XPost: soc.retirement, alt.politics.socialism, alt.politics.scorched-earth   
   XPost: alt.lesbian.trainwreck   
   From: communist-scum@womenvoteproject.org   
      
   As California's homeless population skyrockets, the cost of   
   cleaning up the state's numerous shanty towns is also hitting   
   record highs -- and the price tag is likely to keep rising as   
   workers tasked with tossing the vagrants' syringes, feces and   
   buckets of urine fight for safer conditions.   
      
   The Golden State's homeless population of more than 130,000   
   people is now about 25 percent of the nationwide total, and   
   cleaning up after the surging group is getting costly -- topping   
   $10 million in 2016-17. But the human cost is getting equally   
   untenable, a workers' advocate says.   
      
   In an official grievance filed last week, the union representing   
   California's maintenance workers accused the state of subjecting   
   its members to hazardous conditions without proper training or   
   equipment.   
      
   "It is the Union's contention that Caltrans is not ensuring that   
   our members are being provided the appropriate Personal   
   Protective Equipment (PPE), necessary training, necessary   
   vaccinations and proper compensation for the dangerous hazmat   
   duties they are performing when cleaning up homeless encampments   
   on State Caltrans property," International Union of Operating   
   Engineers director Steve Crouch said in the complaint.   
      
   Crouch told KTVU on Monday that maintenance crews often have to   
   work in areas where the ground is muddy, slippery and ridden   
   with debris that can include objects that are exceedingly sharp.   
   Other items are simply dangerous to touch, such as potentially   
   toxic or biologically unsafe materials.   
      
   "Feces and urine and feminine products and all kinds of things   
   on the ground; needles, syringes, you know they use buckets,   
   five-gallon buckets for toilets and it gets really disgusting,"   
   he said.   
      
   Besides the prospect of touching dangerous material, workers are   
   also confronted with the open hostility from the "residents" of   
   the encampments they are trying to clear.   
      
   "Sometime they have pit bulls in there. They'll, you know, let   
   the dogs loose to chase the Caltrans workers out," Crouch said.   
   "Sometimes they'll throw rocks at the Caltrans workers."   
      
   In an interview with the Sacramento Bee, one Caltrans worker who   
   asked not to be named due to fear of retribution said he's been   
   involved in six cleanups so far this year but only been given a   
   pair of gloves as protection.   
      
   “I’ve been exposed to blood, needles, women’s feminine products…   
   five-gallon buckets of human feces,” he told The Bee.   
      
   "I’ve been exposed to blood, needles, women’s feminine products…   
   five-gallon buckets of human feces."   
      
   - Caltrans maintenance worker   
   The department told KTVU in a statement that, "Safety is a top   
   priority for Caltrans and we will carefully review the   
   grievance."   
      
   The surge of homelessness in the Golden State is also costing   
   the state tens of millions of taxpayer dollars. Caltrans said in   
   its Mile Marker magazine the department has spent about $29.2   
   million in cleaning up encampments since fiscal year 2012-13.   
      
   In the past year alone, Caltrans estimated the cleanup costs in   
   2016-17 topped $10 million, a 34 percent increase over the   
   previous year across all 12 regional districts. Maintenance   
   crews encountered about 7,000 homeless camps on rights of way of   
   the state's 254 highways.   
      
   California's homeless population ticked up by 13.7 percent to   
   134,278 people in the past year, about 25 percent of the   
   national total, according to a U.S Department of Housing and   
   Urban Development report.   
      
   "Homelessness is a problem throughout the country, but is more   
   visible in California where HUD reported 68.2 percent of the   
   homeless population lives in unsheltered locations such as   
   streets and parks," Caltrans said in its report. "That is the   
   highest percentage in the country."   
      
   A typical camp cleanup takes days to complete, according to the   
   agency, with a notification first posted at the site at least 72   
   hours before crews arrive.   
      
   Crouch said Monday he hopes his grievance causes the department   
   to focus on keeping the transportation system moving.   
      
   "Their job is to maintain the highways and freeways, you know,   
   that's filling the potholes, that's doing the striping of the   
   lines, that's doing the guardrails alone the edge, that's   
   trimming the trees and shrubs and bushes along the highway," he   
   said. "Their job is not to clean up homeless encampments."   
      
   http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/05/01/california-highway-workers-   
   face-buckets-human-feces-needles-as-homeless-crisis-worsens.html   
           
      
   --- SoupGate-DOS v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)