"Public spaces belong to the public by right. And the unhoused public, who have the greatest need for public spaces, have therefore the greatest right"
Edit
I kinda made this post out of spite for the fact the most previous post in this community, whose title I quoted/copied, was getting so many downvotes... At the time I posted this, the previous post had about a 30% downvote rate, and it really, really made me mad.
I am relieved tho to see people in the comments here who have real, actual empathy for their fellow humans. Thank you for contributing here.
It blows my mind how normalized it is to hate on those who are struggling. Especially in 20fucking23 when so many of us now are on the verge of it ourselves. Let's be better, everyone - to everyone. I beg you.
I would be cool with chill people setting up tents for a day or two or at night or whatever. But who's going to be picking the used heroin needles up out of the grass and wrangling the drug dealers and gang members when they start showing up? The reason peole don't want tent villages is this, not because they simply hate the "unhoused".
Don't pretend like you've ever seen a needle on the ground. People that say stuff like that are too scared to even walk near a homeless camp, let alone look at the ground while you do so.
There are literally homeless tent villages along the city bike/river trail I use multiple times per week. I ride by homeless people walking along, riding along, and camping a foot off the trail on a regular basis. Some of them have dogs which inevitably are off their leash, and they chase and try to attack me. I literally said I was okay with homeless people, but not the trouble that inevitably follows. And yes, I have seen needles on the ground, so stop making things up to feel like you've made a point lol. They also leave trash everywhere, turned over carts full of their belongings, and random clothes strewn about the grass. Some of them drive their cars along the bike path to get to the homeless village. There are people who obviously are gang bangers who go back into the woods too. It's silly.