“Detained because of flight risk”
Hes poor, he’s homeless. Where the fuck is he going to go?
The woods.
It is unclear if Gatz was living in the national forest because he was experiencing homelessness.
…Yeah, I think we can safely assume that, yes.
In 2023, the National Homelessness Law Center called on the feds to stop arresting people for living on public lands and shift to a housing- and services-only approach, after undercover Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management police officers shot a disabled man in the back during a removal operation and left (him) paralyzed from the waist down.
He and his family had been living in the Payette National Forest near Boise, Idah, after their landlord reportedly evicted them from their home and they were unable to find space in area shelters.
Just a big reminder that we could end homelessness in America for about $20 billion per year.
That’s about the same amount the federal government pays every year to give farmers super cheap crop insurance.
So, it’s a choice we’re making. Allowing homelessness, and abject poverty to exist, as a cudgel to those who would otherwise seek to drop out of the rat race.
Under capitalism, homelessness is a feature. The spectacle of it keeps those with homes scared of being without.
It’s not the people’s choice. It’s the Epstein class that owns 93% of all the wealth in America
I guess “1000lbs of trash” doesn’t sound as bad as “half a ton”?
That’s like, maybe 1-2 months of household, curbside waste for an average family. This dude was living there for 8 years.
If he was there for 8 years, that means he was paying taxes into the system for 40 years before he nope’d out and headed to the woods, which his taxes paid for.
And this is what he gets in return. Tsk tsk.
He’d accumulated this pile during 2 years at this site, so he’s left similar messes in several other places. And he’s got a long history of careless fires, like leaving them burning, even at the height of fire season. And he’s got an SUV, so it’s not like he couldn’t have taken his trash out.
"The trash consisted of tires, plastic bags. trash bags, aluminum cans and other items of trash. I observed a canopy structure for his sport utility vehicle. The canopy structure was being utilized as a car port.”
Gatz, who is 65 years-old, according to public records, also had a fireplace with “active embers and a cooking station with 10-12 frying pans,” as well as “[d]ebris [that] consisted of three ladders, six to eight totes overfilled with debris… five black 55-gallon drums… eight tires, four bike frames, five gallons of motor oil, plywood, and other miscellaneous lumber around the campsite,”
That’s not necessary stuff, it’s a wildfire waiting to happen.
With the way shit is going, I don’t blame the guy for wanting to live alone in the woods
His residence was a giant pile of garbage. I mean, he’s not like, 3M or Mr. Burns, but we I don’t think we want people trash dumping in national parks. They’re in enough danger as it is. If you move your campsite every 14 days and don’t litter, you could live there indefinitely, it would seem.
This residence is a giant pile of garbage.
https://earthship.com/2020/03/30/sustainable-luxury-in-the-phoenix-earthship/
You’re assuming he surrounded himself with piles of festering useless waste. More likely he had the stuff he cared about and the supplies he needed, and they just took everything and threw it away, cause that’s what cops do to the homeless.
Nevermind, I read it.
I’m all for living in the woods, but this guy was definitely doing it wrong multiple ways
I do volunteer work for a couple homeless orgs in Canada and reading this story doesn’t surprise me. he wasn’t “doing it wrong” he was doing what was logical in his head. I see guys all the time carrying around bags or pushing a car literally filled with garbage. paper, cans, tim hortons cups, whatever. They pick it up, they keep it. It’s a form of hording. It’s not so much “I could potentially use this one day” its more like “I have nothing and having something makes me feel a bit more normal”. It’s 100% a mental illness and you always find it with older individuals. They carry around too much and the majority of which they don’t need but they carry it because they need “something”. They need some kind of possession. they just collect garbage.
“You are homeless THE WRONG WAY!”
Yes, having fires during no burn times ,and not properly putting it out, living next to active trails , trash everywhere including hazardous materials is not doing it “right”.
It’s easy to tell people who have nothing and live in nature as a last resort to “be better”.
Yes, throwing trash in nature is bad. Nobody is disputing that.
I also think it’s silly to judge homeless by housed standards.
It sounds like you are disputing that.
Nowhere did I say anything blaming him for being homeless.
I do blame him for having open fires during no burn times and leaving it smouldering unattended. I also blame him for having trash everywhere including hazardous materials. (Especially doing it near active tails - that’s just asking to be caught)
Obviously the guy isn’t firing on all cylinders, but that doesn’t just make how he did things ”ok".
I was homeless for a year and I’m only one step above homeless right now that didn’t mean I could just do whatever the hell I wanted.
