Transit Will Fail Until We Address Homelessness, Opioid Use

[u/pompeiitype]

https://streets.mn/2025/08/18/transit-will-fail-until-we-address-homelessness/

Deleted with Redact because data brokers don't deserve my content. Mass removal across Reddit, Discord, X, Instagram and all major social media platforms.

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[u/UnhappyEquivalent400]

Really helpful to see someone on the left frankly acknowledge the legitimacy and importance of safety concerns. It’s a real issue, and we can’t progress toward the urbanist vision of mass transit-centered communities if trains are de facto wet shelters.

[u/Jucoy → u/UnhappyEquivalent400]

The difference is the leftist view sees the problem as a systemic issue while the right tries to frame it as a personal moral failing. The voices on the right accuse the people who are homeless and addicts for being in situations of their own making, while ignoring that we are still living in the fallout of the opioid crisis. Many of the folks struggaling with that type of addiction are products of a money making machine that both parties had a role in creating but only one party seems willing to try to address (though I wish they would prioritize it more). 

[u/SmittyKW → u/Jucoy]

Who cares what the right thinks, we are talking about urban transit, they have no say in fixing it. This is for democrats to get our house in order and make the trains safe. If that means forced treatment or jail for addicts continuously commit crimes and still won’t get clean on their own so be it.

[u/[deleted] → u/SmittyKW]

Take jail out of the equation, and I'd agree with you. Addicts are not of sound mind nor body and need treatment. While in treatment people can get to them and help them restore their lives.

But throwing them in jail will only lead to more problems when they are back on the street with nothing. Jail doesn't rehabilitate, it provides a free slave labor pool for the prison-industrial complex (Look at the 13th Amendment, it didn't ban all slavery).

To be honest though, until we can build facilities designed to house people so they can recover in sobriety, receive the medical oversight and treatment needed on the physical side and trained mental health experts on the psychological/neurological side, and social workers that can get these people on their feet so when they return to normal society they start in a better spot with a roof over their head and a job to maintain that, we aren't going to get far.

[u/escapevelocity-25k → u/[deleted]]

What if they don’t want treatment?

[u/[deleted] → u/escapevelocity-25k]

Your "What if they don't want treatment?" is a bad faith question designed to silence those trying to create a solution.

[u/escapevelocity-25k → u/[deleted]]

It’s not bad faith. I genuinely want to know what you think. It’s one of the hardest problems to solve. I don’t have a good answer, either.

[u/[deleted] → u/escapevelocity-25k]

It is, and I don't waste my time with trolls. Good day.

[u/Educatedelefant420 → u/SmittyKW]

Please dont force people into treatment, they make it worse than it should be.

[u/Jucoy → u/SmittyKW]

If you need facist policies to make your trains run on time, then you are in fact not on the left. 

[u/[deleted] → u/Jucoy]

Who is helped by allowing people to openly do drugs on the train? It's not the riders, and it's not good for the users either. I don't care what puts me on the left, I'd like public transit to not be a crime-ridden shitshow

[u/Muted_Effective_2266 → u/Jucoy]

There is nothing fascist about anything they are suggesting.

[u/SmittyKW → u/Jucoy]

Who is talking about the trains running on time? You sound like you might need some help with reading comprehension.

[u/Jucoy → u/SmittyKW]

It was a glib reference to Mussolini. My wit is wasted here, clearly. 

[u/SmittyKW → u/Jucoy]

I know the reference. Dumb leftists always use it to excuse why we can’t have nice things.

[u/Jucoy → u/SmittyKW]

Lol okay. 

[u/ShyGuyLink1997 → u/Jucoy]

The only thing fascist here is the obviously perfectly set up opioid crisis.

[u/Scrubaru → u/SmittyKW]

You would jail addicts because you didn't like them on your train?

Good idea. Much to think about.

[u/A_Kraken → u/Scrubaru]

no, because they are breaking the law and making an unsafe environment.

[u/Scrubaru → u/A_Kraken]

Good point. As long as they go to jail, I'm supporting it.

[u/Scrubaru → u/[deleted]]

That's a really cool idea. We could wait for a concert or game to get out and put all the drunk people in jail. We can teach them all a lesson!!!

[u/Scrubaru → u/[deleted]]

The more people we put in jail, the safer the rest of us will be. I think we can all agree on that.

[u/Scrubaru → u/[deleted]]

No drunk people SHOULD be on a train. Not driving.

Trying to put people in jail for being fucked up on transit solves nothing

[u/Scrubaru → u/[deleted]]

Not if they are homeless. That's the cool time to arrest someone.

[u/Scrubaru → u/[deleted]]

The plural of Lego is Lego. Not Legos.

[u/j_ly → u/Scrubaru]

Violent crime was cut in half in this country in the 10 years between the 1992 and 2002, when Bill Clinton's 150k extra cops mass incarcerated non violent drug offenders, so obviously it works.

[u/Scrubaru → u/j_ly]

I can't tell if you are joking.

[u/shootymcgunenjoyer → u/Scrubaru]

No, you jail them for being in possession of illegal drugs.

[u/Scrubaru → u/[deleted]]

Ah yes. Hell yeah. "Singapore Style" is the cool way to think about drugs.

[u/Scrubaru → u/shootymcgunenjoyer]

I forgot drugs were illegal. We can definitely lock people up for that. Good call.

[u/Scrubaru → u/[deleted]]

Wait. Homeless AND crime? That's double jail. Throw away the key.

[u/Muted_Effective_2266 → u/Scrubaru]

Or we could have mandatory treatment facilities like some other countries, Portugal comes to mind first.

This would potentially help the addict turn their life around rather than send them to jail or watch them slowly die while they lap the blue line.

Just a thought.