Advanced Conversation with Jennifer on Homelessness in the U.S.

9,929 views ・ 2019-10-31

English with Jennifer


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Hi. I'm Jennifer from English with Jennifer, and I'm here with another
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current issue for us to consider together. If you'd like to communicate
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more confidently and effectively in English, be sure to subscribe to my
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channel. And if you'd like to get the most you can out of your studies here on
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YouTube, then consider becoming a member of my channel. There are three different levels.
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Click to check out all the perks. If you're looking for the ultimate
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learning experience, then book a private lesson with me. You'll get 30 minutes of
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highly personalized instruction. I'll put the link in the video description.
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In this video, I'm going to share vocabulary and information related to homelessness
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in the U.S. I'm not here to blame anyone or promote a specific political agenda.
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I'd like for us to consider different viewpoints as we try to identify causes,
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effects, and possible solutions to the problem. As an English language teacher,
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I'm here to offer support that language learners will need to follow and
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participate in discussions about homelessness.
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Are you ready to get started?
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"Homeless" can be a noun or an adjective. We can talk about "the homeless" to refer
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to all people who have no home. Just as we can talk about the rich, the poor,
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the elderly, the famous, we can also talk about the homeless to refer to that
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whole population. They're people without homes. They're homeless: be homeless,
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become homeless, a homeless person, homeless people, the homeless. We can also
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talk about "homelessness" as a situation or a state. In this video, we're going to
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address the current homeless crisis. Homelessness is an increasing problem in
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certain areas. When people are homeless, they generally live on the street.
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That could be a park, bench a city sidewalk, or a bridge underpass -- that place under a bridge.
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You may also hear a reference to Skid Row.
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This is a really run-down place in any city. Skid Row is associated with cheap
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businesses, cheap bars, cheap hotels, and buildings in bad condition.
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It's a place where you'd expect to find homeless people, drugs, and alcohol.
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Someone can be on Skid Row, live on Skid Row, end up on Skid Row. Today we also hear about tent cities.
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A tent city is a large group of tents being used as temporary housing.
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We sometimes associate tents with emergency situations, like housing for
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refugees, but in the U.S. today, tent cities are appearing in cities that have
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large populations of homeless people. Tent campers may need to move from location
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to location, depending on how strict the local authorities need to be with the
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homeless. The closer these tent cities are to neighborhoods and to businesses,
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the more anxious residents and business owners become.
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We've had homeless people in the U.S. for a long time, but the numbers in some
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places are so high right now that people are referring to the situation as a
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crisis, a humanitarian crisis. Have we reached the breaking point? That's the
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point at which law and order fall apart.
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A society, a city, or a community can be
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at the breaking point, reach the breaking point, or be past the breaking point.
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There's a lot of evidence that points to how serious conditions are. People are
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dying on the streets. There's crime, disorder, and gang activity. The problem
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is the seeming inability to stop the spread of all these crimes and tragedies.
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We can say that crime is rampant in some areas. That means that it's spreading and
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beyond control. Sometimes street fights are among the homeless. We can call them
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brawls. They are noisy and very public. Some acts of violence are between the
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homeless and ordinary residents. Crimes have gone both ways: crimes are committed
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by and against the homeless.
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Living on the streets isn't allowed by law,
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so if homelessness is a crime, why aren't more people being arrested? Some police
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departments are feeling the stress of trying to keep order, but knowing they
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lack authority to enforce the law.
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Arrests are sometimes made if a more serious crime is committed, but then
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people are let go. There are repeat offenders -- people who have committed the
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same crime multiple times, but the criminal justice system isn't working, and
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residents in certain cities feel vulnerable to attack.
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They feel their streets aren't safe anymore.
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A lot of finger-pointing
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is taking place. People want to place the blame somewhere. Are the police officers
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doing their job? Are local politicians and officials taking authority away from
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police officers? Have the drug dealers and gangs made the situation worse?
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Are cities not providing enough housing? Some complain that too many people
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have turned their backs on the problem; they've chosen to ignore it.
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Politicians argue that it's hard to implement solutions without enough
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funding and support.
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What are some contributing factors? Is homelessness merely a social problem?
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Most recognize that its larger and more complex than that. It's an economic
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problem. It's a mental health problem. It's a drug abuse problem.
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Some argue we've become a society of the haves and the have nots: some have money;
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others don't. Some point to the need for affordable housing as a cause. They argue
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that there's a connection between homelessness and a housing crisis.
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Is there really a shortage of housing? Some say yes; others argue no. It's true
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that rent in Los Angeles, for example, has gone up dramatically. Tenants, the people
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who rent property, complain that landlords jack up the rent. But others
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say it's just a fact of life. Not everyone can live where they want to.
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They find smaller and cheaper housing in less popular areas. Is that the answer?
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Move to another city? Move to another state? Some choose to find roommates to
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share the rent or they move in with family. Some politicians and residents
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believe that one solution is rent control. They say that the law should
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limit how much a landlord could ask for, and that rent hikes increases should
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take into consideration what the minimum wages.
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However, rent control has a downside. Landlords could choose to convert their
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rental properties into owner-occupied properties. And if the law makes it more
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difficult to evict someone, meaning force them to leave because they can't pay,
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then landlords will become increasingly more cautious and they'll choose to rent
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their properties only to people they feel confident can pay.
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It's important to consider the housing market as a possible factor in this problem
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because not all homeless people are unemployed drug addicts. That would be a
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stereotype. Some homeless people do have jobs, but their wages never increased as
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much as their rent, and they had to leave their homes. There is a so-called hidden
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population of homeless people who live out of their cars. You don't see them on
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the street. Some may have jobs. Some may receive government money, but that money
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isn't enough to pay rent in the city.
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Some politicians proposed building denser housing and creating more
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available space for low-income housing. But other residents worry about the
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safety of their neighborhoods and the value of their properties. If they have
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more expensive real estate and then cheaper housing is built in their
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neighborhoods, the value of their property may go down. Similar worries
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arise when politicians talk about building homeless shelters in a
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community. On the one hand, people want the homeless off the streets. On the
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other hand, they don't want to live next to a homeless shelter. This kind of
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attitude is called nimbyism. You'll hear and see the word NIMBY. It stands for "not
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in my backyard." NIMBY can be a person or an attitude.
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We often use "shelter" as a noun.
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A homeless person needs shelter, finds shelter. A tent is a form of
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shelter, but when we talk about a homeless shelter, we're talking about a
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large building that can temporarily house and feed hundreds.
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Some homeless people don't like shelters. They may say that shelters can be too crowded.
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Maybe they're not clean enough. Maybe they're not completely safe, or they have strict rules.
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Some politicians see bridge shelters as a possible solution.
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These would be places that could help the homeless get off the streets and ideally
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transition to a stable life. But if such shelters are to provide clean rooms,
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health care, and drug addiction treatment, will there be enough tax dollars to pay
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for everything? And don't forget that many don't want any kind of shelter
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built in their neighborhoods. They feel it affects their safety and the value of
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local real estate.
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One argument for homeless shelters
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and low-income housing is that it's likely cheaper to house very poor
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people than to pay for all their needs once they become homeless. People living
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on the streets cost a city money in terms of emergency room visits, police
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enforcement, sanitation, and such. So is the answer to have more safety nets?
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More ways to catch people before they become homeless?
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Drug abuse needs to be considered. A trip to Skid Row in any city will likely
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reveal drug use on the street. Needles are among the things that litter sidewalks.
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Many recognize that substance abuse is fueling homelessness. If someone
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is mentally ill and on drugs, how can they be a functioning member of society?
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But what's the answer? Treatment or jail? Some say that a new
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level of tolerance has appeared in certain U.S. cities. Do we now have an
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open-air drug market? I've heard that small amounts of drugs on your body will
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no longer get you in trouble with the police in a city like Seattle, Washington.
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That's not to say that the police officers don't care. It more likely means
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they lack authority to fight this crime or that the criminal justice system is
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too lenient on drug users and drug sellers. Should we as a society talk
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about large-scale drug intervention? What would that look like? How would it be
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funded? Some argue for drug treatment programs within prisons.
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Could specialized prisons handle people with mental illnesses and drug addictions?
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Some propose that prisons with health care, counseling, and medication would
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help us slowly crawl out of the current homeless crisis, but again we'd have to
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consider where the funds would come from.
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I recently watched a video about the homeless problem in Seattle, Washington,
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and I listened to the concerns of some local business owners. There was a
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grocery store owner and a woman who ran a clothing boutique. Both could report
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incidents of shoplifting by homeless. A shoplifter is someone who steals things
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from a store. They felt that little could be done to stop the situation.
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In the case of the clothing boutique owner, she closed her store and then reopened it
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in a neighboring city.
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And in some areas where the homeless population is increasing,
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some small business owners are choosing to stay and they search for temporary solutions.
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Increased trash from the homeless population tends to litter the
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sidewalks. Some small business owners hire private sanitation control.
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That means they hire people to clean up around their businesses. It's a helpful
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act, but it's a band-aid solution. That's the kind of solution that repairs things
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on the surface, but it's not a solution that addresses the source of the problem.
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Residents of communities where the homeless population is growing are
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concerned that increasing taxes may not necessarily be part of the solution
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because the money may not be well spent. When people complain about throwing
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money at the problem, they're worried about how the money is being spent.
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Is the money being used to find long-term solutions? In all their frustration, some
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people become numb to the problem. They're emotionally overloaded, so they
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feel nothing. They appear to be apathetic.
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The west coast has been hit hard by the homeless crisis. The media has given a
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lot of attention to Los Angeles and Seattle in particular. Property crime in
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Seattle is higher than in most other U.S. cities. People point to the correlation
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between homelessness and crime. What are the numbers? In Seattle, there are about
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11,000 homeless people. In LA, there are about 36,000 in the city and about
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60,000 and LA county. California and the entire West Coast have seen the worst of
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this problem in recent years. There are similar concerns about homelessness in
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San Francisco and Portland, Oregon. But there are other regions battling
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homelessness in our country. I just read about Austin, Texas, for example. I don't
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have the time to share all the details of this problem, but I do want to mention
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a group within the homeless population: veterans. A veteran is someone who served
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in the military, and, sadly, a good number of veterans are homeless today.
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Mental health issues and disabilities often contribute to their situation.
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It's also sad to note that the beautiful city of Seattle now has a new nickname: Freeattle.
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It's supposedly attractive to homeless people because of free services and the
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lack of law enforcement in the downtown area, which some people describe as a
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free-for-all, meaning you can do as you please.
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The police haven't been able to enforce the law in many cases. Arrests often
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don't lead to convictions. In one documentary, I heard that Seattle police
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stopped issuing tickets for small acts of incivility. That means there are
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things that shouldn't be done in public, but they're being done so frequently
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that it's hard to stop them from happening.
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Again, residents complain that officials are turning their backs on the problem or
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they're throwing money at the problem. There's a need to address the causes and
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stop focusing on the symptoms.
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However, there is a bright spot in all of this.
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There are communities with much lower populations of homeless people.
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That means they're doing something right, something that could be copied by troubled cities.
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These other towns and cities have community outreach programs
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that offer services, inform people of services, and refer people to the places
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where they can get help. Sometimes local firefighters and police officers
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participate in these efforts. What more can be done? You can be sure that more
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proposals will be made during election season.
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We'll end here. There's a lot to think about. I invite you to post opinions in the comments,
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but I ask that everyone express their ideas respectfully and with maturity.
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Let's be open to hearing different views.
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If you found this lesson useful, please like this video
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and share it with others learning English.
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If you'd like to talk about homelessness or any other topic with me one-on-one, book a 30-minute
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private lesson. The link is in the video description.
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As always, thanks for watching and happy studies!
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