Casper Mayor Bruce Knell pressed the panic button during an interview with local news media Cowboy State Daily published on Aug. 31. According to him, the city's homeless population had topped about 200 people and had created a "mess" whenever they roam the city's parks and streets.
"It's like nothing I've ever seen. It's third-world country stuff happening in Casper, Wyoming," said Knell. "They destroyed everything. It's horrible."
The hardest hit was the city's vacant Econo Lodge motel, which had been closed due to flooding. Homeless people took over the hotel, causing millions in destruction. Photos of the motel rooms published by the outlet show trash, towels and bed sheets littered across the floors.
The city subsequently condemned the motel, and the bank that owned the property had to board it up to prevent homeless people from entering. "It was inhabitable, and it was unsafe," the mayor said, adding that other homeless people have moved into abandoned properties with no electricity or running water.
According to Knell, some of the homeless people occupy parks and bike paths while others choose to sleep in their cars. Many of them loiter in the city's downtown area, however, leaving behind about 500 pounds of human feces that city staffers cleaned up.
"In desperate times, people do desperate things. Unfortunately, we're the ones left having to deal with it," the mayor remarked, adding the homeless population was responsible for some of the city's crimes.
"We know very well we cannot litigate our way or arrest our way out of the problem, but our police need some teeth to start dealing with the squatting. They're just causing so many problems."
Not just in Casper: Number of homeless people in U.S. is growing
Homelessness is not just an acute problem in Casper, but the whole United States. According to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, more than half a million people sleep in shelters and unsheltered places not meant for human habitation – such as cars and encampments – on any given night.
More than 300,000 men, women and children in the U.S. stay in homeless shelters. An additional 200,000 or so spend each night unsheltered, whether on the street or in other locations.
Families with children represent 30 percent of America's homeless population, and an additional six percent are adults under the age of 25. About 20 percent of homeless people in the U.S. are considered "chronically homeless," 60 percent of whom have no shelter at all.
While California accounts for a mere 12 percent of the nation's population, it is home to a whopping 28 percent of homeless Americans and an astronomical 47 percent of unsheltered homeless people. Despite throwing $17 billion at homelessness since 2018, the problem has continued to grow. (Related: Homelessness in California's state capital has risen by almost 70% since 2019)
California's approach has been disjointed and scattershot under more than a decade of complete Democratic control of state government, with Gov. Gavin Newsom blasting fellow Democrats as being "as dumb as they want to be" when it comes to homelessness.
With the gargantuan sum to combat homelessness, the state could, theoretically, have just paid the rent for every unhoused person in California for those four years. But even if the Golden State wants to pay rent for every homeless person, there just isn't enough affordable housing to go around.
Visit HomelessAgenda.com for more stories on homelessness in the United States.
Watch this video about the explosion of homelessness in America.
This video is from the EARTH SHAKING NEWS channel on Brighteon.com.
More related stories:
Homelessness in the U.S. reaches RECORD HIGH amid worsening economic downturn post-pandemic.
Poll shows 86% of Americans believe homelessness is a major problem in the U.S.
Number of homeless people in Los Angeles County surges to more than 75,000.
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