Homeless encampment grows on Apple property in Silicon Valley

[oliv__]

"Clearing the camp likely will be difficult both logistically — it’s more challenging to remove structures and vehicles that don’t run than tents — and ethically — there are few places for the displaced residents to go."

This might be an unpopular opinion, but since when did kicking "a sprawling camp of dozens of people, a maze of broken-down vehicles and a massive amount of trash" off of your private property become unethical? I sure as hell wouldn't want to live in that kind of "ethical" world.

[sp332]

The problem is in the part you quoted - when you get them off your property, they don't stop existing. Where do you want them to go to?

[brailsafe]

Well, it became unethical after everyone who had huge budgets bought up all the property, displacing everyone who couldn't. In a sense, it's a question of the ethics of owning property being inherently displacing. If there is only private property that nobody wants others on, and public property that isn't housing and nobody wants others on, then you're kind of both screwed and you're subject to the consequences of the system that let you have those things in the first place.

[judge2020]

Probably just internal employee pushback against doing such a thing, likely because the homelessness problem is well-known and they honestly don't have a place to go. Plus, when they're on Apple property, all it does is make it not look like utopia on earth; assuming they keep to themselves and don't impede traffic nor destroy property it doesn't affect Apple operations.

[underseacables]

Well it’s California, and a hot button issue that many blame corporations for. Once the woke crowd gets involved it could mean chaos at Apple; damages, employee walkouts, press etc. You’re absolutely right but Apple won’t act unless they are confident they can control the narrative.

Surprised they haven’t offered to teach them how to code, or some other virtue signaling

[swiley]

It's unethical in the same place where building large apartment complexes on private land is also illegal. They have to have somewhere to go and people don't want their view blocked by a building.

[guerrilla]

When? Always. Good luck finding a popular ethical system where it's moral to have millions of times more than you need while others have nothing and then turn then away: Christianity, Islam, Utilitarianism, Buddhism...

[CryptoPunk]

There is an entire industry of government funded NGOs who work with the homeless, who rely on these kinds of precepts, like evicting squatters being unethical, being accepted, for their funding. They're the ones who place enormous pressure on others to adopt this extreme compassion worldview.

[hamburgerwah]

I could not conceive of a more poetic example of silicon valley dystopia than the richest entity in the history of the world stymied to come up with a solution to help 35 people suffering on it's throne room doorstep.

What a terrible joke silicon valley has become.

[awsthro00945]

I read this, and my first thought was "what are they supposed to do? buy houses for all these people? Yea, Apple could afford it, but then they'll be sending the message that if you want Apple to buy you a house, all you have to do is pitch a tent on their lawn".

And then it reminded me of a quote from The West Wing, after Toby uses the president's name to pull some strings for a random homeless person he happened to run into:

> President Bartlet: "Toby, if we start pulling strings like this, you don't think every homeless veteran will come out of the woodwork?"

> Toby: "I can only hope, sir."

I know that "solving" homelessness isn't really as simple as just having the wealthiest company on the planet buy homes for people, but... it could be a start.

[AndrewKemendo]

Meanwhile, San Jose is gearing up to clear a much larger camp at West Hedding and Spring streets, near the San Jose airport. That clean-up, which comes at the behest of the Federal Aviation Administration, could displace more than 200 people — some of whom might move to the Apple camp or other nearby camps.

You could pluck that right out of some dystopian future novel. I think we live in those worlds now actually - it's just unevenly distributed.

[guerrilla]

The double-speak of "clean-up" in these articles is just the cherry on top.

[nradov]

A lot of South Bay residents are still unaware of how many homeless people are living here. If you want to see the real extent of the problem go for a bike ride along any of our creek trails. Some areas are packed full of tents and makeshift shelters.

If you're in a position to donate some money I know HomeFirst Services does good work.

https://www.homefirstscc.org/

[blamazon]

This is tangential, but I’ve always thought that disused office space would make an okay crash pad if I ended up homeless. Parking lots make scouting easy, and nondestructive entry is easy on most lower-security offices. Put on a hard hat, like 10 bucks at Home Depot, walk right in and out. If things get hot, hop to another office building.

[lumost]

I knew someone who worked at a particular office which had a computer lab as the IT person. This lab had a server room that served as an office and had just enough room to squeeze in a sleeping bag.

This person lived in that space for 6 years. I’m not sure if their boss ever figured it out or simply remained willfully ignorant.

[jdavis703]

Cupertino has one of the worst jobs to housing imbalances in SV. This is inevitable if there’s a shortage of homes.

[jxramos]

I was wondering when this would happen. There's been a steady sprawl of camps on all the highway exits/entrances by 280 and 85 in all the bush and trees that grow there. Cupertino seemed to keep it more or less contained and off the sidewalks, but that was about 2 years ago. When you ride on the high double decker buses you can see all the camps not visible at car height level that line the freeways. It's nuts.

Wait the article is actually talking about a San Jose location, the homeless camp is even visible via satellite view: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Component+Dr,+San+Jose,+CA...

[samirsd]

can't even read the article, so many popups

[yuppie_scum]

Its easy to be a saint in paradise

[swiley]

I wonder how long before the doughnut gets taken over or burnt down.

[morpheos137]

Homeless people don't work from home.

[fshbbdssbbgdd]

Who’s Bezos supposed to buy the homes from? It seems like there is already a higher than average number of people living per house here, so distribution of housing is not really the problem. The total number of homes is too low. It would help if Bezos could build a huge number of new housing units, but that’s illegal (which is the problem).

[lettergram]

That’s not why they are homeless.

[hourislate]

Apple should house these poor people at HQ. With employees working from home they should have a lot of office space that could be converted into rooms for the homeless. I'm sure there are fitness facilities they could use for basic hygiene and plenty of cafeterias that could feed them.

[Breefield]

Poe’s law strikes again.

[whynotminot]

Imagine being this clueless about how cafeterias work when the employees aren’t in the office.