicians real successful solutions to homelessness on a massive level will never be achieved.
