Mrs. Liberty is from OC, and she told me that road in the vid was along the Santa Ana River. These are exactly the very people of which you speak.
I know. I live nearby. The media have covered this situation.
It used to be the case, people went into "treatment" for substance addiction, when they "hit bottom." And the resources were Spartan, unless you were Betty Ford.
Obamacare provides reimbursements which are so high, that everybody gets "Betty Ford" treatment. Corporations own sober living housing, separate day-treatment, vans for transporting them around.
Addicts/alcoholics are "head hunted" nationwide. "How would you like to spend the summer by the beach, get sober, eat nice meals, belong to a gym?" If the answer is yes, they are enrolled for Obamacare, and put on planes tomorrow.
A typical day in "treatment," includes "one-n-one," "group," "testing," health care, visits to the beach, good food, rides to area 12-step meetings in Mercedes Benz vans. They live in "group homes," of six "patients," and one house manager.
Your federal government is funding this. Republicans haven't made a sound about curbing such abuses of the taxpayers money. Why not?
The media are making a big deal over the "opioid crisis," so what politician would even dare "de-fund" such vital public interest activities.
If you have ever had business dealings with government rules, you know there are ways to make a bunch of money, the defense-aerospace industries, and now "health care" serve as examples.
Back in the day, Betty Ford cost $1,000 per day. Today these privately owned entities bill insurance companies in the multiples of this.
Once finished with such programs, the addict/alcoholic may return home to Omaha, or he may stay here. Where would you wish to be? (Projected high in OC is about 75 F. No rain.) Life is good.
Many get drunk or high. Relapse. So the clock starts on another billing/reimbursement clock. More taxpayer money down the wazoo.
The same younger people who have been educated to believe boys and girls can switch if they want, also think addicts/alcoholics are disabled. They pity them, feel sorry for them. They make zero moral assignments.
The addicts/alcoholics are petty thieves. They dredged 1,000 bicycles from the SA River by their encampment. But they merely blocked access to that section of the river path, a county quasi park.
I can go on and on. In St. George and Prescott a 3 br. 2 ba. home in a subdivision costs $250-300 thousand. An identical home in Orange County costs $500-900 thousand. And contrary to uninformed claims, they are building new infill housing blocks from places these "homeless" congregate.
You cannot discriminate against the disabled, under ADA. Treatment companies will pay double the going rent market, for housing. Neighbors are up in arms, but have repeatedly lost in court. Wealthy cities like Newport Beach wasted $ millions, trying to curb "sober-living" facilities, to no avail.
So by all means, sit back outside California. On one hand say "somebody should do something about the opioid crisis," then watch the "something" in action, NIMBY "not in my backyard."
I have seen thousands of alcoholics and addicts enter 12 step recovery. It is not possible to separate the ones who will "get it," the first time, from those who will drink and use drugs for decades, then die.
Too bad they cannot live in big reservations, distant from our busy suburban lives. Free to forage for food, instead of rob homes, cars etc.
The ones living on the river generally aren't "in treatment," but they have been and decided it wasn't for them.
