engaged with roughly 215 people on the street

Key word being “engaged”, later they slipped in there that 80% end up not getting “helped”

Are they supposed to name the exact agencies and businesses involved

Yes, it’s called transparency. Maybe they didn’t have to mention them all but a single concrete example would have definitely helped.

But you know what they did repeat in the article? the fact that they are pushing for people not to give money to the homeless directly

Douglas County had created a team of experts, known as the “Homeless Engagement, Assistance and Resource Team," to help tackle the issue. The HEART team, as county officials call it, is made up of experts in behavioral health and who are deployed in branded vehicles to help people living on the streets.

Ok, that sounds like a great start… let’s see what they actually do… <insert crickets here, not a single follow up>

Here’s how the county handles it. When a report is made about a panhandler or a homeless person, a HEART vehicle is deployed to the area and make an assessment.

Yes, they are basically making panhandling illegal… they are very quick to dispatch police (yes the “HEART” team is also the police) as soon as homeless are reported

Laydon called Douglas County’s approach “housing plus,” which, he said, is a balanced approach to “trauma-informed practices.”

Cool, what does that mean? how it is balanced? how is it different?. Zero details = Vague

“For us,” Laydon added, “‘housing plus’ means wraparound. So, it is housing, but it is also food, shelter, job counseling, mental health counseling. It’s treating those substance abuse issues that we know often come hand in hand with a lot of the issues that the unhoused face.”

This one is actually the first sentence from the article that addresses the real question… yet no mention as to where any of these services are done. They are just shipping people off county The entire $3+ million budget was spent on the “HEART” team to basically find and ship homeless out of county… out of sight out of mind!

Edit: Additionally, I fail to see the relevance of money spent if it actually results in less people unhoused. Denver spent way more money and ended up with a higher unhoused population than before.

So if a county spends $3 million to move 37 homeless people out of county or $10 million to move 1 it’s all the same to you? A basic definition of the effectiveness of a social program is to measure that #1 it accomplishes the goal it set out to do and #2 at what cost…

Look, if they are indeed helping the homeless, KUDOS to them. But I’m far past the point to give any public service, specially so the Police, the benefit of doubt. Show me actual measures, concrete examples, verifiable information and I will happily eat my words and applaud. Even the title making it 86% when they meant 37 people in 2 years seems to be a gimmick to make the whole thing look better than it is

Did you?

They spent almost $3 million in helping 37 people in 2 years (that’s $81,000 a pop) with very vague “getting them help”. Very much looks like most of what they do is ship them to out of county

1. You can offer help, but do not take action until the person you are helping has actually asked. This is of course talking about “real help” not helping someone pick up a book they dropped.

2. It takes a modicum of selfishness to live a healthy life.

3. You CANNOT fool yourself, the sooner you work within your reality the better it will be for you and everyone around you

The only thing stopping me from getting that specific keyboard is a backlight feature. My son likes to play games in dim light

So AI doesn’t know what a milf is?

Doubt it, his decline in the last 8 years have been incredible. If he were a family member we would have been looking for professional help a long time ago.

Can’t imagine he’d be able to remain aware of his surroundings in 2 more years

13 months in jail for getting a 12 year old drunk and raping her repeatedly doesn’t sound like proper punishment… Specially not when he has shown no remorse for his actions

After his release in 2017, van de Velde complained about “all the nonsense” reporting on his crime in the media, claiming that the term pedophile did not apply to him, without expanding further. At the same time he stated not yet having read any of the reporting he was criticizing. The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) condemned his comments at the time, stating that his “lack of remorse and self-pity is breathtaking”.

She technically consented

He got her drunk… Not only she was too young to consent, he made her drunk this invalidating any chance for valid consent even if she was much older.

Well his Wikipedia page is the stuff of horror

In August 2014 van de Velde, then 19 years old, raped a 12-year-old girl he had met on Facebook who lived in Milton Keynes, England. He travelled to her home and, when her mother was out, gave her alcohol and then raped her several times at her home as well as near Furzton Lake which was nearby. The victim would eventually go on to self-harm and once overdosed. Van de Velde returned to the Netherlands after the rape, although he was eventually extradited to the United Kingdom and arrested in January 2016

After his release in 2017, van de Velde complained about “all the nonsense” reporting on his crime in the media, claiming that the term pedophile did not apply to him, without expanding further. At the same time he stated not yet having read any of the reporting he was criticizing. The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) condemned his comments at the time, stating that his “lack of remorse and self-pity is breathtaking”.

The open source equivalent of obsidian is Logseq

Not sure how it actually compares as I have not used obsidian but I love it, it does enough for what I need

Even porn sucks when AI generated

But realistically if you dont get yourself involved then you will be just fine

Unless you are a woman or a minority or disabled or poor or an immigrant or not Christian or …

Because it’s the only path left they have to attain power. They cannot win on merit, debate, ideas, track record, etc… it’s been like that for a while but now they are getting more and more desperate

Which is why you shouldn’t go by any one source…

In person I can’t go anywhere without someone wanting to ask me about it and gushing about how cool it is.

That’s just confirmation bias my dude…

I have seen people out there with clothes, accessories, hairdo, make up that makes me want to vomit… but I am not an asshole and this is not my problem so I do nothing…

On the other hand, I have seen as many people with clothes, accessories, hairdo or make up that makes me want to say “wow, that is so cool”… being a positive thing, I do sometimes tell them “Bud, what an awesome shirt!”… “wow those glasses are super cool!”, etc

The point being, it takes different types of people/attitudes/effort to go out of your way to give a compliment vs an insult… insulting people is harder and riskier, therefore you will see much less of it (how many people go out of their way to warn you you have a bugger hanging out or lettuce on your teeth?)

The penalty, if any, would be the equivalent of you promising, someday, to pay half a penny… If you can find one, but don’t rush… You know what, just forget about the whole thing and apologies for your troubles

The UN: how can we be more of a joke to the world??