The homeless in Anaheim and Harbor Boulevard

[BadPinkTink]

I keep seeing people asking about the homeless people in Anaheim and around Disneyland and being worried for their safety when walking. Do you not have homeless people in your neighbourhood / town / city??

Seeing homeless people is not something that is unusual to me, I pass homeless people when I walk to my local mall.

I have always seen homeless people in Dublin city centre.

I lived in Germany about 20 years ago and in the winter the homeless would be doing round trips on the trams at night time. Every night when I got the tram home half the people would be homeless.

I lived in London and again, homeless people sleeping under bridges is a very common sight.

Seeing homeless people as I walk to Disneyland is not something that concerns me, as its something I am used to seeing on a day to day basis.

 

[JoelB]

Yes, plenty of people live in places where crossing paths with a (readily apparent) homeless person is not a daily occurrence, hence the questions.

 

[felice]

Whilst it was certainly true, pre-pandemic, that there were a few homeless people around the area surrounding DL and DCA, to be fair to them they didn't bother tourists at all and have not been a problem. Mind you, LA now, as a city, are trying their best to get to grips with the problem in recent months as it was getting bad in Venice Beach, to mention one area of the city.

 

[buzzrelly]

I keep seeing people asking about the homeless people in Anaheim and around Disneyland and being worried for their safety when walking. Do you not have homeless people in your neighbourhood / town / city??

Seeing homeless people is not something that is unusual to me, I pass homeless people when I walk to my local mall.

I have always seen homeless people in Dublin city centre.

I lived in Germany about 20 years ago and in the winter the homeless would be doing round trips on the trams at night time. Every night when I got the tram home half the people would be homeless.

I lived in London and again, homeless people sleeping under bridges is a very common sight.

Seeing homeless people as I walk to Disneyland is not something that concerns me, as its something I am used to seeing on a day to day basis.

I live in a suburb, so no, I do not see homeless people as I walk around my neighborhood. Nor do I see homeless people in the city where I work…maybe it's not a thing here? We do see the occasional panhandler at exits of highways or in grocery store parking lots.

I'm not overly concerned about it myself, but I can understand people having questions and/or concerns about this.

 

[MillauFr]

My biggest concern is crossing Harbor and Katella as a pedestrian

 

[DizMe]

There are a lot of homeless people in my town. Sadly, many of them have serious mental illness /addiction problems. Their behavior can be unpredictable and aggressive at times. I think that's what makes people leery.

 

[foolish_mortals]

As people have said not many see homeless daily. Especially if they live in an area that is not walkable or without public transit. I can understand people being wary even if they have seen homeless people before. The last time we walked down Katella we had an obviously ill individual following us yelling obscenities.

MOST are friendly or keep to themselves but it really only takes one encounter with one who is not to make some people nervous.

 

[GBRforWDW]

My biggest concern is crossing Harbor and Katella as a pedestrian

There are plenty of crosswalks with long signals. As long as you follow normal rules for crossing the street and wait for cars to stop, it's not too crazy.

There are a lot of homeless people in my town. Sadly, many of them have serious mental illness /addiction problems. Their behavior can be unpredictable and aggressive at times. I think that's what makes people leery.

Yes, this. I was trying to figure out a good way to say this when I first saw the thread.

Overall though, the homeless I saw in Anaheim didn't ask for anything, they mainly huddled in the bus stop areas, and kept to themselves.

 

[BadPinkTink]

Thanks for the replies, its very interesting to me, as I seem to be from a very different socio economic background than many of the posters here on DIS who visit Disneyland. I guess I just have very different life experiences to many people who post on here.

 

[SteveH]

Summer of 2019 there was a pretty good size convention going on so a lot of people with the packed hotels going back and forth. We saw a lot of bums and junkies hanging out at the corners by 7-11 & CVS, the bus stops along Katella were occupied by the same but they were asleep mostly. Go to enjoy the wondrous sits and sounds of the bums and junkies taking a whizz where ever they saw fit too. The vast majority won't say much as Anaheim passed an ordinance dealing with aggressive panhandling, but it still made a lot of young families very nervous about crossing the street there. IMHO If I was running one of hotels I'd want something done as I probably is a factor of people not wanting to return the convention hotels.

If you haven't read the outstanding article about the new Meth from the Atlantic I really encourage you to do it, gives you a much better idea of what we're dealing with and why the homelessness issue is getting worse... much worse. ‘I Don’t Know That I Would Even Call It Meth Anymore’

As for our community, yes we have them but like Anaheim our cities have taken steps to keep them from clogging up the driveways and street corners. We have plenty of services for those that want and will accept the help, but for those with drug or mental illness there is not much we can do if they don't want the help. If you read the article it's clear this problem is way beyond any easy resolutions and for some there is little if any hope of getting them back after their drug use.

 

[gelatoni fan]

I had classmates from Asia where homeless people kneel on the street and bow repeatedly as the primary method of begging for money. When we went to a conference together, a homeless person approached one of my classmates to ask for money and she legitimately thought this was going to be an armed robbery ending in the guy pulling out a gun.

I think these are legitimate questions as the behavior of homeless people can be different in other cities. Some parts of LA are known for shootings and many people don't see Anaheim as different from those areas.

 

[BadPinkTink]

Some parts of LA are known for shootings and many people don't see Anaheim as different from those areas.

See thats the difference with me, I know the street names and general locations of places like Skid Row or Compton etc, the places where I most defiantly would not go, even in a car. I guess I'm more streetwise than most, and know the difference between a major tourist area which has suffered an increase of homeless people like Anaheim and a very unsafe most defiantly not a tourist area like Skid Row and tent city.

 

[MillauFr]

There are plenty of crosswalks with long signals. As long as you follow normal rules for crossing the street and wait for cars to stop, it's not too crazy.

The cars making right turns are a big risk to pedestrians. Plus the speed limits are way too high on those streets. There are plenty of cars doing 35 to 40 mph. If they hit someone at that speed the pedestrian would be dead.

 

[Halloweenqueen]

The only annoying thing about staying on Harbor is the "Christians" with their megaphones.

There are a few homeless with signs panhandling or selling small items. We have never been approached and feel very safe walking back and forth to our hotel.

 

[GBRforWDW]

The cars making right turns are a big risk to pedestrians. Plus the speed limits are way too high on those streets. There are plenty of cars doing 35 to 40 mph. If they hit someone at that speed the pedestrian would be dead.

Yeah that's understandable and makes sense now. I had the intersection from the hotels across the street in mind, but I can see the Katella/harbor intersection being terrible for the reasons you mentioned. I only crossed there early morning on a weekend and wasn't too bad then, but understand that's not the general reality.

 

[MillauFr]

Does Harbor have the Covid protestors out in force? They were out everyday when I was in Las Vegas in August...

 

[MillauFr]

The question for me is the homeless more annoying now days or is the Covid protestors?

 

[DuskKodesh]

We have a decent amount of Homeless in Dayton and I used to commute through downtown for school so I was pretty used to it. After school things shifted in my life, I live the same distance away but I never see them because I go to different areas so I understand how people in even big metropolitan areas may not be used to it. That said they were kind people and just want food and shelter, used to bring my change from buying lunch.

The only annoying thing about staying on Harbor is the "Christians" with their megaphones.

Now THAT would bug me. Couldn't take it, would need to step away. Is that normal for areas around DL? I'm loosely planning a future DL trip but honestly might bump it behind a second Universal Orlando trip depending on how the spouse's vacation days go.

 

[Lilsia]

Thanks for the replies, its very interesting to me, as I seem to be from a very different socio economic background than many of the posters here on DIS who visit Disneyland. I guess I just have very different life experiences to many people who post on here.

I think that it is more that America is so big, that it is not possible for everyone to live in an urban setting. The majority of people in this Country live in suburban areas and that is not where the homeless usually are found. Many Americans are very sheltered from a lot of harsh realities, but the reverse is true in your thinking that "most" are exposed to what you have been. But having a questions and concerns about the homeless in that area, is a valid question. There may have been issues that people need to know about and avoid. So I don't think that it has anything to do with not knowing that homeless exist, more about the particular situation around DL.

 

[GBRforWDW]

Now THAT would bug me. Couldn't take it, would need to step away. Is that normal for areas around DL? I'm loosely planning a future DL trip but honestly might bump it behind a second Universal Orlando trip depending on how the spouse's vacation days go.

When I was there in August, the only person I saw that could be remotely classified as interacting with guests was an older guy playing his electric guitar and singing at the stoplight along harbor right outside of the main gate. His songs were just classic rock mostly